Techmeme
April 12, 2023, 8:30 AM

Top News

Kali Hays / Insider:
Sources: Twitter is working on generative AI after buying around 10K GPUs and reportedly poaching DeepMind researchers; a source says the work involves an LLM  —  - CEO Elon Musk is upping the computational power at Twitter to proceed with an AI play.  — Musk has criticized ChatGPT …
Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:
In a Twitter Space, Elon Musk said Twitter is roughly breaking even, the company will tweak the state-affiliated media tag, most advertisers are back, and more  —  The Twitter CEO provided a six-month update on his takeover in a live interview with the BBC  —  SAN FRANCISCO …
Financial Times:
Sources: a16z, Tiger Global, IVP, and other VCs are touring Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar to build ties with sovereign wealth funds during the funding crunch  —  Liquidity crunch leads investors such as Andreessen Horowitz to sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and UAE
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Kaspersky: malware developers are selling malicious Google Play loaders for $2K-$20K on hacker forums; the average price for a loader is $6,975  —  Malware developers have created a thriving market promising to add malicious Android apps to Google Play for $2,000 to $20,000 …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft releases 97 security fixes, patching one actively exploited zero-day flaw in the Windows Common Log File System and seven critical RCE vulnerabilities  —  Today is Microsoft's April 2023 Patch Tuesday, and security updates fix one actively exploited zero-day vulnerability and a total of 97 flaws.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
Citizen Lab and Microsoft detail mercenary spyware from Tel Aviv-based QuaDream used to hack iOS 14-based iPhones of journalists, politicians, and an NGO worker  —  Microsoft and Citizen Lab have new reports out about QuaDream, a little-known Israeli mercenary spyware provider.
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
OpenAI partners with Bugcrowd to launch a bug bounty program, offering rewards from $200 to $20K but excluding some safety issues, like jailbreaks prompts  —  OpenAI will start paying people as much as $20,000 to help the company find bugs in its artificial intelligence systems, such as the massively popular ChatGPT chatbot.
Konrad Putzier / Wall Street Journal:
Labor consultants say US companies, responding to labor shortages and rising wages, are outsourcing jobs overseas, expanding on pandemic remote work policies  —  Companies respond to labor shortages and rising wages by moving some positions abroad, labor consultants say
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Google launches an Android auto-archiving feature, which removes over 60% of an unused app's local data when the device is low on storage, catching up to iOS  —  On Monday, Google launched a new auto-archiving feature, which removes more than 60% of an unused app's data from an Android phone to save storage space on the device.
Sunil Jagtiani / Bloomberg:
Binance.US plans to delist the TRX token linked to Justin Sun's Tron from April 18 for failing to meet the expected standard of excellence; TRX drops ~4%  —  The Binance US exchange said the TRX token linked to Justin Sun's Tron crypto platform will be delisted from April 18, a move that spurred a decline in the digital asset.
Rachel Swan / San Francisco Chronicle:
Recent autonomous vehicle snafus in San Francisco include five Waymo cars jamming an intersection and Cruise recalling software last week after an AV hit a bus  —  Five self-driving vehicles blocked traffic early Tuesday morning in the middle of a residential street in San Francisco's Balboa …
Viola Zhou / Rest of World:
Video game illustrators in China say AI image generators are causing them to lose their jobs, as some employers encourage use of AI tools to boost productivity  —  “AI is developing at a speed way beyond our imagination.  Two people could potentially do the work that used to be done by 10."

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Earlier Picks

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Pew Research Center:
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: