Techmeme
March 8, 2023, 1:15 PM

Top News

Barbara Ortutay / Associated Press:
Elon Musk apologizes after mocking laid-off disabled Twitter employee Haraldur Thorleifsson, who joined in 2021 after Twitter acquired his startup Ueno  —  If you're not told you are fired, are you really fired?  At Twitter, probably.  And then, sometimes, you get your job back — if you want it.
More: BBC, BBC, Ethan Zuckerman, The Guardian, TechCrunch, San Francisco Business Journal, Washington Post, Daring Fireball, New York Post, New York Times, Barron's Online, Gizmodo, Mashable, Forbes, Axios, Insider, Newser, CNBC, TweakTown, RTÉ, Bloomberg, Fortune, and CNN
Bloomberg:
A look at Google's scramble to add generative AI to its products, reminding some employees of the rush to infuse Google+ into every key service starting in 2011  —  Artificial intelligence was supposed to be Google's thing.  The company has cultivated a reputation for making long-term bets …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources describe how Google stalled the release of a powerful chatbot for years due to the risk AI demos could pose to its reputation and search ads business  —  Researchers developed a powerful chatbot years before rival ChatGPT went viral.  After management stalled its release, they quit.
Politico:
TikTok announces Project Clover, outlining its plan to charm European regulators, including keeping user data on servers in Europe and allowing an audit  —  BRUSSELS — TikTok has launched its European counteroffensive to assuage politicians' fears over Chinese surveillance.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google adds its VPN service to all Google One plans in 22 countries, starting at $1.99 per month, and dark web monitoring for stolen personal info to Google One  —  After adding Magic Eraser last month, Google One is significantly expanding the availability of its VPN and introducing dark web monitoring for stolen information.
Thomas Germain / Gizmodo:
DuckDuckGo launches OpenAI- and Anthropic-powered DuckAssist in beta, using Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica, and other sources to summarize answers  —  The new DuckAssist tool will source answers from Wikipedia for quick, conversational responses to some questions.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Twitter lets the certificate for its Tor onion site expire, effectively killing off the privacy-preserving and speech-protecting service after one year  —  Twitter has allowed the certificate for its Tor onion site to expire, effectively killing off a privacy- and speech-protecting service that it introduced last year.
James Hunt / The Block:
Coinbase announces a “Wallet-as-a-Service” product, offering APIs to help companies create customizable wallets for their apps more easily  —  - Coinbase has announced a product called Wallet-as-a-Service (WaaS), designed to let companies build web3 experiences that have simple wallet onboarding.
Ryan Tracy / Wall Street Journal:
Documents: the FTC demanded Twitter turn over internal messages on Elon Musk, details about layoffs, and the names of journalists with access to company records  —  Documents obtained by a House panel shed light on the probe into Twitter's compliance with settlement
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google schedules I/O 2023 with a “limited live audience” for May 10, when Android 14 details, Pixel 7a's debut, and a Pixel Tablet launch date are expected  —  Following the literal input/output puzzle this morning, Google has announced that I/O 2023 is taking place Wednesday, May 10.
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
Google and the Technical University of Berlin unveil PaLM-E, a visual language model with 562B parameters, integrating vision and language for robotic control  —  ChatGPT-style AI model adds vision to guide a robot without special training.  —  On Monday, a group of AI researchers from Google …
More: PaLM-ETweets: @dannydriess, @dergnz, @_akhaliq, and @suhail
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
YouTube plans to ease its restrictions on swearing in videos after finding its rules from November 2022 “resulted in a stricter approach than we intended”  —  YouTube will ease its restrictions on swearing in videos after an update it rolled out in November sparked backlash from several creators …
Tom McKay / Rolling Stone:
At CPAC 2023, which included a Section 230 repeal panel, Google, Meta, and other tech giants remained central villains; Truth Social and Gettr were absent  —  CPAC showed how the MAGA movement still can't decide whether its problem is too much Silicon Valley or not enough faves
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
An oral history of LinkedIn, which turns 20 in May, told by co-founders including Reid Hoffman, current executives, Satya Nadella, Richard Branson, and others  —  Social media, for work?  The world was skeptical.  But 20 years and a few white-knuckle moments later, LinkedIn has become synonymous …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Biden's FCC nominee Gigi Sohn tells the White House she is dropping out after her nomination stalled for 16 months amid industry opposition and personal attacks  —  Gigi Sohn notified the White House she would drop out; her nomination was stalled for 16 months amid industry opposition

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