Techmeme
July 21, 2023, 3:45 PM

Top News

Makena Kelly / The Verge:
OpenAI, Meta, Google, Microsoft, and others make voluntary AI governance pledges to the White House, including cybersecurity investment and watermarking systems  —  The White House is bringing in AI's top seven companies Friday to make a series of voluntary promises to protect users.
More: The White House, Ars Technica, OpenAI, Microsoft On the Issues, The Keyword, New York Times, Reuters, TechCrunch, CNBC, Financial Times, PCMag, New York Post, SC Media, Bloomberg, AppleInsider, The Verge, BBC, SiliconANGLE, PCWorld, Decrypt, NBC News, NPR, OSnews, TIME, Thurrott, Tech Monitor, Barron's Online, Variety, Axios, Cybersecurity Dive, PYMNTS.com, The Hill, Associated Press, Fast Company, Silicon Valley Business …, Android Central, Wall Street Journal, OnMSFT.com, GeekWire, Tech Startups, VentureBeat, Cryptopolitan, Data Center Knowledge, Wired, Tech Xplore, insideBIGDATA, Dark Reading, Observer, The Guardian, Gizmodo, Washington Examiner, TechRadar, Beyond Search, FedScoop, Silicon Republic, PetaPixel, SecurityWeek, The Decoder, 24/7 Wall St., Neowin, Nextgov/FCW, SlashGear, Android Headlines, Forbes, Roll Call, Vox, PC Gamer, Business Post, Tech in Asia, Engadget, and Bloomberg Law
Threads: @oliverdarcy and @tomwarrenuk
Lindsey Choo / Wall Street Journal:
Sensor Tower: Threads' DAUs declined to 13M, down 70% from the July 7 peak; Similarweb: average time spend on Threads' app declined to four mins, down from 19  —  Data show user engagement has fallen 70% as executives focus on options such as a chronological feed
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit removes the moderators of r/malefashionadvice, one of the biggest subreddits to close protesting Reddit's API changes, and takes charge of the subreddit  —  Reddit is now in charge of r/malefashionadvice, which for a time was the biggest subreddit still closed in protest of the platform's API pricing changes.
Rich Stanton / PC Gamer:
Troy Hunt: the sensitive info of almost 4,000 Roblox Developer Conference attendees from 2017 to 2020 was leaked in 2021; Roblox disclosed the leak this week  —  This may cost the company a few Robux.  —  The major gaming platform Roblox has suffered a major data breach …
Julie Coleman / CNBC:
Digital World Acquisition Corp., which is seeking to take Truth Social public via a SPAC merger, settles fraud charges with the US SEC for $18M; DWAC is up 50%+  —  - Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp. soared more than 50% on Friday after the company reached an $18 million dollar fraud settlement with the SEC.
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Telegram launches Stories, initially for its Premium subscribers, letting users control who can see their stories and how long they last before disappearing  —  You can display them forever or make them disappear at various times up to 48 hours.  —  Telegram's new Stories feature is here as promised …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: in recent months, Sergey Brin increased his Google visits to three to four days a week, working with researchers on Gemini, an AI model to rival GPT-4  —  Co-founder is working alongside AI researchers at tech giant's headquarters, aiding efforts to build powerful Gemini system
Kevin Collier / NBC News:
The New York MTA says it has used AI-powered surveillance software at seven subway stations in May to track fare evaders, plans to expand to ~12 more this year  —  An MTA spokesperson said the software doesn't flag fare evaders to New York police but declined to comment on whether that policy could change.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
How Vietnam-based 1Byte, which sells TheTruthSpy stalkerware, created networks of fake sellers with forged US passports to evade detection and funnel payments  —  A network of fake sellers allowed a global phone surveillance ring to operate under the radar for years

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