Saturday, August 31, 2024

X is right to stand up to Brazil's unjust "hostage laws," but Musk's fight highlights his cynical free speech stance after he caved to Modi's censorship demands (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
X is right to stand up to Brazil's unjust “hostage laws,” but Musk's fight highlights his cynical free speech stance after he caved to Modi's censorship demands  —  In the battle between Elon Musk and Brazil, there are no heroes — only two sides engaged in an epic display of hypocrisy and overreach.



A reporter tries fixing his reputation with AI chatbots, including by adding a "strategic text sequence" to data sources, and via an AI optimization startup (Kevin Roose/New York Times)

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
A reporter tries fixing his reputation with AI chatbots, including by adding a “strategic text sequence” to data sources, and via an AI optimization startup  —  When I set out to improve my tainted reputation with chatbots, I discovered a new world of A.I. manipulation.



How the Israeli army's Unit 8200 became an incubator for cybersecurity startups, with its alumni starting Wiz, Palo Alto Networks, and other companies (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
How the Israeli army's Unit 8200 became an incubator for cybersecurity startups, with its alumni starting Wiz, Palo Alto Networks, and other companies  —  Unit 8200 has become an incubator for cybersecurity startups defending the world's biggest companies against hackers



It's time for audio services like Spotify to deal with AI by using labels and banning or downweighting music made with AI tools that don't license training data (Ed Newton-Rex/Music Business Worldwide)

Ed Newton-Rex / Music Business Worldwide:
It's time for audio services like Spotify to deal with AI by using labels and banning or downweighting music made with AI tools that don't license training data  —  The following MBW Views op/ed comes from Ed Newton-Rex (pictured inset), CEO of the ethical generative AI non-profit, Fairly Trained.



Friday, August 30, 2024

A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit claiming Elon Musk and Tesla pumped up Dogecoin into a "pyramid scheme", finding that Musk's statements were "aspirational" (Rachel Graf/Bloomberg)

Rachel Graf / Bloomberg:
A federal judge dismisses a lawsuit claiming Elon Musk and Tesla pumped up Dogecoin into a “pyramid scheme”, finding that Musk's statements were “aspirational”  —  Investors who lost tens of thousands of dollars investing in the cryptocurrency faulted Musk for promoting …



As Russia plans a trial of cross-border payments using crypto, some senior Russian leaders suggest it can help counter sanctions; experts doubt it will work (CoinDesk)

CoinDesk:
As Russia plans a trial of cross-border payments using crypto, some senior Russian leaders suggest it can help counter sanctions; experts doubt it will work  —  Experts doubt it will work, given the traceability of blockchains and the risk of even tougher sanctions for Russia.



China's top antitrust regulator says it has seen "effective results" that Alibaba has ceased the monopolistic practices that prompted an investigation in 2020 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
China's top antitrust regulator says it has seen “effective results” that Alibaba has ceased the monopolistic practices that prompted an investigation in 2020  —  - Antitrust watchdog says Alibaba has ceased monopolistic acts  — Fallout from the crackdown years persists across the industry



Sunday, August 25, 2024

⚖️ Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act - its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving. ✈️ Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe. 😵‍💫 It is absurd to claim that a platform or its owner are responsible for abuse of that platform. 🌐 Almost a billion users globally use Telegram as means of communication and as a source of vital information. 💙 We're awaiting a prompt resolution of this situation. Telegram is with you all. (@telegram)

@telegram:
⚖️ Telegram abides by EU laws, including the Digital Services Act — its moderation is within industry standards and constantly improving.  ✈️ Telegram's CEO Pavel Durov has nothing to hide and travels frequently in Europe.  😵‍&#128171 …



How prominent games accessibility advocate Susan Banks, who worked with studios and raised awareness for accessibility in games, may never have existed at all (Grant Stoner/IGN)

Grant Stoner / IGN:
How prominent games accessibility advocate Susan Banks, who worked with studios and raised awareness for accessibility in games, may never have existed at all  —  In 2019, the games accessibility community mourned the death of Susan Banks.  Now, evidence suggests she may have never existed to begin with.



A look at Apple's robotics efforts; sources: Meta will unveil prototype "Orion" AR glasses, a cheaper Quest, and new AI features for Ray-Ban Meta at Connect (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A look at Apple's robotics efforts; sources: Meta will unveil prototype “Orion” AR glasses, a cheaper Quest, and new AI features for Ray-Ban Meta at Connect  —  Also: Meta nears the launch of a cheaper Quest; Apple tries a new Vision Pro sales tactic; and the App Store chief is leaving as part of a reorganization.



An excerpt from the book Character Limit details the chaotic revamp of Twitter Blue, including Elon Musk's haphazard planning and Esther Crawford's involvement (New York Times)

New York Times:
An excerpt from the book Character Limit details the chaotic revamp of Twitter Blue, including Elon Musk's haphazard planning and Esther Crawford's involvement  —  By Nov. 9, 2022, anxiety was high among the Twitter employees gathered at the company's San Francisco headquarters.



Saturday, August 24, 2024

A look at Germany-based discount retailer Lidl's foray into offering cloud computing services, signing up clients like SAP and making €1.9B in 2023 annual sales (Olaf Storbeck/Financial Times)

Olaf Storbeck / Financial Times:
A look at Germany-based discount retailer Lidl's foray into offering cloud computing services, signing up clients like SAP and making €1.9B in 2023 annual sales  —  A unit of Europe's largest retailer is offering IT services to companies wary of big providers such as Amazon and Google



An interview with Nomad List and Photo AI founder Pieter Levels, aka @levelsio on X, on launching 12 startups in 12 months, the digital nomad life, and more (Lex Fridman)

Lex Fridman:
An interview with Nomad List and Photo AI founder Pieter Levels, aka @levelsio on X, on launching 12 startups in 12 months, the digital nomad life, and more  —  This is a transcript of Lex Fridman Podcast #440 with Pieter Levels.  The timestamps in the transcript are clickable links …



Midjourney CEO David Holz says anyone can now generate AI images on its website; previously, the site was limited to users who generated 10K+ images on Discord (Lance Whitney/ZDNET)

Lance Whitney / ZDNET:
Midjourney CEO David Holz says anyone can now generate AI images on its website; previously, the site was limited to users who generated 10K+ images on Discord  —  Need a good AI image generator?  You can now try Midjourney's dedicated website for free.  On Wednesday, Midjourney CEO David …



A profile of TollBit, which has raised $7M and aims to create a marketplace where AI companies can pay publishers for their content on an ongoing basis (Pranav Dixit/Engadget)

Pranav Dixit / Engadget:
A profile of TollBit, which has raised $7M and aims to create a marketplace where AI companies can pay publishers for their content on an ongoing basis  —  So far though, its business model of becoming a marketplace where AI companies can pay publishers directly for their data is a complete hypothetical



Threads becoming inundated with liberal election fraud conspiracies highlights a shift towards a "post-truth" online landscape across the political spectrum (Taylor Lorenz/User Mag)

Taylor Lorenz / User Mag : Threads becoming inundated with liberal election fraud conspiracies highlights a shift towards a “post-truth” ...