Techmeme
February 19, 2021, 7:55 PM

Top News

Ina Fried / Axios:
Margaret Mitchell, co-lead of Google's Ethical AI team, says she has been fired; Google says an employee conduct review confirmed multiple policy violations  —  Margaret Mitchell, the co-lead of Google's Ethical AI team, says that the company has fired her following an investigation of her use of corporate e-mail.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Report: Google's AI Chief Jeff Dean apologizes in an email after Timnit Gebru's exit, saying his team should have managed the situation “with more sensitivity”  —  Google told employees Friday it has wrapped up its investigation into the ouster of prominent AI researcher Timnit Gebru.
Bloomberg:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a magnetically attached battery pack for iPhone 12 that would wirelessly charge the handset  —  - Accessory has faced development issues related to software  — Wireless charging unit may be popular with frequent users  —  Apple Inc. is working …
Rich Stanton / PC Gamer:
Court filings: Apple is asking Valve to provide extensive sales data for about 600 games on Steam, as part of Epic lawsuit; Valve has rejected the demand  —  These lawyers are getting steamed up.  —  A new court filing has revealed that, as part of the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Epic Games …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
UK Supreme Court rules that Uber drivers should be classified as workers not independent contractors, concluding an almost five-year legal battle  —  - The U.K.'s Supreme Court upheld a ruling that Uber's drivers should be classified as workers rather than independent contractors.
Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
App Annie: Australian Broadcasting Corporation's news app was briefly the most downloaded app on the AU App Store after Facebook's news ban and is now second  —  Readers may be going directly to the source  —  The Australian Broadcast Company's ABC News app shot to the top of Apple's App Store charts …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Jason Scott / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is in talks with suppliers for next-gen lidar sensors for self-driving cars, that will be considered cutting edge four to five years from now  —  - Vetting of laser sensor vendors is developmental milestone  — iPhone maker has several years of work ahead on autonomous car
Wolfie Zhao / The Block:
Bitcoin's market capitalization passes $1T as its price surges above $56K  —  Bitcoin's market capitalization has crossed the $1 trillion milestone for the first time after over a decade's development as it gains increasing mainstream attention.  —  Bitcoin's price set new record highs …
Amir Efrati / The Information:
Sources: LinkedIn is developing a new service called Marketplaces to let its 740M users find and book freelancers, with plans to launch as soon as September  —  LinkedIn is developing a new service called Marketplaces to let its 740 million users find and book freelancers …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: IBM is exploring a sale of its IBM Watson Health business, which has roughly $1B in annual revenue and isn't currently profitable  —  Business has roughly $1 billion in revenue and isn't profitable, sources say  —  International Business Machines Corp. is exploring a potential sale …
Alex Mahadevan / Poynter:
An early analysis of Birdwatch, Twitter's crowdsourced fact-checking pilot with about 1,000 users, shows partisan rhetoric and a lack of source citations  —  A Poynter analysis found that less than half of Birdwatch users include sources and many fact-checking notes contain partisan rhetoric.

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Earlier Picks

Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge: