Techmeme
January 31, 2024, 8:20 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
A recap of the US Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on kids' online safety, with testimony from the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X, Snap, and Discord  —  The chief executives of five major tech companies are testifying Wednesday about allegations they failed to protect children from abuse on their platforms …
More: U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, The Verge, The Verge, CNN, Engadget, Tech Policy Press, New York Times, Center for Democracy …, New York Times, TechCrunch, New York Post, New York Times, CNBC, The Record, Social Media Today, The Verge, Politico, Android Headlines, NBC News, 9to5Mac, TIME, Tubefilter, C-SPAN on YouTube, Reuters, The Hill, The Hill, Livemint, Business Post, Bloomberg, Axios, PetaPixel, Newser, New York Times, Fight for the Future, The Messenger, and Associated Press on YouTube
New York Times:
US lawmakers release 90 pages of Meta emails from 2021, showing Mark Zuckerberg rejected calls to bulk up resources for children's well-being and safety  —  Lawmakers released internal emails detailing the company's failed efforts to add staff to focus on the online safety of minors, hours before a hearing on the topic.
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Microsoft and X say they support the Kids Online Safety Act; Meta, Discord, and TikTok demur, citing criticism from groups or supporting only some parts of KOSA  —  On the eve of Wednesday's big tech hearing (both big tech and a big hearing — five CEOs are testifying as we speak) …
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Angela Yang / NBC News:
Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
The FBI and US DOJ disrupt Volt Typhoon, a uniquely dangerous Chinese hacking operation to hijack hundreds of Cisco and Netgear routers at end-of-life status  —  Chinese hackers prepare to ‘wreak havoc’ against Americans, FBI Director Chris Wray tells Congress
Aoyon Ashraf / CoinDesk:
An FTX lawyer says the defunct crypto exchange expects to fully repay its customers and has abandoned efforts to restart the platform, due to a lack of buyers  —  Its FTT token surged about 11% after the news.  —  10 Years of Decentralizing the Future  —  May 29-31, 2024 - Austin …
MK Manoylov / The Block:
Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen confirms “unauthorized access” to “a few of my personal XRP accounts”, after ZachXBT noted outflows of 213M XRP, worth $112.5M  —  - Ripple co-founder Chris Larsen said Wednesday that there had been “unauthorized access” to “a few of my personal XRP accounts.”
Jeffrey Gottfried / Pew Research Center:
US adults survey: 83% use YouTube; 68% use Facebook; 47% use Instagram; 27% to 35% use Snapchat, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Pinterest; 22% use X and Reddit  —  YouTube and Facebook are by far the most used online platforms among U.S. adults; TikTok's user base has grown since 2021
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
OpenAI says GPT-4 poses “at most” a slight risk of helping create biological threats, according to early tests to evaluate “catastrophic” risks from LLMs  —  Artificial intelligence startup carried out tests as part of efforts to understand and prevent any “catastrophic” risks from its technology.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says that Microsoft Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Loop, and Copilot features will be available on Apple Vision Pro on February 2  —  Microsoft is launching a suite of its Microsoft 365 apps on Apple's Vision Pro headset later this week.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Qualcomm reports Q1 adjusted revenue up 5% YoY to $9.92B, vs. $9.51B est., handset chip sales up 16% YoY to $6.69B, and net income up 24% YoY to $2.77B  —  - Qualcomm beat on revenue and earnings in the quarter.  — The company said it shipped $6.69 billion in handset chips during the December quarter …
Vitalik Buterin / Vitalik Buterin's website:
A look at four major categories of promising applications that could emerge at the intersections of crypto and AI, and the prospects and challenges of each  —  Special thanks to the Worldcoin and Modulus Labs teams, Xinyuan Sun, Martin Koeppelmann and Illia Polosukhin for feedback and discussion.
Eri Sugiura / Financial Times:
UK prosecutors say the Met Police seized 61K bitcoin, worth £1.4B+, in 2018, as part of a trial over an alleged ~£5B investment fraud in China from 2014 to 2017  —  One of the world's largest seizures revealed during trial of woman accused of laundering cryptocurrency for her former employer
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Metronome, which offers APIs to help SaaS companies charge customers on a usage basis, raised a $43M Series B led by NEA, bringing its total funding to $78M+  —  Metronome, a startup that helps software companies offer usage-based billing, has raised $43 million in a Series B funding round led by NEA.
Dean Seal / Wall Street Journal:
The US DOJ says eBay agreed to pay $59M to settle allegations of violating the Controlled Substances Act by allowing the sale of pill presses and other items  —  Justice Department says eBay has also agreed to enhance its compliance program  —  EBay will pay $59 million to settle …
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
In an email to subscribers, Hulu says the company changed its subscriber agreement to bar sharing of accounts outside the user's household  —  The Disney-owned streaming service changed its subscriber agreement to ban sharing of accounts outside of individual households.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Sen. Brian Schatz on Congress' dysfunction in the tech space, regulating tech firms, the EU's DMA, AI, deepfakes, social media laws for kids, and more  —  Today, I'm talking with Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii.  He's been in the Senate for a little more than a decade now, and he's seen a lot in that time.
More: BloombergThreads: @aaronrosspowellX: @senbrianschatz and @ksandler1Forums: r/politics

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:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
2025: World Password Day is now also World Passkey Day  —  Since 2013, the first Thursday of May has been recognized as World Password Day to spread awareness about good password practices and protecting our online accounts.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
EP 141 Ben Lamm (Founder & CEO, Colossal Biosciences) On The Breakthroughs Making De-Extinction Actually Possible
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Judge Refers Apple For A Criminal Investigation
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Great Chat:
What's the deal with Deel?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Lenny's Podcast:
The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can't stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Josh Kopelman from First Round Capital
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:20 PM ET, January 31, 2024.

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

Tej Parikh / Financial Times:
Tom Warren / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Adrienne LaFrance / The Atlantic: