Techmeme
December 4, 2020, 4:15 PM

Top News

Reuters:
In an internal email, Google's head of AI says that Gebru threatened to resign unless she was told which colleagues deemed her draft paper as unpublishable  —  OAKLAND, Calif. (Reuters) - A top Google scientist on ethical artificial intelligence says she was fired after criticizing …
Forbes:
Friends and colleagues of Tony Hsieh say he was privately coping with issues of mental health and addiction, made worse by COVID lockdowns, over the past year  —  When the business icon died in a fire last week, questions abounded.  The answers seem rooted in a Covid-period spiral, where he turned to drugs and shunned old friends.
Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:
How Montreal-based Pornhub profits from child and revenge porn, rape, spy cam and other criminal, non-consensual sex videos  —  Why does Canada allow this company to profit off videos of exploitation and assault?  —  Pornhub prides itself on being the cheery, winking face of naughty …
New York Times:
EU law inhibiting the monitoring of email, messaging, and other services that takes effect Dec. 20 would also restrict scanning for child sexual abuse imagery  —  Regulators argue that while abuse imagery on the internet is abhorrent, unchecked scanning for it by tech companies could violate privacy rights.
Tom Simonite / Wired:
Chinese scientists claim quantum supremacy with a system that calculated in mins what a supercomputer would take 2B years, using tech different than Google's  —  Google trumpeted its quantum computer that outperformed a conventional supercomputer.  A Chinese group says it's done the same, with different technology.
Jessica Toonkel / The Information:
Sources: WarnerMedia is weighing 2 new streaming services, with a subscription service based on CNN content in 2021 and a free entertainment service for 2022  —  AT&T's WarnerMedia, long a giant in cable TV, was a late arrival to streaming video.  Under its new CEO, Jason Kilar, Warner is trying to make up for lost time.
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
DoorDash raises its IPO price range to $90 to $95 from $75 to $85 per share, aiming to raise up to $3.1B  —  - Company raises share price range to $90 to $95 apiece  — Startup is part of a wave of tech IPOs planned this month  —  DoorDash Inc. said it's seeking to raise …
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Apple's Screen Recognition, a computer vision system in iOS14 trained on images of apps in use, labels the UI elements on screen for users who are blind  —  Apple has always gone out of its way to build features for users with disabilities, and VoiceOver on iOS is an invaluable tool for anyone …
M.G. Siegler / 500ish:
Despite Microsoft's present-day sales power, a wave of product-focused enterprise companies inspired by Slack and its peers will ultimately disrupt the giant  —  A quick rebuttal on the Slackforce Slacklash  —  Look, it's late.  And everyone is happy enough so there's no pressing need to weigh in here.
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Warner Bros. says it will release every single movie in 2021 simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max in the US and stream them for one month  —  For a period of one month in the United States  —  WarnerMedia is pushing even more aggressively into streaming by releasing every single movie in 2021 simultaneously on HBO Max.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Users can now share in-app purchases and subscriptions via Apple's iCloud Family Sharing, if developers enable the option in their apps  —  iPhone and iPad users who share apps with their families through Apple's Family Sharing feature can now share subscription apps as well.

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Earlier Picks

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Brian Barrett / Wired: