Google's Bard announcement tweet included a GIF of the AI chatbot giving an inaccurate answer to a question about the James Webb Space Telescope; GOOG drops 7%+  —  Google published an online advertisement in which its much anticipated AI chatbot BARD delivered inaccurate answers.

Many Twitter users reported issues with the site on Wednesday, and couldn't tweet, except via an API or by scheduling tweets; the issues seem to be almost fixed  —  Shortly after Twitter launched its huge increase in max character count to 4,000 today, many users aren't able to tweet this afternoon.

Twitter lets US Blue subscribers tweet up to 4,000 characters; in timelines, longer tweets will be capped at 280 characters and have an option to “Show more”  —  need more than 280 characters to express yourself? we know that lots of you do... and while we love a good thread, sometimes you just want to Tweet everything all at once. we get that. so we're introducing longer Tweets! you're gonna want to check this out. tap this 👉... https://twitter.com/...

Google's AI demo in Paris paled in comparison to Microsoft's “new Bing” event, highlighting why Google needs to widely release its ChatGPT rival service Bard  —  Google demoed its latest advances in AI search at a live event in Paris on Wednesday — but the features pale in comparison …

The CISA publishes a recovery script for the ESXiArgs ransomware, which affected more than 3,800 organizations in the US, France, Italy, and other countries  —  The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has published a process for recovering files for organizations affected …

The UK CMA finds Microsoft's $69B Activision Blizzard acquisition would harm competition in the UK's gaming market, suggests and asks Microsoft for remedies  —  Microsoft Corp.'s $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will harm competition in the UK gaming market …

Google releases the first Android 14 developer preview, for Pixel phones, offering multi-device experiences, customization features, security changes, and more  —  Google announced the Android 14 Developer Preview today.  The February release was expected and matches last year, while it comes as 13 QPR2 is still in beta.

Netflix rolls out its long-anticipated password sharing rules in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, and Spain; other countries will be added in the next few months  —  Under new rules, premium and standard account holders will be given option to add extra members for $7.99 per month

NetBlocks: Turkish ISPs limit Twitter access two days after a major earthquake; Turkish police detain 18 people for sharing “provocative posts” on social media  —  Access to Twitter has been restricted in Turkey, according to reports by an internet monitoring company …

Internal memo: Apple names Carol Surface as its first chief people officer, shifting human resources responsibilities away from SVP of Retail Deirdre O'Brien  —  Apple Inc. is hiring its first chief people officer and shifting human resources duties from its head of retail …

Microsoft plans to embed Adobe's Acrobat PDF tech in Edge for Windows 10 and Windows 11 starting in March 2023 and remove Edge's legacy PDF engine in March 2024  —  Microsoft announced today that it is partnering with Adobe to bring Acrobat PDF capabilities to the Microsoft Edge web browser on Windows.

Twitter says its free APIs will work until February 13, when it launches a low-usage plan for $100/month and a limited free plan, and deprecates its Premium API  —  We have been busy with some updates to the Twitter API so you can continue to build and innovate with us. We're excited to announce an extension of the current free Twitter API access through February 13. Here's what we're shipping then 🧵

US House Oversight Committee members questioned three former Twitter executives about suppressing accounts, tweets, and the New York Post's Hunter Biden story  —  A congressional hearing Wednesday represented a moment of political reckoning more than two years in the making …

Robinhood plans to buy up to 55M shares, or 7%+ of the company's outstanding shares, that Sam Bankman-Fried bought in 2022 and the US DOJ seized in January 2023  —  - Robinhood's board has approved a plan to purchase Sam Bankman-Fried's shares in the company, which amount to more than a 7% stake.

Clay Bavor, a Google veteran of 18 years who recently led the company's AR/VR efforts, leaves to start an AI company with former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor  —  For the past few years, Google's AR and VR efforts have been led by Clay Bavor.  The longtime executive is now set to leave the company next month.

Source: the SEC is investigating if crypto exchange Kraken offered unregistered securities in the US; the probe could lead to a settlement in the coming days  —  Kraken, one of the world's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is embroiled in a probe by a top US financial regulator over whether …

Chiliz, the crypto startup behind fan token service Socios, launches its Layer 1 blockchain Chiliz Chain 2.0, a BNB Chain fork, shifting away from Ethereum  —  Marking its fifth anniversary, sports-focused crypto startup Chiliz has officially unveiled its own layer-1 EVM-compatible blockchain.