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Techmeme
July 13, 2023, 7:10 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 …
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
GitHub launches support for passkeys in public beta, letting users who opt in upgrade from security keys to passkeys, and use those in place of password and 2FA  —  GitHub announced today the introduction of passwordless authentication support in public beta, allowing users to upgrade from security keys to passkeys.
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Google updates Bard with support for 43 more languages, including Arabic, and releases the chatbot in Europe and Brazil after adding new privacy features  —  Latest version to also include a privacy hub for all users  —  Google is betting a new version of its artificial-intelligence chatbot will say hallo …
Washington Post:
In June, the US State Department told Microsoft that its emails in Azure were hacked; attackers stole a Microsoft key and hacked ~25 organizations' 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
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 …
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.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Apple adds bilingual support to Siri, starting with Indic languages like Hindi and Telugu; Google Assistant got multilingual support in 2018 and Alexa in 2019  —  Apple released its first set of public beta versions of iOS 17, iPadOS 17, and macOS Sonoma on Wednesday.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple updates macOS Sonoma to bring iCloud Keychain passwords to non-Safari browsers for the first time, expanding on a Chrome extension  —  The macOS Sonoma update that is in testing allows Mac owners who opt to use Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, or another browser to use Apple's Password Manager for filling passwords.
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.
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Telegram merchants can now accept crypto payments via TON-based Wallet in tether, bitcoin, and toncoin, expanding on support for transfers between users  —  Wallet, which is built on the TON blockchain, is allowing merchants to integrate cryptocurrency into the bots they use to accept payments in the messaging app.
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.  Twitter: @alexcampolo

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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

Ally Jarmanning / New Hampshire Public Radio:
The US charges addiction treatment network founder Eric Spofford with orchestrating vandalism at NHPR reporters' homes after a report into alleged sexual abuse

David Remnick / New Yorker:
Q&A with Lesley Stahl on the pressures at CBS News and 60 Minutes, Trump's lawsuit and likely settlement, Shari Redstone, Bill Owens stepping down, and more

More News

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

Earlier Picks

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
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
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
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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