Techmeme
April 27, 2023, 1:35 PM

Top News

BBC:
Microsoft's Brad Smith says the CMA blocking the Activision deal was “probably the darkest day in our four decades” in the UK and will be “bad for Britain”  —  Microsoft's president has attacked the UK after it was blocked from buying US gaming firm Activision …
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
The UK CMA's objection to Microsoft's Activision deal focuses on the nascent cloud gaming market, a departure from regulators focusing on mature markets  —  UK regulators blocked Microsoft Corp.'s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. over concerns it would harm competition in cloud gaming …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
IDC:
Global smartphone shipments fell 14.6% YoY to 268.6M in Q1 2023, the seventh consecutive quarter of decline; Samsung fell 18.9%, Apple 2.3%, and Xiaomi 23.5%  —  NEEDHAM, Mass., April 27th, 2023 - Worldwide smartphone shipments declined 14.6% year over year to 268.6 million units in the first quarter of 2023 …
Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources detail how organizational dysfunction and a lack of ambition bogged down Apple's AI and ML efforts, including the work of the group responsible for Siri  —  Late last year, a trio of engineers who had just helped Apple modernize its search technology began working on the type …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google plans to add E2EE to Google Authenticator “down the line”, after researchers warned that its new feature to sync 2FA codes is not E2E encrypted  —  On Monday, Google Authenticator launched the ability to sync 2FA codes to your Google Account.
The Guardian:
Interviews with 70+ sources describe how Facebook and Instagram have become major sales platforms for child trafficking and can often be slow to remove content  —  Our two-year investigation suggests that the tech giant Meta is struggling to prevent criminals from using its platforms to buy and sell children for sex
Reuters:
A California judge tentatively rules Elon Musk must testify about his Autopilot statements, after Musk's lawyers argued he is a subject of many deepfake videos  —  A California judge on Wednesday ordered Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding …
Rohan Goswami / CNBC:
SEC filing: Lyft confirms plans to lay off 1,072 staff, or ~26% of its corporate workforce, and not hire an additional 250, a week after CEO David Risher's memo  —  - Ride-sharing app Lyft confirmed it would lay off 1,072 employees, roughly 26% of its corporate workforce, and not hire for an additional 250 positions.
Reuters:
Samsung reports Q1 operating profit down 95% YoY to ~$478.6M, its lowest since 2009, revenue down 18% YoY to ~$47.6B, and a ~$3.4B loss for its chip division  —  Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) flagged a gradual recovery for chips in the second half of the year after its semiconductor business reported …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Germany is in talks to limit the export of chemicals used to make advanced chips to China, seeking to join US and EU allies in closing ranks on China  —  Germany is in talks to limit the export of chemicals to China that are used to manufacture semiconductors as Berlin steps up efforts …
Jeffrey Knockel / The Citizen Lab:
An analysis of Baidu, Bilibili, Bing, Douyin, Weibo, and other Chinese search platforms finds 60K censorship rules, implemented differently by each service  —  This report has an accompanying FAQ.  —  Key findings  — Across eight China-accessible search platforms analyzed — Baidu …
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Mark Zuckerberg disputes the narrative that Meta abandoned its metaverse vision, saying “we've been focusing on AI and the metaverse, and we will continue to”  —  Things are looking up for Meta.  The company beat revenue expectations, reporting an increase in year-over-year revenue for the first time in three quarters.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Meta:
Meta reports Q1 revenue up 3% YoY to $28.6B, net income down 24% YoY to $5.7B, and family daily active people up 5% YoY to 3.02B for March 2023; META jumps 10%+  —  “We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO.
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Automate your scheduling workflows with Zoho Calendar  —  Your calendar can do more than schedule meetings Creating a calendar event takes only a few seconds.  But scheduling is rarely just about creating the event.
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:
A Sober Conversation About AI Existential Risk — With Nate Soares
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
AI Wants to Shop for You. What Could Go Wrong?
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.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Invest Like the Best:
Michael Moritz - Lessons From 40 Years of Investing and Writing
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Sources:
Baseten's CEO on why every company will want to own its AI
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Training Data:
Box's Aaron Levie: On Reinventing Yourself in the AI Age and Enterprise Diffusion
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Andrew Feldman from Cerebras
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:35 PM ET, April 27, 2023.

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

Earlier Picks

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Victoria Song / The Verge: