Techmeme
April 4, 2024, 3:50 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Sources: Alphabet is considering an offer for the marketing software company HubSpot, which has a $35B market cap, in what would be its largest acquisition yet  —  Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL.O) has been talking to its advisers about the possibility of making an offer for HubSpot (HUBS.N) …
Amrita Khalid / The Verge:
X adds blue checks to some large accounts as part of its plan to give free Premium memberships to users with at least 2,500 “verified subscriber followers”  —  Just as Elon Musk said, X is doling out free Premium and Premium memberships to accounts with a high number of verified followers.
Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
Google sues two alleged crypto scammers, accusing them of using its Play Store to offer fraudulent crypto trading and investment apps to steal users' money  —  Google is suing two alleged crypto scammers, accusing them of using its Play Store to offer fraudulent cryptocurrency trading apps …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
A profile of hacker Alejandro Caceres, aka P4x, who took down North Korea's internet in 2022 and says the US needs to wield its hacking powers more aggressively  —  As “P4x,” Alejandro Caceres single-handedly disrupted the internet of an entire country.  Then he tried to show the US military how it can—and should—adopt his methods.
Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:
Ripple plans to launch a stablecoin later in 2024 that is “100% backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US government Treasuries, and other cash equivalents”  —  The token will be “100% backed by U.S. dollar deposits, short-term U.S. government Treasuries and other cash equivalents.” according to the company.
Bloomberg:
Elon Musk says “Tesla is increasing comp ... of our AI engineering team” because OpenAI has been “aggressively recruiting Tesla engineers” with “massive” offers  —  - CEO says carmaker is going extra mile to retain specialists  — Exodus may exacerbate concerns about conflicts, governance
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Developers say open-source software culture, where users demand constant updates from volunteer coders, is a security issue, as shown by the XZ Utils backdoor  —  A previously unknown contributor to the popular open-source Android app store F-Droid repeatedly pressured its developers to push …
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
More: PYMNTS.com, The Intercept, and The Hill
Threads: @jenvalentino_nytMastodon: @couts@mastodon.socialX: @kevinrooseLinkedIn: Affan DarForums: Hacker News, r/technology, and r/neoliberal
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
Google Books is indexing low quality, AI-generated books, which may impact Google Ngram viewer, an important tool used by researchers to track language use  —  Google said it will continue to evaluate its approach “as the world of book publishing evolves.”
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
Cohere releases Command R+, an AI model for business customers the startup says performs competitively against OpenAI and others on “business-critical” tasks  —  Cohere says its new technology is cheaper than OpenAI's offerings.  —  Artificial intelligence startup Cohere Inc …
Scott Stein / CNET:
An interview with Andrew Bosworth on the 10th anniversary of Reality Labs, the past and future of VR, AR, and AI, Meta's next AR glasses prototype, and more  —  Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth talks with CNET about the past and future of VR, AR and AI.  —  2014 doesn't seem that long ago to me.
Tim Stelloh / NBC News:
A Washington state judge bars using AI-enhanced video as evidence in a murder trial, a ruling experts say may be the first-of-its-kind in a US criminal court  —  Lawyers for a man charged with murder in a triple homicide had sought to introduce cellphone video enhanced by machine-learning software.
Niamh Rowe / Fortune:
Ellipsis Labs, which operates Phoenix, a decentralized crypto exchange launched in February 2023, raised a $20M Series A led by Paradigm  —  Ellipsis Labs today announced $20 million in Series A funding, led by Paradigm with participation from Electric Capital.
Lindsay Ellis / Wall Street Journal:
How some MBA programs in the US are reorienting courses around AI by adding AI-related classwork, encouraging students to present on AI innovations, and more  —  American University, other top M.B.A. programs reorient courses around artificial intelligence; ‘It has eaten our world’
The Guardian:
Sources: Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza used Lavender, an AI system that identified 37,000 potential human targets based on their apparent links to Hamas  —  Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants
More: +972 Magazine, Al Jazeera, Fortune, Telegraph, CNN, Gizmodo, Business Today, Cryptopolitan, ScheerPost.com, The i Paper, FRANCE 24 English on YouTube, The Sun, The Times of Israel, Firstpost, Daily Kos, and The Guardian
LinkedIn: Ana Brandusescu and Sahar Aziz
Chris Vallance / BBC:
Google expands Search Generative Experience to the UK, after launching the feature in preview in the US in May 2023, starting with some logged-in users  —  Google has begun trialling search answers written by artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK, after the feature was tested in the US last year.

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