Techmeme
August 1, 2023, 10:35 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Twitter/X files a lawsuit against Center for Countering Digital Hate, accusing the nonprofit and its backers of “actively working to prevent free expression”  —  The Center for Countering Digital Hate said it had received a letter from X, Twitter's parent company …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Sheila Dang / Reuters:
Andy Robinson / Video Games Chronicle:
Sources: Nintendo plans to release a new console in H2 2024, with a portable mode, LCD display, and a cartridge slot; key partners already have development kits  —  Development kits for Nintendo's next console are now with key partner studios, with launch planned for next year, sources have told VGC.
Financial Times:
Sources: Meta plans to launch a range of AI chatbots dubbed “personas” that exhibit personalities as soon as September, to boost engagement on its platforms  —  Facebook owner seeks to seize on hype for AI while challenging rivals such as OpenAI, Snap and TikTok
Ina Fried / Axios:
Internal email: Google is revamping Assistant to focus on using generative AI, starting with the mobile version, and is reorganizing related teams  —  Google plans to overhaul its Assistant to focus on using generative AI technologies similar to those that power ChatGPT and its own Bard chatbot …
Bloomberg:
After Curve disclosed a hack, CRV dropped by ~25% in three days, prompting fears of wider market turbulence; DefiLlama: crypto using Curve fell ~50% to $1.9B  —  - Curve's native CRV coin posted three-day, 25% slump after hack  — Drop raised concerns about wider fallout from platform's woes
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Nvidia, Pixar, and the Linux Foundation form the Alliance for OpenUSD, aiming to standardize Pixar's Universal Scene Description  —  Five major companies in the 3D content industry — Adobe, Apple, Autodesk, Nvidia and Pixar — have come together to form the Alliance for OpenUSD (AOUSD).
Preetika Rana / Wall Street Journal:
Uber reports Q2 revenue up 14% YoY to $9.23B, gross bookings up 16% YoY to $33.6B, and a $394M net income, up from a $2.6B loss in Q2 2022, its first profit  —  Ride-hailing and delivery businesses grew in the second quarter, though freight shrank  —  Uber Technologies posted …
Bloomberg:
Sources: senior EU and US officials are concerned about China's accelerated push into the production of older-generation chips made with 28nm equipment or above  —  - China is building more plants than others despite US sanctions  — Officials are worried about impact on domestic chip plans
Christian Davies / Financial Times:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
The BBC launches social.bbc, an “experimental” Mastodon server with posts from a handful of BBC accounts, and plans to try out the server for six months  —  The BBC has launched its own “experimental” Mastodon server, marking one of the first major news outlets to establish an instance on the Twitter alternative.
Jeremy Hill / Bloomberg:
Court filings: FTX Group details a draft plan to repay creditors, including settling claims in USD and wiping out FTT; seven classes of creditors can now vote  —  - Customer claims to be valued in US dollars as of bankruptcy  — Company hasn't ruled out rebooting offshore exchange
New York Times:
The FBI says a contractor misled the agency and used NSO's Landmark to track people in Mexico without consent; the FBI terminated the contract in April 2023  —  After a Times report, the bureau canceled its contract with a government contractor that used the tool on its behalf.  But questions remain.
Joe McDonald / Associated Press:
China restricts civilian drone exports, citing Russia's war in Ukraine and concern about military use; DJI pulled out of Russia and Ukraine in April 2022  —  China imposed restrictions Monday on exports of long-range civilian drones, citing Russia's war in Ukraine and concern that drones might be converted to military use.
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
The UK CMA reopens its consultation on Microsoft's Activision deal, an unusual move that could lead to a reversal of the decision to block the deal  —  CMA invites responses to tech giant's new arguments in rare move that could pave way for $75bn takeover to close
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Rapyd, which offers payment APIs, plans to acquire Prosus' payments unit PayU for $610M, excluding its operations in India, Turkey, and Southeast Asia  —  Rapyd, the fintech-as-a-service startup that provides APIs to enable payments, card issuing, digital wallet and other financial services …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Zoho Books now enables direct VAT filing with EmaraTax  —  We're excited to announce that Zoho Books is now recognised as a Digital Tax Integrator by the Federal Tax Authority, enabling direct VAT return filing from within your favorite accounting software.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Google DeepMind C.E.O. Demis Hassabis on Living in an A.I. Future
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Spotlight On:
VBSR 1.01: RTO is back (again) + data moats dry up + Sara vibecodes
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Techmeme Ride Home:
OpenAI Acquihires Jony Ive!
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
BG2 Pod:
AI, Middle East, China, Tariffs, Recon Bill, Invest America
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is okay with reinventing the bus
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
Unconventional product lessons from Binance, N26, Google, more | Mayur Kamat (CPO at N26, ex-Binance Head of Product)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:35 AM ET, August 1, 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.

More News

Earlier Picks

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Decrypt:
Yogita Khatri / The Block: