Techmeme
December 20, 2023, 2:10 AM

Top News

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
Pharmacy chain Rite Aid must stop using facial recognition for five years as part of a settlement with the US FTC, which says the tech falsely flagged customers  —  - FTC says chain's surveillance system falsely flagged customers  — Bankrupt pharmacy chain will stop using system, delete images
Nickolas Diaz / Android Central:
Samsung adds the Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Z Fold 5 to its Self-Repair program, the first foldable devices, and expands the program to 30 more countries in Europe  —  Its latest smartphone series and laptop join in, too.  —  What you need to know  — Samsung has expanded coverage of its Self-Repair program …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Microsoft Copilot can now compose songs, including lyrics, instruments, and voices, from a sentence, due to a new integration with generative AI music app Suno  —  Microsoft Copilot, Microsoft's AI-powered chatbot, can now compose songs thanks to an integration with gen AI music app Suno.
Anissa Gardizy / The Information:
Sources: AWS plans to overhaul its 60K-person sales team and aims to increase the share of Fortune 1,000 companies spending $10M+/year from less than 20% to 80%  —  Matt Garman, head of sales at Amazon Web Services, plans to reorganize his more than 60,000-person team to address problems …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
Researchers say AI robot CyberRunner outmaneuvers humans in the maze game Labyrinth, in a breakthrough for AI beating humans at direct physical applications  —  - Robot learned in record time to guide a ball through a maze  — The AI robot used two knobs to manipulate playing surface
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Comcast's Xfinity says hackers breached one of its Citrix servers in October 2023, two weeks after Citrix issued a patch, and stole data on 35,879,455 people  —  Comcast Cable Communications, doing business as Xfinity, disclosed on Monday that attackers who breached one of its Citrix servers …
Meir Orbach / CTech:
Okta is acquiring Israeli cybersecurity company Spera, which raised a $10M seed in March 2023; source: the deal is worth ~$100M-$130M, contingent on milestones  —  The American identity and access management giant is making its first purchase in Israel.  Spera, which raised $10 million …
Emilia David / The Verge:
Stability AI debuts Stability AI Membership, with free, $20/month, and custom pricing enterprise tiers, limiting commercial use of its models to the paid tiers  —  Stability AI, the maker of the text-to-image model Stable Diffusion, is now offering a subscription service that standardizes …
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Google introduces a range of new features and updates for Google Maps in India, including Live View walking navigation, ML-powered Address Descriptors, and more  —  Google Tuesday introduced a range of new features and updates for its mapping service in India as it wraps up for the year and sets the base for the coming year.
David Shepardson / Reuters:
NIST seeks public input by February 2, 2024 for setting guidelines in order to evaluate the safety of generative AI systems as directed by President Biden's EO  —  The Biden administration said on Tuesday it was taking the first step toward writing key standards and guidance for the safe deployment …
More: House Committee … and NIST
Threads: @dseetharamanX: @reuters, @rajiinio, and @nist
Ben Glickman / Wall Street Journal:
Google agrees to pay $700M and make app store changes, like offering an alternative billing system, to settle a 2021 antitrust lawsuit by 36 US states and DC  —  Agreement with coalition of states resolves antitrust litigation related to app store  —  Google parent Alphabet agreed …
Eva Dou / Washington Post:

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