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Techmeme
April 20, 2023, 10:25 PM

Top News

The Verge:
Twitter offered LeBron James a complimentary Blue subscription after he said he wouldn't pay for one; Musk says he's paying for “a few” subscriptions personally  —  / After saying he wouldn't pay, James was offered a complimentary subscription ‘on behalf of Elon Musk.’
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Twitter begins removing blue checkmarks from legacy verified accounts, fulfilling one of Elon Musk's long-stated plans; Musk has called the system “corrupt”  —  The change is apparent on Twitter accounts for several Verge writers and other journalists like LA Times reporter Matt Pearce …
More: Bloomberg, New York Times, PCMag, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Livemint, The Irish Times, Mashable, The Guardian, Social Media Today, Appleosophy, Instagram - Kara Swisher, CryptoSlate, IGN, PhoneArena, Engadget, The Hill, Insider, Deadline, MobileSyrup, The Apple Post, SlashGear, NBC News, The Information, Variety, Mercury News, TechCrunch, Gizmodo Australia, 9to5Mac, WeRSM, Techlusive, and Washington Post
Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal:
Google announces Google DeepMind, a unit combining DeepMind's team and Google Research's Brain team, to be led by DeepMind co-founder Demis Hassabis as its CEO  —  Search giant merges AI resources to accelerate progress in technology that is reshaping business
David Pierce / The Verge:
A look at ActivityPub, the open, decentralized social network protocol finalized in 2018 that is gaining prominence powering Twitter alternatives like Mastodon  —  The tech industry is abuzz about a new standard for social networking that is more open, more user-centric, and potentially more powerful than Twitter and Facebook.
Paresh Dave / Wired:
Stack Overflow CEO says the company plans to charge large AI developers for access to the 50M questions and answers on its service as soon as mid-2023  —  The programmer Q&A site joins Reddit in demanding compensation when its data is used to train algorithms and ChatGPT-style bots
Wall Street Journal:
Internal Q&A: Mark Zuckerberg says Meta plans to slow hiring, and that net employee growth of 1% to 2% per year will be the standard going forward  —  Facebook-parent CEO says employee growth of 1%-2% a year will be standard in future  —  Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Mark …
Christopher Dring / GamesIndustry.biz:
Sony acquires Firewalk Studios, an AAA multiplayer developer working on a live service PS5 and PC game and now the 20th developer to join PlayStation Studios  —  It will be the 20th PlayStation Studios team  —  News by Christopher Dring Head of Games B2B  —  PlayStation has agreed …
Bloomberg:
The EU Parliament approves the Markets in Cryptoassets, or MiCA, regulation for the crypto industry, including rules for stablecoins set to apply from July 2024  —  European lawmakers on Thursday gave their final blessing to an ambitious law that will give the European Union its first rules to govern the crypto industry.
Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal:
Over 24 executives, inventors, investors, and lawyers who discussed partnerships with Apple or adding their tech into its products say Apple copied their ideas  —  Aspiring partners accuse tech giant of copying their ideas; Apple says it plays by the rules  —  It sounded like a dream partnership …
Financial Times:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
The Oversight Board issues a report backing Meta's content moderation during the pandemic but asks Meta to assess its public health and human rights impact  —  Meta's Oversight Board — an independent panel the social media giant selected to deliberate its content decisions …

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More News

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Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

Melissa Heikkilä / MIT Technology Review:
Michael Kan / PCMag:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: