Techmeme
October 19, 2023, 8:40 AM

Top News

RT Watson / The Block:
Chainalysis says recent media reports about the supposed use of crypto by terrorist organizations might be overstating metrics and using “flawed analyses”  —  - Chainalysis said some recent reports about the supposed use of crypto by terrorist organizations might be overstating metrics and using “flawed analyses.”
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
WhatsApp plans to let users switch between two accounts on Android in the coming weeks; a second account will still need a separate phone number and SIM card  —  If you use two different WhatsApp accounts, you'll soon be able to access both from just one device.
WABetaInfo:
WhatsApp rolls out a view once mode for voice notes to some beta users on iOS and Android, after launching the feature for photos and videos in August 2021  —  WhatsApp is introducing a new feature to allow users to share voice notes with view once mode enabled for added privacy.
Financial Times:
Sources: the UK plans to announce an international advisory group on AI, loosely modeled on the UN's IPCC, at the November 2023 AI summit in Bletchley Park  —  The British government wants to draw on expert knowledge about the fast-developing technology  —  The UK is planning to announce …
Financial Times:
John Thornhill / Financial Times:
Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
Netflix raises its US prices for its basic plan from $9.99 to $11.99, its premium plan from $19.99 to $22.99, and some of its prices in the UK and France  —  Hollywood strikes will lead to lower content spending, more free cash flow this year, company says  —  Netflix said its efforts …
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Bloomberg:
TSMC reports Q3 revenue down 14.6% YoY to ~$17.28B, net income down 24.9% YoY to ~$6.5B, and expects to spend $32B on growing and upgrading capacity in 2023  —  - Sales and capex projections both came in ahead of estimates  — World's most advanced chipmaker is struggling with a downturn
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Stanford unveils the Foundation Model Transparency Index, featuring 100 indicators; Llama 2 led at 54%, GPT-4 placed third at 48%, and PaLM 2 took fifth at 40%  —  Stanford researchers have ranked 10 major A.I. models on how openly they operate.  —  How much do we know about A.I.?
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Amazon plans to expand its Prime Air drone delivery system to the UK, Italy, and a third US city in late 2024 and integrate Prime Air into its delivery network  —  The company will also bring the Prime Air program to a third US city by the end of 2024.  —  Amazon has some big plans …
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
New York AG Letitia James sues the Winklevoss' Gemini, Genesis, and its parent Digital Currency Group, alleging the companies defrauded 230K investors of $1B+  —  New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing the Winklevoss twin-led exchange Gemini along with the crypto lending firm Genesis …
Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources: Apple fired at least five employees who worked in the company's App Store in China following an internal investigation into business misconduct  —  Apple fired at least five employees who worked in the company's App Store in China following an internal probe into business misconduct …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google updates Play Protect with real-time scanning at the code level, prompting users to scan unknown Android apps before sideloading, starting in India  —  To avoid detection, Google has found that malicious parties are looking beyond the Play Store to infect Android devices with malware.
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Nokia plans to cut up to 14,000 jobs, or ~16% of its 86,000 workforce, and reports Q3 2023 net sales down 20% YoY to €4.98B and profit down 69% YoY to €133M  —  - Nokia said it would cut up to 14,000 jobs as part of a cost cutting plan following third quarter earnings that plunged.
Financial Times:
Francesco Canepa / Reuters:
The European Central Bank plans to start a two-year “preparation phase” for the digital euro on November 1, to finalize rules, select partners, and do testing  —  The European Central Bank took a further step on Wednesday towards launching a digital version of the euro …
Pew Research Center:
A May 2023 survey of 5,101 US adults: 78% of Democrats and 68% of Republicans support more government regulation over what companies can do with people's data  —  The role of technology companies, AI and regulation - plus personal experiences with data breaches, passwords, cybersecurity and privacy policies
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
US v. SBF: accounting professor Peter Easton testifies that FTX used “over a billion dollars” of customer funds to buy back Binance's FTX stake, bought in 2019  —  Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao said in a 2022 post the company had received over $2.1 billion in binance usd (BUSD) stablecoins and FTX's FTT tokens.
Susan D'Agostino / Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:
Q&A with Yoshua Bengio on nuance in headlines about AI, taboos among AI researchers, and why top researchers may disagree about AI's potential risks to humanity  —  Editor's note: This article was commissioned by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and is also published in WIRED.

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Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Elahe Izadi / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Carly Page / TechCrunch: