Techmeme
December 7, 2018, 12:00 PM

Top News

Nitasha Tiku / Wired:
Microsoft steps up calls for regulation of facial recognition tech; research group AI Now stresses urgency for companies to open their AI algorithms to auditing  —  AFTER A HELLISH year of tech scandals, even government-averse executives have started professing their openness to legislation.
Jackson Ryan / CNET:
DeepMind's new AI program, AlphaZero, taught itself to play and beat the world's best AI in three different board games: chess, shogi, and Go  —  Humans have mostly accepted that they will never be as good at chess as the robots, but now even the robots have to accept they will never be as good as other robots.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it will rebuild Edge to run on Google's open source Chromium project and will make it available on macOS, Windows 7, and Windows 8  —  A Chromium version of Edge will also arrive on Windows 7 and Windows 8  —  Microsoft is announcing some significant changes to its Edge browser today.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
FTC's Consumer Protection Bureau head cannot participate in investigations involving 120 companies like Facebook, Equifax, Uber, due to conflict of interest  —  The list of 120 includes Uber, Twitter, and Equifax  —  The Federal Trade Commission's top consumer protection official is prohibited …
The Keyword:
Google launches a personalized audio news feed on Google Assistant using Google News, rolling out to some users in the US in English  —  For the past century, radio has been a one-size-fits-all medium.  Turn on the radio and you're dropped into a show at a moment in time …
Vibhuti Sharma / Reuters:
IBM to sell seven of its software products, including Notes, Domino, BigFix, and Unica, to India-based IT services company HCL for $1.8B  —  (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) said on Thursday it will sell some of its software products business to Indian software services …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon 8cx, an “extreme” processor for Windows laptops that it says is the first 7nm chip for a PC platform  —  Could Qualcomm replace Intel in your next Windows PC?  —  The “X” stands for “extreme.”  That's what Qualcomm's marketing department wants you to think about the new Snapdragon 8cx.
The Verge:

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
Automate recurring activities with Zoho One's RPA addition  —  Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automates manual and routine tasks for businesses by using digital robots that replicate human behaviour.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
GTA 6 Delayed To 2026
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Hard Fork:
The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
EP 141 Ben Lamm (Founder & CEO, Colossal Biosciences) On The Breakthroughs Making De-Extinction Actually Possible
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Great Chat:
What's the deal with Deel?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Lenny's Podcast:
The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can't stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Josh Kopelman from First Round Capital
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:00 PM ET, December 7, 2018.

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.

More News

Earlier Picks

Christina Farr / CNBC:
Aparajita Saxena / Reuters:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: