Techmeme
August 31, 2023, 2:05 PM

Top News

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Meta begins testing full-text search on Threads in Australia and New Zealand and plans a wider rollout to other English-speaking countries in the future  —  Threads launched one of the most anticipated features, a web version of the platform, last week.  Now, Meta is testing another highly …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Microsoft plans to unbundle Teams from Microsoft 365 and Office 365 in Europe on October 1, discounting the suites by €24/year and selling Teams for €60/year  —  - Company offers to unbundle Teams from other business software  — EU investigating if Microsoft's bundling broke antitrust law
Walter Isaacson / Wall Street Journal:
An excerpt from Walter Isaacson's new Elon Musk biography details Musk's decision to buy Twitter and how his moods fluctuated wildly before the official closing  —  In an exclusive excerpt from his new biography ‘Elon Musk,’ Walter Isaacson offers a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most surprising …
Aisha Counts / Bloomberg:
X updates its privacy policy to include new biometric data, which the company plans to collect for safety and security, along with data on jobs and education  —  - In policy shift, X will use the data for safety, security  — Employment, education history will be used to recommend jobs
Charlotte Hughes-Morgan / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk says X users will be able to make video and audio calls without a phone number, but offers no timeframe, as X “is the effective global address book”  —  Users of X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, will be able to make video and audio calls through …
Camomile Shumba / CoinDesk:
Swift and Web3 services startup Chainlink send tokenized value across private and public blockchains using Chainlink's Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol  —  The interbank messaging system Swift announced in June it was collaborating with Chainlink and dozens of financial institutions to test connecting blockchains.
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Binance plans to “gradually” end support for its BUSD stablecoin by February 2024, as “Paxos halted minting of new BUSD” after an NYDFS order in February 2023  —  The move follows Paxos' decision to halt minting of new BUSD.  —  Cryptocurrency exchange Binance said it will …
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
The NYC subway's OMNY contactless payments system has a privacy issue that lets anyone see a rider's seven-day trip history using just their credit card details  —  In the mid-afternoon one Saturday earlier this month, the target got on the New York subway.  I knew what station they entered the subway at and at what specific time.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Sources: Apple plans to eliminate its social media support adviser roles across X, YouTube, and the Apple Support Community website starting on October 1, 2023  —  Apple is planning to eliminate social media support advisor roles across Twitter, YouTube, and the Apple Support Community website starting later …
Wired:
A monthslong investigation exposes the secrets of Russian ransomware gang Trickbot, which thrives despite global disruption efforts, and a key member's identity  —  A WIRED investigation into a cache of documents posted by an unknown figure lays bare the Trickbot ransomware gang's secrets, including the identity of a central member.
Morgan Park / PC Gamer:
Activision partners with Modulate to test ToxMod, an AI-based voice moderation tool, across Modern Warfare 2, Warzone 2, and other games, in North America  —  There's a new AI-powered sheriff in town, and its name is ToxMod.  —  Call of Duty is joining the growing number …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Meta now lets Facebook users submit requests to access, alter, or delete some of their third-party information that the company uses for generative AI training  —  - Meta updated its help resource center with a form that gives users some control over what personal data is used to train generative artificial intelligence models.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google launches its Search Generative Experience in India and Japan via a Search Labs opt-in, after the US debut of the AI search feature in preview in May 2023  —  Following the May launch in the US, Google is giving the Search Generative Experience (SGE) an international launch in India and Japan …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Meta releases FACET, an AI benchmarking tool for evaluating the “fairness” of AI models that classify and detect things in photos and videos, including people  —  Continuing on its open source tear, Meta today released a new AI benchmark, FACET, designed to evaluate the “fairness” …
Emilia David / The Verge:
The US Copyright Office seeks public input on AI and copyright issues, including using copyrighted works for AI training; written comments are due on October 18  —  The US Copyright Office is opening a public comment period around AI and copyright issues beginning August 30th as the agency figures out how to approach the subject.
New York Times:
A look at Starfield, a game by Microsoft's Bethesda with 1,000 explorable planets, set for September 6 after a 10-month delay, as Microsoft needs an Xbox hit  —  The stakes are high for Bethesda's newest role-playing game.  Microsoft needs an Xbox hit, and players are hungry for an expansive and satisfying space adventure.
James Hunt / The Block:
A US judge dismisses a lawsuit against Uniswap, founder Hayden Adams, a16z, and others over scam token sales, as software cannot be held liable for user losses  —  - Uniswap founder Hayden Adams hailed the court's comments as “based” after a class action lawsuit alleging liability for scam token sales was thrown out.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Microsoft retires Visual Studio for Mac, saying the IDE will get “servicing updates for security issues and updated platforms from Apple” until August 31, 2024  —  Microsoft has announced plans to discontinue Visual Studio for Mac.  The latest version of the company's IDE …

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Earlier Picks

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
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Emma Roth / The Verge: