Techmeme
January 6, 2021, 6:20 AM

Top News

Will Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
OpenAI introduces two new GPT-3 models: CLIP, which classifies images into categories from arbitrary text, and DALL·E, which can generate images from text  —  With GPT-3, OpenAI showed that a single deep-learning model could be trained to use language in a variety of ways simply by throwing it vast amounts of text.
Alexandra Alper / Reuters:
Trump signs an executive order banning transactions with Ant Group's Alipay, Tencent's WeChat Pay and QQ, and five other Chinese payment apps  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese software applications, including Ant Group's Alipay.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google plans to add privacy labels across its iOS app catalog this week or next, after a report claimed none of Google's iOS apps have been updated since Dec. 7  —  Contrary to reports, Google is not delaying updates to its iOS apps because it doesn't want to comply with Apple's recently announced App Store Privacy Labels policy.
Bloomberg:
Sources: after NYSE said it wouldn't delist China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, it now mulls reverting to original plan following Mnuchin criticism  —  - Possible reversal follows Mnuchin call to NYSE's Cunningham  — Exchange's surprise announcement caught White House off guard
Matt Grossman / Wall Street Journal:
IBM names Gary Cohn, former Goldman Sachs executive and economic adviser to Trump, as its vice chairman and member of its executive leadership team  —  Past Goldman Sachs president named vice chairman as tech icon develops stronger growth strategy  —  International Business Machines Corp …
Mike Dano / Light Reading:
Verizon says that it will indefinitely delay the shutdown of its 3G network, after pushing the shutdown from the end of 2019 to the end of 2020  —  Verizon has backtracked on its plan to turn off its 3G network by the end of 2020.  —  In response to questions from Light Reading …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
FBI, CISA, and ODNI, with support from NSA, say an APT “likely Russian in origin” is responsible for all or most of the recently discovered hacks of US agencies  —  Joint statement from the FBI, CISA, ODNI, and NSA says SolarWinds hack was “likely Russian in origin.”
Corin Faife / The Markup:
Study of 58 Facebook users' feeds in Georgia found partisan content elbowed out traditional news sites after Facebook reversed its political ad ban  —  Ahead of crucial senate runoffs, Facebook reversed its political ad ban, and the impact was visible on users' feeds
Lingling Wei / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: China's regulators aim to force Ant Group, which owns Alipay, to share its consumer-credit data with China's central bank or an entity controlled by it  —  Request is part of Beijing's crackdown on what it believes is Ant's unfair advantage over other lenders
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon says it is buying 11 used Boeing 767-300 planes from Delta and WestJet, the first time the company has purchased aircraft for its air cargo operation  —  - Retailer will buy 11 767-300 planes from Delta, WestJet  — Amazon expects fleet to have more than 85 jets by end of 2022
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
CIRP: iPhone 12 mini made up 6% of total iPhone sales in US during Oct. and Nov., while the 6.1" iPhone 12 garnered 27% and 12 Pro and 12 Pro Max each took ~20%  —  A new report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners (CIRP) today seen by 9to5Mac highlights the continued success of the iPhone 12 lineup.
Gabriel Geiger / VICE:
Italian court rules a “reliability index” algorithm used by food delivery app Deliveroo to rank riders was discriminatory, ordering €50K paid to suing parties  —  An Italian court determined that companies can be held liable even if an algorithm unintentionally discriminates against a protected group.
Eugene Kim / Business Insider:
Sources: Amazon is working on a contactless Alexa-enabled device that can track and monitor sleep apnea, primarily using millimeter-wave radar  —  - Amazon is working on a new Alexa-enabled device that can track and monitor sleep apnea, Business Insider has learned.
More: The Verge
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Source: Tile is aiming to launch a new tracker this year that includes ultra wideband technology and will add the ability to find items in AR in its app  —  Tile is preparing to introduce a new product this year that will serve as a rival to Apple's long-awaited AirTags and other lost-item trackers coming …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Cameo hires new CTO, CFO, COO, CPO and says it sold 1.3M personalized videos in 2020, had ~$100M in video transactions, and 150 personalities earned $100K+/year  —  Cameo, the app that lets fans pay for personalized videos from celebrities, has hired a slew of new C-suite executives from media …
Evan Selinger / Pando:
Q&A with Frank Pasquale on his new book “New Laws of Robotics”, engaging with science fiction, ethics in AI, big tech, professionalism, and more  —  Four years ago, Frank Pasquale, Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, catalyzed a debate over algorithmic and corporate power …
Noam Cohen / Wired:
2021 is shaping up to be a challenging year for the Wikimedia Foundation, which is finalizing a code of conduct that aims to diversify its community of editors  —  Changes proposed by the Wikimedia Foundation to diversify its community of editors raise existential questions for the online encyclopedia.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Autocomplete Address Via Google for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Who Wins The AI Superapp Battle?, Apple's Consumer AI Victory, World Cup Automation Mistake
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Fable Ban Reversed + Dr. Dana Suskind on Parenting With A.I. + Prediction Market Drama
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Blitzy's Brian Elliott: Cursor And Claude Code Are Looking At Your Enterprise Code 'Through A Straw'
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Re-Release: The Death of Hollywood? W/ Allan Loeb
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
Maybe Twitter isn't real life
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:20 AM ET, January 6, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Nat Friedman / The GitHub Blog:

Earlier Picks

Yang Jie / Wall Street Journal:
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Saniya More / The Block:
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
TechCrunch:
Eileen Yu / ZDNet: