Techmeme
November 21, 2023, 12:28 PM

Top News

Financial Times:
Sources: 97%+ of OpenAI staff have signed the letter threatening to quit in board standoff; investors explore legal measures to force board to reverse course  —  More than 95% of employees have threatened to quit and join Microsoft if board refuses to resign
CNBC:
The Verge:
Matthew Prince / @eastdakota:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Texas' AG, “troubled” by Elon Musk's claims, probes Media Matters, which calls X's suit “frivolous”; X avoids anti-SLAPP statutes by filing in the 5th Circuit  —  X, formerly Twitter, has followed through with owner Elon Musk's threat to sue the left-leaning nonprofit Media Matters.
Sharon Knolle / The Wrap:
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
The Verge:
Epic v. Google: a Google exec confirms that Spotify pays no commission when users buy subscriptions via Spotify's payment system and 4% when they pay via Google  —  Music streaming service Spotify struck a seemingly unique and highly generous deal with Google for Android-based payments …
Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
Source: OpenAI's board approached Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei about a potential merger as part of an effort to persuade Amodei to replace Sam Altman as CEO  —  OpenAI's board of directors approached Dario Amodei, the co-founder and CEO of rival large-language model developer Anthropic …
Kate Clark / The Information:
Sources: OpenAI's board offered the interim CEO role to former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman and Scale AI CEO Alex Wang, before Emmett Shear accepted  —  Before Emmett Shear accepted the Interim CEO role at OpenAI, the board offered it to Nat Friedman, the former CEO of Microsoft-owned GitHub …
Olivia Solon / Bloomberg:
Lauren Goode / Wired:
Q&A with Del Harvey, who led Twitter's trust and safety team for 13 years until 2021, on the X rebrand, her role, Gamergate, Donald Trump, January 6, and more  —  From Israel vs. Hamas threats to Donald Trump's “wild” posts, Del Harvey helped make the platform's hardest content moderation calls for 13 years.
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
In a lawsuit, the US SEC accuses Kraken of commingling customer and corporate funds while operating as an unregistered broker, clearing agency, and dealer  —  The U.S. crypto exchange is the latest targeted by the Securities and Exchange Commission in a series of similar actions being fought in court by other companies.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Changpeng Zhao plans to step down and plead guilty in US court to breaking money laundering laws, part of a $4.3B deal; CZ can keep Binance ownership  —  Zhao's crypto exchange will also admit wrongdoing and agree to pay $4.3 billion in fines  —  The chief executive of Binance …
Financial Times:
Filings: Tether deposited $1B+ with Britannia Financial, founded by a Tory donor later charged by the US with bribery, a rare look at its banking relationships  —  Funds from the world's largest stablecoin issuer are at the centre of a High Court battle  —  Tether deposited more than $1bn …
Aamir Siddiqui / Android Authority:
YouTube confirms that “users who have ad blockers installed may experience suboptimal viewing”, after users reported five-second delays on non-Chrome browsers  —  - Users are reportedly seeing a five-second delay when loading YouTube videos in non-Chrome browsers …
Olivia Solon / Bloomberg:
Palantir and Accenture win a £480M NHS contract to overhaul the UK's patient data system; some worry about privacy as patients can't opt out of data sharing  —  - Platform will help hospitals detect patterns in medical data  — Palantir's software managed UK's Covid vaccine rollout
Washington Post:
Investigation: as Amazon and Netflix back down on daring films, self-censorship pervades the Indian streaming industry due to pressure from Modi's ruling BJP  —  MUMBAI — Over a three-decade career, the filmmaker Anurag Kashyap often trained a critical eye on his native India as he wove tales …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Get your favorite apps talking to Zoho Sign with Zapier  —  Your business didn't come together overnight.  It's something you've built, refined, and fine-tuned over time.  Every tool you use has a purpose …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
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.
Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:28 PM ET, November 21, 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

Maria Curi / Axios:
Cristiano Lima / Washington Post: