Techmeme
January 1, 2024, 5:20 PM

Top News

Mohar Chatterjee / Politico:
A look at AI chatbots modeled on real experts, like US psychologist Martin Seligman, that are often created without permission, highlighting a policy gray area  —  New AI-generated digital replicas of real experts expose an unnerving policy gray zone.  Washington wants to fix it, but it's not clear how.
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
The scale of layoffs in the gaming industry in 2023 was far beyond a typical year, with an estimated 9,000+ workers losing their jobs globally  —  Layoffs are an unfortunate reality of any industry, but the scope and scale of video game layoffs in 2023 are far beyond a typical year.
John Kruzel / Reuters:
In his year-end report, US Chief Justice John Roberts says AI is a mixed blessing for the legal field and urges “caution and humility” as the tech is adopted  —  Artificial intelligence represents a mixed blessing for the legal field, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts …
Nikkei Asia:
Nikon, Sony, and Canon are developing camera tech that embeds digital signatures in images so that they can be distinguished from realistic AI-generated fakes  —  Digital signatures to provide way to tell real photos from  —  Sony will release a firmware for professional-grade cameras to embed digital signatures to photos.
More: PCMag and TechLifeWeb
Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toX: @anastasiabekt, @stevesi, and @mikecaneLinkedIn: Tariq Krim
Keza MacDonald / The Guardian:
A profile of Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto, who joined Nintendo in the 1970s and says he has no plans to retire as game director at the company  —  Few people have influenced global pop culture as much as the creator of Mario and Zelda, widely considered the father of modern gaming.
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Counterpoint: about 16M foldable phones were sold in 2023, just 1.3% of the 1.2B smartphone market, as foldables start to gain traction in the US and China  —  Samsung, Motorola and Huawei continue to invest in high-priced flip devices despite weak sales  —  Every large smartphone maker except Apple …
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
A look at the rise of AI-generated virtual influencers, with some charging thousands of dollars to promote products, leading to concerns from human influencers  —  Hyper-realistic ‘virtual influencers’ are being used to promote leading brands — drawing ire from human content creators
Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of Joe Kiani, whose company Masimo spent ~$100M suing Apple, as some say his aggressive use of the US patent system stymies the innovation of others  —  Joe Kiani has taken on Apple in a patent dispute that has cost his company millions of dollars to pursue.  So far he is winning, but the fight isn't over.
Justin Garrison / Justin Garrison:
An AWS developer claims Amazon is “silently sacking” staff by pushing them to take a different role that they would quit later, avoiding the need for severance  —  Amazon has a stock problem.  It's not only Amazon, but they have more to lose.  If you're a customer, that's going to be bad for your business too.
Anil Dash / Rolling Stone:
In 2024, the internet will see the biggest reshuffling of power in 25 years, with a resurgent “human web” and regulators forcing tech giants to open up  —  The new year offers many of the promises of an online moment we haven't seen in a quarter-century … Everything is changing rapidly.

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More News

J. Edward Moreno / New York Times:
Joan Westenberg:
Brendan Bordelon / Politico:

Earlier Picks

The Information:
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch: