Techmeme
February 15, 2024, 3:35 AM

Top News

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
X removes paid checkmarks from some accounts after a watchdog group found 28 verified accounts allegedly tied to Hezbollah and other US-sanctioned entities  —  X (aka Twitter) accused of violating sanctions by taking payment from terrorists.  —  A watchdog group's investigation found …
Ashley Belanger / Ars Technica:
The European Court of Human Rights rules backdoors that weaken E2EE violate human rights law, after Russia began requiring Telegram to decrypt messages in 2017  —  Cops have alternative means to access encrypted messages, court says.  —  The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) …
Ashley Gold / Axios:
NYC sues ByteDance, Meta, Snap, and Google to hold the companies accountable “for fueling the nationwide youth mental health crisis” by manipulating young users  —  New York City filed a lawsuit against TikTok, Meta, Snap and Google's YouTube to hold the companies accountable …
Leander Kahney / Cult of Mac:
Many Vision Pro users are returning their devices, saying it's too expensive, heavy, or isolating, as the 14-day return window nears its end for first buyers  —  Many early adopters seem set on returning their Apple Vision Pro headsets.  As the 14-day return window approaches for people …
Aaron Holmes / The Information:
Source: OpenAI has been developing a web search product partly powered by Bing  —  OpenAI has been developing a web search product that would bring the Microsoft-backed startup into more direct competition with Google, according to someone with knowledge of OpenAI's plans.
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
A look at The Shotline, a project using ElevenLabs' tech to create audio deepfakes of kids killed in gun violence, to place AI-generated calls to US lawmakers  —  Grieving parents made these audio deepfakes to stir the emotions of lawmakers.  But they also mark a new era for artificial intelligence.
Sean Michael Kerner / VentureBeat:
Stability AI details Stable Cascade, a new image generation model built on the Würstchen architecture, which improves performance and accuracy compared to SDXL  —  Stability AI, the company behind the popular Stable Diffusion text-to-image generative AI technology is now previewing …
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
Alex Heath / The Verge:
More: TechEBlog, CNBC, Newser, The Michigan Daily, TweakTown, Creative Bloq, ZDNet, Bitcoin Insider, MobileSyrup, Business Insider, UploadVR, Wait But Why, and Marques Brownlee on YouTube
Subrat Patnaik / Bloomberg:
Nvidia passed Alphabet on February 14 as the third most valuable US company and the world's fourth with a market cap of ~$1.83T, one day after overtaking Amazon  —  - Chip giant is up 49% in 2024, adding $602 billion in value  — Market cap of $1.83 trillion exceeds Alphabet's $1.82 trillion
Brian Fung / CNN:
Prospects of a wide-ranging AI bill in the US this year are rapidly dimming, despite Senator Chuck Schumer's push to put AI regulation at the top of the agenda  —  Artificial intelligence is already sowing chaos and confusion in US elections — from a bogus robocall impersonating President Joe Biden …
The Information:
Sources: Meta is reducing payments to news orgs that fact-check potential WhatsApp misinformation, including on elections, and has cut funding for CrowdTangle  —  Meta Platforms is reducing payments to news organizations that fact-check potential misinformation on WhatsApp, including around elections …
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
Meta struggles to precisely define what political content is, offering only a vague statement, after saying it wouldn't amplify political content on Threads  —  What constitutes “political” content?  —  It's an important question that Meta has conspicuously left unanswered …
Owen Walker / Financial Times:
The CEO of Greek payments company Viva Wallet, co-owned by JPMorgan, sues the bank for allegedly suppressing Viva's growth, as JPMorgan files a counter claim  —  Wall Street bank accused of trying to drive down the valuation of Greek payments company Viva Wallet
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Cisco reports Q2 revenue down 6% YoY to $12.79B, vs. $12.71B est., and plans to cut 5% of its global workforce, or about 4,250 jobs; CSCO drops 5%+ after hours  —  - Cisco said it would let go of 5% of employees, which works out to around 4,250 people.  — The company's quarterly and full-year forecasts were light.
Wes Davis / The Verge:
DuckDuckGo adds a Sync & Backup tool to its browser that syncs passwords, bookmarks, and favorites without requiring an account, and says the data is E2EE  —  DuckDuckGo has added a new “Sync & Backup” feature to its privacy-first browser that will keep passwords, bookmarks …
Financial Times:
A look at OpenAI's business model as the company believes it can more than double the yearly run rate by 2025; ChatGPT enterprise now has 300+ paying customers  —  The AI startup is one of the fastest-growing companies in history, but questions remain about the long-term viability of its revenue stream

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More News

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
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Earlier Picks

Lauren Kaori Gurley / Washington Post:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Paayal Zaveri / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Alfred Ng / Politico:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
David Pierce / The Verge: