Techmeme
December 5, 2020, 7:00 PM

Top News

Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:
A summary of the draft paper co-authored by Timnit Gebru, which outlined the main risks of large language AI models and provided suggestions for future research  —  The company's star ethics researcher highlighted the risks of large language models, which are key to Google's business.  —  hide
Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
1,200+ Google employees and 1,500+ academic, industry, and civil supporters have signed a petition condemning the termination of AI scientist Timnit Gebru  —  More than 1,500 researchers also sign letter after Black expert on ethics says Google tried to suppress her research on bias
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple launches a display module replacement program for iPhone 11 devices manufactured between November 2019 and May 2020 experiencing touch issues  —  Apple today launched a new display replacement program for iPhone 11 devices to address a problem that cases a “small percentage” of iPhone 11 displays to stop responding to touch.
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Inside WarnerMedia's transition to streaming: current and former execs say it was marred by rushed decision making, culture clashes, HBO brand confusion, more  —  - CNBC spoke with more than a dozen former and current WarnerMedia executives to gauge how John Stankey and Jason Kilar are progressing with HBO Max.
Bloomberg:
Sources: the US will not extend the December 4 deadline for TikTok's forced sale but will not enforce the order either, allowing the negotiations to continue  —  - No new deadline is expected while deal discussions progress  — Administration wants to finalize deal before Trump's term ends
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Some police departments in California and Georgia have started using autonomous drones this year to track vehicles and people, raising civil rights questions  —  In one Southern California city, flying drones with artificial intelligence are aiding investigations while presenting new civil rights questions.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
OnlyFans says it will generate $2B+ in sales in 2020, now has 85M users, is adding around 500K users a day, and is paying out $200M+ a month to its 1M+ creators  —  As Cardi B prepared the release for her new song “WAP,” she checked off all the usual components of her promotional plan …
Mary Ann Azevedo / FinLedger:
Moov Financial, which developed an open source platform for adding banking and payment functionality into apps, raises $27M Series A led by a16z  —  Startup's goal is to empower developers with developer-first code that's “modular, portable, and bank agnostic”

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Featured Podcasts

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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.
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Matt Brown (NCAA Expert) on Athlete Pay Drama, Realignment of Power, and Transfer Portal Chaos
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Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How Trump's tariffs actually work on the ground
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Great Chat:
Imposter syndrome is due for a rebrand
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
How to make money in Washington, with Punchbowl's Jake Sherman
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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More News

Alan Ohnsman / Forbes:
Eileen Yu / ZDNet:

Earlier Picks

Caroline O'Donovan / BuzzFeed News:
Tom Simonite / Wired: