Techmeme: Q&A with media scholar Ethan Zuckerman about why Twitter became the de facto digital public square, the politics of attention, the power of federation, and more (Wired)

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June 4, 2023, 3:25 PM

Top News

Forbes:

Interviews, pitch decks, and documents suggest that the recent success of Stability AI CEO Emad Mostaque has been bolstered by exaggeration and dubious claims — Stability AI became a $1 billion company with the help of a viral AI text-to-image generator and — per interviews with more than 30 people …

LinkedIn: Jon Lam. Bluesky: @carnage4life.bsky.social. Tweets: @kenrickcai, @kenrickcai, @sarahnemerson, @kenrickcai, @ravenben, @kenrickcai, @yoda, @kenrickcai, @tomgara, @neilturkewitz, and @sarthakgh. Thanks:@thealexknapp

Financial Times:

Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida says cloud gaming has many technical difficulties and the company could utilize its AI agent GT Sophy to enhance cloud gaming — Promise of technology remains unfulfilled after more than a decade of development — Sony's chief executive has warned that cloud gaming …

More: Wccftech, Neowin, The Verge, TheGamer, TweakTown, Video Games Chronicle, and Bloomberg

Tweets: @fttechnews, @gameoverthirty, @bankenrepublik, @fosspatents, and @xcloudtimdog

Yvonne Lau / Fortune:

As TSMC plans to hire 4,500 workers at its Arizona fabs, recruiters say the company's culture, rigid standards, and overseas training are turning off candidates — On the Glassdoor profile of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC—the world's biggest manufacturer of semiconductor chips …

More: ChinaTechNews.com. Tweets: @davenewworld_2 and @pstasiatech

Chris Welch / The Verge:

A look at the ad-supported, free dual screen TV from Ilya Pozin's Telly, which says its data and analytics collection will be on par with other TV vendors — More than 250,000 people have signed up in hopes of getting Telly's unique TV. There's something to this concept, but plenty of unknowns remain.

More: Pocket-lint. Mastodon: @dcseifert@mastodon.social. Tweets: @paleofuture and @deansepoch

Chris Isidore / CNN:

The CFPB warns users of payment apps like PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, and Apple Cash that their money could be at risk as FDIC insurance does not cover the apps — New York CNN — — Payment apps like PayPal and Venmo might be convenient, but they're not banks — and a federal financial services watchdog …

More: Consumer Financial …, Associated Press, CBS News, PhoneArena, Washington Post, PCMag, Gizmodo, Insider, and CryptoPotato

Bluesky: @willstewart.bsky.social. Tweets: @johnwilson, @marshacollier, @keds_economist, @adam_k_levin, @smtuffy, and @cfpb

Jessica Lyons Hardcastle / The Register:

Five teams at DEF CON 2023 will try to hack a US-funded cubesat Moonlighter, the first time DEF CON hackers will get a chance to hack a live, in-orbit satellite — 'World's first and only' orbiting infosec playpen due to blast off Sunday — FEATURE Assuming the weather and engineering gods cooperate …

More: The Aerospace Corporation, ISS U.S. National Laboratory, SiliconANGLE, and Space

Tweets: @jessicahrdcstle, @hack_a_sat, @theregister, @iainthomson, and @geeknik

Annie Njanja / TechCrunch:

A Kenyan court rules that Meta is the primary employer of 184 content moderators suing Meta and contractor Sama for unlawful dismissal, and pauses their layoffs — A Kenyan court has ruled that Meta is the primary employer of content moderators suing the social media giant and its content review partner …

More: Jacobin, Cryptopolitan, Techlusive, BNN Breaking, Nation, and Agence France-Presse

Tweets: @emrys_s, @william_fitz, @waikwawanyoike, @g_mutemi, and @defiwizd

Wired:

Q&A with media scholar Ethan Zuckerman about why Twitter became the de facto digital public square, the politics of attention, the power of federation, and more — We talk to media scholar Ethan Zuckerman about why Twitter became the de facto digital public square and what other platforms like Bluesky or Mastodon might offer.

Tweets: @ethanz, @glichfield, and @wired

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Google is aware of a “very small number” of Pixel Watch 2 users reporting that the back glass panel falls off and is working to find the cause and fix the issue — Several users report the back of the Pixel Watch just falls off after a short time. — UPDATE: GOOGLE STATEMENT

More: Android Police, MobileSyrup, PhoneArena, Wccftech, SlashGear, XDA Developers, 9to5Google, Android Authority, Android Central, Gizchina, The Verge, iFixit News, and BGR

Tweets: @supersanusi and @androidpolice

Lisa Bonos / Washington Post:

Some Montana residents speak up against, or for, the state's highly politicized TikTok ban, including one of the influencers suing the state to overturn the ban — How a highly politicized social media ban in Big Sky Country sparked a nationwide debate over freedom of speech

More: The Hill and Federal Computer Week. Tweets: @lisabonos

Aria Alamalhodaei / TechCrunch:

Seattle-based Hubble Network, which aims to build a global satellite network that any Bluetooth device can connect to, raised a $20M Series A led by Transpose — Bluetooth-enabled devices are ubiquitous, but how those devices are used is constrained by the relatively short range provided by Bluetooth technology.

More: Via Satellite and FinSMEs

LinkedIn: Chris Hulls, Jyri Engeström, and Aria Alamalhodaei

Tweets: @dondodge and @ycombinator

Paresh Dave / Wired:

AI researchers say ChatGPT and rival chatbots are significantly less capable in languages other than English, exacerbating the bias against non-English speakers — AI chatbots are less fluent in languages other than English, threatening to amplify existing bias in global commerce and innovation.

LinkedIn: Pascale Fung, Hans Uszkoreit, Yasmina Jraissati, and Sandhya Surendran. Mastodon: @kentborg@social.tchncs.de

Tweets: @blader, @dxmartinjr, @aleyda, @senalexpadilla, @alexpadilla4ca, and @dorrego

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About This Page

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The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Nectar Gan / CNN:

Chinese nationalists and state media praise Trump's decision to dismantle VOA, RFA, and other US-funded media outlets that broadcast to authoritarian regimes

Nicole Sperling / New York Times:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says Conan O'Brien will reprise his Oscar hosting duties in 2026, one of the earliest renewals for an Oscar host

Steven J. Horowitz / Variety:

UMG files a motion to dismiss Drake's lawsuit, says he's suing because he “lost a rap battle” with Kendrick Lamar and took legal action to “salve his wounds”

More News

Michelle Caffrey / EdWeek Market Brief:

Swing Education, which connects schools with substitute teachers, raised a $38M Series C led by Apax Partners and Reach, bringing its total funding to $60.8M

More: Swing Education, TechBullion, Pulse 2.0, and FinSMEs

Financial Times:

A look at Berlin-based Rocket Internet, as founder Oliver Samwer transforms one of Europe's most aggressive tech VCs into a more conservative investment house

Tweets: @muradahmed

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Google Wallet for Android rolls out support for US state IDs, starting with Maryland, and plans to add Arizona, Colorado, and Georgia IDs “in the coming months”

More: NextPit, TechRadar, and ZDNet

LinkedIn: Daniel Kornitzer and Tawanda Michael Mahere. Tweets: @sytaylor

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:

With AR/VR startup funding from October 2022 to March 2023 falling 74% YoY to $800M, per PitchBook, the industry hopes Apple's MR headset could lure back VCs

More: Associated Press and CNN

Tweets: @patrickmcgee_ and @oablanchard

Clive Cookson / Financial Times:

Scientists and DNA sequencing startup Illumina identified 4.3M genetic variants in ~800 primates and then used AI to predict genetic health risks in 454K humans

More: Illumina, Science, and TNW

Tweets: @fdesouza and @newsfromscience

David D. Kirkpatrick / New Yorker:

A look at India's hacking-for-hire industry, which has a tacit alliance with the government and is unusually brazen, with firms publicly touting their services

More: Metacurity. Tweets: @tallstories, @hartoshsinghbal, @rondeibert, @oxleyio, @ddk_nyc, @digitaldutta, @apar1984, @sandeepvioc, and @soutikbbc

Earlier Picks

Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal:

A profile of Nvidia: how Jensen Huang, Curtis Priem, and Chris Malachowsky started the company at Denny's, bet early on what Huang calls “$0B markets”, and more

More: The Week. LinkedIn: Lauren Coltrane and Ed Alfriend

Tweets: @heatherhaddon, @bzcohen, @bzcohen, @hkanji, @dennysdiner, and @jordannovet

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:

Harvard's popular CS50 MOOC plans to use AI to grade assignments, teach coding, and personalize learning tips, and is testing a virtual TA for student feedback

More: Livemint and Slashdot

LinkedIn: David J. Malan. Tweets: @apartovi

Erin Woo / The Information:

Sources: Zume, which used robots to automate pizza making, shuts down and is undergoing liquidation; the startup had raised $445M, including $375M from SoftBank

More: Bloomberg, Insider, and Tech in Asia

Bluesky: @dmnd.me. Tweets: @dschatsky, @mattbeane, @supertrucker, @durjoy, @jimpethokoukis, @harrymccracken, @katie_roof, @ronnyk, @smallbizlabs, @amir, and @erinkwoo

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

Sources: telecom ministers from 18 EU countries either rejected or criticized a push by European telcos to force Big Tech to help fund 5G and broadband rollouts

More: Cryptopolitan, Gizchina, and Neowin. Tweets: @jeff4malaysia

Sara Fischer / Axios:

YouTube stops removing content advancing “false claims that widespread fraud, errors, or glitches occurred in the 2020 and other past US Presidential elections”