Techmeme
November 8, 2023, 8:55 PM

Top News

David Pierce / The Verge:
Docs: Humane's $699 Ai Pin will have a $24/month subscription including a phone number, cell data, cloud storage, and access to Microsoft and OpenAI AI models  —  It's scheduled to launch the Pin on Thursday, but The Verge has obtained documents detailing practically everything about the device ahead of its official launch.
Salvador Rodriguez / Wall Street Journal:
Meta plans to force advertisers to disclose when they run political ads featuring media altered by AI or other tools, starting in 2024, ahead of the US election  —  Facebook parent said new policy to go into effect beginning next year, ahead of U.S. presidential primaries
Margi Murphy / Bloomberg:
Ahead of the 2024 US election, Microsoft plans to offer a free watermarking tool to help US politicians authenticate their videos and photos to fight deepfakes  —  - Tool offering comes as concerns grow over fake photos, videos  — Microsoft says Russia is ‘huge’ cyber, disinformation threat
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google expands its Search Generative Experience to 120+ new countries and territories and adds support for Spanish, Portuguese, Korean, and Indonesian languages  —  Google is bringing its Search Generative Experience (SGE) to more than 120 new countries, including Mexico, Brazil, South Korea …
Michael Kan / PCMag:
Signal is testing usernames, allowing users to set the phone number linked to their account as private and not share it on their profile  —  Offering usernames will allow people to stop giving out their phone number —a sensitive piece of information— in order to connect with others on the messaging app.
Andy Chalk / PC Gamer:
Activision Blizzard is transitioning away from the Overwatch League to evolve the esports competition in a “new direction”; exiting teams may get a $6M payout  —  Competitive Overwatch may return, but not in its current form.  —  Earlier this year, Activision Blizzard expressed doubt …
Connor Jones / The Register:
Atlassian raises the severity rating of a vulnerability in its Confluence Data Center and Server to maximum, and confirms the flaw is being actively exploited  —  Attackers secure admin rights after vendor said they could only steal data  —  Atlassian reassessed the severity rating …
Brian Fung / CNN:
Unsealed court documents allegedly show how Mark Zuckerberg repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has personally and repeatedly thwarted initiatives meant to improve the well-being of teens on Facebook and Instagram …
Zac Bowden / Windows Central:
Sources: Microsoft plans to add Windows Copilot to Windows 10, still on ~1B monthly active devices, after adding the AI assistant to Windows 11 in September  —  Microsoft wants to get Windows Copilot in front of as many users as possible.  —  Microsoft began rolling out its new AI assistant …
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
GitHub plans to release a Copilot Enterprise plan that lets companies customize for their codebase, available from February 2024 for $39 per month per user  —  GitHub today announced plans for an enterprise subscription tier that will allow companies to fine-tune its Copilot pair-programmer based on their internal codebase.
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Tom Krisher / Associated Press:
Cruise recalls all 950 of its autonomous cars to update their software after one dragged a pedestrian to the side of a San Francisco street on October 2  —  General Motors' Cruise autonomous vehicle unit is recalling all 950 of its cars to update software after one of them dragged a pedestrian …
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
Google and EU telcos ask the European Commission to designate iMessage as a “core” service, which would require Apple to make the app compatible with rivals  —  Companies want chat app designated a ‘core’ service that would require it to be fully compatible with rivals
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Disney CEO Bob Iger says a beta test of an app combining Disney+ and Hulu will launch in December 2023 and an official launch will follow in spring 2024  —  Disney, which is in the home stretch of swinging the deal to become the full owner of Hulu, will launch a beta test of an app next month …
Matt Growcoot / PetaPixel:
Adobe's stock image website lists AI-generated images purporting to show the Israel-Hamas war, and some small outlets have used them without labeling them as AI  —  As fears rise over fake imagery generated by artificial intelligence flooding the internet, one of the world's leading stock photo websites …
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Rockstar plans to begin promoting Grand Theft Auto VI, likely one of the decade's biggest video games, in December, coinciding with Rockstar's 25th anniversary  —  The company plans to release a trailer for the game in December, according to a blog post by Rockstar's president Sam Houser.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
WhatsApp now lets iOS and Android users hide their location during calls by relaying the connection through Meta's servers to obfuscate IP address metadata  —  WhatsApp is rolling out a new privacy feature that helps Android and iOS users hide their location during calls by relaying the connection through WhatsApp servers.
Caitlin Huston / Hollywood Reporter:
Spotify now offers US paid subscribers 15 hours of free access to 200K+ audiobooks per month, after launching the service in the UK and Australia on October 3  —  The podcast and music platform will offer U.S. paid subscribers 15 hours of free listening to audiobooks as it continues its rollout of the new offering.
Caroline O'Donovan / Washington Post:
Amazon cuts its annual One Medical price for Prime users from $199 to $99, a long-expected integration that could significantly expand its health care footprint  —  The tech giant will offer cheaper health care to Prime members via One Medical, a long-expected integration that could significantly expand its health care footprint
Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet:
Samsung Research unveils Samsung Gauss, a generative AI model that Samsung currently uses on employee productivity and plans to expand to product applications  —  Samsung has for the first time publicly unveiled its own generative AI model dubbed Samsung Gauss on Wednesday.
Anna Irrera / Bloomberg:
HSBC partners with Ripple to offer institutional clients a custody service for digital assets, set to launch in 2024, complementing its digital assets issuance  —  - Latest blockchain offering is expected to go live in 2024  —  HSBC Holdings Plc plans to offer institutional clients …
Lauren Smiley / Wired:
How San Francisco's citizen surveillance culture, with incidents often posted to X, turned the story of a bloody street attack inside out, causing viral outrage  —  When a homeless man attacked a former city official, footage of the onslaught became a rallying cry.

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