Techmeme
July 20, 2023, 1:15 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple built Ajax, a framework for building LLMs, created a chatbot app that some engineers call “Apple GPT”, and is planning an AI announcement in 2024  —  - Company builds large language models and internal chatbot  — Executives haven't decided how to release tools to consumers
New York Times:
Kevin Mitnick, a hacker best known for his crime spree in the 1990s, who later became a consultant, writer, and public speaker after leaving prison, dies at 59  —  Mr. Mitnick, best known for a crime spree during the 1990s that involved the theft of thousands of data files and credit card numbers, died from pancreatic cancer.
Or Goren / Cord Busters:
Netflix removes its most affordable $10/month ad-free Basic tier in the US and UK, charging new and rejoining members £10.99/month or $15.49/month for no ads  —  This post may contain affiliate links*  —  Breaking: In a major shakeup of its pricing model, Netflix, the global streaming giant …
Lisa Richwine / Reuters:
Netflix Q2: revenue up 2.7% YoY to $8.2B, vs. $8.3B est., net income up 3.3% YoY to $1.5B, 5.9M net new subscribers, vs. 1.9M est., and a Q3 forecast below est.  —  Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) handily beat Wall Street earnings forecasts on Wednesday as a password-sharing crackdown …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
C. Scott Brown / Android Authority:
Google launches Nearby Share for Windows, letting users transfer files between PCs and Android devices close to each other, after debuting a beta in March 2023  —  Anyone can download Nearby Share for Windows now, but your future laptop might come with it pre-installed.  —  •  —  TL;DR
Arun Padmanabhan / Moneycontrol:
In Llama 2's commercial terms, Meta says companies with 700M+ MAUs must request a license, and users are prohibited from utilizing Llama 2 to improve other LLMs  —  Although Meta has announced that it will open-source its LLM and allow free usage for commercial and research purposes …
Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
A study claims GPT-4's outputs grew worse from March to June, but some experts aren't convinced by the results and urge OpenAI to be less opaque about AI models  —  Either way, experts think OpenAI should be less opaque about its AI model architecture.  —  On Tuesday, researchers …
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
France designates Société Générale's blockchain unit Forge a digital asset service provider, issuing the country's first license under its new crypto rules  —  - Forge awarded permissions to act as custodian, trade crypto  — License will help meet demand from institutional clients: CEO
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard agree to extend the finalization of their merger agreement to October 18, pending the outcome of negotiations with the UK CMA  —  Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have agreed to extend their merger agreement pending the outcome of negotiations with UK regulators.
Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft plans to give 31 security logs to its lower-cost cloud service licensees for free in September 2023, after its China hack disclosures drew criticism  —  Company says it will make security logs available to customers with lower-cost cloud services  —  Microsoft said it plans …
Matthew Humphries / PCMag:
Intel grants Asus a non-exclusive license to its NUC designs; Asus plans to make, sell, and support 10th to 13th gen systems and can develop new system designs  —  The agreement covers existing NUCs and allows Asus to design new models. … , Asus is granted a non-exclusive license …
Andrew Tarantola / Engadget:
In an earnings call, Elon Musk says Tesla is open to licensing its FSD software and hardware to other carmakers and is “already in discussions” with a major OEM  —  “We're not trying to keep this to ourselves” ~ Tesla CEO Elon Musk.  —  In a surprise announcement during Tesla's …
Jay Jacobs / Cyentia Institute:
Analysis: tweets about CVEs, which peaked before Elon Musk took over, show a steep decline in recent months, suggesting the infosec Twitter community has shrunk  —  “Infosec twitter” has been used to describe the vibrant, active and often enthusiastic community of security practitioners working in and around the industry.
Bloomberg:
Gijong Lee / The Elec:
Sources: Samsung has begun the development of a smart ring, the so-called Galaxy Ring, using circuit boards made by Japan's Meiko  —  Device to offer health information to wearers Samsung has started the development of a new smart device that will come in the form of a ring, TheElec has learned.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Meta launches a standalone WhatsApp app for Wear OS 3, letting smartwatch users start chats, reply to messages, and take calls without their connected phone  —  WhatsApp has finally launched its standalone app for smartwatches running Google's Wear OS, after much anticipation and months-long beta testing.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
How EQ plays a defining role in workplace communication  —  What if everyone you worked with had a psychic ability to understand how you're feeling and respond accordingly?  Wouldn't that be great?
IDrive:
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