Techmeme
May 11, 2023, 12:40 PM

Top News

Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Twitter rolls out encrypted DMs, but both sender and recipient must be verified users, no support for group messages, and message metadata is not encrypted  —  There are still some major limitations to the feature.  —  Twitter is beginning to roll out its long-promised encrypted direct messaging feature.
Reuters:
EU lawmakers agree to ban facial recognition in public, limit predictive policing, and impose transparency on generative AI; EU Commission will finalize details  —  European lawmakers came a step closer to passing new rules regulating artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT …
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos says a known cybercrime group gained access to its SharePoint cloud service on May 8 but didn't breach its internal network  —  Industrial cybersecurity company Dragos today disclosed what it describes as a “cybersecurity event” after a known cybercrime gang attempted …
Brady Snyder / XDA Developers:
Google launches a dedicated Labs page, where users can sign up to test Google's early ideas for features and products, including Search and Workspace AI tools  —  Google is using artificial intelligence to improve its existing products, and you can sign up to try them in Labs now.  Here's how to get started.
Sam Rutherford / Engadget:
Google unveils the $1,799 Pixel Fold with a 120Hz 7.6" main screen, a 5.8" exterior screen, a Tensor G2, and 12GB of RAM, for preorder now and arriving in June  —  Google's first foldable phone feels like what I always wanted from the Surface Duo to be.  —  I've been using some version …
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:
Scott Stein / CNET:
Bloomberg:
SoftBank reports Vision Fund lost ~$2B in Q4, down from ~$16B in Q4 2022, leading to a ~$32B full-year loss; investments for the year to March fell to ~$3B  —  SoftBank Group Corp. lost money in its Vision Fund investment unit again despite a rebound in tech stocks, as the Japanese conglomerate …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Google shows AI features coming to Search, including an AI-powered “snapshot” that summarizes search results with links to sites “corroborating” the information  —  Google is moving slowly and carefully to make AI happen.  Maybe too slowly and too carefully for some people.
Ted Chiang / New Yorker:
Similar to McKinsey and other consulting firms, AI advancements may help concentrate wealth, disempower workers, and “sharpen the knife blade of capitalism”  —  As it's currently imagined, the technology promises to concentrate wealth and disempower workers.  Is an alternative possible?
Jennifer Maas / Variety:
Disney reports Q2 Disney+ subscribers down 2% QoQ to 157.8M, vs. ~163M est, its second straight quarterly drop, ESPN+ up 2% QoQ to 25.3M, and Hulu flat at 48.2M  —  On the bright side, the Mouse House also managed to narrow its streaming business losses by $400 million, down 26% year over year.
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Jack Schickler / CoinDesk:
A judge rules that $300M in BlockFi's wallets belong to clients, not the bankrupt lender's estate; $375M in interest-bearing accounts belong to the estate  —  A further $375 million that users tried to transfer out of interest-bearing accounts after Nov. 10 still belongs to the estate, Bankruptcy Judge Michael Kaplan said
More: The Block
Haaretz:
A profile of Andreas Fink, a Swiss telecom expert whose services let state agencies, like Israeli disinformation unit Team Jorge, attack phone networks globally  —  The international mobile system is exposed and a loophole allows hackers, cybercriminals and states to geolocate targets and even hijack email and web accounts.

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More News

Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Vivian Salama / Wall Street Journal:
Mike Rogoway / Oregonian:
New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Tracy Wang / CoinDesk:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Sean Hollister / The Verge: