Monday, June 19, 2023

The BlackCat ransomware gang threatens to release 80GB of data allegedly stolen from Reddit; Reddit confirms BlackCat's claims relate to a February 9 incident (Carly Page/TechCrunch)

Carly Page / TechCrunch:
The BlackCat ransomware gang threatens to release 80GB of data allegedly stolen from Reddit; Reddit confirms BlackCat's claims relate to a February 9 incident  —  Hackers are threatening to release confidential data stolen from Reddit unless the company pays a ransom demand - and reverses its controversial API price hikes.



SpaceX launches Indonesia's largest telecoms satellite as part of a $540M project to offer internet in remote areas; the SATRIA-1 offers 150GB/second throughput (Dewi Kurniawati/Reuters)

Dewi Kurniawati / Reuters:
SpaceX launches Indonesia's largest telecoms satellite as part of a $540M project to offer internet in remote areas; the SATRIA-1 offers 150GB/second throughput  —  Indonesia and Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX on Monday launched the country's largest telecommunication satellite from the United States …



An interview with Foxconn chairman Young Liu on shifting some supply chains away from China as China-US tensions rise hoping to capture 5% of EVs and more (BBC)

BBC:
An interview with Foxconn chairman Young Liu on shifting some supply chains away from China as China-US tensions rise, hoping to capture 5% of EVs, and more  —  iPhone maker Foxconn is betting big on electric cars and redrawing some of its supply chains as it navigates a new era of icy Washington-Beijing relations.



Meta faces pressure from UK MPs consumer groups and banks over its failure to prevent fraud on its platforms estimated to cost UK households £250M in 2023 (The Guardian)

The Guardian:
Meta faces pressure from UK MPs, consumer groups, and banks over its failure to prevent fraud on its platforms, estimated to cost UK households £250M in 2023  —  Exclusive: Calls for Meta to curb rise in scams on its platforms, which will cost UK households £250m this year



Sunday, June 18, 2023

Hands-on with an Adobe Photoshop beta's Generative Fill AI feature which lets users add objects to remove content from and expand images using text prompts (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
Hands-on with an Adobe Photoshop beta's Generative Fill AI feature, which lets users add objects to, remove content from, and expand images using text prompts  —  A new ‘generative fill’ AI capability can create joyful Photoshop edits — and frightening deepfakes



A look at US hospitals using sometimes flawed AI-based diagnosis tools as some clinicians say they feel pressure from administrations to defer to the algorithm (Lisa Bannon/Wall Street Journal)

Lisa Bannon / Wall Street Journal:
A look at US hospitals using sometimes flawed AI-based diagnosis tools, as some clinicians say they feel pressure from administrations to defer to the algorithm  —  Artificial intelligence raises difficult questions about who makes the call in a health crisis: the human or the machine?



Investors of Bengaluru-based Mojocare say they found "financial irregularities" at the healthtech startup which has raised $23M from Sequoia India and others (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Investors of Bengaluru-based Mojocare say they found “financial irregularities” at the healthtech startup, which has raised ~$23M from Sequoia India and others  —  Mojocare investors have found “financial irregularities” at the Indian health and wellness startup and are moving …



The UK names Ian Hogarth to lead its AI Foundation Model Taskforce; Hogarth co-founded concert discovery service Songkick which sold to Warner Music in 2017 (Michael Holden/Reuters)

Michael Holden / Reuters:
The UK names Ian Hogarth to lead its AI Foundation Model Taskforce; Hogarth co-founded concert discovery service Songkick, which sold to Warner Music in 2017  —  The British government said on Sunday that tech entrepreneur Ian Hogarth would head its new taskforce to look at the safety risks posed by artificial intelligence.



Intel has agreed in principle to build a $25B manufacturing plant in Israel which is slated to begin operations by 2027 and remain active until at least 2035 (Marissa Newman/Bloomberg)

Marissa Newman / Bloomberg:
Intel has agreed in principle to build a $25B manufacturing plant in Israel, which is slated to begin operations by 2027 and remain active until at least 2035  —  Intel Corp. has agreed in principle to build a $25 billion manufacturing plant in Israel in what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed …



How Huawei lost a $200M contract to build Danish telecom TDC's 5G network in 2019 after TDC opened a probe suspecting Huawei of unethical business practices (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
How Huawei lost a $200M contract to build Danish telecom TDC's 5G network in 2019, after TDC opened a probe suspecting Huawei of unethical business practices  —  At a hastily scheduled meeting on March 5, 2019, the bidding to upgrade Denmark's cellular network crossed over into something strange.



Saturday, June 17, 2023

Block announces an open beta program for Bitkey its self-custodial Bitcoin wallet with Coinbase and CashApp integrations (Andrew Throuvalas/Decrypt)

Andrew Throuvalas / Decrypt:
Block announces an open beta program for Bitkey, its self-custodial Bitcoin wallet, with Coinbase and CashApp integrations  —  Bitkey will allow beta users to withdraw Bitcoin from Coinbase and Cashapp using “copy and paste.”  —  Jack Dorsey's payments company Block announced an open beta program …



Reddit's management risks putting the service in a death spiral as users revolt dedicated moderators quit and its vibrant content moves to other platforms (Boone Ashworth/Wired)

Boone Ashworth / Wired:
Reddit's management risks putting the service in a death spiral as users revolt, dedicated moderators quit, and its vibrant content moves to other platforms  —  When the user revolt ends—if it ever does—Reddit's community won't ever be the same.  —  It's pretty easy to piss people off on Reddit.



Meta scrambles to refocus its resources on usable AI products after a decade-long focus on research in its AI division disincentivized work on generative AI (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Meta scrambles to refocus its resources on usable AI products after a decade-long focus on research in its AI division disincentivized work on generative AI  —  The CEO considers artificial intelligence critical to long-term growth and is taking more control over efforts.



Sources: the US has found it difficult to distinguish between tech that China can use for its military and tech used commercially by firms particularly with AI (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the US has found it difficult to distinguish between tech that China can use for its military and tech used commercially by firms, particularly with AI  —  Defining risky artificial intelligence poses challenge as Washington moves to curb investment in Chinese tech



Chipmakers like TSMC and Samsung race to curb emissions as chip manufacturing makes up most of a device's carbon output a tough job in fossil fuel-reliant Asia (June Yoon/Financial Times)

June Yoon / Financial Times:
Chipmakers like TSMC and Samsung race to curb emissions as chip manufacturing makes up most of a device's carbon output, a tough job in fossil fuel-reliant Asia  —  Meanwhile sister companies with green energy knowhow look set to cash in  —  A greener future is not necessarily a lower-tech future.



As researchers talk about the arrival of supersmart AI, far fewer voices are trying to envision and articulate what a world awash in AI might actually look like (Ethan Mollick/One Useful Thing)

Ethan Mollick / One Useful Thing : As researchers talk about the arrival of supersmart AI, far fewer voices are trying to envision and ar...