Techmeme
July 21, 2023, 9:50 PM

Top News

Makena Kelly / The Verge:
OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Anthropic, and Inflection make voluntary AI promises to the White House, like cybersecurity investment and watermarking  —  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, Microsoft On the Issues, New York Times, The Keyword, OpenAI, Reuters, TechCrunch, CNBC, Wired, The Register, Financial Times, New York Times, NPR, Tech Monitor, Variety, The Information, Insider, Voice of America, Digital Music News, Associated Press, Tom's Hardware, The Hollywood Reporter, Wall Street Journal, Dark Reading, Cybersecurity Dive, SiliconANGLE, Tech Startups, WinBuzzer, VentureBeat, DeviceSecurity.io, Tech.co, Cryptopolitan, New York Post, SlashGear, The Verge, PCWorld, Observer, Silicon Valley Business …, The Guardian, Android Headlines, The Decoder, Decrypt, Forbes, Silicon Republic, SecurityWeek, 24/7 Wall St., Beyond Search, PC Gamer, PetaPixel, FedScoop, Washington Post, The Hill, Gizmodo, Channel NewsAsia, Roll Call, insideBIGDATA, GeekWire, Engadget, and Bloomberg Law
Jonathan Greig / The Record:
A report says the Microsoft key that Chinese hackers stole could have given them more access than originally assumed; Microsoft disputes the report  —  Microsoft is disputing a new report that claims hackers may have had access to more parts of victims' systems than previously known in a campaign …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google plans to adopt the Message Layer Security protocol for its Messages app; MLS allows interoperable E2E encrypted messaging across services and platforms  —  Google today announced its support for interoperable end-to-end encrypted communication between large messaging platforms …
Lindsey Choo / Wall Street Journal:
Sensor Tower: Threads' DAUs declined to 13M, down 70% from the July 7 peak; Similarweb: the average time spent in the app has decreased from 19 minutes to four  —  Data show user engagement has fallen 70% as executives focus on options such as a chronological feed
Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
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 …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit removes three moderators and takes charge of r/malefashionadvice, one of the biggest subreddits to close in protest of the platform's API pricing changes  —  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.
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.
Luc Cohen / Reuters:
Court filing: Heather “Razzlekhan” Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein reach a plea deal over allegedly laundering billions in cryptocurrency from Bitfinex's 2016 hack  —  An American couple accused of laundering billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency stolen from the 2016 hacking …
Kevin Collier / NBC News:
NYC's MTA used AI-powered surveillance software at seven subway stations in May 2023 to track fare evaders, and plans to expand to ~12 more by the end of 2023  —  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.
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
OpenAI plans to release ChatGPT for Android next week, after launching an iOS app in May 2023  —  / OpenAI is releasing the Android version of the app for ChatGPT next week after launching on iOS in May. … Since launching in November, OpenAI's ChatGPT tool has reached a number of users …

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More News

Michael Kan / PCMag:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Erin Woo / The Information:
Steve Dent / Engadget:

Earlier Picks

David Pierce / The Verge:
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Hannah Lang / Reuters: