Techmeme
October 8, 2023, 2:15 PM

Top News

Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Hackers posted an initial data sample from 23andMe on BreachForums earlier in the week, claiming that it had 1M data points exclusively about Ashkenazi Jews  —  At least a million data points from 23andMe accounts appear to have been exposed on BreachForums.
Anthropic:
A research paper details how decomposing groups of neurons in a neural network into interpretable “features” may improve safety by enabling monitoring of LLMs  —  Neural networks are trained on data, not programmed to follow rules.  With each step of training …
Emma Fletcher / Federal Trade Commission:
One in four people in the US who reported losing money to fraud between January 2021-June 2023 said it started on social media, resulting in losses worth $2.7B  —  Scammers are hiding in plain sight on social media platforms and reports to the FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network point to huge profits.
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
IDC says Google shipped 37.9M Pixel phones between 2016 and 2023, suggesting the company shipped a record ~10M phones over the last 12 months  —  Google Pixel is still a minor player in the global smartphone market, but the brand continues to move along.  As the Pixel 8 series launched this week …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Even though the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro have the same Tensor G3 chip, features like Night Sight Video and enhanced Magic Eraser are exclusive to the Pixel 8 Pro  —  I can't believe Google finally did it.  I'm still in disbelief. … It's unheard of.  It's historic.
Andy Patrizio / Ars Technica:
A history of Digital Equipment Corporation, which pioneered minicomputers after being founded in 1957 and was acquired by Compaq in 1998  —  One of the early pioneers in computing, the company disappeared in the late 1990s.  —  Even though very few of the early players in technology still exist, we use their creations to this day.
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Amazon's Alexa has been claiming that the 2020 election was stolen citing sources from Rumble and Substack; Amazon says the errors were fixed  —  The popular voice assistant says the 2020 race was stolen, even as parent company Amazon promotes the tool as a reliable election news source — foreshadowing a new information battleground
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Y Combinator hires Yelp public policy chief Luther Lowe, best known for publicly criticizing Google, to lead public policy, as the accelerator embraces politics  —  Best known for his relentless public criticism of Google as a monopoly, longtime Yelp public policy chief Luther Lowe has a new gig …
Reuters:
The US adds 42 companies from China and seven from Finland, Germany, India, Turkey, the UAE, and the UK to an export control list over supporting Russia's army  —  The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday added 42 Chinese companies to a government export control list over their support …

Sponsor Posts

Termina:
AI Powered Diligence at Scale  —  VCs and founders deploy Termina AI Scans on >12% of all known series A+ deals to uncover hidden risks and opportunities.  Explore how you too can invest and build better companies with AI.
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
Gamification: A simple way to enjoy getting more work done  —  Work doesn't have to be boring.  Gamification transforms everyday tasks into exciting challenges, making employees feel more engaged and motivated.
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

Techmeme Ride Home:
E2EE For All!
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Why Trump can't be trusted with Congress' new anti-deepfake bill
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
Inside Bolt: From near-death to ~$40m ARR in 5 months--one of the fastest-growing products in history | Eric Simons (founder & CEO of StackBlitz)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Flexport CEO Ryan Petersen Breaks Down the Global Impact of Trump's New Tariffs
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Generative Now:
Dan Shipper: The First MultiModal Media Company
A podcast from Lightspeed dedicated to highlighting the stories, strategies and insights behind today's most exciting AI companies.
Subscribe to Generative Now.
Spotlight On:
Nebius's Arkady Volozh on What it Takes to Build Infrastructure Needed for the AI Era
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:15 PM ET, October 8, 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

Wall Street Journal:
Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Paresh Dave / Wired:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Andrew Hayward / Decrypt: