Techmeme
June 20, 2023, 10:00 PM

Top News

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Source: Spotify plans a more expensive “Supremium” tier with HiFi audio, audiobooks, and more, launching outside the US later in 2023; Premium costs $9.99/month  —  Spotify Technology SA is planning a more expensive subscription option that's expected to include high-fidelity audio …
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Spotify updates its desktop app with redesigned “Your Library” and “Now Playing” user interfaces, meant to align the experience with the company's mobile app  —  Spotify is updating its desktop experience with redesigned “Your Library” and “Now Playing” interfaces, the company announced on Tuesday.
Billy Perrigo / TIME:
Documents show OpenAI lobbied for parts of the EU's AI Act to be watered down, including successfully avoiding deeming general purpose AI systems as “high risk”  —  The CEO of OpenAI, Sam Altman, has spent the last month touring world capitals where, at talks to sold-out crowds …
Jeremy Diamond / CNN:
A look at the White House's urgent push for AI regulation, as Biden meets with a group of AI experts for a non-industry perspective on risks and opportunities  —  President Joe Biden huddled in the Oval Office with several of his top advisers in early April as an aide typed prompts into ChatGPT …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple expands Self Service Repair to the iPhone 14 lineup, 13-inch M2 MacBook Air, and 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro with M2 Pro and Max, starting on June 21  —  Apple today announced that its self-service repair program will be expanding to the iPhone 14 lineup, 13-inch MacBook Air with the M2 chip …
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Crypto exchange EDX Markets, backed by Citadel, Fidelity, and Charles Schwab, quietly began executing trades via its “noncustodial” service in recent weeks  —  EDX Markets won't directly handle customers' digital assets or directly serve individual investors
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
iOS 17 and macOS Sonoma betas automatically generate Apple ID passkeys; Apple․com and iCloud․com add passkey support so users can sign in without a password  —  You can now forgo entering your password on icloud.com and apple.com domains thanks to newly added passkey support.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The Anti-Meta Fedi Pact, circulated on Mastodon, pledges to block Meta's planned ActivityPub service, a petty and insular move that would keep Mastodon small  —  The Anti-Meta Fedi Pact: … Yours truly, on Bluesky a month ago (which, ironically, is not yet open itself, so here's an open preview):
Martin Matishak / The Record:
The US DOJ announces NatSec Cyber, a new section within its National Security Division that will focus on prosecuting malicious foreign cyber activity  —  The U.S. Department of Justice is adding a new section to its National Security Division that will focus on prosecuting malicious foreign cyber activity …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft's Satya Nadella, Activision's Bobby Kotick, and Sony's Jim Ryan plan to testify in court over the FTC's bid to block the Microsoft-Activision deal  —  Microsoft is sending CEO Satya Nadella, Xbox chief Phil Spencer, and many other Xbox executives to defend against its Federal Trade Commission …
Neesha A. Tambe / TechCrunch:
Render, which provides developers cloud-based services for hosting code, deploying web apps, and more, raised a $50M Series B led by Bessemer Venture Partners  —  Cloud platform startup Render closed a $50M series B round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.  Additional participation …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Google updates Chrome on iOS with a new mini Google Maps view and an option to add Calendar events by tapping a date on a site, and promises Google Lens support  —  Google is adding some more features to its Chrome iOS browser to tempt iPhone users away from Safari.
Jane Zhang / Bloomberg:
In a surprise shakeup, Alibaba names Eddie Wu as its CEO, replacing Daniel Zhang, effective September 10; Zhang will remain CEO of Alibaba Cloud  —  Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is replacing eight-year veteran chief Daniel Zhang at the helm of a Chinese e-commerce leader bleeding market share …
Tabby Kinder / Financial Times:
a16z, Sequoia, and others are increasingly investing in defense tech startups; PitchBook: US VCs invested $33B in the sector in 2022, up from below $16B in 2019  —  War in Ukraine and geopolitical tensions leads to belief that fledgling companies will get a share of US Pentagon budget

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.
Zoho:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
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 10:00 PM ET, June 20, 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

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
New York Times:
Sabrina Ortiz / ZDNet: