Sunday, July 9, 2023

Following similar lawsuits Sarah Silverman and two other authors sue OpenAI and Meta claiming LLaMA and ChatGPT were trained on copyright-infringing material (Wes Davis/The Verge)

Wes Davis / The Verge:
Following similar lawsuits, Sarah Silverman and two other authors sue OpenAI and Meta, claiming LLaMA and ChatGPT were trained on copyright-infringing material  —  Comedian and author Sarah Silverman, as well as authors Christopher Golden and Richard Kadrey — are suing OpenAI and Meta each …



The Snap Star creator program Snap's new revenue-sharing incentive is showing early signs of traction as part of broader efforts to reverse declining sales (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
The Snap Star creator program, Snap's new revenue-sharing incentive, is showing early signs of traction as part of broader efforts to reverse declining sales  —  Social-media app Snapchat is trying to counter declining sales  —  Snap's efforts to lure creators and their followers …



Evernote lays off most of its remaining staff in the US and Chile and will relocate nearly all operations to Europe; Bending Spoons acquired Evernote in 2022 (Joshua Bote/SFGATE)

Joshua Bote / SFGATE:
Evernote lays off most of its remaining staff in the US and Chile, and will relocate nearly all operations to Europe; Bending Spoons acquired Evernote in 2022  —  Evernote, the note-taking app once heralded by Engadget as the “king of note-taking apps,” has laid off most of its staff …



Sources: Sequoia's China unit HongShan has set up an office in Singapore and might compete with Sequoia's India-based Peak XV for south-east Asia investments (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Sources: Sequoia's China unit HongShan has set up an office in Singapore and might compete with Sequoia's India-based Peak XV for south-east Asia investments  —  Plans to expand into south-east Asia dealmaking from city-state puts it in direct competition with India-based Peak XV



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’



Saturday, July 8, 2023

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

Montenegro says Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon will be extradited to the US, potentially ending a standoff over competing demands by the US and South Korea (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg : Montenegro says Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon will be extradited to the US, potentially ending a standoff over competing ...