Techmeme
February 3, 2023, 6:40 PM

Top News

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Twitter cuts off API access to Movetodon, a useful tool for finding and following one's Twitter followers on Mastodon; it's unclear if the tool broke any rule  —  from the trying-to-lock-the-barn-doors dept  —  People keep claiming that Mastodon isn't scaring Elon Musk …
BuzzFeed News:
Twitter ending free API access could have the unfortunate side effect of killing many useful bots, like @MakeItAQuote, @BigTechAlert, @_weather_bot_, and more  —  “I'm not paying a dime to Elon lol.”  —  Pranav Dixit  —  One of the most popular bots on Twitter is @MakeItAQuote, which has more than 565,000 followers.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Inside ChatGPT's rushed launch, as some OpenAI executives feared rivals upstaging them; Sam Altman worries about a regulatory backlash and inflated expectations  —  Even inside the company, the chatbot's popularity has come as something of a shock.  —  One day in mid-November …
Forbes:
Q&A with Sam Altman on AI systems replacing search engines, Microsoft's OpenAI investments, how artificial general intelligence may “break capitalism”, and more  —  In a rare interview, OpenAI's CEO talks about AI model ChatGPT, artificial general intelligence and Google Search.
Financial Times:
Sources: Google invested ~$300M in Anthropic for a ~10% stake, making the generative AI startup use the money on Google Cloud, echoing Microsoft's OpenAI deal  —  Cash-for-computing deal shows how large tech groups are investing in companies at the vanguard of generative AI
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Elon Musk says Twitter will start sharing revenue from reply-thread ads with users who pay for Twitter Blue, starting on February 3, but doesn't give details  —  Elon Musk says that Twitter will start sharing revenue from reply-thread ads with creators who are subscribed to Twitter Blue Verified.
Rohan Goswami / CNBC:
Activision Blizzard settles with the SEC for $35M, over claims of violating federal whistleblower protections and not maintaining adequate disclosure standards  —  - Activision Blizzard will settle with the SEC for $35 million, over claims that the company violated federal whistleblower protections …
Matt Richtel / New York Times:
Some US emergency services operators say they are inundated with false, automated calls by the Apple Watches or iPhone 14s of skiers and fitness enthusiasts  —  911 dispatchers are buried under an avalanche of false, automated distress calls from skiers and other Apple device owners who are very much alive.
Harmeet Singh Walia / Counterpoint Research:
Global smartphone shipments declined 12% YoY to 1.2B units in 2022, the lowest since 2013; Apple took 18% share, 48% revenue, and 85% operating profit growth  —  - The global smartphone market declined by 18% YoY to reach 304 million units in Q4 2022.  — Apple replaced Samsung …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the FTC is preparing an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon, though the timing remains in flux, and is also scrutinizing Amazon Prime's bundling practices  —  Federal Trade Commission considers challenge to array of practices by Amazon, a target of criticism from Chair Lina Khan
Dave Lee / Financial Times:
Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, and Microsoft will collectively incur $10B+ in charges related to 50,000 job cuts, real estate changes, and other cost saving measures  —  Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft reveal hefty price tag as they rein in spending  —  Amazon, Meta, Alphabet and Microsoft …
Alexandra Bruell / Wall Street Journal:
Sports Illustrated publisher Arena Group is working with AI startups Jasper and Nota to help produce articles from its own content library and pitch journalists  —  Arena Group uses the technology to help produce Men's Journal pieces such as workout tips  —  The publisher of Sports Illustrated …
Amazon:
Thomas Maxwell / Insider:
Sundar Pichai says YouTube Shorts passed 50B daily views, up from 30B in April 2022; YouTube began sharing ad revenue with Shorts creators on February 1  —  - YouTube Shorts now sees more than 50 billion daily views, up from 30 billion the year prior.  — The short-form video format was launched in 2021 as a response to TikTok.
Davey Alba / Bloomberg:

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:
CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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 6:40 PM ET, February 3, 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.

More News

Wall Street Journal:
Amitoj Singh / CoinDesk:

Earlier Picks

Jennifer Rankin / The Guardian:
Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal: