Network Support Blog

Anna Washenko / Engadget: US senators unveil the bipartisan NO FAKES Act, which would make individuals and companies liable for producing, hosting, or sharing unauthorized AI deepfakes  —  OpenAI joined several entertainment industry groups in backing the NO FAKES Act.  —  Today, a group of senators introduced the NO FAKES Act … http://www.techmeme.com/240731/p42?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240731p42

Shubham Sharma / VentureBeat: Ema, which helps companies set up and deploy no-code AI agents it calls “universal AI employees”, raised $36M as part of a Series A led by Accel and Section 32  —  San Francisco-based Ema, the AI agent startup founded by former Google and Okta employees, today announced it is raising … http://www.techmeme.com/240731/p41?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240731p41

Emma Hinchliffe / Fortune: New York-based Spring Health, which offers a mental health app that matches patients with care providers, raised a $100M Series E at a $3.3B valuation  —  Mental health company Spring Health, cofounded by CEO April Koh and Adam Chekroud, is now valued at $3.3 billion after raising a $100 million Series E round. http://www.techmeme.com/240731/p40?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240731p40

Sean Lyngaas / CNN: A ransomware attack hits blood donation nonprofit OneBlood, which has asked over 250 hospitals in the US to activate their critical blood shortage protocols  —  A cyberattack has hit a blood-donation nonprofit that serves hundreds of hospitals in the southeastern US. http://www.techmeme.com/240731/p30?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240731p30

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: Zimperium: a massive SMS stealer campaign has targeted Android devices worldwide using Telegram bots to infect devices in 113 countries since February 2022  —  A malicious campaign targeting Android devices worldwide utilizes thousands of Telegram bots to infect devices with SMS-stealing malware … http://www.techmeme.com/240731/p20?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240731p20

Bloomberg: Sources: Intel may unveil plans as early as this week to cut thousands of jobs to reduce costs and fund a rebound from an earnings slump and market share losses  —  - CEO Gelsinger embarks on ambitious effort to regain share  — Chipmaker is spending on research, development and new plants http://www.techmeme.com/240730/p39?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240730p39

Boone Ashworth / Wired: Startup Friend previews a $99 AI pendant with an always-on microphone that's designed to provide the wearer with companionship, set to ship in January 2025  —  The latest attempt at an AI-powered wearable is an always-listening pendant.  But it doesn't help you be more productive, it just keeps you company. http://www.techmeme.com/240730/p38?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240730p38

Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft Q4: Windows OEM revenue up 4% YoY, devices revenue down 11% YoY, overall gaming revenue up 44% YoY, and Xbox content and services revenue up 61% YoY  —  Microsoft just posted the fourth and final quarter of its 2024 fiscal financial results.  The software maker made $64.7 billion … http://www.techmeme.com/240730/p37?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240730p37

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch: OpenAI begins rolling out ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, initially criticized for sounding like Scarlett Johansson during its demo in May, to ChatGPT Plus users  —  OpenAI began rolling out ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode on Tuesday, giving users their first access to GPT-4o's hyper-realistic audio responses. http://www.techmeme.com/240730/p28?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240730p28

Reuters: Meta agrees to pay $1.4B to settle Texas' lawsuit accusing Meta of using facial recognition tech to collect biometric data of millions of Texans without consent  —  Meta Platforms (META.O) has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to Texas to resolve the state's lawsuit accusing the Facebook parent … http://www.techmeme.com/240730/p18?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240730p18

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch: Meta releases Segment Anything Model 2 with support for object segmentation in videos and images; the code and weights are available under an Apache 2.0 license  —  Meta had a palpable hit last year with Segment Anything, a machine learning model that could quickly and reliably identify and outline just about anything in an image. http://www.techmeme.com/240729/p16?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240729p16

Karissa Bell / Engadget: Meta rolls out AI Studio in the US, letting users create and share AI chatbots, and Instagram creators set up chatbots to answer DM questions and story replies  —  Meta is rolling out its AI Studio tools for custom chatbots.  —  The next time you DM a creator on Instagram, you might get a reply from their AI. http://www.techmeme.com/240729/p15?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240729p15

Jay Peters / The Verge: Twitch rolls out a revamped iOS and Android app, which now shows a TikTok-like feed of recommended content when it's opened, instead of a “Following” list  —  Twitch's mobile app is getting a major update that puts its TikTok-like feed front and center. http://www.techmeme.com/240729/p14?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240729p14

Dvora Meyers / The Verge: A look at the AI-assisted Judging Support System for scoring in gymnastics that made its debut at the 2023 world championships and helps settle disputes  —  When Simone Biles saluted the judges and stepped onto the mat to vault at the Sportpaleis in Antwerp, Belgium, it seemed like every camera in the packed arena was trained on her. http://www.techmeme.com/240729/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240729p13

David Gilbert / Wired: ISD: hundreds of extremist TikTok accounts are openly sharing Hitler-related propaganda, including Holocaust denial videos, and trying to recruit new members  —  Not only is TikTok's algorithm promoting Neo-Nazi content, extremist organizations are also using the platform to recruit new members and encourage real-world action. http://www.techmeme.com/240729/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240729p3

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal: How podcasting is turning into an industry of megastars with huge deals and the biggest audiences; Edison: the top 25 podcasts reach ~50% of US weekly listeners  —  The top shows are adding video, merchandise and live tours and signing megadeals with Spotify, Sirius and Amazon. http://www.techmeme.com/240728/p11?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240728p11

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: Apple plans to roll out Apple Intelligence by October, missing the planned Sept. launch of its OSes; devs get to test AI features as soon as this week  —  - Developers will get to test AI features as soon as this week  — Apple is betting on enhancements to help sell iPhone 16 line http://www.techmeme.com/240728/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240728p10

David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times: Dune Analytics: ~1.7M new digital coins entered circulation in H1 2024, compared with 264K in H1 2023, as the crypto market revival fuels a surge in memecoins  —  Josh Bailey, a 26-year-old day trader in Austin, Texas, was scrolling through a cryptocurrency group chat last month when he encountered … http://www.techmeme.com/240728/p9?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240728p9

Ken Bensinger / New York Times: Musk reposts an edited Kamala Harris campaign video that mimics her voice, possibly with deepfake tech; it has 120M+ views and seemingly breaks X's own rules  —  The billionaire owner of the social media platform X reposted a video that mimics Vice President Kamala Harris's voice, without disclosing that it had been altered. http://www.techmeme.com/240727/p14?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240727p14

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch: California DMV granted Nuro approval to test its third-gen R3 autonomous delivery vehicle in four Bay Area cities, a boost for the startup after some setbacks  —  The California Department of Motor Vehicles this week granted Nuro approval to test its third-generation R3 autonomous delivery vehicle … http://www.techmeme.com/240727/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240727p13

Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal: A profile of CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz, who co-founded CrowdStrike in 2011 after departing as McAfee's CTO following Intel's acquisition of McAfee for $7.68B  —  'A piece of software shouldn't be able to take everything out,' says George Kurtz  —  CrowdStrike Chief Executive George Kurtz answered … http://www.techmeme.com/240727/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240727p3

Jorja Siemons / Bloomberg Law: The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics is using real-time AI-based video surveillance tech to detect and predict threats, raising concerns over mass surveillance  —  The Paris Summer Olympics that begin Friday include among the most public and controversial rollouts ever of algorithmic video surveillance … http://www.techmeme.com/240727/p2?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240727p2

Wall Street Journal: Filing: the US DOJ says TikTok collected data about its users' views on gun control, abortion, and religion, and censored content at ByteDance's direction  —  Justice Department defends new law requiring the sale or ban of the popular app  —  TikTok collected data about its users' views … http://www.techmeme.com/240727/p1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240727p1

Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg: The International Association of Machinists says Apple reached a three-year tentative labor agreement with retail workers at a Towson, Maryland store, a first  —  - Three-year deal will increase pay by an average of 10%  — Union aims to build on the success; Apple declines to comment http://www.techmeme.com/240726/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240726p19

Bloomberg: Sources: Honeywell is considering a US IPO of its majority-owned quantum computing firm Quantinuum as soon as 2025, and could seek a valuation of about $10B  —  - The firm has held early talks with banks on potential IPO  — A listing in the US could take place as soon as next year http://www.techmeme.com/240726/p18?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240726p18

Cory Weinberg / The Information: A look at Scale AI's $13.8B valuation from May's $1B round suggests it's almost certainly too high, given below-average margins, reliance on few customers, more  —  Scale AI's 27-year-old CEO, Alexandr Wang, used to compete in national high school math competitions. http://www.techmeme.com/240708/p11?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240708p11

Rachyl Jones / Fortune: Self-driving cars owned by a handful of Chinese companies have quietly traveled 1.8M miles on CA roads, collecting detailed data while facing little scrutiny  —  ON FEB. 1 LAST YEAR, Montana residents gawked upwards at a large white object hovering in the sky that looked to be another moon. http://www.techmeme.com/240708/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240708p10

Wes Davis / The Verge: What to expect from Samsung Galaxy Unpacked on July 10: Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6, Galaxy AI updates, Galaxy Buds 3, Watch FE and Watch 7 Ultra, and more  —  Samsung's next Galaxy Unpacked event is coming up fast at 9AM ET on July 10th in Paris, France.  The company isn't being coy … http://www.techmeme.com/240708/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240708p3

Reuters: The National Samsung Electronics Union goes on a three-day strike for better pay; analysts: the strike is unlikely to have an impact due to low participation  —  A workers' union at Samsung Electronics in South Korea is set to stage a three-day strike from Monday and has warned … http://www.techmeme.com/240708/p1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240708p1

Financial Times: How Saudi media group MBC's Shahid has become the biggest streaming service in MENA with a 22% share, ahead of Starz Play Arabia at 18% and Netflix at 17%  —  Wide range of Arabic-language shows and films helps media group compete with Netflix  —  Media group MBC is competing hard with Netflix … http://www.techmeme.com/240707/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240707p5

Michelle Hampson / IEEE Spectrum: A study of GPT-3.5-based ChatGPT's ability to solve 728 coding problems: fairly good at solving problems that existed before 2021, but struggles with newer ones  —  This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. http://www.techmeme.com/240707/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240707p4

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: Apple Watch Series 10 will be thinner and have bigger screens; main Siri upgrade will be part of iOS 18.4, with a dev beta in Jan. and a spring release  —  As the Apple Watch approaches its 10th birthday, the company is preparing a big update.  Also: AirPods with cameras … http://www.techmeme.com/240707/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240707p3

Tory Shepherd / The Guardian: A look at Apate, a conversational bot developed by Macquarie University's Cyber Security Hub in Australia to keep scam callers on the line while collecting data  —  New scambaiting AI technology Apate aims to keep scammers on the line while collecting data that could help disrupt their business model http://www.techmeme.com/240707/p2?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240707p2

Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg: DefiLlama: the value of assets locked on the TON blockchain, which is used by Telegram, surged 1,400% this year to briefly top $1B  —  - TON Blockchain's assets topped $1 billion after a resurgence  — Telegram's previous crypto efforts drew the wrath of the SEC http://www.techmeme.com/240707/p1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240707p1

Malcolm Owen / AppleInsider: Apple says it asked Epic to fix the buttons in a future version of the Epic Games Store submitted for review; Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says Epic will “fight this”  —  Mere hours after reports circulated that Apple had declined to approve the Epic Games Store for iOS in the EU … http://www.techmeme.com/240706/p7?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240706p7

Jason Schreier / Bloomberg: Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi talks about reuniting with Square Enix to bring his company Mistwalker's Apple Arcade RPG Fantasian to PC and consoles  —  More than two decades ago, video-game designer Hironobu Sakaguchi parted ways with the company now called Square Enix Holding Co. At the time, it was an unexpected move. http://www.techmeme.com/240706/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240706p5

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post: A look at Meta's struggles to attract influencers to Threads, due to the platform's focus on text and its lack of a clear purpose for users  —  Threads launched a year ago Friday but has a fraction of the users of Meta's other platforms.  Content creators say they don't consider it important. http://www.techmeme.com/240706/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240706p4

Martin K.N Siele / Semafor: How Kenya's anti-government protestors are using AI tools, including the Corrupt Politicians GPT, a chatbot that reveals corruption cases involving politicians  —  NAIROBI — Kenya's government has raised concerns about risks associated with use of artificial intelligence (AI) as youth-led … http://www.techmeme.com/240705/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240705p13

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Researcher: X is exploring more ways to integrate xAI's Grok, including the ability to ask Grok about X accounts and use Grok by highlighting text in the app  —  Elon Musk's X is exploring more ways to integrate xAI's Grok into the social networking app.  According to a series of recent discoveries … http://www.techmeme.com/240705/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240705p10

Benjamin Taubman / Bloomberg: TRM: cryptocurrency stolen through hacks more than doubled to $1.38B in H1 2024 from a year earlier; five large attacks accounted for 70% of the crypto stolen  —  - Attack on Japanese exchange DMM Bitcoin was biggest in 2024  — Amount is still below the record 2022 level, TRM says http://www.techmeme.com/240705/p6?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240705p6

Benoit Van Overstraeten / Reuters: The EC asks Amazon to provide more information on its compliance with DSA provisions concerning the transparency of Amazon's recommender systems by July 26  —  The European Commission said on Friday it had requesting Amazon (AMZN.O) provide more information on the measures the U.S. e-commerce giant … http://www.techmeme.com/240705/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240705p3

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: YouTube releases an updated Erase Song tool for creators that uses AI to detect and remove any copyrighted music from their videos without impacting other audio  —  On July 4, YouTube released an updated eraser tool for creators so they can easily remove any copyrighted music … http://www.techmeme.com/240705/p2?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240705p2

Reuters: Samsung estimates Q2 operating profit up 1,452% YoY to $7.54B, and revenue up 23% YoY to ~$53.7B, as chip prices keep rising  —  Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) estimated on Friday a more than 15-fold rise in its second-quarter operating profit, as rebounding semiconductor prices driven … http://www.techmeme.com/240704/p19?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240704p19

Financial Times: SemiAnalysis: Nvidia is set to sell $12B worth of H20 chips in China in 2024, or 1M+ units; Huawei expects to sell ~550,000 units of Ascend 910B chips in 2024  —  Chipmaker set to surpass China sales by local rival Huawei by selling product designed to fall outside of export restrictions http://www.techmeme.com/240704/p15?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240704p15

Ben Westcott / Bloomberg: AWS partners with the Australian government to build a cloud data system to handle top secret information; the government plans to invest ~$1.3B over 10 years  —  - US company to operate three data centers in Australia  — Australia says new infrastructure will improve cybersecurity http://www.techmeme.com/240704/p6?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240704p6

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: A global law enforcement operation takes down 593 servers hosting unlicensed versions of Cobalt Strike, a penetration testing tool abused by cybercriminals  —  Europol coordinated a joint law enforcement action known as Operation Morpheus, which led to the takedown of almost 600 Cobalt Strike servers used … http://www.techmeme.com/240704/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240704p3

CRN: OpenText to lay off 1,200 employees and add 800 positions, resulting in a ~1.7% reduction in workforce, and expects to reduce annual expenses by CA$150M in 2025  —  “The business optimization plan is intended to strategically align the company's workforce to support its 'growth and innovation plans … http://www.techmeme.com/240704/p1?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240704p1

Sabela Ojea / Wall Street Journal: Ericsson expects a $1.1B noncash impairment charge in Q2 for its 2022 purchase of cloud communications company Vonage, after a $2.9B impairment charge in 2023  —  Swedish telecom-equipment company cites lower-than-expected growth at Vonage cloud subsidiary  —  Ericsson said it expects … http://www.techmeme.com/240703/p28?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240703p28

Rocky Swift / Reuters: Japan's government has finally eliminated the use of floppy disks in all its systems, after scrapping over 1,000 regulations governing their use  —  Japan's government has finally eliminated the use of floppy disks in all its systems, two decades since their heyday, reaching a long-awaited milestone … http://www.techmeme.com/240703/p22?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240703p22

Emma Farge / Reuters: WIPO: between 2014 and 2023, 54K generative AI patents were filed, 25% of which were filed in 2023; China leads with 38K+ patents, followed by the US with 6,276  —  China is far ahead of other countries in generative AI inventions like chatbots, filing six times more patents than its closest rival … http://www.techmeme.com/240703/p12?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a240703p12