Techmeme: How evangelicals proselytize using Bless Every Home, an app that lets users create neighborhood maps and data tables based on people's religion and ethnicity (Elle Hardy/New Republic)

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March 16, 2024, 12:45 PM

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Reuters:

Sources: SpaceX's Starshield is building a network of spy satellites under a classified, $1.8B contract with the US spy agency National Reconnaissance Office — SpaceX is building a network of hundreds of spy satellites under a classified contract with a U.S. intelligence agency …

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Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Researchers detail ArtPrompt, a jailbreak that uses ASCII art to elicit harmful responses from aligned LLMs such as GPT-3.5, GPT-4, Gemini, Claude, and Llama2 — LLMs are trained to block harmful responses. Old-school images can override those rules. — Researchers have discovered …

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Joanna Nelius / The Verge:

Review of Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Fold 16: sets the bar for foldables with a large 4:3 display and seamless centerfold, but the trackpad is prone to missed inputs — Its beautiful 16-inch OLED display morphs into a 12-inch laptop, but do splurge for the ‘optional’ keyboard and folio.

More: Inverse. Mastodon: @vicmsong@mastodon.social. X: @vicmsong

Matt Novak / Gizmodo:

Filing: SBF wrote a Google doc in which he floated “bad ideas” to improve his image, including going on Tucker Carlson and coming out “against the woke agenda” — SBF's brainstorming notes included lines like “Come out against the woke agenda.” — Are you a billionaire in trouble?

More: New York Magazine, Bloomberg Law, Rolling Stone, CoinGape, and Financial Times

X: @teddyschleifer, @cohenluc, and @joshchafetz

Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg:

Filing: prosecutors ask a judge to sentence SBF to up to 50 years in prison when he is sentenced on March 28; SBF's lawyers had suggested five to six years

Dan Primack / Axios:

Reddit says FTC launched an inquiry into Reddit's licensing of user data to AI companies; an ex-FTC official says other companies also got such “hold letters” — - It also suggests that the FTC is expanding its look into AI-related deals, which previously appeared to be focused on equity investments.

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Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/LocalLLaMA, r/technology, Beehaw, and Slashdot

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Game developer Scopely says Monopoly Go! crossed $2B in revenue in February 2024, just 10 months after launching and three months after hitting $1B in revenue — Scopely announced that Monopoly Go has generated $2 billion in revenue just 10 months after launch and three months after hitting $1 billion.

More: Scopely, PhoneArena, Game File, Mobilegamer.biz, and Pocket Gamer.biz

X: @ballmatthew, @timpaulsmith, @thomasbcn, @stephentotilo, and @stephentotilo

LinkedIn: Javier Ferreira and Rob Palumbo

Tom Henderson / Insider Gaming:

Leaked PS5 Pro docs mention rendering 45% faster than the PS5, 2x to 3x the ray tracing performance, and more; sources say it's set for a holiday 2024 release — Insider Gaming can confirm that the leaked PS5 Pro specs leaked earlier today are real and the PlayStation 5 is still tentatively targeting a 2024 holiday release.

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Threads: @zondaro, @richardlawler, and @reckless1280. Mastodon: @obrhoff@chaos.social. Bluesky: @thunderrock.bsky.social

X: @_blessedred, @deeketweak, @lunnzies, @tomwarren, and @ghost_motley

Forums: r/IndianGaming, r/hardware, r/technology, r/PSVR, and r/kindafunny

Elle Hardy / New Republic:

How evangelicals proselytize using Bless Every Home, an app that lets users create neighborhood maps and data tables based on people's religion and ethnicity — The future of proselytizing—and surveillance—has arrived. An app called Bless Every Home, which has been backed …

Mastodon: @hakona@im.alstadheim.no and @wdlindsy@toad.social

X: @ellehardy, @jennwrenstanley, @hganshorn, @takethattoxins, @bludrone, @brentstapley, @strangemoore, @ahappything, @bluebonnetbunny, @newrepublic, and @ffrf

Axios:

A look at a potential TikTok US sale, with an estimated valuation of $100B, or $40B without the algorithm, as Steven Mnuchin and others form investor groups — - TikTok's U.S. revenue reportedly was between $16 billion and $20 billion in 2023, but CEO Shou Zi Chew has said the company is in the red.

More: CNBC and The Irish Times

The Economic Times:

Bain: Indian startups raised $9.6B in 2023, down from $25.7B in 2022; over 35K Indian startups shut down in 2023 and leading startups laid off 20,000+ employees — During 2023, growth and late-stage startups chose to defer fundraising, and investors took their foot off the gas pedal owing …

More: The Financial Express, The Hindu BusinessLine, YourStory, Bain & Company, Livemint, and Bain & Company. X: @refsrc

Bloomberg.com:

Two of the UK's biggest supermarket chains, Tesco and Sainsbury's, were hit with technical issues on Saturday; Sainsbury's blames a software update — Two of the UK's biggest supermarket chains - Tesco and Sainsbury's - were hit with technical issues on Saturday.

More: DatacenterDynamics. X: @mikebutcher, @hwallop, @anglish15, @theguyliner, @skynews, @nick_maxwell, @tradersimon, @brightonsnapper, @willguyatt, @willguyatt, and @mikebutcher

Tabby Kinder / Financial Times:

Reddit's down round IPO is a signal that rationality is slowly returning to VC and could encourage other tech companies looking to go public do the same — Companies and their backers are starting to show more signs of acceptance of valuation cuts in ‘down round’ financing

Mastodon: @reichenstein@mastodon.social

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From Mediagazer

Andrew Trunsky / New York Times:

A profile of Natalie Winters, a Steve Bannon protégée, War Room reporter, and Piers Morgan Uncensored contributor, who now has a White House press pass

Harshita Mary Varghese / Reuters:

Warner Bros. Discovery says John Malone is not seeking re-election to the board of directors and will instead take on the role of chairman emeritus

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:

Twelve-year-old French policy title Contexte, which had €10.7M in 2024 revenue, plans to launch an EU-focused English-language edition to rival Politico in May

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James O'Donnell / MIT Technology Review:

Self-driving startup Waabi unveils Copilot4D, a generative AI model trained on lidar data to predict traffic flow around a vehicle 5-10 seconds into the future

More: arXiv and Waabi

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Gumroad, an e-commerce company for creators, updates its rules to more strictly limit NSFW content, citing policies of payment processors like Stripe and PayPal

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New York Times:

The TikTok divestment bill's progress slows down in the Senate, as Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has not decided whether to bring the bill to the floor

More: Financial Times and Quartz

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X: @carnage4life, @tedcruz, @michaelsobolik, @alexisohanian, and @sentomcotton

Andrew Hayward / Decrypt:

Starbucks is ending Odyssey, which launched in December 2022 in closed beta offering NFT-based rewards minted on the Polygon blockchain, on March 31, 2024

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Threads: @richardlawler and @crumbler. Bluesky: @toddindeed.bsky.social

X: @nftbark and @basedkarbon

Bloomberg:

Sources: HashiCorp, which helps companies manage their cloud infrastructure, has been considering options including a sale; HCP jumps 11%+ after hours

More: Runtime, CNBC, and Reuters. Threads: @gergelyorosz_

Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:

Sources: Social Capital fired two of its partners after they tried to raise ~$2M from outside the firm for AI chipmaker Groq, which rankled Chamath Palihapitiya

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Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft is again injecting pop-ups into Chrome on Windows in a bid to get users to switch to Bing, after previously pausing them citing “unintended behavior”

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X: @mayank_jee, @windowslatest, @mayank_jee, and @tomwarren

Forums: r/antivirus, r/technology, and Slashdot

Alex Koller / CNBC:

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X: @dimartinobooth and @grady_booch

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CNN:

SCOTUS rules that public officials may block people on social media in certain circumstances, tossing aside challenges against Michigan and California officials

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Threads: @benjamin_goggin_. Forums: r/DeFranco and r/politics

Business Insider:

Sources: BeReal is weighing raising a Series C or being acquired, as what is left of its $90M in funding is set to run out this year and DAUs stagnate at 25M

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Emma Roth / The Verge:

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X: @moreperfectus, @morningbrew, @kystokes, and @mplsward9. Forums: r/uberdrivers

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

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