Techmeme
June 23, 2022, 8:15 PM

Top News

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Google details the commercial spyware Hermit, used in Kazakhstan and Italy, targeting Android and iOS; the iOS version has six exploits, including two zero-days  —  The spyware has targeted victims in Kazakhstan and Italy  —  Security researchers at Lookout recently tied …
Wall Street Journal:
Intel delays its scheduled July 22 groundbreaking of a $20B Ohio chip plant due to uncertainty around the Bipartisan Innovation Act, but still plans to build it  —  Company still plans to build the Ohio chips facility, but frustrated about status of proposed law supporting U.S. semiconductor industry
Washington Post:
Maddie Ellis / Wall Street Journal:
Instagram begins testing tools to verify ages, starting with 17 and under, using either Yoti's facial video analysis, photo IDs, or adults vouching for users  —  Meta's new policy will make it tougher for teens to update to adult accounts.  But they can still lie about their age in the first place
New York Times:
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg's top priority is now the metaverse, not securing elections; Meta has ~60 people focused primarily on elections, down from 300+ in 2020  —  Mark Zuckerberg, who once said securing elections was “the most important thing,” has shifted Meta's focus to the metaverse.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Amazon launches CodeWhisperer, a GitHub Copilot-like AI pair programming tool, in preview within the AWS IDE Toolkit, supporting Java, JavaScript, and Python  —  At its re:Mars conference, Amazon today announced the launch of CodeWhisperer, an AI pair programming tool similar to GitHub's Copilot …
Phillip Tracy / Gizmodo:
Microsoft announces gaming features for Edge, including a new homepage, exclusive free-to-play games, Clarity Boost for streamed games, and a performance option  —  This latest browser update adds a new gaming interface, graphics enhancements to Xbox Cloud Gaming, and easy access to free casual games.
Evan Conrad:
Crypto may be “more bad than good” but it has use cases like cutting out middlemen via decentralization, so the claim that it has “no use cases” is not rational  —  I've heard many smart people who I trust complain that “after 13 years, there are still no use cases for crypto.”
Wall Street Journal:
Tim De Chant / TechCrunch:
Vibrant Planet, a public-benefit startup that is developing software for forest management, has raised a $17M seed  —  For Allison Wolff, the 2018 wildfire season in California marked a turning point.  During that record-breaking year, she started asking a lot of questions.
More: FinSMEsThanks:@rickliebling
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
OSOM, founded by ex-Essential employees, scraps its OV1 phone and partners with Solana to produce Saga, a $1,000 Web3-focused Android phone launching in Q1 2023  —  The OSOM OV1 was a new Android smartphone built from the bones of Essential, but it's now being rebranded as a crypto/web3 device, the “Solana Saga.”
Bloomberg:
A profile of Changpeng Zhao, who built Binance into the largest crypto exchange, as he navigates China's regulatory crackdown in a brutal crypto winter  —  During the first few months of this year—back when buying digital tokens named after dog memes was still seen, at least …
Jessica Lucas / Input:
A look at r/LossPrevention, a subreddit for busting shoplifters; members monitor Reddit's pro-shoplifting community and share videos of people being apprehended  —  Alex McLeod is an adrenaline junkie.  The 24-year-old, who lives in Ontario, Canada, is an avid martial artist with plans to sign up for a professional fighting league.
Xinmei Shen / South China Morning Post:
Report: video game revenue in China fell for a third consecutive month in May 2022, down 6.7% YoY to $3.4B, amid a slowing economy and regulatory uncertainties  —  China's video gaming revenue fell 6.7 per cent to US$3.4 billion in May, driven mostly by a decline in mobile game spending …
Sander Lutz / Decrypt:
Coinbase plans to shut down its standalone, trader-focused Pro service by the end of 2022 and replace it with Advanced Trade as part of its main app and website  —  The standalone service will be replaced by Advanced Trade, a feature within the main Coinbase app.
Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:
A look at efforts to reduce digital advertising's carbon footprint; a 2018 study estimated online ads accounted for roughly 10% of the internet's energy usage  —  Digital ads require a lot of computing power, but the exact amount of electricity they consume is hard to pin down
Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World:
A hacktivist claims DALL-E-like Craiyon, formerly DALL-E mini, generated portraits of brown-skinned women in saris almost every time he ran a blank request  —  The images represent a glitch in the system that even its creator can't explain.  —  Like most people who are extremely online …

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
5 common accounting mistakes  —  This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions.  A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms.  This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/22 - An LLM Siri But... Only The Year AFTER Next?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:15 PM ET, June 23, 2022.

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

Cristiano Lima / Washington Post:
Bloomberg:
Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters:
Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette: