Techmeme
May 18, 2024, 5:25 PM

Top News

Sam Altman / @sama:
Sam Altman says he is embarrassed that there was a provision about potential equity cancellation in exit docs, and OpenAI never took back anyone's vested equity  —  in regards to recent stuff about how openai handles equity: we have never clawed back anyone's vested equity, nor will we do that if people do not sign a separation agreement (or don't agree to a non-disparagement agreement). vested equity is vested equity, full stop. there was
Greg Brockman / @gdb:
Sam Altman and Greg Brockman respond to Jan Leike, say they've raised awareness of the risks and opportunities of AGI, will keep doing safety research, and more  —  We're really grateful to Jan for everything he's done for OpenAI, and we know he'll continue to contribute to the mission from outside. In light of the questions his departure has raised, we wanted to explain a bit about how we think about our overall strategy. First, we have
Steven Levy / Wired:
Despite some skeptics claiming that AI is an industry-wide delusion, last week's demos from OpenAI and Google show that the rate of AI progress is not slowing  —  Some pundits suggest generative AI stopped getting smarter.  The explosive demos from OpenAI and Google that started the week show there's plenty more disruption to come.
Nitish Pahwa / Slate:
How bots monopolizing DeviantArt's promotional and revenue apparatuses and the platform's unwillingness to address the issue are driving artists to abandon it  —  Once a vibrant platform for artists, DeviantArt is now buckling under the weight of bots and greed—and spurning the creative community that made it great.
Jonathan Randles / Bloomberg:
A US judge approves Genesis Global Capital's Chapter 11 repayment plan to return Bitcoin and other tokens to creditors, defeating a challenge by its parent DCG  —  - Genesis defeated a challenge by parent Digital Currency Group  — Judge also approved a related settlement with the New York AG
Lisa Feldman Barrett / Wall Street Journal:
Training AI on stereotypical facial expressions is bound to mislead because scientific evidence indicates that there are no universal expressions of emotion  —  Training algorithms on stereotypical facial expressions is bound to mislead.  —  Imagine that you are interviewing for a job.
Pranshu Verma / Washington Post:
A look at an ISIS-affiliated media program called News Harvest, which is using AI-generated news anchors to disseminate extremist propaganda quickly and cheaply  —  The Islamic State-affiliated media broadcast News Harvest shows how artificial intelligence can be used to disseminate extremist propaganda quickly and cheaply.
Politico:
Critics warn the French government's first-of-its-kind move within the EU to suspend TikTok in New Caledonia amid widespread protests sets a dangerous precedent  —  PARIS — In a first-of-its-kind move within the European Union, the French government has moved to block TikTok in one of its overseas territories amid widespread protests.
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
Epic v. Apple: Phil Schiller told a US judge that Apple's new 27% fee on purchases made outside its App Store are a good-faith attempt to comply with the law  —  - Top Apple executive took stand Friday to defend new fee  — Epic Games has challenged Apple proposed antitrust remedy
Astha Rajvanshi / TIME:
Access Now: 2023 was the worst year for internet shutdowns since monitoring began in 2016, with 283 shutdowns across 39 countries, led by India at 116  —  Last year, an internet shutdown in the state of Manipur, India, lasted a staggering 212 days when the state government issued 44 consecutive orders …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Simplifying benefits management in Zoho People  —  Let's consider a new hire on their first day of orientation.  They receive a brief introduction to the benefits plans, and almost immediately, questions start to surface …
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.

Featured Podcasts

Training Data:
Anthropic's Katelyn Lesse & Angela Jiang: Building an Ecosystem, not a Walled Garden
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.
Invest Like the Best:
John Kim - How to Raise a Few Billion Dollars
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
The Sales Framework Every Founder Needs | Mark Roberge
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
How tech workers actually feel about AI in 2026 | Annual AI sentiment survey (Noam Segal)
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 Finally Ships Its Superapp, Meta's AI Price War, ChatGPT Cheating At Brown
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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 5:25 PM ET, May 18, 2024.

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

New York Times:
Caroline Haskins / The Guardian:
Brendan O'Boyle / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Kate Irwin / PCMag:
Will Knight / Wired:
Kiuyan Wong / Bloomberg:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
William Gallagher / AppleInsider: