Techmeme
August 27, 2023, 10:30 AM

Top News

Roger Montti / Search Engine Journal:
WordPress.com debuts a 100-year domain name registration for $38K, offering managed hosting and 24/7 customer service; domains are typically capped at 10 years  —  WordPress announces the availability of 100-year domain name registrations that include 24/7 assistance and managed web hosting
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Hackers breached WebDetetive, an Android spyware app used mainly in Brazil, and deleted data on its victims; Poland-based LetMeSpy was similarly hacked in June  —  The Portuguese-language app WebDetetive was used to compromise over 76,000 phones to date  —  A Portuguese-language spyware …
Mia Sato / The Verge:
A look at Smart Answers, an AI chatbot trained only on Macworld, PCWorld, Tech Advisor, and TechHive content, and offered to the outlets' readers on August 1  —  By and large, the goal has been: can we make more pages for ads without paying more writers?  —  Now, a group of tech outlets …
Clive Cookson / Financial Times:
A look at the UK's new DARPA-inspired Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA), which has a four-year £800M budget to invest in breakthrough tech like AI  —  Head of Advanced Research and Invention Agency tells FT it has appointed directors charged with selecting projects
James Hunt / The Block:
A Pepe memecoin team member says three ex-colleagues stole about 16T Pepe tokens worth $15M from the project's multisig before selling them on crypto exchanges  —  - Approximately 16 trillion Pepe tokens ($15 million) were illicitly transferred to crypto exchanges OKX, Binance …
Stephen King / The Atlantic:
Stephen King reflects on his books being used for AI training, arguing the sum is lesser than its parts, so far, as creativity can't happen without sentience  —  One prominent author responds to the revelation that his writing is being used to coach artificial intelligence.  —  Self-driving cars.
New York Times:
Sources: a company spending $800M+ to buy thousands of acres to build a new Bay Area city is backed by Michael Moritz, Reid Hoffman, Marc Andreessen, and others  —  A mysterious company has spent $800 million in an effort to buy thousands of acres of San Francisco Bay Area land.
Wes Davis / The Verge:
Linus Tech Tips founder Linus Sebastian addresses errors and ethics but not sexual harassment claims, responding to accusations that prompted a production pause  —  Linus Media Group (LMG) founder Linus Sebastian explained LMG's HR policies and how it will improve accuracy and ethics in a video posted to YouTube last night.
Jack Schickler / CoinDesk:
Hackers access some customer data at FTX, Genesis, and BlockFi by SIM swapping an employee of Kroll, which manages creditor claims for the bankrupt companies  —  A ‘cybersecurity incident’ affected Kroll, which gathers customer claim data on behalf of bankrupt companies.  —  Register Now
Joe Wituschek / BGR:
X launches a private beta of X Hiring, a job posting feature for verified organizations, allowing them to “organically reach millions of relevant candidates”  —  Who goes to LinkedIn to look for a job?  Nah, those days are over.  X is the new place to find your next employer.
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
Despite cheating and misinformation fears, some US schools that once raced to block AI chatbot access are now encouraging teachers and students to use them  —  Some districts that once raced to block A.I. chatbots are now trying to embrace them.  —  For decades, Walla Walla High School …

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Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Inside Devin: The world's first autonomous AI engineer that's set to write 50% of its company's code by end of year | Scott Wu (CEO and co-founder of Cognition)
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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Omnibus Week Of 04/28
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
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The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat
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.
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Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
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More News

Ana Paula Pereira / Cointelegraph:
Eri Sugiura / Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

Jonathan Greig / The Record:
Dan Primack / Axios:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Wall Street Journal: