Techmeme
November 15, 2023, 10:35 AM

Top News

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Intel patches a bug affecting virtually all modern Intel CPUs that lets code running inside a VM crash hypervisors, a risk to cloud providers in particular  —  Among other things, bug allows code running inside a VM to crash hypervisors.  —  Intel on Tuesday pushed microcode updates to fix …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple extends free usage of Emergency SOS on iPhone 14 for two more years, to September 2025; the company has not yet announced how much Emergency SOS will cost  —  Apple today announced it is extending the free usage period for Emergency SOS satellite features for iPhone 14 users.
Nico Grant / New York Times:
Epic v. Google: Sundar Pichai confirms Google paid Apple 36% of the search revenue generated on iPhones, saying the total payment “was well over $10B” in 2022  —  Sundar Pichai, Google's chief executive, testified on Tuesday for the second time in two weeks to defend his company against monopoly claims.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
US v. Google raises the question of how antitrust law handles a company becoming dominant due to offering a far superior product, especially if the DOJ wins  —  I've noted my skepticism regarding the antitrust attacks on the current Google antitrust trial regarding how it pays to have its search placed …
Kristi Hines / Search Engine Journal:
Sam Altman says OpenAI is pausing new ChatGPT Plus signups “for a bit” as “the surge in usage post devday has exceeded our capacity”  —  OpenAI has paused new ChatGPT Plus signups due to overwhelming demand for new features introduced at recent DevDay conference.
Jonathan Greig / The Record:
The FBI dismantled the IPStorm botnet proxy network and its infrastructure as part of a September plea deal with Sergei Makinin, the hacker behind the operation  —  The FBI dismantled the IPStorm botnet proxy network and its infrastructure this week following a September plea deal with the hacker behind the operation.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Three young hackers behind Mirai talk about building the DDoS botnet, losing control of their monster, their work for the FBI as part of a plea deal, and more  —  Netflix, Spotify, Twitter, PayPal, Slack.  All down for millions of people.  How a group of teen friends plunged into an underworld …
Nicola Davis / The Guardian:
A study found that AI-generated photos of faces, particularly white faces, were perceived as more real by survey participants than photos of actual people  —  Photographs were seen as less realistic than computer images but there was no difference with pictures of people of colour
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Google updates Google Maps to add transit directions for “lowest cost”, “less walking”, “fewer transfers,” and more, emoji reactions, and collaborative lists  —  Google announced a slew of updates to Maps, including improved transit directions, emoji reactions, and collaborative lists.
Rest of World:
An in-depth look at how platforms like Shein, Pinduoduo-owned Temu, and TikTok Shop are heralding a new era for Chinese e-commerce by expanding overseas  —  China is no longer just the world's factory; now, it's also the world's mall.  As online shopping slows within China …
Clive Cookson / Financial Times:
Google DeepMind details weather forecasting AI model GraphCast, more accurate than the best conventional systems for three to 10 day predictions, an AI first  —  Google DeepMind's model beat world's leading system in 90% of metrics used and took only a fraction of the time
Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
PitchBook: Coinbase Ventures, Kraken Ventures, and Binance Labs significantly cut dealmaking since Q1 2022; Coinbase did 11 deals in Q3, down from 65 in Q1 2022  —  Even crypto companies are pulling back on crypto venture capital. … It's the all-time biggest backer of industry startups …
Eyal Press / New Yorker:
A look at wrongful US arrests due to false positive facial recognition matches, and how “automation bias” can lead the police to ignore contradictory evidence  —  Too often, a facial-recognition search represents virtually the entirety of a police investigation.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Crypto exchange and wallet service Blockchain.com raised a $110M Series E led by Kingsway, a source says at less than half of its $14B valuation in spring 2022  —  - Prior investor Kingsway led the Series E funding round  — Raise leaves valuation at less than half of prior $14 billion

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Earlier Picks

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
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Davey Alba / Bloomberg: