Techmeme
August 16, 2023, 11:10 PM

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.
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.
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
Financial Times:
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.
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 …
More: GeekWireBluesky: @epro.socialX: @lfelizleon, @jbarab, and @tonyajoriley
Bloomberg:
Intel ends its $5.4B bid to acquire Israeli company Tower Semiconductor, announced in February 2022, after failing to win Chinese regulatory approval in time  —  - Deal for Tower Semiconductor needed Chinese antitrust approval  —  Intel Corp. walked away from its attempt …
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.
Dan Garisto / Nature:
A look at studies saying LK-99 is not a superconductor and that impurities in the material were responsible for its superconducting-like behaviors  —  You can also search for this author in  —  PubMed Google Scholar  —  Researchers seem to have solved the puzzle of LK-99.
Forums: Hacker News
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.
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  —  The crypto company raised $100 million from new investors, emphasizing its focus on following rules and regulations.
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.
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
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  —  A firm which was contracted to moderate Facebook posts in East Africa has said with hindsight it should not have taken on the job.
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  —  - Apple has moved the end call button back to the middle of the screen in the the newest developer version of iOS 17 released on Tuesday.

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Zoho SalesIQ turns 10: Transforming customer experiences since 2014  —  October marked a remarkable milestone for Zoho SalesIQ—our 10th anniversary.  What began in 2014 as a simple live chat tool has evolved …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/01 - ChatGPT Search
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:10 PM ET, August 16, 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

Elizabeth Howcroft / Reuters:
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:

Earlier Picks

Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
Chelsey Cox / CNBC:
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Abner Li / 9to5Google: