Network Support Blog

Trisha Thadani / Washington Post: A look at the autonomous truck industry's challenges, including a lack of federal regulation, as Aurora and Kodiak plan a major expansion in Texas this year  —  Autonomous truck companies plan a major expansion this year to deliver your packages and food, speeding well ahead of federal safety regulations http://www.techmeme.com/240401/p1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240401p1

Max Tani / Semafor: Sources: Apple suggests podcasters join its subscription program to be on its Podcast “browse” carousel; 5 of the first 7 podcasts last week were participants  —  To get their show featured at the top of the Apple Podcasts feed, one of the best placements in the audio world … http://www.techmeme.com/240331/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240331p10

Katie Hafner / New York Times: Dan Lynch, founder of Interop, a computer networking equipment exhibition that helped accelerate TCP/IP adoption and internet commercialization, dies at age 82  —  After working on the earliest version of the internet, he saw its potential and founded a conference on computer networking equipment. http://www.techmeme.com/240331/p9?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240331p9

Heather Knight / New York Times: A profile of YC's Garry Tan, whose combative online persona has sparked controversies as he tries to shift SF politics from idealistic progressivism to centrism  —  The tech investor Garry Tan has courted San Francisco's moderate Democrats and angered its progressives.Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times http://www.techmeme.com/240331/p8?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240331p8

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post: MrBeast's “retention editing”, which uses quick cuts and loud sounds, took over social media, but may fade away as the YouTuber shifts to slower, focused videos  —  The popularity of so-called retention editing made a generation of creators go viral, but when every video looks the same it's harder than ever to stand out http://www.techmeme.com/240331/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240331p5

Mike Larkin / Security Boulevard: Microsoft engineer Andres Freund accidentally found the malicious code in versions of the XZ Utils compression tool, likely preventing thousands of infections  —  Yesterday's discovery of the xz backdoor was an accident.  But what a fortunate accident it was. http://www.techmeme.com/240331/p1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240331p1

Podnews: Survey of Americans aged 12+: 47% of have listened to a podcast in the last month, up 12% YoY, 76% listened to online audio in the past month, and more  —  The portion of Americans who listen to any kind of online audio, and the portion who listen to podcasts, have both reached new record highs … http://www.techmeme.com/240330/p14?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240330p14

Wall Street Journal: Discord plans to start showing gaming ads from next week, called Sponsored Quests and offering rewards for in-game tasks; users can turn them off in settings  —  The chat platform, which has long avoided advertising, is latest tech company to lean into paid promotions http://www.techmeme.com/240330/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240330p13

Washington Post: A look at Steven Mnuchin's TikTok plans; sources say his proposal to buy TikTok without its export-blocked algorithm and rebuild it from scratch is far-fetched  —  His proposal to buy the app without its algorithm from its Chinese owner has drawn skeptical reactions, including from those he's pitched http://www.techmeme.com/240330/p12?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240330p12

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: Several legal experts say Section 230 will not protect firms from lawsuits over the outputs of generative AI, echoing SCOTUS Justice Gorsuch's 2023 statement  —  Legal scholars, lawmakers and at least one Supreme Court justice agree that companies will be liable for the things their AIs say and do … http://www.techmeme.com/240330/p2?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240330p2

Keumars Afifi-Sabet / LiveScience: Researchers say they achieved fiber-optic data transfer speeds of 301 Tbps by using the E-band, a spectral band that has never been used in commercial systems  —  The researchers hit a rate of 301 terabits per second — equivalent to transferring 1,800 4K movies over the internet in one second — using existing fiber-optic cables. http://www.techmeme.com/240329/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240329p19

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: Researchers find malicious code in versions of the compression tool XZ Utils that were incorporated into Linux distributions from Red Hat, Debian, and others  —  Malicious code planted in xz Utils has been circulating for more than a month.  —  Researchers have found a malicious backdoor … http://www.techmeme.com/240329/p18?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240329p18

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Researcher: Instagram is testing Blend, which creates a feed of Reels for two friends to share based on shared interests and Reels they shared with each other  —  Instagram is developing a “Blend” feature that creates a private feed of Reels recommended for you and a friend. http://www.techmeme.com/240329/p14?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240329p14

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: Google informs users in the US that Google Podcasts is shutting down April 2 and recommends exporting podcast subscriptions to YouTube Music  —  U.S. users have just a few more days to make the transition from Google Podcasts as the company moves forward with the process of discontinuing the service globally. http://www.techmeme.com/240329/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240329p13

David Kirton / Reuters: Huawei reports its fastest growth in four years in 2023, with revenue up 9.63% YoY to 704.2B CNY (~$97.48B) and net profit up 144.5% YoY to 87B CNY  —  China's Huawei Technologies (HWT.UL) saw its fastest growth in four years in 2023, with a rebound in its consumer segment and income … http://www.techmeme.com/240329/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240329p3

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: YouTube now lets creators share exclusive Shorts with paying viewers, says Shorts average 70B+ daily views and 25%+ of creator partners monetize via Shorts  —  YouTube is launching a version of Shorts that's only for members, allowing creators to share short-form videos exclusively with their paying viewers. http://www.techmeme.com/240328/p29?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240328p29

The Information: Bolt told investors that it had revenue of $19.4M for the nine months ending in October 2023, essentially flat YoY; Bolt's troubles grow with a Fanatics lawsuit  —  Bolt, the checkout startup that rocketed to an $11 billion valuation during the pandemic e-commerce boom … http://www.techmeme.com/240328/p28?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240328p28

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: A researcher finds that X is testing a feature that lets users create or join communities focused on “adult content” or other “not safe for work” material  —  - Screenshots show that people can label communities as ‘NSFW’  — X already allows adult content, but forbids ads on the topic http://www.techmeme.com/240328/p27?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240328p27

Kate Park / TechCrunch: Pelago, formerly Quit Genius, which provides virtual therapy sessions for treating addictions, raised a $58M Series C, bringing its total funding to $151M  —  Pelago Health, Y Combinator-backed telehealth company that uses cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help treat people with tobacco … http://www.techmeme.com/240328/p18?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240328p18

Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg: Microsoft rolls out Azure AI Studio tools to stop users from tricking AI chatbots to behave in unintended ways, including “prompt shields” and falsehood alerts  —  - Company's Copilot recently generated weird, harmful responses  — Defenses are designed to spot and block suspicious activity http://www.techmeme.com/240328/p17?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240328p17

Samuel K. Moore / IEEE Spectrum: MLCommons announces results from its MLPerf 4.0 inference benchmarks, which added Llama 2 70B and Stable Diffusion XL; systems with Nvidia GPUs came out on top  —  Times change, and so must benchmarks.  Now that we're firmly in the age of massive generative AI, it's time to add two such behemoths … http://www.techmeme.com/240327/p35?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240327p35

Nicola Agius / Search Engine Land: Google says it blocked or removed 5.5B ads and 12.7M advertiser accounts for violating its policies in 2023, up from 5.2B and 6.7M respectively in 2022  —  The number of advertisers who were blocked or removed due to policy violations nearly doubled compared to the previous year.  —  Chat with SearchBot http://www.techmeme.com/240327/p34?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240327p34

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Data observability service Observe raised a $115M Series B led by Sutter Hill Ventures with participation from Snowflake, sources say at a $400M-$500M valuation  —  Enterprises today store and use data across an ever-growing number of applications and locations, making it challenging … http://www.techmeme.com/240327/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240327p33

Colleen McClain / Pew Research Center: A survey of 10,133 US adults: 43% of those aged 18-29 used ChatGPT in February 2024, up from 33% in July 2023, compared to 27% of 30-49 and 23% of all adults  —  It's been more than a year since ChatGPT's public debut set the tech world abuzz.  And Americans' use of the chatbot is ticking up … http://www.techmeme.com/240327/p24?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240327p24

Brody Ford / Bloomberg: Source: Salesforce paid $20M+ to license Einstein's image in October 2016, hoping to stand out in the AI space; the proceeds go to Jerusalem's Hebrew University  —  It's tough to stand out as a tech company working on artificial intelligence.  Albert Einstein is Salesforce's solution. http://www.techmeme.com/240327/p23?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240327p23

Sharon Goldman / VentureBeat: Sources: some NIST staff have threatened to resign over the expected appointment of an “effective altruist” AI researcher to the US AI Safety Institute  —  The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is facing an internal crisis as staff members and scientists … http://www.techmeme.com/240308/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240308p19

Carmen Reinicke / Bloomberg: Coinbase's stock crosses its 2021 direct listing reference price of $250, after growing 300%+ in the past 12 months, as bitcoin hovers around its record high  —  - Crypto exchange has rallied over 300% in the last 12 months  — Gains also driven by SEC approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs http://www.techmeme.com/240308/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240308p13

Addie Morfoot / Variety: How Netflix's stand-up specials, COVID, and rise of platforms like TikTok and YouTube have transformed the comedy business, broadening comedians' reach  —  Netflix, COVID and social media have been game changers for the comedy business, with the pandemic accelerating shifts already underway across the media landscape. http://www.techmeme.com/240308/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240308p5

Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times: Sensor Tower: Instagram's total app downloads grew 20% YoY in 2023 to 768M, making it the most downloaded app worldwide; TikTok had 733M downloads, up 4% YoY  —  Meta-owned platform's push into short-form video bears fruit while TikTok's explosive growth begins to ease http://www.techmeme.com/240308/p1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240308p1

Jason Del Rey / Fortune: Amazon Lending, launched in 2011, discontinues underwriting new loans for sellers in the US and the UK, but third-party financing options will still be offered  —  More than a decade after first offering loans to merchants who sell goods through its online marketplaces … http://www.techmeme.com/240307/p36?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240307p36

Kevin Townsend / SecurityWeek: Tel Aviv-based Sweet Security, which offers cloud runtime security tools, raised a $33M Series A, after emerging from stealth with a $12M seed in August 2023  —  Sweet Security announces a $33 million Series A funding round just six months after emerging from stealth with an initial $12 million seed funding. http://www.techmeme.com/240307/p35?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240307p35

Jody Serrano / Gizmodo: In X replies, Elon Musk says a future version of X's timeline will only show view counts, and users can swipe right to reply, left to favorite, and tap for more  —  Musk said he had been “dying to do this for a year” because it made the feed look very clean. http://www.techmeme.com/240307/p21?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240307p21

New York Times: Analysis: Temu and Shein are spending heavily on Facebook, X, and YouTube ads in the US; Temu placed ~1.4M ads globally on Google services in the past year  —  Temu, Shein, and streaming and gaming apps looking to break into the U.S. market are spending huge sums to get their wares in front of American consumers. http://www.techmeme.com/240307/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240307p10

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: Remofirst, which helps remote teams manage payroll, taxes, hiring-related compliance, compensation, and more, raised a $25M Series A led by Octopus Ventures  —  In the world of HR tech startups, there are the Davids and the Goliaths.  Deel and Rippling are the Goliaths, both having raised millions of dollars in venture capital. http://www.techmeme.com/240306/p36?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240306p36

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: Facebook says it's working on an AI system for its video recommendations across its entire ecosystem, and tests have led to an 8%-10% gain in Reels watch time  —  - Tom Alison, the head of Facebook, said on Wednesday that the company is working on a AI model to “power our entire video ecosystem.” http://www.techmeme.com/240306/p32?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240306p32

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: As part of its DMA compliance plan, Google details its program that lets Play Store developers lead EEA users outside their app, including fees of 5% to 17%  —  Google today is sharing more details about the fees that will accompany its plan to comply with Europe's new Digital Markets Act … http://www.techmeme.com/240306/p29?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240306p29

Jon Porter / The Verge: Epic says Apple removed its iOS developer account, hampering its app store plans, and shares a letter from Apple lawyers calling Epic “verifiably untrustworthy”  —  After Epic CEO Tim Sweeney criticized how Apple is rolling out alternative app stores on iOS in the EU … http://www.techmeme.com/240306/p24?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240306p24

Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg: NPCI data: UPI transactions processed by Paytm fell 14% to $19.9B from January 2024 after RBI curbs, while PhonePe rose nearly 7% and Google Pay rose almost 6%  —  - Paytm loses usage even before any disruption to its systems  — Services of Walmart, Google capitalize on Paytm's troubles http://www.techmeme.com/240306/p8?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240306p8

Kara Carlson / Austin American-Statesman: Waymo begins testing its driverless ride-hailing service without a safety operator in Austin starting March 6, initially offering the service to Waymo employees  —  Autonomous vehicle company Waymo will begin testing driverless cars, with no human behind the wheel, in Austin, starting Wednesday. http://www.techmeme.com/240305/p39?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240305p39

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Ema, a generative AI startup with the goal of building a “universal AI employee” to automate mundane tasks, emerges from stealth with $25M in funding  —  Generative AI well and truly has a grip on public technology discourse these days.  A new startup called Ema … http://www.techmeme.com/240305/p33?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240305p33

Leo Schwartz / Fortune: The COO of Binance US testified in Dec. 2023 that after the SEC sued Binance in June, Binance US laid off two-thirds of its staff and revenue plunged ~75%  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission hit Binance with a massive lawsuit in June of this year and, not long after … http://www.techmeme.com/240305/p25?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240305p25

Marissa Newman / Bloomberg: Israel-based VC firm Team8 raised $500M from Microsoft, Cisco, and others for funds that will invest in 30+ cyber, data, AI, health, and other Israeli startups  —  - Cisco, Temasek, Moody's also among investors in Team8 funds  — Firm to invest in over 30 Israeli cyber, AI, health startups http://www.techmeme.com/240305/p15?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240305p15

Financial Times: UK digital bank Monzo raised $430M led by Alphabet's CapitalG at a $5B valuation, up from $4.5B in December 2021, and plans to use funds to expand in the US  —  London-based digital bank raised $430mn from investors including CapitalG and HongShan  —  Monzo has secured a fresh round … http://www.techmeme.com/240305/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240305p3

Financial Times: Q&A with the CEO of Grindr, whose stock fell 75% since its SPAC merger in November 2022, on future plans, including an “à la carte” travel payments service  —  CEO George Arison hopes new travel and networking features can expand its appeal http://www.techmeme.com/240305/p1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240305p1

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica: Prices of Anthropic's Claude 3 Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku, all with a 200K-token context window, seem to range from “super expensive” to “radically competitive”  —  Willison: “No model has beaten GPT-4 on a range of widely used benchmarks like this.” http://www.techmeme.com/240304/p20?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240304p20

Sean Hollister / The Verge: Tropic Haze, the developer of Nintendo Switch emulator Yuzu, agrees to pay $2.4M to settle its lawsuit with Nintendo and will completely shut down the emulator  —  The emulator was sued for ‘facilitating piracy at a colossal scale.’  —  Just over a week ago, Nintendo sued the developers … http://www.techmeme.com/240304/p15?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240304p15

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times: The EU Commission fines Apple €1.8B for stifling competition from rival music streaming services, the EU's third-largest antitrust fine; Apple plans to appeal  —  iPhone maker hit by first-ever Brussels fine as competition watchdogs step up scrutiny of Big Tech http://www.techmeme.com/240304/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240304p5

Wall Street Journal: Last week a US judge acquitted China's Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit in the DOJ's Micron trade secrets case, months after Micron changed its posture on China  —  Verdict is regarded as a setback in efforts to contain Chinese corporate theft  —  U.S. officials across the political spectrum … http://www.techmeme.com/240303/p9?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240303p9

Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal: A look at Microsoft Office assistant Clippy, which was seen as a corporate gaffe but has remained one of Microsoft's most recognizable brands over two decades  —  The virtual assistant, an animated paper clip, was seen as an epic corporate gaffe.  Now it's having a moment. http://www.techmeme.com/240303/p8?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240303p8

The Economic Times: Indian watchdog MeitY issues an advisory asking developers to seek “explicit permission” before deploying any AI models or AI-backed algorithms  —  In its advisory sent late on Friday, the IT ministry has also said that such platforms will have to explicitly seek permission … http://www.techmeme.com/240303/p7?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240303p7