Techmeme
August 21, 2023, 11:30 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Meta plans to launch a web version of Threads early this week, addressing a longstanding wish list item; Adam Mosseri confirmed testing the web app  —  Meta Platforms plans to launch a web version of microblogging app Threads early this week, the biggest new feature to be introduced …
Ronan Farrow / New Yorker:
Interviews with 30+ of Elon Musk's colleagues and others detail his growing international power, childhood, career, politics, role in the Ukraine war, and more  —  How the U.S. government came to rely on the tech billionaire—and is now struggling to rein him in.
Dana Hull / Bloomberg:
A notice from Maine's AG says Tesla's May 2023 data breach impacted 75,735 people, included employee-related records, and was a result of “insider wrongdoing”  —  - Data breach included employee-related records, Maine AG says  — Tesla says two former employees shared info with Handelsblatt
Vishal Chawla / The Block:
NFT platform Recur plans to shut down by November 16, 2023, less than two years after raising a $50M Series A, and tells owners to move NFT metadata to the IPFS  —  - NFT platform Recur has decided to close less than two years after raising $50 million in a Series A funding round.
Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal:
YouTube is working with Universal Music Group to explore the use of music in AI programs and ways to pay artists whose work is used to make AI-generated content  —  YouTube has recruited Frank Sinatra's estate and other Universal Music Group UMG .39%increase; green up pointing triangle acts …
AI Snake Oil:
A recent paper on ChatGPT's political biases seems to have many flaws, including testing an older model and prompt types, but the broader topic merits research  —  A new paper making this claim has many flaws.  But the question merits research.  —  Previous research has shown …
Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:
PeckShield: a wallet tied to the ~$600M Binance Coin hack in October 2022 had $63M liquidated on lending platform Venus Protocol, after using BNB as collateral  —  Cryptocurrencies' sudden tumble this week flushed out legions of speculators — and also, judging from blockchain data, the perpetrator of a giant hack.
Dayana Mustak / Bloomberg:
John Warnock, who co-founded Adobe in 1982 with Charles Geschke and was the company's CEO until 2000 and CTO until retiring in 2001, died on August 19 at age 82  —  Technology entrepreneur John Warnock, co-founder of Adobe Inc., died on Saturday at age 82, the company said in a statement.
Wall Street Journal:
A look at the potential impact of the EU DSA and DMA on Big Tech; some say the effect could be as severe as Great Depression-era laws that reined in US banks  —  Google, Meta Platforms and others are set to face regulations that resemble the detail and sweep of those imposed on banks

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:
Don't just draw it—do it: Leveraging the Business Model Canvas with Zoho One  —  Every successful business journey begins with three essentials: clarity, strategic alignment, and focused execution.
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

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.
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Uncapped with Jack Altman:
David Tisch from BoxGroup
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
 

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More News

James Titcomb / Telegraph:

Earlier Picks

Amanda Hoover / Wired:
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
More: FortuneThreads: @carnage4lifeX: @news_by_nick and @business
Matt Novak / Forbes:
Alex Reisner / The Atlantic: