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August 17, 2023, 2:25 AM
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Top News

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI acquires New York-based AI design studio Global Illumination, marking the company's first public acquisition; the terms of the deal weren't disclosed  —  OpenAI, the AI company behind the viral AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, has acquired Global Illumination, a New York-based startup leveraging AI …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
NYC bans TikTok on city-owned devices and asks agencies to remove the app within 30 days; a NYC Cyber Command review found that TikTok “posed a security threat”  —  New York City is banning TikTok from city-owned devices and requiring agencies to remove the app within the next 30 days.
Helene Braun / CoinDesk:
Crypto hardware wallet maker Ledger partners with PayPal to let US users buy BTC, ETH, BCH, and LTC in its Ledger Live app through their PayPal accounts  —  Users of Ledger Live, the company's feature that lets you buy crypto with fiat currency, will now be able to connect their PayPal account to the app.
Bloomberg:
Docs: Amazon plans to impose a new 2% fee per sale on merchants who ship products themselves, on top of the ~15% commission they already pay, from October 2023  —  - The new levy comes even with an FTC antitrust suit looming  — Merchant fees generate revenue as online sales growth slows
Timmy Shen / The Block:
Coinbase says the exchange received regulatory approval from the CFTC-backed National Futures Association to offer futures trading services to eligible US users  —  - Coinbase is now allowed to operate as a futures commission merchant and offer eligible U.S. customers access to crypto futures from its platforms, the company said.
New York Times:
Inside Def Con AI Village 2023, which attracted 2,200 people competing in a White House-backed challenge to find vulnerabilities in popular generative AI models  —  The hackers had the blessing of the White House and leading A.I. companies, which want to learn about vulnerabilities before those with nefarious intentions do.
Alex Cranz / The Verge:
YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips pauses production amid accusations of theft, ethical lapses, and sexual harassment, and says it'll hire an outside investigator  —  Linus Sebastian's Linus Media Group YouTube empire is currently in crisis, with accusations of theft, lapses in ethics, and most recently, allegations of sexual harassment.
Caitlin Harrington / Wired:
OSHA investigations and 11 interviews: Amazon's first aid clinics put warehouse staff at risk by keeping them working instead of referring them to medical care  —  A WIRED investigation and federal citations show how first aid clinics in Amazon warehouses sometimes direct injured employees …
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Shiba Inu's Ethereum layer-2 network Shibarium, which hopes to lure users with low fees to an ecosystem focused on financial services and gaming, goes live  —  The much-awaited Shibarium network saw over 21 million wallets created during its testnet and is expected to position Shiba Inu as a serious DeFi contender.
Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Counterpoint: global smartphone shipments to drop 6% YoY to 1.15B units in 2023, the lowest level since 2013, due to worsening China economy and poor US demand  —  - Global smartphone shipments are expected to drop 6% from 2022  — Apple is better positioned than others to weather the storm
Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal:
Internal presentation: Alphabet's Verily is planning more cost cuts after posting wider than expected operating losses on $280M revenue through June in 2023  —  Google's parent is focusing on turning companies that are developing ambitious technology into commercial successes.
Nico Grant / New York Times:
Docs: Google DeepMind has been developing generative AI to perform 21+ different types of personal and professional tasks, including to give users life advice  —  The tech giant is evaluating tools that would use artificial intelligence to perform tasks that some of its researchers have said should be avoided.
Sankalp Phartiyal / Bloomberg:
Sources: Foxconn's plant in Tamil Nadu, India plans to deliver iPhone 15 units weeks after Chinese factories; output previously lagged by six to nine months  —  - Apple is diversifying iPhone supply chain away from China  — India's push to become a manufacturing hub is bearing fruit
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Epic Games expands its Epic Online Services crossplay tools from PC to PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch, helping developers more easily add crossplay multiplayer  —  The change could mean that developers will be able to more easily bring crossplay multiplayer to their games.
Candice Ortiz / Mediaite:
Conservative radio host Glenn Beck says all Glenn Beck Program episodes were removed from Apple Podcasts, and then restored, “with no explanation”  —  Commentator Glenn Beck's entire show was removed from Apple's podcast network on Wednesday, allegedly without warning or explanation.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:25 AM ET, August 17, 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

Associated Press:
President Trump signed an EO on May 1 instructing CPB and other agencies to cut federal funding for NPR and PBS, alleging “bias” in the broadcasters' reporting

Minho Kim / New York Times:
An appeals court allows the Trump admin to continue withholding funds from federally funded newsrooms, temporarily reversing parts of two lower-court rulings

Sean Burch / The Wrap:
The LA Times Guild says 14 of its members have been laid off, or 6% of its newsroom staff, the third round of newsroom layoffs at LAT in as many years

More News

Elizabeth Howcroft / Reuters:
PayPal plans to “temporarily pause” letting UK users buy crypto from October 1, to work on complying with new regulations, and restart support in “early 2024”
Chris Vallance / BBC:
Sama CEO Wendy Gonzalez says the company no longer plans to take harmful content moderation work from Meta and she regrets the work, after some staff sued Sama
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
The Authors Guild, the American Booksellers Association, and the Open Markets Institute urge the DOJ and the FTC to investigate Amazon's book market “monopoly”
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple backtracks and moves the iPhone's “end call” button back to the middle of the screen, from the bottom-right corner, in the latest iOS 17 beta

Earlier Picks

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
Crypto custody startup BitGo raised $100M at a $1.75B valuation from unnamed US and Asian investors; Galaxy Digital scrapped a $1.2B BitGo acquisition in 2022
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to ~$20.6B, below ~$20.8B est., and operating profit up 37% YoY to ~$6.9B, driven by benefits from cost cutting in 2022
Chelsey Cox / CNBC:
At a White House roundtable, the US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau touts Fair Credit Reporting Act rules to crack down on harmful data broker practices
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Xbox debuts a strike-based enforcement program, to improve “player transparency” and clear up confusion; eight strikes over six months results in a one-year ban
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
OpenAI says the company has been using GPT-4 to enforce its content policies and says some of its customers are already using the LLM for content moderation
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google adds an experimental browsing feature that summarizes page content to Search Generative Experience, first in the Google mobile app for Search Labs users
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
YouTube updates YouTube Music on iOS and Android with Samples, a music discovery feed featuring vertically cropped, 30-second clips uploaded directly by artists
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