Techmeme
August 17, 2023, 1:25 PM

Top News

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Cofense discovers a phishing campaign that uses QR codes to target a notable US energy company, the first known use of QR codes for phishing at scale  —  A phishing campaign was observed predominantly targeting a notable energy company in the US, employing QR codes to slip malicious emails into inboxes and bypass security.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft plans to close the Xbox 360 Store and Xbox 360 Marketplace on July 29, 2024, meaning users will not be able to buy new games, DLC, avatars, and more  —  Microsoft is preparing to close down its Xbox 360 Store and Xbox 360 Marketplace on July 29th, 2024.
Sam Kessler / CoinDesk:
Sei launches its trading-focused blockchain and SEI reaches $1.6B trading volume in the first 24 hours, per CoinMarketCap; many users criticized SEI's airdrop  —  The buzzy blockchain project's SEI token saw a flurry of trading as it debuted on several crypto exchanges …
Vlad Turiceanu / Windows Report:
Leaked images show Lenovo's new Legion Go, a Windows 11 gaming handheld that appears to combine features of the Steam Deck, Asus ROG Ally, and Nintendo Switch  —  Here's a first look at Lenovo's new gaming handheld, the Legion Go  —  Lenovo is working on a gaming handheld called Legion Go …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI acquires New York-based AI design studio Global Illumination, marking the company's first public acquisition; the terms of the deal weren't disclosed  —  OpenAI, the AI company behind the viral AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT, has acquired Global Illumination, a New York-based startup leveraging AI …
Vitalik Buterin / Vitalik Buterin's website:
A deep dive into X's Community Notes, including how the algorithm works, whether the feature actually fights polarization, and its use in high-stakes situations  —  Special thanks to Dennis Pourteaux and Jay Baxter for feedback and review.  —  The last two years of Twitter X have been tumultuous, to say the least.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Snap confirms and fixes a My AI glitch that caused the chatbot to post its own one-second Story of a two-toned image and then stop responding to users' messages  —  Snapchat's My AI feature, an in-app AI chatbot launched earlier this year with its fair share of controversy, briefly appeared to have a mind of its own.
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Solidus: between mid-July and August, developers deployed 500+ scam tokens on Coinbase's Base blockchain, ~300 of which let their creators mint unlimited tokens  —  - More than 500 scam tokens were deployed on blockchain  — Solidus Labs says scammers pocketed about $2 million in profit
Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Counterpoint expects 2023 global smartphone shipments to drop 6% YoY to 1.15B units, the lowest level since 2013, due to a slowing Chinese economy and US demand  —  - Global smartphone shipments are expected to drop 6% from 2022  — Apple is better positioned than others to weather the storm
Umar Shakir / The Verge:
Meta starts rolling out HD photo support globally in WhatsApp for Android, iOS, and the web, and says the company plans to add support for HD videos soon  —  WhatsApp is flipping a switch that will let users send higher-quality “HD” images on the messaging platform.
Tom Dotan / Wall Street Journal:
Analysis: Bing had 1% to 3% search market share globally in July, the same as in January 2023, despite adding Bing Chat; Microsoft calls the new Bing a success  —  The new Bing with AI chatbot is ‘cute, but not a game changer’  —  When Microsoft unveiled an AI-powered version of Bing in February …
More: Search Engine Land and OnMSFT.com
Mastodon: @alexhammy@hachyderm.ioBluesky: @glinden.bsky.socialX: @greglindenForums: Slashdot
Bloomberg:
Court filings: Tesla engineers admit that the company failed to fix Autopilot's limitations in recognizing crossing traffic after a fatal truck crash in 2016  —  - Company faces damning testimony as trial looms over 2019 wreck  — CEO Elon Musk has claimed Teslas are safest cars ever made
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Shiba Inu's Ethereum Layer 2 network Shibarium goes live, joining 50+ other networks luring users via low fees to an ecosystem for financial services and gaming  —  The much-awaited Shibarium network saw over 21 million wallets created during its testnet and is expected to position Shiba Inu as a serious DeFi contender.
Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
Researchers: ChatGPT has a “significant and systematic political bias” toward Democrats in the US, President Lula in Brazil, and the Labour Party in the UK  —  Chatbots are ingrained with political biases picked up from their training data — which in most cases is unfiltered text from the web
Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan / Financial Times:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google launches a new Transparency Center to let users report harmful content, make appeals, read transparency reports and product or service policies, and more  —  Google is launching a new Transparency Center to make it easier for users to learn more about its product policies.
More: The Keyword and BetaNews
Alex Cranz / The Verge:
YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips pauses production after accusations of theft, ethical lapses, and sexual harassment, and plans to hire an outside investigator  —  Linus Sebastian's Linus Media Group YouTube empire is currently in crisis, with accusations of theft, lapses in ethics, and most recently, allegations of sexual harassment.

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