Techmeme: A look at the data center economy of Ireland, which had 82 data centers in 2023, amid concerns about rolling blackouts due to pressure on the electrical grid (Jessica Traynor/The Guardian)

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February 18, 2024, 5:30 AM

Top News

Michael Crider / PCWorld:

SPEC invalidates 2,600 benchmark results for some Intel Xeon CPUs, saying their compiler artificially inflated the results of its benchmark by as much as 9% — Benchmarks, while inherently contentious and not always representative of real-world performance, are an important tool in any kind of quantitative evaluation.

More: Tom's Hardware, ServeTheHome, Phoronix, and ServeTheHome

X: @servethehome, @dragonetti0311, @drqz, @never_released, @servethehome, @andrewhaley13, @coreteks, and @suzsu_

Forums: r/technology, r/LinusTechTips, r/technology, and r/intel

Bloomberg:

Sources: the UK, the US, and other allies are working to provide Ukraine with thousands of new AI-enabled drones that could swarm Russian targets simultaneously — - Technology could help Ukraine overwhelm some Russian targets — Germany's Scholz calls on EU allies to increase Ukraine aid

More: US Department of Justice, The Record, The Hill, New York Times, Forbes, and Tech Xplore

Mastodon: @laimis@mstdn.social and @noelreports@mstdn.social. Bluesky: @glynmoody.bsky.social. X: @tunguz

Forums: r/worldnews, r/technews, r/UkraineRussiaReport, r/anime_titties, r/UkrainianConflict, r/europe, and r/ukraine

Zeke Faux / Bloomberg:

A Florida court filing accuses the Bahamas-based Deltec Bank of giving Alameda Research a short-term line of credit worth billions of dollars to buy Tether — - Deltec is alleged to have provided a short-term line of credit — Court documents suggest a tighter web than previously known

More: CoinGape and Bitcoin Insider

X: @ben_mckenzie, @occamicrypto, @cryptoattys, @patio11, @professoryadav, @zekefaux, @zekefaux, @ben_mckenzie, @cduhaime, and @business

Jessica Traynor / The Guardian:

A look at the data center economy of Ireland, which had 82 data centers in 2023, amid concerns about rolling blackouts due to pressure on the electrical grid — Datacentres are part of Ireland's vision of itself as a tech hub. There are now more than 80, using vast amounts of electricity.

Mastodon: @TeamMidwest@glammr.us, @icing@chaos.social, @jbond@mastodon.social, and @gerrymcgovern@mastodon.green

X: @meadwaj, @biomickwatson, @holtsfamilyhis1, @kenzabryan, and @jessicatraynor6

LinkedIn: Claire Archibald, Mark Bjornsgaard, Elena Schlossberg, Frank Sheppard, and Julie Bolthouse

Telegraph:

Sources: UK chip designer Graphcore explores a sale to foreign owners in a deal that could be worth $500M+; rumored buyers include OpenAI, SoftBank, and Arm — Graphcore in talks with major tech companies after struggling to cash in on AI boom — The British microchip champion Graphcore …

More: The Information, Bloomberg, CoinGape, and Asia Financial

X: @mikethebbop and @ozpaniard

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Q&A with Figma CEO Dylan Field on managing the company after the failed sale to Adobe, maintaining culture, using the $1B breakup fee, expansion plans, and more — Figma has a billion dollars and big plans for expansion as it emerges from the acquisition with its ‘foot on the gas.’ — Happy Friday.

Mastodon: @marcedwards@mastodon.social. X: @carnage4life, @carnage4life, and @alexeheath. LinkedIn: Nairi Tashjian Hourdajian

Steven Levy / Wired:

An interview with Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor, co-founders of conversational AI startup Sierra, on using several AI models at once, building AI agents, and more — Sierra hopes every company will use its empathetic AI chatbots for customer interactions. — I might have inadvertently …

X: @wired, @fractaldoctor, and @artsjournalnews

LinkedIn: Steven Levy and Mark Oehlert

Can Emir / Interesting Engineering:

Amsterdam-based Monumental, which is developing AI-powered bricklaying robots, emerges from stealth and raised $25M co-led by Plural and Hummingbird — Monumental, a trailblazing robotics startup, has raised $25 million in funding co-led by Plural and Hummingbird.

More: Fortune, TechCrunch, Monumental, TNW, FinSMEs, The Robot Report, and Silicon Canals. LinkedIn: Salar al Khafaji

Dell Cameron / Wired:

Sources: FISA's Section 702 bill was shelved over a rule that would end the government's ability to pay US firms for information rather than serving a warrant — A surprise disclosure of a national security threat by the House Intelligence chair was part of an effort to block legislation …

More: Politico. Mastodon: @SteveThompson@mastodon.social. X: @deruweid, @katieconradks, and @amuchastegui

Forums: Hacker News, r/privacy, and r/politics

Washington Post:

How tech workers, spurred by geopolitical threats, are embracing battlefield tech; PitchBook: VCs invested $108B in defense tech companies between 2021 and 2023 — After a decade of building the future, tech's new guard is going back to the American past — spurring a funding frenzy in defense technology

Mastodon: @nitashatiku@mastodon.social. X: @g_delta753, @aphysicist, @sunofjackson, @filarons, @landsmanwayne, @edwardmehr, and @adoricko. LinkedIn: William Schlickenmaier

Allison Johnson / The Verge:

Google releases Android 15's first developer preview, with updates related to Android's Dynamic Performance Framework, privacy, the camera experience, and more — Our first official glimpse of Android 15 is here. It includes a lot of under-the-hood tweaks to strengthen communication between hardware …

Maxwell Zeff / Gizmodo:

Despite Google and OpenAI's promises, Gemini and ChatGPT appear to have almost no safeguards against creating AI disinfo for the 2024 US presidential election — Google and OpenAI's chatbots have almost no safeguards against creating AI disinformation for the 2024 presidential election.

More: XDA Developers, The Decoder, Trak.in, and Engadget. X: @quinnypig

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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.

From Mediagazer

Tierney Sneed / CNN:

CNN, MS NOW, and Politico ask a federal judge for a preliminary injunction to keep their White House access restored after a temporary order expires October 8

Gene Maddaus / Variety:

Paramount and 12 state AGs defend their antitrust settlement after a judge held off on approving the settlement citing concerns raised by Senator Cory Booker

Hassan Ali Kanu / Politico:

NYT and other publishers ask a court to disregard the DOJ's statement supporting OpenAI in their copyright suit, saying the Trump administration may be biased

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More News

Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:

Elon Musk says his companies “have probably done more to undermine Russia than anything” and calls accusations that he is a Vladimir Putin apologist “absurd”

More: The Hindu, Associated Press, Financial Times, The Hill, and New York Post

Threads: @mark_savchuk_ukr. Mastodon: @kfury@mstdn.social. X: @wsjbusiness, @greg_ip, @kasparov63, @erratarob, @kasparov63, @elonmusk, @adamkinzinger, and @elonmusk

Menaka Doshi / Bloomberg:

A look at the global outreach of India's UPI, which has expanded to seven other Asian countries and now lets Indian tourists buy tickets at the Eiffel Tower

More: MySmartPrice. X: @menakadoshi, @business, and @advait_px. LinkedIn: Menaka Doshi

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Apple's Vision Pro could become a valuable multiuser device, but it undermines that fantasy at every turn through its single-user setup and more

Threads: @jwolman. X: @mahyarm8

Earlier Picks

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Apple's reversal on RCS wasn't forced by the EU, but likely by China, whose government began codifying in 2023 a requirement for new 5G devices to support RCS

More: PhoneArena, 9to5Google, iClarified, Forbes, and 9to5Mac

Threads: @gruber. X: @gateklons and @florian4gamers. Forums: r/technology

Amy Or / Bloomberg:

Sources: Reddit signed a deal early in 2024, worth ~$60M on an annualized basis, allowing a large unnamed AI company to train its models on Reddit's content

More: The Verge, Reuters, Engadget, Mashable, PCMag, and The Decoder

Threads: @pkedrosky. Mastodon: @fortyseven@defcon.social and @ianbetteridge@writing …

X: @billym2k, @smtuffy, @carnage4life, @rayredacted, @robdziobon, @lukebk, @chrisamccoy, @josourcing, @privacymatters, @natarajsindam, @jason, @quinnypig, @jennifercobbe, and @awwstn

Forums: Hacker News, r/aiwars, r/synthesizers, r/conspiracy, r/anime_titties, r/de, r/Meovely, r/technology, and Beehaw