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July 13, 2023, 3:50 AM
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Top News

Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk forms xAI, a startup he will lead to “understand the true nature of the universe”; the staff has worked at Google, Microsoft, Tesla, OpenAI, and more  —  Elon Musk announced a new AI company today, xAI. all the team members listed on the website appear to be men.
The Verge:
The FTC files to appeal a US court ruling that cleared the way for Microsoft to acquire Activision Blizzard; the existing TRO expires at 11:59pm PT on July 14  —  The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) says it is appealing a recent US federal court order that cleared the way for Microsoft to purchase Activision Blizzard.
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Xbox tests reactive voice chat moderation, letting Xbox Insiders report 60-second audio clips of inappropriate voice messages for the Xbox safety team to review  —  Rolling out today to Xbox Insiders, the new reporting feature will allow players to capture and submit 60-second audio clips …
Toby Bochan / CoinDesk:
In a major policy shift, Google Play now lets developers incorporate tokenized digital assets, such as NFTs, into their Android apps and games  —  The company is opening up the ability for developers to let users buy, sell or earn digital assets in apps as long as they maintain transparency and adhere to other rules.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Meta says Roblox is coming to Meta's Quest 2, Quest Pro, and Quest 3, starting with an open beta on App Lab “in the coming weeks”, with cross-platform support  —  / It's launching in open beta in the ‘coming weeks.’  —  Roblox will be coming to Meta's Quest VR headsets starting …
Washington Post:
In June, the US State Department told Microsoft that its emails in the company's cloud were hacked; attackers stole a Microsoft key and hacked ~25 orgs' emails  —  The State Department discovered the Microsoft vulnerability, which affected unclassified government systems, last month
New York Times:
Microsoft says Chinese hackers gained access to US government email accounts and had access to at least some accounts for a month before the breach was detected
Colin Lecher / The Markup:
A congressional investigation led by Senator Elizabeth Warren finds popular tax filing tools “recklessly” sent data, like income, to Meta and Google for years  —  The investigation was opened in response to work published last year by The Markup
Richard MacManus / The New Stack:
A look at Meta's plan to adopt ActivityPub for Threads, how ActivityPub suits Meta's goals, and the technical challenges and social pressure facing the company  —  From a developer point of view, the fact that Meta's Threads app has quickly gone over 100 million sign-ups isn't the most interesting part of this latest Twitter clone.
Davey Alba / Bloomberg:
Sources reveal how contractors audit Bard's answers in subjects ranging from medication doses to state laws, sometimes with deadlines as short as three minutes  —  Google's Bard artificial intelligence chatbot will answer a question about how many pandas live in zoos quickly, and with a surfeit of confidence.
Alex W. Palmer / New York Times:
A look at the US Bureau of Industry and Security, which employs ~350, had a $140M+ budget in 2022, and is a key tool in cutting China off from advanced chips  —  The Biden administration thinks it can preserve America's technological primacy by cutting China off from advanced computer chips.
More: Tech Monitor and TNW
Aaron Holmes / The Information:
Cloud security startup Orca sues Israeli competitor Wiz in the US for allegedly illegally copying patented software that monitors data stored on cloud servers  —  Fierce competition between two of the hottest and most highly valued security startups has turned into a legal battle.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:50 AM ET, July 13, 2023.

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

Sara Fischer / Axios:
PBS and a public TV affiliate in Minnesota sue the Trump administration, saying his executive order to cut federal funding violated PBS' First Amendment rights

Max Tani / Semafor:
The California State Senate opens an inquiry into whether Paramount's reported $15M proposed settlement with Trump violated bribery and unfair competition laws

Brian Stelter / CNN:
OAN chief Pentagon correspondent Gabrielle Cuccia says she was fired after criticizing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's media restrictions at the Pentagon

More News

Chainalysis:
Crypto crime in H1 2023 vs. H1 2022: inflows to known illicit entities fell 65% YoY, scammers took nearly $3.3B less, and ransomware attackers made $175.8M more

Earlier Picks

Shira Ovide / Washington Post:
Travelers can say no to a TSA facial recognition scan, but some TSA agents tell travelers the scan is required or that refusing will cause a significant delay
More: New York Post.  Twitter: @greta, @ajlamesa, @pettypropolis, and @evan_greer.  Forums: r/Columbus
Reuters:
The UK CMA will not accept new Microsoft and Activision Blizzard remedies but says a restructured deal may satisfy its concerns, subject to a new investigation
Heather Haddon / Wall Street Journal:
Domino's Pizza partners with Uber Eats in the US, the UK, Canada, and 25 other markets, reversing its long-held stance against working with food delivery apps
Jack Schickler / CoinDesk:
The European Securities and Markets Authority issues detailed proposals on crypto companies under the EU's MiCA law; more are due in October 2023 and early 2024
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
The EU approves Broadcom's $61B VMware acquisition, provided Broadcom adheres to its access and interoperability commitments; UK and US approvals are pending
Andrew Deck / Rest of World:
A look at the global freelancer labor force on sites like 99designs, some of whom are early generative AI adopters and are most at risk of being replaced by AI
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Twitter's best defense against Threads may be to refocus on news and reactions from people users follow, leaving user growth via an algorithmic feed to Threads
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