Techmeme
March 27, 2023, 2:30 AM

Top News

Daniel Taub / Bloomberg:
First Citizens agrees to buy the commercial banking business of Silicon Valley Bank from the FDIC including all deposits and loans  —  First Citizens BancShares Inc. agreed to buy Silicon Valley Bank which was seized by regulators following a run on the lender.
New York Times:
Filing: some Twitter source code was leaked by user “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” on GitHub, which removed the code to comply with Twitter's DMCA notice on March 24  —  The leak adds to the challenges facing the Elon Musk-owned company, which is trying to unmask the person responsible and any other people who downloaded the code.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple last week demoed its mixed reality headset, likely dubbed Reality Pro or Reality One, for its top ~100 executives, ahead of their annual offsite  —  Apple's push into mixed reality will take years to pay off, with the company hoping the device follows the same trajectory as its smartwatch.
New York Times:
Eight current and former Apple employees share their concerns about the upcoming MR headset's $3,000 price, its utility, and the unproven AR/VR market  —  The company is expected to unveil an augmented reality headset in a few months.  Some employees wonder if the device makes sense for Apple.
Erin Woo / The Information:
Source: Elon Musk emailed Twitter employees offering stock grants at a ~$20B valuation, or 55% less than what he paid to buy the company  —  Elon Musk offered Twitter employees stock grants at a valuation of roughly $20 billion, said a person familiar with an email Musk sent to staff, less than half what he paid to buy the company.
Bloomberg:
Sources: the Hong Kong arms of three Chinese state banks have reached out to offer services to crypto businesses in recent months, despite a mainland crypto ban  —  Crypto firms rushing into Hong Kong after the city opened its doors to the battered sector are finding a surprising source of potential support: China's state-owned banks.
Samriddhi Sakunia / Rest of World:
After India's legal orders this week, Twitter blocked the tweets of 122 users, including reporters and politicians, from Indian users; it used to push back more  —  Last year, before Elon Musk took over as CEO, Twitter pushed back against such requests from the government.  —  • NEW DELHI, INDIA
Pranshu Verma / Washington Post:
A mid-March Midjourney update seemingly fixed one of the AI image generator's major failings: its inability to depict lifelike human hands with five fingers  —  Improved AI image-making software churned out believable yet fictional images of former president Trump getting arrested
Financial Times:
In his first visit since 2020, Tim Cook praises Apple's “symbiotic kind of relationship” with China, amid the company's moves to diversify from the country  —  Chief executive's visit comes despite rising trade and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and US
ProPublica:
A look at OBNBrandon, a prolific scammer in a booming community focused on banning influencers' accounts, mainly on Instagram, and extorting for “reactivation”  —  Just after midnight on Sept. 13, Kristian “Murda” Murphy was watching TV at home in Boca Raton, Florida, when his phone began buzzing.
Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
A look at Modulate's ToxMod and other AI-based tools that help gaming companies moderate voice chats in online games, amid concerns of accuracy and user privacy  —  New artificial-intelligence tools can mute, ban players who violate conduct rules  —  In the videogame “Gun Raiders,” …

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Earlier Picks

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