Techmeme
April 2, 2024, 10:10 PM

Top News

research!rsc:
A timeline of the attack on open-source project XZ Utils, which began in late 2021 and led to a backdoor with RCE in Linux distros from Debian, Red Hat, others  —  Over a period of over two years, an attacker using the name “Jia Tan” worked as a diligent, effective contributor to the xz compression library …
Washington Post:
The US Cyber Safety Review Board faults Microsoft for a “cascade of avoidable errors” that led to the 2023 Chinese hack of top US government officials' emails  —  The independent Cyber Safety Review Board's forthcoming report knocks the tech giant for shoddy cybersecurity practices …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Yahoo acquires the news app Artifact, shuts down its standalone app, and plans to use its technology on Yahoo News and other services in the coming months  —  Instagram's co-founders built a powerful and useful tool for recommending news to readers — but could never quite get it to scale.
Theo Wayt / The Information:
Amazon plans to remove Just Walk Out from most of its grocery stores and add more grocery stores with Dash Carts, which let shoppers scan items while they shop  —  Amazon's grab-and-go checkout system, Just Walk Out, has been a centerpiece of its ambitions to transform bricks-and-mortar supermarkets.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Billie Eilish, Katy Perry, and 200+ others sign a letter to AI developers and tech companies decrying “predatory” AI that steals voices, replaces artists, more  —  - Jen Jacobson, executive director at The Artist Rights Alliance (ARA), the trade group representing the artists signing the letter …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: Microsoft is testing a new AI-powered Xbox chatbot that can automate support tasks via an “embodied AI character”, as part of larger Xbox AI efforts  —  Microsoft is currently testing a new AI-powered Xbox chatbot that can be used to automate support tasks.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Anthropic researchers detail “many-shot jailbreaking”, which can evade LLMs' safety guardrails by including a large number of faux dialogues in a single prompt  —  How do you get an AI to answer a question it's not supposed to?  There are many such “jailbreak” techniques …
Raymond Wong / Inverse:
Apple debuts Spatial Personas in beta, letting up to five Vision Pro users participate together within compatible apps without being in the same physical space  —  Apple Vision Pro is above and beyond other mixed reality headsets, but even with the highest quality passthrough camera tech …
David Ingram / NBC News:
X promotes Kylie McRoberts to Head of Safety, after Ella Irwin left in June 2023, when Musk overruled a decision that limited the spread of an anti-trans video  —  Musk's heads of safety have traditionally attracted intense scrutiny.  —  Elon Musk's X said Tuesday it was appointing …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
On The Daily Show, Jon Stewart says Apple asked him not to interview FTC chair Lina Khan on his Apple podcast by saying “please don't talk to her”  —  - “Apple's conduct extends beyond just monopoly profits and even affects the flow of speech.
Ian King / Bloomberg:
Intel says its Foundry division had $18.9B in 2023 revenue, down 31% YoY, and a $7B operating loss, up from $5.2B, and expects 2024 to be the peak of its losses  —  - In a change, company breaks out numbers for manufacturing unit  — New Intel Foundry division is expected to break even by 2030
Reed Albergotti / Semafor:
Replit launches Code Repair, an AI agent to automatically fix coding errors, and Teams, which allows developers to collaborate in real time on software projects  —  The Scoop  —  A Silicon Valley AI coding startup is launching a new tool that it hopes will change the way companies develop software.

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Earlier Picks

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Bloomberg:
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Wall Street Journal: