A look at Google's Med-PaLM 2 an AI chatbot that answers medical questions and more; sources: testing began in April with customers including the Mayo Clinic (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
A look at Google's Med-PaLM 2, an AI chatbot that answers medical questions, and more; sources: testing began in April with customers including the Mayo Clinic  —  Search company is fine-tuning chatbot technology via medical licensing exams  —  Google is testing an artificial-intelligence program trained …

Civil rights groups and academics say the ruling limiting the US government contacting tech companies could undermine 2024 election misinformation initiatives (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
Civil rights groups and academics say the ruling limiting the US government contacting tech companies could undermine 2024 election misinformation initiatives  —  Civil rights groups warn limits on government contacts could be a boon for election lies ahead of ‘the biggest election year the internet age has seen’

Some US schools are piloting AI surveillance robots that can detect aggressive behavior in people alert security and more amid growing gun violence concerns (Megan Tagami/Wall Street Journal)

Megan Tagami / Wall Street Journal:
Some US schools are piloting AI surveillance robots that can detect aggressive behavior in people, alert security, and more, amid growing gun violence concerns  —  When Lori Andrews attended her daughter's graduation at Santa Fe High School, she spotted a 5-foot-10, 400-pound robot roaming …

How a new TikTok-style algorithm and pay-to-play scheme ruined Twitter's complex but functional community destroying a beloved social network (Eugene Wei/Remains of the Day)

Eugene Wei / Remains of the Day:
How a new TikTok-style algorithm and pay-to-play scheme ruined Twitter's complex but functional community, destroying a beloved social network  —  NOTE: I'd been working on this piece on and off for a few weeks while trying to move to NYC and settle into my new apartment …

Twitter's biggest struggle is its arcane follow-based system contrasted with TikTok's algorithmic feed that can allow users with no followers to reach millions (Taylor Lorenz/Washington Post)

Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
Twitter's biggest struggle is its arcane follow-based system, contrasted with TikTok's algorithmic feed that can allow users with no followers to reach millions  —  A series of disastrous missteps over the past year has robbed Twitter of its relevance  —  Alex Pearlman, a stand-up comedian …

How Telegram became a key channel for news about Russia's invasion of Ukraine but its hands-off moderation turned the messaging app into a misinformation tool (Masha Borak/The Verge)

Masha Borak / The Verge:
How Telegram became a key channel for news about Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but its hands-off moderation turned the messaging app into a misinformation tool  —  The messaging app has become a key channel for news about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  But the government's relationship with it is complicated.

A profile of New Jersey-based subsea cable company SubCom which sources say the US military uses exclusively for its undersea internet and surveillance cables (Joe Brock/Reuters)

Joe Brock / Reuters:
A profile of New Jersey-based subsea cable company SubCom, which sources say the US military uses exclusively for its undersea internet and surveillance cables  —  SubCom, a New Jersey company born out of a Cold War spy project, has become a key player in the U.S.-China tech war.

iOS 17 Beta 3 brings new menu icon for recovering or permanently deleting photos: All the details

Apple has released iOS 15 beta 3, which includes a new three-dot menu icon to combine the functionalities of deleting or recovering photos in one place. Other than this new menu feature, Apple has also updated the Mental Wellbeing section of the Health app with a new colour scheme. Furthermore, Apple music has been updated to display credits of a song, including performers, composers, and production information. The new update also includes the option to view full lyrics and the ability to see if the song is available in Lossless or Dolby Atmos audio quality. https://ift.tt/3TsgJh2

Uber DoorDash and Grubhub sue NYC seeking to block new minimum pay standards that increased the hourly wage for gig workers to $18 and $20 by 2025 (New York Times)

New York Times:
Uber, DoorDash, and Grubhub sue NYC, seeking to block new minimum pay standards that increased the hourly wage for gig workers to ~$18 and $20 by 2025  —  Uber, DoorDash and Grubhub argued that the city used poor data to calculate how much food delivery workers should earn and that the change would hurt consumers.

Alibaba unveils Tongyi Wanxiang an AI-based image generator initially available to enterprise customers in beta to rival Midjourney and OpenAI's DALL-E (Josh Ye/Reuters)

Josh Ye / Reuters:
Alibaba unveils Tongyi Wanxiang, an AI-based image generator initially available to enterprise customers in beta, to rival Midjourney and OpenAI's DALL-E  —  Alibaba Group Holdings Ltd (9988.HK) announced on Friday an artificial intelligence (AI) image generator, initially available …

Apple likely to drop solid-state buttons for next years iPhone 16 Pro

Apple iPhone 15 series is still months away, but rumours for next year's iPhone series, likely to be iPhone 16, have already started making rounds on the internet. According to a report by MacRumors, there is a 'low' chance that iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max models will come with solid-state volume and mute buttons, said Jeff Pu, a tech analyst at Hong Kong based investment firm Haitong International Securities. https://ift.tt/ibFYkXh

Sources: Apple is planning an appointment-only retail launch of the Vision Pro in the US in early 2024 starting with stores in major areas like NY and LA (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is planning an appointment-only retail launch of the Vision Pro in the US in early 2024, starting with stores in major areas like NY and LA  —  Apple Inc. is planning a retail launch of its Vision Pro headset with appointments and in-store promotion in select US markets early next year …

Realme Narzo 60 5G vs Vivo T2 5G: How the two smartphones compare

Realme has launched its latest Realme Narzo 60 5G series in India. The series includes the Realme Narzo 60 5G and the Realme Narzo 60 Pro 5G models. Both models come with a vegan leather finish on the back, while the Martian Horizon design concept draws inspiration from the Martian landscape. In this comparison article, we compare the newly launched Realme Narzo 60 5G with the Vivo T2 5G smartphone, launched in April this year. Here’s how the two devices differ in terms of price, features and specifications. https://ift.tt/tUwBdb7

Instagram Threads feels like Twitter's early days offering users an insta-network underpinned by Meta's infrastructure that helped surpass smaller rivals (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times)

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Instagram Threads feels like Twitter's early days, offering users an insta-network underpinned by Meta's infrastructure that helped surpass smaller rivals  —  Launch of Mark Zuckerberg's social network as a rival to Elon Musk's platform sparks excited online chatter  —  It feels like 2006 all over again.

PitchBook: US VCs invested $39.8B in Q2 2023 down 50% YoY across 3011 startup deals down 33% YoY with the number of angel or seed deals falling 50% YoY (Sarah McBride/Bloomberg)

Sarah McBride / Bloomberg:
PitchBook: US VCs invested $39.8B in Q2 2023, down ~50% YoY, across 3,011 startup deals, down ~33% YoY, with the number of angel or seed deals falling ~50% YoY  —  Venture capitalists are funding fewer startups, especially at the earliest stages of a company's life, according to new data from research firm PitchBook.