Network Support Blog

Josh Taylor / The Guardian: Australia abandons its plans to mandate age verification tech for porn sites, citing privacy and security concerns, and will instead focus on educating parents  —  The eSafety commissioner is to work with industry on a new code to educate parents about how to access filtering software and limit children's access http://www.techmeme.com/230830/p39?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230830p39

Aisha Counts / Bloomberg: X updates its privacy policy to include biometric information as data it plans to collect for safety and security, along with data on users' jobs and education  —  - In policy shift, X will use the data for safety, security  — Employment, education history will be used to recommend jobs http://www.techmeme.com/230830/p38?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230830p38

Financial Times: Document: the UK plans to increase use of AI-based facial recognition tech by the police, potentially deploying new biometric systems over the next 12-18 months  —  Move comes after privacy campaigners and independent academics criticised technology for being inaccurate http://www.techmeme.com/230830/p37?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230830p37

Casey Newton / Platformer: Meta's Oversight Board took 234 days to get a ruling in an incitement to violence case involving Hun Sen, revealing a problem with the board's glacial pace  —  Today let's talk about one of the most important cases that Meta's Oversight Board has heard to date — and how the process ultimately revealed … http://www.techmeme.com/230829/p42?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230829p42

Nathan Edwards / The Verge: Google announces new automation starters and actions for its Google Home app, plus new features for its Home script editor, which is available in Public Preview  —  Google Home is getting smarter.  In a pair of blog posts published today, Google announced a bunch of new automation starters … http://www.techmeme.com/230828/p14?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230828p14

Mia Sato / The Verge: A look at Smart Answers, an AI chatbot trained only on Macworld, PCWorld, Tech Advisor, and TechHive content, and offered to the outlets' readers on August 1  —  By and large, the goal has been: can we make more pages for ads without paying more writers?  —  Now, a group of tech outlets … http://www.techmeme.com/230827/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230827p3

Natasha Singer / New York Times: Despite cheating and misinformation fears, some US schools that once raced to block AI chatbot access are now encouraging teachers and students to use them  —  Some districts that once raced to block A.I. chatbots are now trying to embrace them.  —  For decades, Walla Walla High School … http://www.techmeme.com/230826/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230826p4

New York Times: Sources: a company spending $800M+ to buy thousands of acres to build a new Bay Area city is backed by Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen, and others  —  A mysterious company has spent $800 million in an effort to buy thousands of acres of San Francisco Bay Area land. http://www.techmeme.com/230825/p18?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230825p18

Emily Bary / MarketWatch: Affirm reports Q4 revenue up 22% YoY to $446M, vs. $406M est., net loss up 11% YoY to $206M, and GMV up 25% YoY to $5.5B, vs. $5.3B est.; AFRM jumps 5%+  —  Company ‘demonstrated that the business can continue to expand profitably even in a high interest rate environment,’ CFO says http://www.techmeme.com/230824/p28?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230824p28

David Gewirtz / ZDNet: Google announces new security features for Workspace, including zero-trust, data loss prevention, and digital sovereignty controls, rolling out in 2023 and 2024  —  Google Workspace, your most secure choice in productivity suites, will be getting even more secure. http://www.techmeme.com/230823/p31?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230823p31

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: IBM unveils watsonx Code Assistant for IBM Z, which uses a code-generating AI model to translate COBOL code into Java, set for general availability in Q4 2023  —  COBOL, or Common Business Oriented Language, is one of the oldest programming languages in use, dating back to around 1959. http://www.techmeme.com/230822/p32?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230822p32

Leo Schwartz / Fortune: Coinbase takes a “small” equity stake in Circle for the first time, as the companies close the Centre Consortium, which previously governed the USDC stablecoin  —  On Monday, Coinbase and Circle, the two companies behind USD Coin, settled on new terms that would change the governance … http://www.techmeme.com/230821/p24?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230821p24

Amanda Hoover / Wired: How Science, Nature, and other peer-reviewed journals are grappling with outlines, drafts, or papers that authors wrote using generative AI, without disclosure  —  Ethics watchdogs are looking out for potentially undisclosed use of generative AI in scientific writing.  But there's no foolproof way to catch it all yet. http://www.techmeme.com/230820/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230820p4

Louise Matsakis / Semafor: Q&A with TikTok Head of Music Ole Obermann on launching TikTok Music in Indonesia and Brazil before the US and helping artists from discovery to distribution  —  Since it first exploded in popularity five years ago, TikTok has evolved into the de facto launching pad for new musicians around the world … http://www.techmeme.com/230820/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230820p3

Reuters: Nestlé, Unilever, and other big advertisers are experimenting with using generative AI ads, but many remain wary of the security, copyright, and data bias risks  —  Some of the world's biggest advertisers, from food giant Nestle (NESN.S) to consumer goods multinational Unilever (ULVR.L) … http://www.techmeme.com/230819/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230819p3

Todd Spangler / Variety: Elon Musk Says X (aka Twitter) Will No Longer Let You Block Other Users … “Block is going to be deleted as a ‘feature’, except for DMs,” the tech mogul posted on X Friday.  “Makes no sense.”  —  X/Twitter describes block as “a feature that helps you control how you interact with other accounts on Twitter. http://www.techmeme.com/230818/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230818p13

John Callaham / Neowin: Microsoft plans to discontinue Azure Kinect Developer Kit, the depth-sensing camera the company released in 2019, in October 2023, or sooner if supplies run out  —  Microsoft thought it had the next generation of technology control inputs when it first revealed the Kinect motion-tracking camera sensor for its Xbox 360 console. http://www.techmeme.com/230817/p29?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230817p29

Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post: Researchers find ChatGPT has a “significant and systematic political bias” toward the Democrats in the US, Lula in Brazil, and the Labour Party in the UK  —  Chatbots are ingrained with political biases picked up from their training data — which in most cases is unfiltered text from the web http://www.techmeme.com/230816/p35?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230816p35

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk: GOP House Financial Services Committee lawmakers demand that SEC Chair Gary Gensler explain how Prometheum won its unique approval as a broker-dealer for crypto  —  Patrick McHenry, the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, rounded up all of his panel's Republicans to question … http://www.techmeme.com/230815/p26?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230815p26

Bloomberg: The UN-backed Science Based Targets initiative removes Amazon from its list of companies working toward net zero emissions goals, which Amazon announced in 2019  —  - SBTi strips Amazon.com of its net zero emissions validation  — Move comes as SBTi's influence among ESG investors grows http://www.techmeme.com/230814/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230814p10

Steven Lee Myers / New York Times: How Sweden's Psychological Defense Agency, a part of the Ministry of Defense, is combating online disinformation from foreign adversaries, especially Russia  —  The country has empowered a government agency to openly combat online disinformation coming from foreign adversaries, and especially the Kremlin. http://www.techmeme.com/230813/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230813p5

Sebastian Herrera / Wall Street Journal: Amazon is removing or reducing packaging to speed up deliveries, cut costs, and meet climate goals, amid concerns that visible products could lead to issues  —  The retail giant is reducing packaging on millions of deliveries  —  Millions of Amazon orders are arriving on doorsteps across the U.S. without any extra packaging. http://www.techmeme.com/230812/p7?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230812p7

Kate Clark / The Information: Sources: Modular, which offers AI development tools and a programming language, is discussing a Series A at a ~$600M valuation, after a $30M seed in June 2022  —  Modular, a startup whose software aims to loosen Nvidia's chokehold over in-demand artificial intelligence chips … http://www.techmeme.com/230811/p15?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230811p15

Jesse Levine / Bloomberg: After new fight claims from Musk, Zuckerberg warns “anything” Musk says hasn't been agreed on; Musk also said surgery will prevent him from fighting for months  —  - Musk hasn't agreed on a date for the fight, Meta CEO says  — Meta's Threads launch helped fuel the Musk-Zuckerberg rivalry http://www.techmeme.com/230811/p14?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230811p14

Jing Yang / The Information: Sources: ByteDance's revenue in China grew 25% YoY in 2022 to $69B, vs. 68% in 2021; overseas revenue grew from $6.5B in 2021 to $16B in 2022, driven by TikTok  —  ByteDance might be best known globally as the parent company of TikTok, but the bulk of its money comes from its home base of China, thanks to its Chinese video app Douyin. http://www.techmeme.com/230810/p30?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230810p30

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: Filing: the US SEC plans to appeal a court ruling in July that Ripple's programmatic sales of XRP to retail investors on exchanges didn't violate securities law  —  A federal judge ruled that while Ripple's direct sales of XRP to institutional investors violated securities law … http://www.techmeme.com/230809/p34?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230809p34

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch: Singapore-based Endowus, which operates a digital wealth management platform, raised $35M from Citi Ventures, MUFG, and others, taking its total funding to $95M  —  Back in 2021 and early 2022, there was a flurry of VC interest in Southeast Asian investment apps. http://www.techmeme.com/230808/p46?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230808p46

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: The European Commission opens an in-depth probe into Adobe's $20B Figma deal, after a preliminary review triggered concerns that it may reduce competition  —  Adobe's (ADBE.O) $20 billion bid for cloud-based designer platform Figma could reduce competition in global markets … http://www.techmeme.com/230807/p28?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230807p28

Misha Glenny / Financial Times: A profile of Clop, a Russian-speaking hacking group specializing in ransomware, responsible for the MOVEit hack, and likely operating out of Russia and Ukraine  —  They hold global businesses to ransom and seem to act with impunity — but behind them lies a tangled geopolitical web http://www.techmeme.com/230806/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230806p3

Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World: Some designers say AI tools have made them anxious about the YouTube thumbnail microeconomy's future; creators like MrBeast pay up to $10K for a video thumbnail  —  Creators like MrBeast pay up to $10,000 for a single YouTube video thumbnail, but the rise of AI tools have some designers anxious about the microeconomy's future. http://www.techmeme.com/230805/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230805p4

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch: A profile of Window Snyder, who helped secure the early internet while at Microsoft and Mozilla, and pushed Apple to enable encryption by default in its devices  —  Snyder has made Windows, Mac computers, iPhones, and other technologies more secure for almost 25 years. http://www.techmeme.com/230804/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230804p19

Apple: Apple reports Q3 revenue down 1.4% YoY to $81.8B, declining for a third quarter in a row but largely in line with estimates, and net income up 2.3% to $19.9B  —  Services revenue reaches new all-time high Installed base of active devices sets all-time record http://www.techmeme.com/230803/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230803p33

Reuters: Kenya's interior ministry says it suspended the local activities of Worldcoin while government agencies assess potential risks to public safety  —  - Worldcoin says it has measures safeguarding privacy  — Kenyan authorities say will investigate Worldcoin's authenticity http://www.techmeme.com/230802/p38?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230802p38

Sahil Patel / The Information: Sources: some top ad agency executives plan to commit at least 10% to 20% more with YouTube this fall than in 2022; traditional TV ad commitments are down 15%  —  The Hollywood labor strikes have proven a boon for YouTube, with Google's video-streaming service luring television ad buyers … http://www.techmeme.com/230801/p38?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230801p38

Elizabeth Howcroft / Reuters: A German data watchdog says it has been probing Worldcoin since November 2022 due to concerns over the project processing “sensitive data at a very large scale”  —  A German data watchdog has been investigating OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's Worldcoin project since late last year due … http://www.techmeme.com/230731/p22?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230731p22