Techmeme
December 24, 2023, 2:35 PM

Top News

Sharon Goldman / VentureBeat:
Researchers from Apple and Columbia University released Ferret, an open source multimodal LLM that can recognize and describe any shape in an image, in October  —  With little fanfare, researchers from Apple and Columbia University released an open source multimodal LLM, called Ferret, in October 2023.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Ubisoft is investigating reports of a new security breach after security research collective VX-Underground shared screenshots of the company's internal tools  —  Ubisoft is investigating whether it suffered a breach after images of the company's internal software and developer tools were leaked online.
Edd Gent / IEEE Spectrum:
Experts warn against unrealistic expectations for quantum computers, citing the challenges in making fault-tolerant systems, qubits' slow operating speeds, more  —  Hype is everywhere, skeptics say, and practical applications are still far away  —  The quantum computer revolution …
Ethan Zuckerman:
A study estimates that there are 13.3B+ videos on YouTube, of which 4B+ were posted to the platform in 2023, and the median YouTube video has 39 views  —  I got interested in this question a few years ago, when I started writing about the “denominator problem”.
Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Elon Musk is fielding complaints about Grok giving liberal responses on diversity, transgender rights, and inequality, despite promising an “anti-woke” chatbot  —  Grok, launched this month on X, has angered conservatives by endorsing diversity.  Musk says he's trying to fix it.
Wall Street Journal:
A look at Sam Altman's history at Loopt and Y Combinator, where his side activities and personal projects riled colleagues and forced his departure from YC  —  The OpenAI CEO lost the confidence of top leaders in the three organizations he has directed, yet each time he's rebounded to greater heights
Washington Post:
Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch:
GM pauses Chevy Blazer EV sales as it works to fix software problems, including the infotainment screen going blank, which affect a “limited number” of vehicles  —  General Motors has temporarily halted sales of the brand new Chevy Blazer EV after some of the first vehicles shipped encountered a number of software problems.
Steven Scheer / Reuters:
Nvidia and its staff donated $15M to Israeli nonprofits helping civilians affected by the Israel-Hamas war, the largest humanitarian fundraiser for the company  —  U.S. chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA.O) and its employees have donated $15 million to Israeli non-profit organisations …
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
A look at Take-Two's $12B Zynga deal in 2022, just as casual games peaked post pandemic, Apple introduced ATT, and the mobile game market headed into a downturn  —  Video-game giant's push into smartphone titles was expensive and late.  —  Excitement over the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto VI …
Wall Street Journal:
Bots registered as 13-year-old users on TikTok were shown highly polarized content about the Israel-Hamas war in the For You feed, within hours after signing up  —  Imagine your 13-year-old signs up for TikTok and, while scrolling through videos, lingers on footage of explosions …
MacDonald Dzirutwe / Reuters:
The Central Bank of Nigeria lifts a ban, imposed in February 2021, on cryptocurrency transactions but says global trends show a need to regulate such activities  —  Nigeria's central bank has lifted a ban on transacting in cryptocurrencies, while saying global trends had shown a need to regulate …

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Everything new in the Zoho Sign iOS mobile app  —  Ranked highly in the iOS App Store (4.9 stars), Zoho Sign's mobile app for iPhone is a user favorite.  We're thrilled to share that the app has been enhanced …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Why COULDN'T Apple Make An iPhone In The US?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Derek Thompson (Writer, The Atlantic) and Zach Weinberg (Co-founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) Discuss the Tariff Withdrawal and America's Future
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Big Tech's Tariff Chaos + A.I. 2027 + Llama Drama
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
The bull case for domestic manufacturing
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Why DOGE is killing the agency that keeps banks from ripping you off
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:35 PM ET, December 24, 2023.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Forbes:
Josh Sisco / Politico:

Earlier Picks

The Block:
Michael Gennaro / Courthouse News Service:
Steven Levy / Wired:
Ken White / The Popehat Report:
Jay Peters / The Verge: