Techmeme
December 5, 2023, 7:10 PM

Top News

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Beeper debuts Beeper Mini for Android, which lets users send iMessages using E2EE, without having to use a new number or log in with an Apple ID, for $2/month  —  Earlier this year, a developer slid into Eric Migicovsky's DMs with a spectacular claim: that he had reverse engineered Apple's iMessage …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft updates Copilot with DALL-E 3 and says GPT-4 Turbo support and a Code Interpreter feature are coming soon; Bing will get “Deep Search” functionality  —  Microsoft is detailing a number of new features coming to its Copilot service soon, including OpenAI's latest models.
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
Leaked docs show concern at OctoML about helping its customer Civitai make AI images; OctoML co-founder Thierry Moreau said some “could be categorized as” CSAM  —  Content warning: This story covers synthetic child sexual abuse images.  —  OctoML, a Seattle-based startup …
Andrew Cunningham / Ars Technica:
Microsoft plans to offer three additional years of monthly Windows 10 security updates, paid for annually, after the OS' end-of-support date on October 14, 2025  —  Windows 10 gets a version of the program that extended updates for Windows 7.  —  Windows 10's end-of-support date is October 14, 2025.
Alexandra Barinka / Bloomberg:
Meta, IBM, and over 50 other companies and organizations form the AI Alliance, a coalition to work on open-source AI, including to share tech and reduce risks  —  Meta Platforms Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. are joining more than 40 companies and organizations to create …
Sarah Fielding / Engadget:
Discord redesigns its mobile app, offering separate messages and server tabs, new messaging features, a Midnight theme, and speed and data usage improvements  —  It also introduced a Midnight theme for a pure black background.  —  Discord bluntly describes the mobile app it launched in 2015 …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
ESET researchers have found 18 “SpyLoan” malicious loan Android apps, which have been downloaded 12M+ times from the Google Play store alone, in 2023 so far  —  More than a dozen malicious loan apps, which are generically named SpyLoan, have been downloaded more than 12 million times …
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Elon Musk's xAI files with the US SEC to raise up to $1B in an equity offering, saying the startup has raised nearly $135M from four investors since November 29  —  - X.AI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, has filed with the SEC to raise up to $1 billion in an equity offering.
Bloomberg:
AT&T chooses Ericsson to modernize its wireless network with an architecture utilizing open standards, a ~$14B project over five years; ERICB closes up 6.08%  —  - Infrastructure deal aims to modernize network over five years  — Deal is a blow to Nokia, which will delay profit targets
Samantha Cole / 404 Media:
Alibaba's paper on its Animate Anyone AI model goes viral after videos show the model can replace TikTok influencers after being trained on TikTokers' videos  —  A team of researchers from Chinese retail and technology giant Alibaba released a paper this week detailing a new model, which they call “Animate Anyone.”
Reuters:
Docs: Apple warned India that its EU-style charger rules will lower local production targets and on November 28 asked to exempt or delay existing iPhone models  —  Apple (AAPL.O) has told India its local production targets will be hit if New Delhi follows the European Union and requires existing iPhones …
Bruce Schneier / Schneier on Security:
AI chatbots' conversational nature makes them more trustworthy, which could cause problems, like “hidden exploitation”, outright fraud, and mistaken expertise  —  I trusted a lot today.  I trusted my phone to wake me on time.  I trusted Uber to arrange a taxi for me, and the driver to get me to the airport safely.
New York Times:
Interviews with 80+ sources describe how OpenAI releasing ChatGPT a year ago triggered Google, Meta, and the rest of Silicon Valley to scramble to catch up  —  ChatGPT's release a year ago triggered a desperate scramble among tech companies and alarm from some of the people who helped invent it.
Threads: @pkedroskyMastodon: @cdarwin@c.imX: @tomgara, @mikeisaac, @jessefelder, and @jordannovet
Vishal Chawla / The Block:
Web3 developer platform thirdweb discloses a major vulnerability in an open-source library used by several NFT collections; thirdweb became aware on November 20  —  - Thirdweb, a web3 developer platform, disclosed a security vulnerability in its open-source library.
Natasha Mascarenhas / The Information:
Source: VC firm OpenView laid off most of its staff and does not plan to make new investments, after raising $570M in March 2023, 30% shy of its $800M target  —  OpenView Venture Partners, a Boston-based venture capital firm that has backed enterprise software firms such as Calendly and Expensify …
Hannah Lang / Reuters:
OpenSecrets: crypto companies spent $18.96M on US lobbying in Q1 2023 to Q3 2023, up from $16.1M during the same period in 2022; Coinbase spent $2.16M, the most  —  The cryptocurrency industry was on track to hit a new record for federal lobbying spending, after a year in which firms scrambled …
BBC:
Tesla whistleblower Łukasz Krupski says Autopilot is not safe enough to use on public roads due to its hardware and software not being “ready”  —  A former Tesla employee has told the BBC he believes the technology powering the firm's self-driving vehicles is not safe enough to be used on public roads.

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More News

Jon Porter / The Verge:
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Earlier Picks

Wired:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
Financial Times: