Note: Techmeme is hiring part-time editors. Go here to apply, or tell a friend!
Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise
Techmeme
May 18, 2024, 5:25 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Get our daily newsletter and never miss a story!   ⓧ Newsletter

Top News

Sam Altman / @sama:
Sam Altman says he is embarrassed that there was a provision about potential equity cancellation in exit docs, and OpenAI never took back anyone's vested equity  —  in regards to recent stuff about how openai handles equity: we have never clawed back anyone's vested equity, nor will we do that if people do not sign a separation agreement (or don't agree to a non-disparagement agreement). vested equity is vested equity, full stop. there was
Greg Brockman / @gdb:
Sam Altman and Greg Brockman respond to Jan Leike, say they've raised awareness of the risks and opportunities of AGI, will keep doing safety research, and more  —  We're really grateful to Jan for everything he's done for OpenAI, and we know he'll continue to contribute to the mission from outside. In light of the questions his departure has raised, we wanted to explain a bit about how we think about our overall strategy. First, we have
Steven Levy / Wired:
Despite some skeptics claiming that AI is an industry-wide delusion, last week's demos from OpenAI and Google show that the rate of AI progress is not slowing  —  Some pundits suggest generative AI stopped getting smarter.  The explosive demos from OpenAI and Google that started the week show there's plenty more disruption to come.
Nitish Pahwa / Slate:
How bots monopolizing DeviantArt's promotional and revenue apparatuses and the platform's unwillingness to address the issue are driving artists to abandon it  —  Once a vibrant platform for artists, DeviantArt is now buckling under the weight of bots and greed—and spurning the creative community that made it great.
Jonathan Randles / Bloomberg:
A US judge approves Genesis Global Capital's Chapter 11 repayment plan to return Bitcoin and other tokens to creditors, defeating a challenge by its parent DCG  —  - Genesis defeated a challenge by parent Digital Currency Group  — Judge also approved a related settlement with the New York AG
Lisa Feldman Barrett / Wall Street Journal:
Training AI on stereotypical facial expressions is bound to mislead because scientific evidence indicates that there are no universal expressions of emotion  —  Training algorithms on stereotypical facial expressions is bound to mislead.  —  Imagine that you are interviewing for a job.
Pranshu Verma / Washington Post:
A look at an ISIS-affiliated media program called News Harvest, which is using AI-generated news anchors to disseminate extremist propaganda quickly and cheaply  —  The Islamic State-affiliated media broadcast News Harvest shows how artificial intelligence can be used to disseminate extremist propaganda quickly and cheaply.
Politico:
Critics warn the French government's first-of-its-kind move within the EU to suspend TikTok in New Caledonia amid widespread protests sets a dangerous precedent  —  PARIS — In a first-of-its-kind move within the European Union, the French government has moved to block TikTok in one of its overseas territories amid widespread protests.
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
Epic v. Apple: Phil Schiller told a US judge that Apple's new 27% fee on purchases made outside its App Store are a good-faith attempt to comply with the law  —  - Top Apple executive took stand Friday to defend new fee  — Epic Games has challenged Apple proposed antitrust remedy
Astha Rajvanshi / TIME:
Access Now: 2023 was the worst year for internet shutdowns since monitoring began in 2016, with 283 shutdowns across 39 countries, led by India at 116  —  Last year, an internet shutdown in the state of Manipur, India, lasted a staggering 212 days when the state government issued 44 consecutive orders …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
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:
6 Tips to Unlock Revenue with Transactional Emails  —  This is a guest post by Tabular.You might think of transactional emails as boring necessities, but the truth is, they're far more powerful than you realize.
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.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
 Why Uber's CPO delivers food on weekends | Sachin Kansal
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
 Big Meta/Anduril Deal Is A Big Deal
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Sponsor this podcast
The Social Radars:
 Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel Part 4 (Bonus)
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Hard Fork:
 The A.I. Jobpocalypse + Building at Anthropic with Mike Krieger + Hard Fork Crimes Division
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:
 Rick Smith (CEO, Axon): The Wild Ride From Near-Bankruptcy to $50B+
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
 'Sewing Machine Repair Shop', With Patrick McGee
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Add your postcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:25 PM ET, May 18, 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.

From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:
PBS and a public TV affiliate in Minnesota sue the Trump administration, saying his executive order to cut federal funding violated PBS' First Amendment rights

Brian Stelter / CNN:
OAN chief Pentagon correspondent Gabrielle Cuccia says she was fired after criticizing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's media restrictions at the Pentagon

Max Tani / Semafor:
The California State Senate opens an inquiry into whether Paramount's reported $15M proposed settlement with Trump violated bribery and unfair competition laws

More News

New York Times:
Despite banning TikTok on government devices, Taiwan isn't considering a US-style ban, saying the app is just one battle in a war against China's disinformation
Caroline Haskins / The Guardian:
A look at Palantir-sponsored AI Expo for National Competitiveness, created by Eric Schmidt's thinktank, focusing on the use of AI and other tech in warfare
Brendan O'Boyle / Reuters:
The US DOJ charges two arrested Chinese nationals for allegedly orchestrating a crypto pig butchering scam that laundered at least $73M from defrauded victims

Earlier Picks

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
The US SEC will require some financial institutions to notify customers whose personal information was compromised within 30 days of learning about breaches
Kate Irwin / PCMag:
Slack confirms it is training some of its AI-powered features, but not its generative AI tool, on user content and uploads, with all users opted-in by default
Will Knight / Wired:
OpenAI's entire Superalignment team, which was focused on the existential dangers of AI, has either resigned or been absorbed into other research groups
Kiuyan Wong / Bloomberg:
Hong Kong launches a pilot program enabling digital yuan payments through major Chinese banks, first deployment of China's currency beyond the mainland
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
The EU warns Microsoft it could be fined up to 1% of its global annual turnover under DSA after failing to provide risk info about its generative AI tools
William Gallagher / AppleInsider:
Kuo: iPhone 16 Pro Max will get a higher energy density battery and a stainless steel battery case that helps Apple comply with EU rules about replaceability
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter