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April 4, 2024, 2:40 PM
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Reuters:
Sources: Alphabet is considering an offer for HubSpot, an online marketing software company with a $35B market value, which would be its largest acquisition yet  —  Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) has been talking to its advisers about the possibility of making an offer for HubSpot (HUBS.N) …
Amrita Khalid / The Verge:
X adds blue checks to some large accounts as part of its plan to give free Premium memberships to users with at least 2,500 “verified subscriber followers”  —  Just as Elon Musk said, X is doling out free Premium and Premium memberships to accounts with a high number of verified followers.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
A profile of hacker Alejandro Caceres, aka P4x, who took down North Korea's internet in 2022 and says the US needs to wield its hacking powers more aggressively  —  As “P4x,” Alejandro Caceres single-handedly disrupted the internet of an entire country.  Then he tried to show the US military how it can—and should—adopt his methods.
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Developers say open-source software culture, where users demand constant updates from volunteer coders, is a security issue, as shown by the XZ Utils backdoor  —  A previously unknown contributor to the popular open-source Android app store F-Droid repeatedly pressured its developers to push …
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
An interview with Andres Freund, a Microsoft database engineer working on PostgreSQL, on discovering the XZ Utils backdoor, doubting his own findings, and more
More: PYMNTS.com, The Hill, and The Intercept
Threads: @jenvalentino_nyt.  Mastodon: @couts@mastodon.social.  X: @kevinroose.  LinkedIn: Affan Dar.  Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, and r/neoliberal
Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
Google sues two alleged crypto scammers, accusing them of using its Play Store to offer fraudulent crypto trading and investment apps to steal users' money  —  Google is suing two alleged crypto scammers, accusing them of using its Play Store to offer fraudulent cryptocurrency trading apps …
Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:
Ripple plans to launch a stablecoin later in 2024 that is “100% backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US government Treasuries, and other cash equivalents”  —  The token will be “100% backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. government Treasuries and other cash equivalents.” according to the company.
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
Cohere releases Command R+, an AI model for business customers the startup says performs competitively against OpenAI and others on “business-critical” tasks  —  Cohere says its new technology is cheaper than OpenAI's offerings.  —  Artificial intelligence startup Cohere Inc …
Tim Stelloh / NBC News:
A Washington state judge bars using AI-enhanced video as evidence in a murder trial, a ruling experts say may be the first-of-its-kind in a US criminal court  —  Lawyers for a man charged with murder in a triple homicide had sought to introduce cellphone video enhanced by machine-learning software.
Bloomberg:
Elon Musk says “Tesla is increasing comp ... of our AI engineering team” because OpenAI has been “aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers” with “massive” offers  —  - CEO says carmaker is going extra mile to retain specialists  — Exodus may exacerbate concerns about conflicts, governance
Scott Stein / CNET:
An interview with Andrew Bosworth on the 10th anniversary of Reality Labs, the past and future of VR, AR, and AI, Meta's next AR glasses prototype, and more  —  Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth talks with CNET about the past and future of VR, AR and AI.  —  2014 doesn't seem that long ago to me.
The Guardian:
Sources: Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza used Lavender, an AI system that identified 37,000 potential human targets based on their apparent links to Hamas  —  Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants
More: +972 Magazine, Al Jazeera, Fortune, Telegraph, CNN, Gizmodo, Business Today, Cryptopolitan, ScheerPost.com, The i Paper, FRANCE 24 English on YouTube, The Sun, The Times of Israel, Firstpost, Daily Kos, and The Guardian
Threads: @technicallymims.  Mastodon: @shentonfreude@mastodon.online, @ErikJonker@mastodon.social, @65dBnoise@mastodon.social, @JapanProf@mastodon.social, @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org, @Khrys@mamot.fr, @Khrys@mamot.fr, @yanone@typo.social, @anilmc@hachyderm.io, @bpettis@mastodon …, @makingarecord@friend.camp, @left_adjoint@tilde.zone, @seriouslyjeff@social.jeffl.es, @risottobias@tech.lgbt, @jesopo@chaos.social, @reedmideke@mastodon.social, @reedmideke@mastodon.social, and @Mer__edith@mastodon.world.  Bluesky: @saddestrobots.bsky.social
X: @samfbiddle, @samfbiddle, @kunktation, @mer__edith, @arictoler, @jeremiahdjohns, @charlie533080, @hamzamsyed, @rafaelshimunov, @nickkristof, @btselem, @hermit_hwarang, @jakegodin, @mer__edith, @yuval_abraham, @brian_castner, @docmattmoudi, @psychicyogamat, @provisionalidea, @alonso_gd, @paulbernaluk, @bcmerchant, @jehadabusalim, @pixelatedboat, @schock, @heidykhlaaf, @evanhill, @adhaque110, @mitchprothero, @bonzerbarry, @masadfrost, @bcmerchant, @dirkmoses, @rohantalbot, @tomgara, @evanhill, @tomgara, @mrjoncryer, @madamajab, @robertdownen_, @heerjeet, @ugarles, @mehdirhasan, @thegreenebj, @sturgeons_law, @lana_tatour, @ggreenwald, @peterharling, @arictoler, @elivalley, @spectrathegame, @yanisvaroufakis, @arictoler, @evanhill, @rosen_br, @rnaudbertrand, @evkontorovich, @tksshawa, @rnaudbertrand, and @972mag
LinkedIn: Ana Brandusescu and Sahar Aziz
Forums: Hacker News, Hacker News, r/LabourUK, r/theworldnews, r/Palestine, r/tech, r/ABoringDystopia, r/technews, r/jewishleft, r/Foodforthought, r/PrepperIntel, r/Israel_Palestine, r/DemocraticSocialism, r/boringdystopia, r/OrphanCrushingMachine, r/worldevents, r/internationalpolitics, r/technology, r/metalgearsolid, r/PLTR, r/stupidpol, r/france, r/LateStageCapitalism, r/singularity, r/TrueAnon, r/Futurology, r/VaushV, r/InternationalNews, r/InternationalNews, and r/worldnews
James Batchelor / GamesIndustry.biz:
An interview with Saber founder Matthew Karch on criticism of Embracer, joining Embracer's board in 2020, layoffs, and Embracer's $2B+ Savvy deal breaking down  —  Studio founder shares his view of the story behind Embracer's struggles, and why he's bullish on the group's recovery
Lindsay Ellis / Wall Street Journal:
How some MBA programs in the US are reorienting courses around AI by adding AI-related classwork, encouraging students to present on AI innovations, and more  —  American University, other top M.B.A. programs reorient courses around artificial intelligence; ‘It has eaten our world’
Alex Koller / CNBC:
Uber Eats debuts delivery services using Waymo's self-driving cars in the Phoenix area, Uber's seventh site with autonomous deliveries and its first with Waymo  —  Two Waymo autonomous vehicles drive themselves down Central Avenue in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., March 18, 2024.
Niamh Rowe / Fortune:
Ellipsis Labs, which operates Phoenix, a decentralized crypto exchange launched in February 2023, raised a $20M Series A led by Paradigm  —  Ellipsis Labs today announced $20 million in Series A funding, led by Paradigm with participation from Electric Capital.
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
US rock band Kiss sells rights to its music, name, image, and likeness to Swedish entertainment company Pophouse to create a live show, a source says for ~$300M  —  Sale to Swedish entertainment group Pophouse set to 'fulfil the band's vision to become immortal'
Chris Vallance / BBC:
Google expands Search Generative Experience to the UK, after launching the feature in preview in the US in May 2023, starting with some logged-in users  —  Google has begun trialling search answers written by artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK, after the feature was tested in the US last year.

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From Mediagazer

New York Times:
Sources: CNN CEO Mark Thompson told Paramount he would not share oversight of CNN with another exec, as David Ellison weighs whether to put Bari Weiss in charge

Washington Post:
The US Supreme Court paused a lower court order that would have forced ex-Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge to reveal a source or pay $800 a day in sanctions

Ryan McGrady / The Conversation:
An analysis of 20M blocks of users of English language Wikipedia shows a shrinking number of administrators relying on more-frequent blocks, to raise efficiency

More News

Andrea Grimes / Home With The Armadillo:
Substack's new emphasis on followers, not subscriptions, and its opaque steps to migrate paid subscriptions off the platform make leaving harder for writers

Earlier Picks

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based SingleInterface, which lets offline businesses manage and grow an online presence, raised $30M, its first external raise since its 2015 founding
Business Insider:
Meta is testing giving cash bonuses to creators who post engaging content on Threads, as part of an invite-only program
TechCrunch:
A look at some exciting startups from day one of YC's Winter 2024 Demo Day, including those using AI for creating music and helping lawyers review documents
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Apple resolves an outage impacting some of its online services, including the App Store, Apple TV, Podcasts, and Music, that lasted for over an hour on April 3
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Self-driving software startup Ghost Autonomy, formerly Ghost Locomotion, shuts down, after raising ~$220M, and just five months after partnering with OpenAI
Financial Times:
Sources: Google considers adding certain AI-powered search features to its premium subscription services, which already offer access to Gemini in Gmail and Docs
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