Techmeme: A profile of Palmer Luckey, who sold Oculus to Facebook, was fired after donating to a pro-Trump troll group, and now imagines a new age of warfare at Anduril (Jeremy Stern/Tablet)

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August 18, 2024, 12:55 PM

Top News

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

X says it's closing its operations in Brazil, claiming a judge threatened arrest if X didn't comply with “censorship orders”; the service remains available — X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, said today that it's ending operations in Brazil …

More: Reuters, Engadget, Capital Brief, Mashable, Business Insider, Associated Press, Daily Sabah, The Crypto Times, Reclaim The Net, The Hill, Financial Times, Fortune, The Verge, and CoinGape

Mastodon: @thisismissem@hachyderm.io. X: @globalaffairs, @elonmusk, @elonmusk, @esyudkowsky, @ggreenwald, @jtlonsdale, @adrianweckler, @mehdirhasan, and @lindayax

Forums: r/brasil, r/anime_titties, r/technews, and r/worldnews

See also Mediagazer

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

A look at Apple's work on its in-house modem chip, which may debut in some niche models next year, with the full rollout taking a few years to complete — Apple's move to drop Qualcomm modem chips won't have a payoff at the outset, but it could set the stage for bigger things later.

More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Gizchina.com, Patently Apple, PhoneArena, and The Verge

X: @markgurman and @markgurman. Forums: r/apple

Financial Times:

South Korea's plan to introduce tablets with AI features in schools faces backlash from parents and academics concerned about children's overexposure to devices — South Korea's plan to introduce artificial intelligence-powered digital textbooks in schools has provoked a backlash from parents …

More: TechCrunch

Jeremy Stern / Tablet:

A profile of Palmer Luckey, who sold Oculus to Facebook, was fired after donating to a pro-Trump troll group, and now imagines a new age of warfare at Anduril — The facts of Palmer Luckey's life are so uniquely bizarre—combining elements of fantasy with lunacy and also world-altering change …

Joyce Lee / Reuters:

South Korean AI chip makers Rebellions and Sapeon agree to merge; Rebellions has raised $225M+ and Sapeon's shareholders include SK Telecom and SK Hynix — South Korean artificial-intelligence chip makers Rebellions Inc and Sapeon Korea Inc have signed a definitive merger agreement, the privately held companies said on Sunday.

More: Forbes Middle East and The Investor. X: @waed_ventures

Representative Nancy Pelosi:

Nancy Pelosi issues a statement in opposition to California's AI safety bill, saying it's “well-intentioned but ill-informed” and “more harmful than helpful” — San Francisco - Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi issued this statement in opposition to California Senate Bill 1047:

More: SB 1047, TechCrunch, GZERO, Senator Scott Wiener, The Register, Maginative, The Information, Cryptopolitan, and Reason

X: @carnage4life, @garrytan, @martin_casado, @viacristiano, @bayeslord, @martin_casado, @ylecun, @zeffmax, @martin_casado, @andersonbcdefg, @jvnixon, @martin_casado, @vishalmisra, @mark_k, @deanwball, and @garrisonlovely

Forums: r/neoliberal and r/technology

Edward Helmore / The Guardian:

Dating apps are struggling as users seek organic ways to meet; Match Group reported a decline in the total number of paying users for seven straight quarters — Online dating industry in crisis as shares fall and nearly half of all users report negative experiences on the apps

More: Vox and Don Juan in Hell

Bluesky: @chickenpuppet.bsky.social. X: @_inpractise, @carnage4life, @aethelwealh, @kylascan, @pchallinor, and @leashless. Forums: Hacker News

Marilen Martin / Bloomberg:

A survey of 2,012 people in Germany finds ~50% wouldn't use the digital euro over privacy fears; the European Central Bank will decide on a rollout by 2025 end — - ECB officals to decide on rollout by end of next year — Half of people in Germany can't imagine using e-euro

More: crypto.news, Sputnik News, and Crypto Briefing

Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:

Runway debuts Gen-3 Alpha Turbo, a faster and cheaper model than Gen-3 Alpha, capable of generating 5- or 10-second-long video clips, available for all plans — After showing it off in preview late last month, Runway has officially released Gen-3 Alpha Turbo, the latest version …

More: The Decoder. X: @teknium1, @runwayml, @justin_hart, @c_valenzuelab, and @minchoi. Forums: r/singularity

Cade Metz / New York Times:

OpenAI removed a cluster of Iranian accounts using ChatGPT for an influence campaign targeting the US elections, and says the effort didn't gain much traction — The company said the Iranian effort, which used ChatGPT, did not gain much traction. — OpenAI said on Friday that it had discovered …

More: OpenAI, The Hacker News, Security Affairs, Gizmodo, NPR, Maginative, Newser, TechCrunch, The Verge, The Crypto Times, Benzinga, Reuters, Washington Post, Cybernews.com, USA Today, Cryptopolitan, Bloomberg, Forbes, PCMag, Neowin, The Hill, Engadget, CyberScoop, CoinGape, and Axios

Threads: @eric.m.hutch and @moskov

X: @vilile, @5tuxnet, @marionawfal, and @jenstilmanydots

LinkedIn: Shannon Togawa Mercer and Katrina Mulligan. Forums: r/technology

Jackson Ryan / New York Times:

A profile of Anthony Tan, the solo developer of Way to the Woods, a game that received Epic Games funding and remains unreleased nine years after its conception — Anthony Tan was 16 when his idea for a video game about a deer caught the industry's eye. Nine years later, he's still working on it.

Mastodon: @dctrjack@aus.social

Justin Bachman / Legal Dive:

A YouTuber files a proposed class action against Nvidia, accusing it of scraping his content without consent to train AI models, weeks after also suing OpenAI — A video creator alleges that the companies scraped his videos, and millions of others, without permission to help train their generative AI learning models.

More: 404 Media, NTD, TorrentFreak, Dexerto, Tom's Hardware, United States District Court Northern District Of California, and United States District Court Northern District Of California

X: @ednewtonrex, @papapishu, @josephfcox, @rahll, @samleecole, and @samleecole

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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

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Source: Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for CBS News as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump says Stephen Colbert is a “pathetic trainwreck” and “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW”; earlier CBS aired the Kennedy Center Honors, hosted by Trump

Lorcan Lovett / Nieman Reports:

A look at the state of independent media in Myanmar, which lost US and Swedish funding this year and where subscriptions aren't a dependable source of revenue

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More News

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

An interview with Palantir CEO Alex Karp on co-founding the company, autonomous weapons systems, AI, supporting Kamala Harris, Silicon Valley critics, and more

More: TechCrunch and Fortune

Mastodon: @christianschwaegerl …. X: @cmwahlqu, @maureendowd, @fvcraig, @marksharpe39kft, @lugaricano, @royathewriter, and @joshkraushaar

LinkedIn: Philip McKenzie, Wendy R. Anderson, and Chad Wahlquist. Forums: r/PLTR

Lynn Doan / Bloomberg:

Ericsson to sell its network portability and data exchange services unit Iconectiv to Koch Equity Development for $1B; the deal is expected to close in H1 2025

More: Ericsson

PYMNTS.com:

Amount, which provides digital lending services for credit unions and banks, raised $30M from Curql, Goldman Sachs, WestCap, Hanaco Ventures, QED, and others

More: Crowdfund Insider, FinTech Global, Finextra, and FinSMEs. Bluesky: @zitron.bsky.social

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Filing: AT&T and Verizon ask the FCC to deny SpaceX's request to waive rules, claiming Starlink's service with T-Mobile would interfere with existing networks

More: Federal Communications Commission, Federal Communications Commission, The Verge, Light Reading, Wccftech, Android Authority, How-To Geek, The Register, and PCMag

X: @austen and @ashleevance. Forums: r/technology

Victoria Song / The Verge:

Google says it “missed the mark” after leaked screenshots showed a Team Pixel program agreement threatened influencers who didn't showcase the Pixel over rivals

More: OSnews, Android Police, acecomments.mu.nu, Mashable, On my Om, Tom's Guide, 9to5Google, The Hindu, NewsBytes, PhoneArena, CNET, PetaPixel, Engadget, ZyCrypto, Android Headlines, TechIssuesToday.com, iMore, and Xiaomiui.Net

Threads: @captain2phones, @film_girl, @andru, @snubs, @chriswelch, @vicmsong, @reckless1280, and @snubs. Mastodon: @magicalgirlsabrina …

X: @mkbhd, @film_girl, @zollotech, @maxwinebach, @adamjmatlock, @techninjaspeaks, @durvidimel, @howtomen, @zollotech, @aaronp613, @snazzylabs, and @hardwarecanucks

Forums: r/technews, r/degoogle, and r/technology

Earlier Picks

Cristiano Lima-Strong / Washington Post:

A US appeals court largely upholds a ruling blocking the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act, finding parts of the law likely violate the First Amendment

More: The Verge, NetChoice, Reuters, State of California, Accountable Tech, Reuters, PCMag, Tech Policy Press, and The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit

Threads: @arunsees. X: @thefireorg, @viacristiano, @agrobbonta, @buffywicks, @vidushi_law, @buffywicks, @attorneynora, @swiftstories, @kristaachavez, @tituswu100, @netchoice, @jrhuddles, @zamaan_qureshi, @daphnehk, @daphnehk, @daphnehk, and @daphnehk

LinkedIn: Gaia Bernstein and Marc Rotenberg