Techmeme
August 29, 2024, 4:45 PM

Top News

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Google says Russia-linked APT29 is using exploits that are “identical or strikingly similar” to those previously made by spyware makers Intellexa and NSO Group  —  Google says it has evidence that Russian government hackers are using exploits that are “identical or strikingly similar” …
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Facebook, Instagram, Craigslist, Tumblr, the NYT, the FT, The Atlantic, Vox Media, USA Today, Condé Nast, and more block Apple's Applebot-Extended AI crawler  —  This summer, Apple gave websites more control over whether the company could train its AI models on their data.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Automattic plans to shift Tumblr's backend to WordPress in a bid to make sharing work across the platforms easier, after acquiring Tumblr for $3M in August 2019  —  Tumblr is making the move to WordPress.  After its 2019 acquisition by WordPress.com parent company Automattic in a $3 million fire sale …
Financial Times:
Sources: the EU is investigating if Telegram gave inaccurate user numbers to stay under the DSA's 45M threshold; Telegram reported 41M EU users in February 2024  —  Brussels probing possible failure by messaging platform to provide accurate data under new regulations
Gaspard Sebag / Bloomberg:
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
The US says OpenAI and Anthropic agreed to give the US AI Safety Institute early access to major new AI models to test and evaluate their capabilities and risks  —  The US government announced agreements with leading artificial intelligence startups OpenAI and Anthropic to help test and evaluate their upcoming technologies for safety.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Magic, which makes AI tools for coding and to automate software development tasks, raised $320M from Eric Schmidt and others, bringing its total raised to $465M  —  Magic, an AI startup developing models to generate code and automate a range of software development tasks …
Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
In his upcoming book, Trump says Mark Zuckerberg plotted against him during the 2020 election and he'd “spend the rest of his life in prison” if he did it again  —  The Meta CEO earlier this week asserted that Biden administration tried to “pressure” the company to downplay content about Covid.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Nvidia, Apple, and Microsoft, the three most valuable tech companies, are in talks to join the funding round that would value OpenAI at over $100B  —  - Apple, Microsoft also have been in talks about participating  — Financing would value OpenAI at more than $100 billion
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Kuo: in the 2025 iPhone lineup, only the iPhone 17 Pro Max will have 12GB of DRAM, instead of 8GB, and a cooling system with vapor chambers and graphite sheets  —  Just a day after a noted leaker on Chinese microblogging site Weibo suggested the iPhone 17 lineup in 2025 could see an upgrade …
Katie Paul / Reuters:
Meta says its Llama models were downloaded almost 350M times, are used by AT&T and others, and usage via cloud providers more than doubled from May to July 2024  —  Meta's (META.O) Llama artificial intelligence models are being used by companies including Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and AT&T …
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Sources: truck sharing platform Fluid Truck, which raised $80M+, has ousted its sibling co-founders, including CEO James Eberhard, after losing tens of millions  —  The startup is in the hole for millions  —  Fluid Truck, a startup that was founded to disrupt the commercial vehicle rental industry …
Ben Weiss / The Verge:
Documents and sources detail OpenSea's chaotic work environment, ever-shifting priorities, and tax probes across the globe, as the US SEC and FTC make inquiries  —  The rise and fall of NFTs made and unmade OpenSea — the largest marketplace for the crypto asset.

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
See how your customer experience priorities compare  —  TELUS Digital surveyed leaders about the tech they're investing in, the KPIs they're tracking and their plans for outsourcing.  Get the results.  No form fill required!
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
Zoho Sign at Kenya's Digital Trust Forum 2025 organized by Evrotrust and Geda  —  Kenyan businesses and government services are adapting to digital alternatives to explore opportunities in the nation's newly launched ten-year Digital Master Plan.
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

Spotlight On:
Graphite's Merrill Lutsky on Revolutionizing Code Review for the AI Era
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Techmeme Ride Home:
OpenAI Closes The Biggest Private Tech Round Ever
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Invest Like the Best:
Darren Farber - The Business of Defense
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
CEO Matt Bromberg on ending Unity's 'war' against its customers
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Diggnation:
GTA 6, Helicopter Joysticks, AI Psychics, and Live Show Regret
Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht give you their unique, sometimes awkward, and always hilarious take on the edges of the internet.
Subscribe to Diggnation.
Grit:
From India to Silicon Valley: The Jay Chaudhry & Zscaler Story
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:45 PM ET, August 29, 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

Katie Kilkenny / The Hollywood Reporter:
Tianyu Fang / Rest of World:

Earlier Picks

Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Anna Tong / Reuters:
Nico Grant / New York Times:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Abner Li / 9to5Google: