Techmeme: How TikTok, Amazon, and other platforms go through “enshittification”, helping users before abusing them to help business customers, then abusing those as well (Cory Doctorow/Pluralistic)

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January 30, 2023, 6:20 AM

Top News

Sander Lutz / Decrypt:

The Biden administration publishes a roadmap for mitigating cryptocurrencies' risks and urges Congress to hasten efforts to create a crypto regulatory framework — Four senior Biden officials penned a note Friday urging lawmakers to hasten their efforts to create a regulatory framework for crypto.

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:

Source: Baidu is planning to launch an AI chatbot similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT in March 2023, initially embedded into its main search services — Baidu Inc. is planning to roll out an artificial intelligence chatbot service similar to OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to a person familiar with the matter …

More: Reuters, Engadget, The Economic Times, The Information, Wall Street Journal, Barron's Online, TechNode, Neowin, TechCircle, and Digital Trends

Mastodon: @ukuku@mstdn.social. Tweets: @robinwauters, @pelstrom, @pelstrom, @davidinglestv, @dinabass, @pingroma, @ruima, @elenaneroba, and @eden_holdings

David Ingram / NBC News:

San Francisco asked California regulators to halt or scale back the expansion of Cruise and Waymo, after repeated incidents with stopped and idle robotaxis — SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco is trying to slow the expansion of robotaxis after repeated incidents in which cars without drivers stopped …

More: Engadget, California Public Utilities Commission, The Verge, SiliconANGLE, Digital Trends, California Public Utilities Commission, Slashdot, Wired, and TechSpot

Tweets: @davidzipper, @davidzipper, @wiredscience, @nbcnews, @david_ingram, @aniccia, @tsimonite, and @aarianmarshall

John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew plans to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 23, the first appearance by a TikTok CEO before Congress — Republicans are expected to use hearing to highlight security and privacy concerns over video app — TikTok Offers More Transparency to Win Over U.S. Regulators

More: Reuters, Fortune, Bloomberg, International Business Times, and South China Morning Post

Jon Porter / The Verge:

Kuo: Apple plans to release a foldable iPad in 2024, featuring a carbon fiber kickstand, as well as an updated iPad mini, after a quiet 2023 for the iPad — Apple could be on track to release a foldable iPad as early as next year, according to supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.

More: Android Authority, AppleInsider, MacRumors, MacRumors, SPARROWS NEWS, Appuals.com, iMore, Cult of Mac, and GSMArena.com

Tweets: @mingchikuo, @mingchikuo, @bengeskin, @mingchikuo, and @mingchikuo

Julia Angwin / The Markup:

Q&A with Princeton CS professor Arvind Narayanan on why he calls ChatGPT a “bullshit generator”, his worries over its boom, developing his AI taxonomy, and more — Hello, friends, — If you have been reading all the hype about the latest artificial intelligence chatbot …

Mastodon: @JeroenJeremy@mastodon.green. Tweets: @random_walker, @juliaangwin, @daphnehk, @harrymccracken, @jonathandriddle, @digiphile, @random_walker, and @fuzheado

Wall Street Journal:

Documents: China's top nuclear weapons research lab, on the US export entity list since 1997, bought 7nm to 14nm Intel and Nvidia chips several times since 2020 — State-owned institute continued buying Intel- and Nvidia-made chips despite inclusion on a U.S. export blacklist in 1997

More: Associated Press. Tweets: @angelazhanghk, @newley, @cold_peace_, @dravirmani, and @lingling_wei

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan / New Scientist:

Researchers detail how ProGen, an LLM trained on 280M proteins, designed proteins with anti-microbial properties that were tested in real life and shown to work — An AI was tasked with creating proteins with anti-microbial properties. Researchers then created a subset of the proteins and found some did the job

More: Neowin, Slashdot, Nature, and VICE

Tweets: @twenseleers, @tonymmorley, @thisismadani, @erictopol, @sn4ileater, @shiraeis, and @ppmc_uab

TechCrunch:

Court records from 2011 to 2022 show how police in some US states used data like text messages, search history, and emails in abortion-related prosecutions — In late April, police in Nebraska received a tip saying 17-year-old Celeste Burgess had given birth to a stillborn baby and buried the body.

Tweets: @evacide and @runasand

Kat Bailey / IGN:

Q&A with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer on Xbox having no major 2022 releases, 2023 momentum, layoffs, the Activision deal amid the FTC lawsuit, and more — Xbox's CEO talks about the recent Developer Direct, 2022 struggles, layoffs, and what 2023 could hold.

More: KitGuru, Engadget, Game Rant, Livemint, Pure Xbox, Video Games Chronicle, GamingBolt, PC Gamer, Appuals.com, Wccftech, TheGamer, Dot Esports, Kotaku, Windows Central, and Dexerto

Tweets: @tomwarren, @draydensbeard, @dreadknux, and @tomwarren

Naomi Nix / Washington Post:

After layoffs, Meta, which used remote work during the pandemic to advance its diversity goals, now faces an uphill battle to continue making progress with DEI — Brit Levy, 35, was eager to join Meta's paid training program for aspiring human resources managers last year because she wanted …

Tweets: @nerdbitches, @max111206, @kmjeezy, and @mrman_6

Bloomberg:

The memory-chip sector, known for boom-and-bust cycles, is facing one if its worst-ever routs, as inventory glut and a fight for marketshare has cratered prices — This time was supposed to be different. — The memory-chip sector, famous for its boom-and-bust cycles, had changed its ways.

Tweets: @lisaabramowicz1, @pelstrom, @pelstrom, and @trengriffin

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:20 AM ET, January 30, 2023.

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.

From Mediagazer

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

Memo: Vanity Fair Editor Radhika Jones tells staff that she will step down this spring after seven years of leading the Condé Nast-owned magazine

Ethan Shanfeld / Variety:

Director Carl Rinsch pleads not guilty to fraud and money laundering after allegedly taking $11M from Netflix for an unfinished series; trial is set for Sept. 8

Bron Maher / Press Gazette:

The Independent says it hired seven people for its AI-written summarization service, Bulletin, and that the stories often outperform the human-written originals

More News

Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch:

Crunchbase: US Black Web3 founders raised $60M in 2022, up from $16M in 2021; US Web3 startups raised $11.9B in 2022, down 39% from $16.5B in 2021

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News:

Florida startups raised $9.7B in 601 deals in 2022, up 25% YoY from $7.8B in 652 deals; VC funding fell 40%+ YoY in 2022 in California, Massachusetts, and NY

More: Crunchbase News. Tweets: @jeffnolan, @saxonbaum, and @crunchbasenews

Cory Doctorow / Pluralistic:

How TikTok, Amazon, and other platforms go through “enshittification”, helping users before abusing them to help business customers, then abusing those as well

More: Michael Tsai. Tweets: @mikeelgan, @timsweeneyepic, @doctorow, @sriramk, @tychobrahe, @hlinehan, @greglinden, @glichfield, @robertmaguire_, @josh_bersin, @seankreynolds, @scottmonty, @doctorow, @doctorow, @alexdecampi, @masspirates, and @agroebbe

Charlize Alcaraz / BetaKit:

Toronto-based Smile CDR, which offers services for health care and clinical data interoperability, raised a ~$30M Series B led by UPMC Enterprises and others

More: newswire.com

Hannah Lang / Reuters:

The US Federal Reserve rejects Custodia Bank's application to become a Federal Reserve System member, citing safety risks with its crypto-focused business model

CTech:

OpenWeb, which helps outlets manage comments and target readers with ads, acquires Jeeng, an audience management service used by over 650 publishers, for $100M

More: Globes Online, OpenWeb, Insider, and FinSMEs

Tweets: @glenngabe and @glenngabe

Earlier Picks

Financial Times:

Meme-stock mania companies, including GameStop and AMC Entertainment, have raised $4.7B since the hype began in January 2021, but failed to boost performance

Tweets: @edgecliffe

Bloomberg:

As the GOP assumes US House leadership, the antitrust subcommittee shifts its focus from bipartisan efforts to curb Big Tech's power to free speech issues

More: BIG by Matt Stoller and MacDailyNews

Tweets: @birnbaum_e, @justin_higgins2, @mattzeitlin, @evan_greer, @kdbyproxy, @matthewstoller, @lutherlowe, @mondairejones, @stacyfmitchell, @moreperfectus, @mrddmia, @karlbode, and @technology

Moneycontrol:

Some ShareChat employees and investors detail the company's leadership crisis and say revenue has not kept pace with cash burn and its ~$5B valuation in 2022

More: Keeping Up With India, YourStory.com, The Economic Times, and Inc42 Media

Tweets: @debarghya_das, @mohitmehrotra91, @sub8u, @moneycontrolcom, @vipul_zend, @deepsekharc, @moneycontrolcom, @getsnigdha, @chandrarsrikant, @sumitgh85, and @shyamsek

Tim Harford / Financial Times:

What poet, playboy, and prophet of investment bubbles Charles Mackay, plagiarizing in 1841 on the Dutch tulip bubble, can tell us about crypto's rise and fall

Tweets: @johnkoetsier, @pkedrosky, @ftweekend, @profjohnturner, @thecompoundnews, @prashanth_krish, and @financialtimes

Blake Brittain / Reuters:

Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI told a San Francisco federal court to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit against Copilot, citing fair use of open-source code

More: MSPoweruser, The Verge, Slashdot, Observer, and Law Street Media

Tweets: @webmink, @geronimo_73_, and @reuterslegal

New York Times:

Court filing: the US DOJ accuses Sam Bankman-Fried of messaging FTX US' general counsel and a potential witness, and asks a judge to limit his communications

More: Decrypt, Reuters, PYMNTS.com, The Daily Hodl, Bloomberg, CNBC, CryptoSlate, Engadget, Bitcoin News, The Block, Wall Street Journal, Cointelegraph, crypto.news, CoinJournal, NewsBTC, Cryptonews, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, and Top Startups 2023

Tweets: @downwithtyranny and @cryptoelitenews