Techmeme
May 22, 2024, 12:50 PM

Top News

Imran Rahman-Jones / BBC:
The UK ICO is “making enquiries with Microsoft” over the company's Recall feature, which some privacy campaigners have called a potential “privacy nightmare”  —  The UK data watchdog says it is “making enquiries with Microsoft” over a new feature that can take screenshots of your laptop every few seconds.
Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Sources: Amazon plans to launch a more conversational Alexa with generative AI features later in 2024, and charge a monthly subscription to offset the cost  —  WATCH NOW  —  Amazon is upgrading its decade-old Alexa voice assistant with generative artificial intelligence and plans to charge …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Humane is seeking a buyer for its business, after the rocky launch of its Ai Pin; a source says the startup, founded in 2018, is seeking $750M to $1B  —  - Humane's AI pin was billed as an alternative to smartphones  — AI hardware product received poor reviews after its launch
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google starts rolling out its Magic Editor and other AI tools to all Android and iOS users for free via Photos, offering 10 Magic Editor library saves per month  —  Last month, Google Photos announced that it would be making Magic Editor and other AI-powered tools free for all Android and iOS users.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will soon let businesses build custom Copilot AI agents for automating tasks, and unveils Team Copilot to help with tasks in Teams, Loop, and Planner  —  Microsoft will soon allow businesses and developers to build AI-powered Copilots that can work like virtual employees and perform tasks automatically.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Spotify begins rolling out Spotify Mix, a new bespoke font, replacing the Circular typeface variant used in everything from playlists to marketing campaigns  —  Spotify's latest update is visibly changing the audio streaming service to improve the experience for your eyeballs, rather than your ears.
More: Spotify and TechCrunch
Charlie Warzel / The Atlantic:
OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson debacle is merely a reminder of AI's manifest-destiny philosophy: “This is happening, whether you like it or not”, consent be damned  —  If you're looking to understand the philosophy that underpins Silicon Valley's latest gold rush, look no further than OpenAI's Scarlett Johansson debacle.
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Link-in-bio startup Linktree passes 50M users, up from 41M in December 2023 and 47M+ in March 2024, and launches a beta of its social commerce product  —  Link-in-bio startup Linktree said on Wednesday that it has surpassed 50 million users.  —  The figure represents a significant uptick …
Scott Gilbertson / Wired:
A review of privacy-focused /e/OS, a fully “deGoogled” OS based on the Android Open Source Project, that combines Micro G, to handle Google APIs, and LineageOS  —  Even if you aren't technically inclined, this privacy-first mobile operating system helps you escape surveillance capitalism.
Mastodon: @serpicojam@mas.to
Glenn Rifkin / New York Times:
Gordon Bell, who helped design several influential minicomputers at Digital Equipment Corporation, including the 12-bit PDP-8, died on May 17 at age 89  —  It cost $18,000 when it was introduced in 1965, but it bridged the world between room-size mainframes and the modern desktop.
Wired:
An investigation into ticketing service Eventbrite found 7,400+ illicit listings, such as for escort services and drugs, some of which its algorithm recommended  —  A WIRED investigation found thousands of Eventbrite posts selling escort services and drugs like Xanax and oxycodone …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
How you can grow your business with Zoho One  —  Zoho One is a comprehensive business suite, giving businesses the scalability, stability, security, and features they need for smooth operations.
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 11/14 - The FBI (!) Investigating Polymarket
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:50 PM ET, May 22, 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

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Mimi Billing / Sifted:

Earlier Picks

Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Steven Levy / Wired:
Bradley Keoun / CoinDesk:
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: