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August 15, 2024, 1:40 PM
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Kenrick Cai / Reuters:
Google expands AI Overviews in Search to Brazil, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, and the UK in local languages, and adds links beside the AI-generated answers  —  Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) said on Thursday it was expanding its AI-generated summaries for search queries to six new countries …
Bloomberg:
Some publishers say they can't block the Googlebot crawler that covers AI Overviews without hampering their discoverability, as the crawler also covers Search  —  Publishers say blocking the company's AI bot could also prevent their sites from showing up in search
Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Google says it will remove Showcase.apk from Pixel devices “out of an abundance of precaution”, after iVerify said hackers could use the dormant app to spy  —  Discovery prompted one intelligence contractor to stop issuing Android phones to employees.
Financial Times:
Sources: SoftBank held talks with Intel about making an AI chip to compete with Nvidia, but Intel couldn't meet the requirements; SoftBank is talking to TSMC  —  Son hopes to put Japanese group at centre of artificial intelligence boom but talks with US chipmaker failed to progress
Reuters:
New Zealand signs an extradition order for Kim Dotcom to the US, where he faces criminal charges related to Megaupload; Dotcom has fought extradition since 2012  —  Kim Dotcom, who is facing criminal charges relating to the defunct file-sharing website Megaupload, will be extradited …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Unit 42: open-source projects from Google, Microsoft, AWS, Red Hat, and others leaked GitHub auth tokens via GitHub Actions; GitHub chose not to fix the issues  —  Multiple high-profile open-source projects, including those from Google, Microsoft, AWS, and Red Hat, were found …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Google says Iran-backed hacking group APT42 has targeted the Trump and Biden campaigns, as well as Israeli military, government, and diplomatic organizations  —  APT42, which is believed to work for Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, targeted about a dozen people associated with both Trump …
Joseph De Avila / Wall Street Journal:
Eric Schmidt says he “misspoke” when he said Google was losing the AI race because the company decided that “working from home was more important than winning”  —  Ex-Google CEO had said the tech company's work-life balance was ‘more important than winning’
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Q&A with Google SVP Rick Osterloh on the Pixel 9 devices, Android, the smartphone's history, smartphone integration, AI smartphones, Pixel trade-offs, and more  —  An interview with Google SVP Rick Osterloh about the Made with Google event, and understanding the company's approach …
Danny Gallagher / Engadget:
The US FTC announces a final rule banning the sale of fake reviews and testimonials, including AI-generated ones, with fines as high as $50K per violation  —  The new rules prohibit the selling of fake and AI-generated reviews and testimonials in several forms.
Aisha Counts / Bloomberg:
A survey of 430 first-time US Gen Z voters: 60%+ oppose requiring under-16s to get parental consent to use social media and 85%+ oppose notification time limits  —  - Survey polled 430 first-time voters from across the US  — Lawmakers have criticized Instagram, TikTok over child safety
CNN:
A look at the five-person Gen Z team running Kamala Harris' TikTok account @KamalaHQ, capitalizing on the VP's viral moments and averaging 6M views per post  —  Vice President Kamala Harris, quoting her mother, told a group of newly sworn-in commissioners for a White House initiative …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Epic v. Google: in the final hearing after Epic's antitrust win, the judge says he'll “tear the barriers down” on the Play Store, but won't “micromanage” Google  —  Judge James Donato just made it crystal-clear: Google will pay.
Emilia David / VentureBeat:
Anthropic adds prompt caching in public beta to its API, letting developers cache often used context between API calls on Claude 3.5 Sonnet and Claude 3 Haiku  —  Anthropic introduced prompt caching on its API, which remembers the context between API calls and allows developers to avoid repeating prompts.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sources: Sonos is considering relaunching its previous mobile app as it works to improve the redesigned version, which launched in May 2024 to negative feedback  —  Sonos has explored the possibility of rereleasing its previous mobile app for Android and iOS — a clear sign of what an ordeal the company's hurried redesign has become.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Klarna debuts a checking account-like service and a cashback offering in its app in 12 markets, including the US and across Europe, as it prepares for a US IPO  —  Financial technology firm Klarna is pushing deeper into banking with its own checking account-like product and a cashback offering …
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Alibaba reports Q1 revenue up 4% YoY to ~$34B, below ~$34.9B est., and net income down 27% YoY to ~$3.4B, after aggressive promotions failed to drive spending  —  - Net income dived 27% as spending on promotions ballooned  — Commerce shrank in a worrying sign for Chinese consumption
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Images generated by Grok, like Barack Obama doing cocaine and Donald Trump and Kamala Harris with guns, go viral on X, raising questions about Grok's guardrails  —  xAI's Grok chatbot now lets you create images from text prompts and publish them to X — and so far, the rollout seems as chaotic …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:40 PM ET, August 15, 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.

From Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:
On a staff call, Bari Weiss defends firing Scott Pelley, saying the foundation of “trust and mutual respect” was broken after Pelley's outburst on Monday

Connor Hart / Wall Street Journal:
Hasbro launches Sixth Wall, an AI studio working with ElevenLabs and voice actors to create and license AI-native versions of its characters and franchises

Washington Post:
Two Stars and Stripes advisory board members sue the US Defense Department, saying new restrictions on the paper violate the First Amendment and federal law

More News

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
CFIUS fines T-Mobile a record $60M for allegedly failing to prevent and report unauthorized access to sensitive data after its Sprint merger in 2020
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
A look at Germany-based Black Forest Labs, which recently emerged from stealth with a $31M seed led by a16z and whose FLUX.1 model powers Grok's image generator
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
President Biden speaks at the first White House Creator Economy Conference, with about 100 startup founders, industry stakeholders, and creators in attendance
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Cisco reports Q4 revenue down 10% YoY to $13.64B, vs. $13.54B est., and says it's cutting 7% of its workforce, after cutting 5% in February 2024; CSCO jumps 5%+
Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Access Now and Citizen Lab: Russian spy agencies are using deep knowledge about opponents, reporters, and human rights groups to target them via phishing emails
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