Monday, February 20, 2023

Users can soon earn money from Twitter, says Musk

Twitter CEO Elon Musk on Monday said that the micro-blogging platform is "spinning up subscriptions" so that users can "charge" their followers for specific content. https://ift.tt/qVtIzFB

Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates-backed brain implant startup testing mind-controlled computing on humans

US-based brain interface startup, Synchron, backed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, is working on technology designed to transform daily life for people with paralysis. https://ift.tt/0jTqoEN

Sunday, February 19, 2023

New Bing offers some marvelous responses alongside dangerously convincing falsehoods, direct quotes that appear to be made up, and shocking claims about itself (James West/Mother Jones)

James West / Mother Jones:
New Bing offers some marvelous responses alongside dangerously convincing falsehoods, direct quotes that appear to be made up, and shocking claims about itself  —  Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.  —  “You're in!” the email said.



Techies earning up to $1 million a year laid off at Big Tech firms

At Google, laid-off employees included those who had previously received high performance reviews or held managerial positions "with annual compensation packages of $500,000 to $1 million, reports The Information. As Big Tech layoffs dominate headlines, more details have emerged on which verticals and senior executives earning up to $1 million annually bore the maximum brunt at Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. https://ift.tt/fVyBTlO

Microsoft rolls out Windows 11 widgets for Messenger, Spotify to Beta Channel Insiders

Microsoft has started to roll out support for new preview widgets for Facebook Messenger, Spotify, Phone Link, and Xbox (Game Pass) to Windows Insiders in the Beta Channel. To give them a try, one can go to the widgets collection in the Microsoft Store and update to the latest version of the apps. https://ift.tt/5uGCeKm

A look at the use of conversational AI in US call centers, which some agents find helpful and others say leaves the humans with more complex, intense workloads (Lisa Bannon/Wall Street Journal)

Lisa Bannon / Wall Street Journal:
A look at the use of conversational AI in US call centers, which some agents find helpful and others say leaves the humans with more complex, intense workloads  —  Call centers are at the forefront of deploying artificial intelligence, with bots that automate basic tasks and instruct humans how to do their jobs



Sources: KKR-owned BMC Software confidentially filed for a US IPO seeking a valuation of up to $15B; KKR acquired BMC in 2018 for $8.3B (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: KKR-owned BMC Software confidentially filed for a US IPO seeking a valuation of up to $15B; KKR acquired BMC in 2018 for $8.3B  —  BMC Software, a technology company owned by KKR & Co., has confidentially filed for an initial public offering, according to people with knowledge of the matter.



Meta rolls out Meta Verified subscription service, offering a blue badge, impersonation protection, and more, for $12/month on the web, or $15/month on iOS (Mark Zuckerberg/Facebook)

Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook:
Meta rolls out Meta Verified subscription service, offering a blue badge, impersonation protection, and more, for $12/month on the web, or $15/month on iOS  —  Good morning and new product announcement: this week we're starting to roll out Meta Verified — a subscription service that lets …



Saturday, February 18, 2023

Biden and some GOP senators have formed a loose alliance in asking SCOTUS to change Section 230 protections when hearing Gonzalez v. Google on February 21 (NBC News)

NBC News:
Biden and some GOP senators have formed a loose alliance in asking SCOTUS to change Section 230 protections when hearing Gonzalez v. Google on February 21  —  WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and some of his most prominent Republican adversaries in Congress have become allies, of sorts …



Experts say China lags behind the US in AI systems like ChatGPT due to censorship, government's growing control of the private sector, and geopolitical tensions (Li Yuan/New York Times)

Li Yuan / New York Times:
Experts say China lags behind the US in AI systems like ChatGPT due to censorship, government's growing control of the private sector, and geopolitical tensions  —  The state's hardening censorship and heavier hand have held back its tech industry; so has entrepreneurs' reluctance to invest for the long term.



US regulators expanding their crypto investigations has led some companies to look to financial hubs overseas, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Europe, and Dubai (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
US regulators expanding their crypto investigations has led some companies to look to financial hubs overseas, including Singapore, Hong Kong, Europe, and Dubai  —  A spate of crypto probes in the US is prompting battered digital-asset firms to look toward financial hubs overseas …



A look at Bitcoin's five maintainers scattered globally, who steward the open-source Bitcoin Core, after four turnovers in 18 months cited burnout or legal risk (Paul Kiernan/Wall Street Journal)

Paul Kiernan / Wall Street Journal:
A look at Bitcoin's five maintainers scattered globally, who steward the open-source Bitcoin Core, after four turnovers in 18 months cited burnout or legal risk  —  Developers with power to change the cryptocurrency's software hold an unorthodox role, are elusive—and have been known to head off disaster for the coin



VMware, Broadcom extend merger close deadline by three months

Cloud computing company VMware Inc and chipmaker Broadcom Inc extended the date by which their $61 billion merger is to be completed by 90 days, according to a regulatory filing. https://ift.tt/R2Y1fvd

Microsoft's Bing plans AI ads in early pitch to advertisers

In a meeting with a major ad agency this week, Microsoft showed off a demo of the new Bing and said it plans to allow paid links within responses to search results, said an ad executive, who spoke about the private meeting on the condition of anonymity. https://ift.tt/xVg5Tsi

Sources: amid the Iran war, Asian bankers say rising power prices and energy security are becoming a bigger consideration in data center financing decisions (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg : Sources: amid the Iran war, Asian bankers say rising power prices and energy security are becoming a bigger consideration in ...