Techmeme
March 9, 2024, 2:40 AM

Top News

OpenAI:
OpenAI announces Sam Altman will rejoin its board of directors, alongside three new members: Sue Desmond-Hellmann, Nicole Seligman, and Fidji Simo  —  Dr. Sue Desmond-Hellmann, Nicole Seligman, Fidji Simo join; Sam Altman rejoins board  —  We're announcing three new members to our Board …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
An independent investigation commissioned by OpenAI has found that Sam Altman's conduct before his ouster “did not mandate removal”  —  An independent investigation found that the circumstances surrounding last fall's failed coup ‘did not mandate removal.’
The Information:
Source: Ilya Sutskever, who has been nearly absent from OpenAI's affairs since Altman's brief ouster, is still in talks about remaining at the company  —  OpenAI's board said an investigation into the circumstances surrounding CEO Sam Altman's short-lived firing last November had exonerated the executive …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Epic says Apple has reinstated its developer account, clearing the way for its Epic Games Store in the EU; Tim Sweeney says the move followed a swift EU inquiry  —  After a whirlwind of events, Epic Games says Apple has reinstated their App Store developer account.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says Russian state-sponsored hackers Midnight Blizzard accessed some of its “source code repositories and internal systems” following the January hack  —  Microsoft revealed earlier this year that Russian state-sponsored hackers had been spying on the email accounts of some members of its senior leadership team.
Simon Willison's Weblog:
The GPT-4 barrier has finally been broken, with Gemini 1.5, Mistral Large, Claude 3 Opus, and Inflection-2.5 benchmarking near or even above OpenAI's model  —  Four weeks ago, GPT-4 remained the undisputed champion: consistently at the top of every key benchmark, but more importantly the clear winner in terms of “vibes”.
Suzanne Smalley / The Record:
CISA confirms it took down two systems in February, after discovering signs of exploitation via vulnerabilities in Ivanti products that the agency used  —  Hackers breached the systems of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in February through vulnerabilities in Ivanti products, officials said.
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
Wyoming passes the Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act, a framework to recognize DAOs as legal entities; a16z crypto supported the law  —  On Thursday, Wyoming's Republican governor, Mark Gordon, signed into law the Decentralized Unincorporated Nonprofit Association Act …
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Over 100 scientists sign an agreement that seeks to prevent their AI-aided research for designing new proteins from being used for the development of bioweapons  —  An agreement by more than 90 said, however, that artificial intelligence's benefit to the field of biology would exceed any potential harm.
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Microsoft makes changes to Copilot, including blocking requests to create images of teens playing with assault rifles, following a staffer's letter to the FTC  —  - Microsoft seems to have made changes to its artificial intelligence guardrails, after a staff AI engineer wrote …
More: Neowin, Engadget, and The Decoder
Threads: @haydenfield and @ethankMastodon: @GossiTheDog@cyberplace.socialBluesky: @marypcbuk.bsky.socialLinkedIn: Hayden Field
Kylie Robison / Fortune:
Source: X plans to launch a TV app, which looks “identical” to YouTube's TV app, for Amazon and Samsung smart TVs next week  —  In a bid to compete with YouTube and recast itself as a video platform, Elon Musk's X is launching a television app for Amazon and Samsung smart TVs, a source at the company told Fortune.

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Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Is Google's Gemini Winning?, Thinking Machines Drama, Claude Cowork's Potential
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Hard Fork:
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Lenny's Podcast:
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
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.
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More News

Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Bruce Haring / Deadline:
Nilesh Christopher / Al Jazeera:

Earlier Picks

Rebecca Falconer / Axios:
John Tozzi / Bloomberg: