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Google says it plans to counter Japan's FTC over claims that it hobbles rivals in search; a source says Japan's FTC sent a cease-and-desist order to Google (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg : Google says it plans to counter Japan's FTC over claims that it hobbles rivals in search; a source says Japan's FTC s...

31 March 2024

Dan Lynch, founder of Interop, a computer networking equipment exhibition that helped accelerate TCP/IP adoption and internet commercialization, dies at age 82 (Katie Hafner/New York Times)

Katie Hafner / New York Times:
Dan Lynch, founder of Interop, a computer networking equipment exhibition that helped accelerate TCP/IP adoption and internet commercialization, dies at age 82  —  After working on the earliest version of the internet, he saw its potential and founded a conference on computer networking equipment.

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A profile of YC's Garry Tan, whose combative online persona has sparked controversies as he tries to shift SF politics from idealistic progressivism to centrism (Heather Knight/New York Times)

Heather Knight / New York Times:
A profile of YC's Garry Tan, whose combative online persona has sparked controversies as he tries to shift SF politics from idealistic progressivism to centrism  —  The tech investor Garry Tan has courted San Francisco's moderate Democrats and angered its progressives.Mike Kai Chen for The New York Times

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The risks and rewards of generative AI in software development - 2024-03-31 19:05:00Z

Title:The risks and rewards of generative AI in software development Summary: Developers won't see a transformation like this again in their careers. Instead of raging against the AI machine, they should ride the wave. Link: The risks and rewards of generative AI in software development

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Demis Hassabis says the AI hype caused by a surge of money is clouding research; CB Insights: VCs invested $42.5B in 2,500 AI startup equity rounds in 2023 (John Thornhill/Financial Times)

John Thornhill / Financial Times:
Demis Hassabis says the AI hype caused by a surge of money is clouding research; CB Insights: VCs invested $42.5B in 2,500 AI startup equity rounds in 2023  —  British AI pioneer says the billions of dollars being poured into start-ups is obscuring scientific progress in the field

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Sources: Dell, HP, and other US tech firms have asked their Taiwanese suppliers to boost production of AI-related hardware in Mexico to reduce reliance on China (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Dell, HP, and other US tech firms have asked their Taiwanese suppliers to boost production of AI-related hardware in Mexico to reduce reliance on China  —  Taiwan-based contract manufacturers step up investment south of the U.S. border for American clients

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MrBeast's "retention editing", which uses quick cuts and loud sounds, took over social media, but may fade away as the YouTuber shifts to slower, focused videos (Taylor Lorenz/Washington Post)

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
MrBeast's “retention editing”, which uses quick cuts and loud sounds, took over social media, but may fade away as the YouTuber shifts to slower, focused videos  —  The popularity of so-called retention editing made a generation of creators go viral, but when every video looks the same it's harder than ever to stand out

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A look at AI's impact on video game actors, as some fear their voices might be misused while others hope to collect extra payments on top of a base minimum (David Smith/The Guardian)

David Smith / The Guardian:
A look at AI's impact on video game actors, as some fear their voices might be misused while others hope to collect extra payments on top of a base minimum  —  The increased use of AI to replicate the voice and movements of actors has benefits but some are concerned over how and when it might be used and who might be left short-changed

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How WhatsApp became the world's default communication app, including as a political propaganda tool, a business tool, and a private social network (Pranav Dixit/Engadget)

Pranav Dixit / Engadget:
How WhatsApp became the world's default communication app, including as a political propaganda tool, a business tool, and a private social network  —  What was once a texting platform now runs the lives, businesses and political machinery of billions.  —  In 2014, WIRED asked me to write …

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Sources: Shein had $2B+ of profit and ~$45B of GMV in 2023, ahead of a planned NY or London IPO; documents: Shein had $700M of profit in 2022 and $1.1B in 2021 (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Sources: Shein had $2B+ of profit and ~$45B of GMV in 2023, ahead of a planned NY or London IPO; documents: Shein had $700M of profit in 2022 and $1.1B in 2021  —  Fast-fashion group is seeking Chinese approval for IPO in New York or London  —  Online fast-fashion giant Shein has more than doubled …

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Microsoft engineer Andres Freund accidentally found the malicious code in versions of the XZ Utils compression tool, likely preventing thousands of infections (Mike Larkin/Security Boulevard)

Mike Larkin / Security Boulevard:
Microsoft engineer Andres Freund accidentally found the malicious code in versions of the XZ Utils compression tool, likely preventing thousands of infections  —  Yesterday's discovery of the xz backdoor was an accident.  But what a fortunate accident it was.

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30 March 2024

Survey of Americans aged 12+: 47% of have listened to a podcast in the last month, up 12% YoY, 76% listened to online audio in the past month, and more (Podnews)

Podnews:
Survey of Americans aged 12+: 47% of have listened to a podcast in the last month, up 12% YoY, 76% listened to online audio in the past month, and more  —  The portion of Americans who listen to any kind of online audio, and the portion who listen to podcasts, have both reached new record highs …

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Discord plans to start showing gaming ads from next week, called Sponsored Quests and offering rewards for in-game tasks; users can turn them off in settings (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Discord plans to start showing gaming ads from next week, called Sponsored Quests and offering rewards for in-game tasks; users can turn them off in settings  —  The chat platform, which has long avoided advertising, is latest tech company to lean into paid promotions

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Can generative AI help address the cybersecurity resource gap? - 2024-03-30 19:15:00Z

Title:Can generative AI help address the cybersecurity resource gap? Summary: Five ways generative AI can help with the cybersecurity skills shortage — from lowering the bar to entry to improving collaboration. Link: Can generative AI help address the cybersecurity resource gap?

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A look at Steven Mnuchin's TikTok plans; sources say his proposal to buy TikTok without its export-blocked algorithm and rebuild it from scratch is far-fetched (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
A look at Steven Mnuchin's TikTok plans; sources say his proposal to buy TikTok without its export-blocked algorithm and rebuild it from scratch is far-fetched  —  His proposal to buy the app without its algorithm from its Chinese owner has drawn skeptical reactions, including from those he's pitched

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IEEE stops accepting papers with the "Lenna image", featuring a 1972 Playboy model, after complains that it makes some women feel unwelcome in computer science (Benj Edwards/Ars Technica)

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica:
IEEE stops accepting papers with the “Lenna image”, featuring a 1972 Playboy model, after complains that it makes some women feel unwelcome in computer science  —  Use of “Lenna” image in computer image processing research stretches back to the 1970s.

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X says it is funding a lawsuit filed by Chloe Happe against her ex-employer Block, after being allegedly sacked for her X posts about refugees and trans people (Mariella Moon/Engadget)

Mariella Moon / Engadget:
X says it is funding a lawsuit filed by Chloe Happe against her ex-employer Block, after being allegedly sacked for her X posts about refugees and trans people  —  Happe accused Block of terminating her for expressing views Block didn't agree with.  —  X is funding a lawsuit filed …

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AT&T resets millions of account passcodes after it was told that data dumped online has encrypted passcodes that could be used to access its customer accounts (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch)

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
AT&T resets millions of account passcodes after it was told that data dumped online has encrypted passcodes that could be used to access its customer accounts  —  US telco giant takes action after 2019 data breach  —  Phone giant AT&T is reseting customer account passcodes after a huge cache …

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An interview with Morris Chang on starting TSMC at the age of 55, the company not designing or selling its own chips, returning to Taiwan from the US, and more (Ben Cohen/Wall Street Journal)

Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal:
An interview with Morris Chang on starting TSMC at the age of 55, the company not designing or selling its own chips, returning to Taiwan from the US, and more  —  Morris Chang had decades of experience before he founded a business that's indispensable to the global economy.

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Tech CEOs looking to "go direct" and avoid traditional media, which they view as unfairly critical, turn to friendly podcasters like Lex Fridman (Ellen Huet/Bloomberg)

Ellen Huet / Bloomberg:
Tech CEOs looking to “go direct” and avoid traditional media, which they view as unfairly critical, turn to friendly podcasters like Lex Fridman  —  Tech CEOs have a growing set of ways to sidestep traditional media.  But first...  Don't press

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As Gmail turns 20 on April 1, a look at its impact on online communication and its future as other messaging apps have come to dominate how we communicate (Victoria Song/The Verge)

Victoria Song / The Verge:
As Gmail turns 20 on April 1, a look at its impact on online communication and its future as other messaging apps have come to dominate how we communicate  —  Gmail revolutionized email with fast search and a whole gigabyte of storage.  But where's it headed next?

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Inside LAION-5B, an AI training dataset of 5B+ images that has been unavailable for download after researchers found 3,000+ instances of CSAM in December 2023 (Knowing Machines)

Knowing Machines:
Inside LAION-5B, an AI training dataset of 5B+ images that has been unavailable for download after researchers found 3,000+ instances of CSAM in December 2023  —  If you want to make a really big AI model — the kind that can generate images or do your homework, or build this website …

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There is no evidence that using social media is driving an epidemic of mental illness and blaming it can distract from effectively responding to the real causes (Candice L. Odgers/Nature)

Candice L. Odgers / Nature:
There is no evidence that using social media is driving an epidemic of mental illness and blaming it can distract from effectively responding to the real causes  —  By - Candice L. Odgers 0  —  Candice L. Odgers is the associate dean for research and a professor of psychological science …

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EU's hostility towards Meta's "Pay or Okay" model is misguided as the model does not force users to use Meta's platforms and it has been deemed GDPR compliant (Eric Benjamin Seufert/Mobile Dev Memo)

Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo:
EU's hostility towards Meta's “Pay or Okay” model is misguided as the model does not force users to use Meta's platforms and it has been deemed GDPR compliant  —  On Monday, the European Commission announced that it is launching investigations into Alphabet, Apple, and Meta under the Digital Markets Act (DMA).

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Several legal experts say Section 230 will not protect firms from lawsuits over the outputs of generative AI, echoing SCOTUS Justice Gorsuch's 2023 statement (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
Several legal experts say Section 230 will not protect firms from lawsuits over the outputs of generative AI, echoing SCOTUS Justice Gorsuch's 2023 statement  —  Legal scholars, lawmakers and at least one Supreme Court justice agree that companies will be liable for the things their AIs say and do …

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Many of Amazon's Kindles are displaying ads for blatantly AI-generated books on the lock screen, with some appearing to be flagrant copies of existing works (Frank Landymore/Futurism)

Frank Landymore / Futurism:
Many of Amazon's Kindles are displaying ads for blatantly AI-generated books on the lock screen, with some appearing to be flagrant copies of existing works  —  “I've never minded the ads on them... until they became flooded with AI-generated books.”  —  Amazon has been a huge staging ground …

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NYC's Microsoft-powered MyCity chatbot, launched as a pilot program last October, often gives inaccurate info, including telling businesses to break the law (Colin Lecher/The City)

Colin Lecher / The City:
NYC's Microsoft-powered MyCity chatbot, launched as a pilot program last October, often gives inaccurate info, including telling businesses to break the law  —  The Microsoft-powered bot says bosses can take worker's tips and that landlords can discriminate based on source of income.  That's not right.

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Sources: Amazon's AGI team is aiming to outperform Anthropic's latest Claude models by the middle of 2024 using the company's forthcoming LLM, codenamed Olympus (Alex Heath/The Verge)

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Sources: Amazon's AGI team is aiming to outperform Anthropic's latest Claude models by the middle of 2024 using the company's forthcoming LLM, codenamed Olympus  —  This week, Amazon completed the second phase of a deal announced last September, when it committed to investing up to $4 billion in OpenAI rival Anthropic.

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