Techmeme
August 15, 2023, 1:40 PM

Top News

Andrew Paul / Popular Science:
To comply with a state law requiring that school library books be “age appropriate”, an Iowa school district used ChatGPT to find books depicting “a sex act”  —  Faced with new legislation, Iowa's Mason City Community School District asked ChatGPT if certain books 'contain …
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Xbox debuts a strike-based enforcement program, aiming to improve “player transparency” and simplify rules; eight strikes over six months gets a one-year ban  —  Today, a new strike-based enforcement program is coming to Xbox.  The system is meant to clear up confusion regarding …
Rick Porter / The Hollywood Reporter:
Nielsen: in July, linear TV made up less than 50% of all US TV usage, a first in over two years of tracking, and streaming hit a record 38.7% high of TV usage  —  Nielsen's monthly platform rankings show broadcast and cable making up less than half of all TV use.
Wall Street Journal:
Analysis: the average price of major ad-free streaming services is up nearly 25% in about a year, as companies try to push users toward ad-supported tiers  —  Price push by Disney, others is part of effort to trim losses, steer users toward more-lucrative ad-supported plans  —  Call it streamflation.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
YouTube starts mass removing videos promoting “cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective” or discouraging “seeking professional medical treatment”  —  YouTube will remove content that promotes “cancer treatments proven to be harmful or ineffective” or which …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Email: X no longer lets advertisers promote accounts within the platform's timeline to gain followers; a source says Follower Objective ads made $100M+ annually  —  X, the company formerly known as Twitter, will no longer allow advertisers to promote their accounts within the platform's timeline …
Timmy Shen / The Block:
Filing: BAM Trading, which runs Binance.US, seeks a protective order limiting the US SEC to four depositions and accusing the agency of “a fishing expedition”  —  - BAM Trading, the company behind Binance.US, filed a motion on Monday to seek a protective order against the SEC.
Malcolm Owen / AppleInsider:
Setapp, known for its Mac and iOS app subscription service, plans to open an alternative iOS and iPadOS app store in 2024 in the EU, taking advantage of the DMA  —  Setapp is planning to launch its own alternative App Store in the EU in 2024, taking advantage of law changes …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Comcast launches the Xfinity Storm-Ready WiFi, a cellular backup internet device to weather storms and power outages, for $252, or $7 per month for 36 months  —  Comcast is launching a new cellular-equipped backup internet device that's designed to keep customers connected during storms and localized outages.
Luc Cohen / Reuters:
In an amended indictment, the US DOJ alleges SBF used money he stole from FTX customers to make $100M+ in political campaign donations before the 2022 midterms  —  Sam Bankman-Fried used money he stole from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to make more than $100 million …
Patrick Wingrove / Reuters:
Amazon says Amazon Pharmacy plans to automatically apply manufacturers' coupons to 15+ insulin and diabetes medicines, lowering the cost to as low as $35/month  —  Amazon.com (AMZN.O) said on Tuesday its online pharmacy will automatically apply manufacturer-sponsored coupons to more than 15 insulin …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work  —  Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Zoho:
Labels that build themselves: Simplified Label Automation in Zoho Writer  —  Anyone who ships every day knows this feeling.  Forty orders, each with a different number of items, and every item needs its own label.
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.
WebBrain:
WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser  —  Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox.  Use local models or your preferred AI provider.  Get started free.

Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
How Ramp Built A $60B AI Product Factory Off A Corporate Card | Co-CEO Eric Glyman
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
Would you let a robot do it?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Training Data:
A Model For Everyone: How Ronak From Trajectory Is Building Products For Continual Learning
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Can AI Keep Going After The Democrats' Big Win? — With Teddy Schleifer
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.
Machine Gods:
Crypto's Biggest Heist Ever + The Spy Who Loved Nvidia + Hacktober's Unsolved Mysteries
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Barry Diller on Big Bets, AI, and Knowing When to Walk Away
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:40 PM ET, August 15, 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

Timmy Shen / The Block:
Sarah Wynn / The Block:

Earlier Picks

Greg Stohr / Bloomberg:
Financial Times:
Wall Street Journal:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Haleluya Hadero / Associated Press:
Jesse Levine / Bloomberg: