Techmeme
February 27, 2021, 2:55 PM

Top News

CNN:
In a hearing with US lawmakers, ex-SolarWinds CEO blamed an intern for the “solarwinds123” password leak discovered in 2019 that had exposed a SolarWinds server  —  FireEye CEO on how the SolarWinds hack was discovered  —  Washington (CNN)Current and former top executives …
Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
Profile of Roblox, which outsources game development to its own players and says more than 300 of such developers earned $100K+ in 2020, ahead of its March IPO  —  The company runs a free social platform with videogames made by its own players.  Its stock-market debut will test investor appetite …
Andrew Liszewski / Gizmodo:
Genealogy tracker MyHeritage releases Deep Nostalgia, a Live Photo-like feature for old photos, which uses AI to show subjects prepping for their portrait  —  It's hard to feel connected to someone who's gone through a static photo.  So a company called MyHeritage who provides automatic AI …
Financial Times:
Sources: UK is preparing to announce a new tech visa and a £375M fund, with matching VC funding, to be made available to some promising tech startups  —  Up to £375m of state funds to be matched by venture capital and made available for promising companies
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Wired:
Sources detail Google's troubles with game development as the company couldn't stomach the complicated creative process amid Stadia's poor streaming numbers  —  The tech giant hired 150 game developers for Stadia Games and Entertainment, only to lay them all off.  Sources say it never gave the studios a chance.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook's NPE division launches BARS, a TikTok-like app for rappers to create and share their raps using professionally created beats, in closed beta  —  Facebook's internal R&D group, NPE Team, is today launching its next experimental app, called BARS.  The app makes it possible for rappers …
Bloomberg:
The SEC suspends trading of 15 lesser-known stocks after suspicious social media promotion raised concerns that their stock prices were artificially inflated  —  - Wall Street watchdog temporarily halts trading in 15 stocks  — Regulator says it's actively monitoring online message boards
Marlow Stern / The Daily Beast:
Advanced deepfakes of Tom Cruise are going viral on TikTok, with the account deeptomcruise amassing 200K+ followers in a few days  —  FOR THE LOVE OF XENU  —  Be afraid.  Be very afraid.  —  Three days ago, a TikTok account going by @deeptomcruise began posting video clips …
Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:
Interview with co-CEO of Jumia, whose stock is up 3,000%+ in the last year, on African e-commerce, the company's path to profitability, and more  —  This month, African e-commerce giant Jumia released its second full-year financials for Q4 and its fiscal year 2020.
Cade Metz / New York Times:
How Anduril and other startups are building military ready, self-piloted drones, away from Silicon Valley, where such projects have become politically untenable  —  While much has been made of tech's unwillingness to work with the Pentagon, start-ups are still plumbing the industry's decades-long ties to the military.
Meaghan Tobin / Rest of World:
Experts say lessons marketed by digital education platforms like Byju's and Yuanfudao are more an innovation in test-prep delivery than in learning outcomes  —  Investors have poured billions of dollars into digital education platforms like Byju's and Yuanfudao.  But are students learning anything?

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Featured Podcasts

Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Big Technology Podcast:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
PBS Lost a Billion Dollars. Now what? With CEO Paula Kerger
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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More News

John Beck / Rest of World:
Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Vignesh Ramachandran / Stanford News:
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News: