Posts by blatcho:

Reddit defends its usage-based API pricing, arguing the company “needs to be fairly paid to continue supporting high-usage third-party apps” (Priya Anand/Bloomberg)

Priya Anand / Bloomberg: Reddit defends its usage-based API pricing, arguing the company “needs to be fairly paid to continue supporting high-usage third-party apps”  —  A number of Reddit forums plan to go dark for two days later this month to protest the company’s decision to increase prices for third-party app developers.

In a filing, Twitter’s lawyers say “Twitter Files” show no government interference at the company, implying Elon Musk is wrong about what the files revealed (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

Mike Masnick / Techdirt: In a filing, Twitter’s lawyers say “Twitter Files” show no government interference at the company, implying Elon Musk is wrong about what the files revealed  —  from the confirmation-idiocy dept  —  It is amazing the degree to which some people will engage in confirmation bias …

Gigabyte releases BIOS updates to remove a backdoor that was found in over 270 motherboard models and could let hackers install malware when the PC restarts (Ionut Arghire/SecurityWeek)

Ionut Arghire / SecurityWeek: Gigabyte releases BIOS updates to remove a backdoor that was found in over 270 motherboard models and could let hackers install malware when the PC restarts  —  Gigabyte has announced BIOS updates that remove a recently identified backdoor feature in hundreds of its motherboards.

Apple Vision Pro will launch with Disney+ and hundreds of thousands of existing iPhone and iPad apps, including Word and Excel, and support Unity game engine (Todd Spangler/Variety)

Todd Spangler / Variety: Apple Vision Pro will launch with Disney+ and hundreds of thousands of existing iPhone and iPad apps, including Word and Excel, and support Unity game engine  —  Apple took the wraps off Vision Pro, an expensive pair of goggles the company promises will unlock a new universe of magical new virtual- […]

Scaling audio-visual learning without labels

Researchers from MIT, the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, IBM Research, and elsewhere have developed a new technique for analyzing unlabeled audio and visual data that could improve the performance of machine-learning models used in applications like speech recognition and object detection. The work, for the first time, combines two architectures of self-supervised learning, contrastive learning […]

New MIT fellowship supports student research on governance innovation with Global South governments

This summer, five MIT graduate students will travel to Mexico, Brazil, Kenya, and Cape Verde as part of a new fellowship to explore how governance innovations are making governments more transparent and accountable to citizens in regions of the world that are underrepresented in global innovation and design research.    The students will be embedded within […]

To protest API pricing for third-party Reddit apps, r/videos, r/reactiongifs, r/earthporn, and other large subreddits plan to go private on June 12 for 48 hours (Jon Porter/The Verge)

Jon Porter / The Verge: To protest API pricing for third-party Reddit apps, r/videos, r/reactiongifs, r/earthporn, and other large subreddits plan to go private on June 12 for 48 hours  —  Some of Reddit’s biggest communities including r/videos, r/reactiongifs, r/earthporn, and r/lifeprotips are planning to set themselves …

Spotify plans to cut ~200 jobs, or 2% of its staff, at its podcast unit, combines Parcast and Gimlet into Spotify Studios, and reports 100M+ podcast listeners (Sahar Elhabashi/Spotify)

Sahar Elhabashi / Spotify: Spotify plans to cut ~200 jobs, or 2% of its staff, at its podcast unit, combines Parcast and Gimlet into Spotify Studios, and reports 100M+ podcast listeners  —  Below is an adaptation of an internal update on Spotify’s Podcast Business from Sahar Elhabashi, VP, Head of Podcast Business.

Bank records: Binance executive Guangying Chen controlled five Silvergate Bank accounts from 2019 to 2020 belonging to its purportedly independent US affiliate (Reuters)

Reuters: Bank records: Binance executive Guangying Chen controlled five Silvergate Bank accounts from 2019 to 2020 belonging to its purportedly independent US affiliate  —  A senior Binance executive was the main operator for five bank accounts belonging to the giant cryptocurrency exchange’s purportedly …

How MIT’s fab labs scaled around the world

What do a student tinkerer in Bhutan, a design professional in Nairobi, and an artist in Brazil have in common? They’re part of a global community of makers benefiting from the fab lab network, which provides the space, equipment, and training to make (almost) anything. Today the fab lab network includes more than 2,500 centers […]

Instagram reinstates Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s account after he launched his presidential bid; he was banned in 2021 over false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines (Cristiano Lima/Washington Post)

Cristiano Lima / Washington Post: Instagram reinstates Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s account after he launched his presidential bid; he was banned in 2021 over false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines  —  The prominent anti-vaccine campaigner was suspended in 2021 for spreading misleading health claims.

A look at The Frost, a 12-minute movie created by Waymark using DALL-E 2, as startups like Waymark and Runway make AI tools for fast and cheap video production (Will Douglas Heaven/MIT Technology Review)

Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review: A look at The Frost, a 12-minute movie created by Waymark using DALL-E 2, as startups like Waymark and Runway make AI tools for fast and cheap video production  —  Exclusive: Watch the world premiere of the AI-generated short film The Frost.  —  The Frost nails its uncanny, […]

As TSMC plans to hire 4,500 workers at its two Arizona fabs, recruiters say the company’s culture, rigid standards, and overseas training turn off candidates (Yvonne Lau/Fortune)

Yvonne Lau / Fortune: As TSMC plans to hire 4,500 workers at its two Arizona fabs, recruiters say the company’s culture, rigid standards, and overseas training turn off candidates  —  On the Glassdoor profile of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC—the world’s biggest manufacturer of semiconductor chips …

Q&A with media scholar Ethan Zuckerman about why Twitter became the de facto digital public square, its politics of attention, power of federated networks, more (Wired)

Wired: Q&A with media scholar Ethan Zuckerman about why Twitter became the de facto digital public square, its politics of attention, power of federated networks, more  —  We talk to media scholar Ethan Zuckerman about why Twitter became the de facto digital public square and what other platforms like Bluesky or Mastodon might offer.

Some Montana residents speak about the state’s highly politicized TikTok ban, including one of the influencers who is suing the state to overturn the ban (Lisa Bonos/Washington Post)

Lisa Bonos / Washington Post: Some Montana residents speak about the state’s highly politicized TikTok ban, including one of the influencers who is suing the state to overturn the ban  —  How a highly politicized social media ban in Big Sky Country sparked a nationwide debate over freedom of speech

Five teams at DEF CON 2023 will try to hack a US-funded cubesat Moonlighter, the first time DEF CON hackers will get a chance to hack a live, in-orbit satellite (Jessica Lyons Hardcastle/The Register)

Jessica Lyons Hardcastle / The Register: Five teams at DEF CON 2023 will try to hack a US-funded cubesat Moonlighter, the first time DEF CON hackers will get a chance to hack a live, in-orbit satellite  —  ‘World’s first and only’ orbiting infosec playpen due to blast off Sunday  —  FEATURE Assuming the weather and […]

A look at Berlin-based Rocket Internet, as founder Oliver Samwer transforms one of Europe’s most aggressive tech VCs into a more conservative investment house (Financial Times)

Financial Times: A look at Berlin-based Rocket Internet, as founder Oliver Samwer transforms one of Europe’s most aggressive tech VCs into a more conservative investment house  —  Oliver Samwer quietly transforms one of Europe’s most aggressive VC firms into a more conservative investment house

Google Wallet rolls out support for US state IDs, starting with Maryland, and plans to add IDs from Arizona, Colorado, and Georgia in the coming months (Ron Amadeo/Ars Technica)

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica: Google Wallet rolls out support for US state IDs, starting with Maryland, and plans to add IDs from Arizona, Colorado, and Georgia in the coming months  —  The state-by-state rollout is still a huge mess, but Android is ready, at least.  —  Google Wallet on Android is finally getting ready […]

AI researchers say ChatGPT and rival chatbots are significantly less capable in languages other than English, exacerbating the bias against non-English speakers (Paresh Dave/Wired)

Paresh Dave / Wired: AI researchers say ChatGPT and rival chatbots are significantly less capable in languages other than English, exacerbating the bias against non-English speakers  —  AI chatbots are less fluent in languages other than English, threatening to amplify existing bias in global commerce and innovation.

A look at India’s hacking-for-hire industry, which has a tacit alliance with the government and is unusually brazen, with firms publicly touting their services (David D. Kirkpatrick/New Yorker)

David D. Kirkpatrick / New Yorker: A look at India’s hacking-for-hire industry, which has a tacit alliance with the government and is unusually brazen, with firms publicly touting their services  —  The country has developed a lucrative specialty: cyberattacks for hire.  —  In the summer of 2020, Jonas Rey …

A profile of Nvidia, including how Jensen Huang, Curtis Priem, and Chris Malachowsky started the company at Denny’s and placed early bets on “$0B markets” (Ben Cohen/Wall Street Journal)

Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal: A profile of Nvidia, including how Jensen Huang, Curtis Priem, and Chris Malachowsky started the company at Denny’s and placed early bets on “$0B markets”  —  AI made Nvidia the world’s most valuable chip maker.  So did three guys sipping diner coffee and planning to conquer markets that barely […]

Harvard’s popular MOOC CS50 plans to use AI to grade assignments, teach coding, and personalize tips, and is testing a virtual TA to give feedback to students (Saritha Rai/Bloomberg)

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: Harvard’s popular MOOC CS50 plans to use AI to grade assignments, teach coding, and personalize tips, and is testing a virtual TA to give feedback to students  —  The world’s most popular online learning course, Harvard University’s CS50, is getting a ChatGPT-era makeover.

Cybersecurity firms say hackers are actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in the MOVEit Transfer file transfer software to steal data from organizations (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: Cybersecurity firms say hackers are actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in the MOVEit Transfer file transfer software to steal data from organizations  —  Hackers are actively exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in the MOVEit Transfer file transfer software, tracked as CVE-2023-34362, to steal data from organizations.

ChatGPT and other LLM tools have already replaced some marketing and social media writers as many companies decide cutting costs is worth the drop in quality (Washington Post)

Washington Post: ChatGPT and other LLM tools have already replaced some marketing and social media writers as many companies decide cutting costs is worth the drop in quality  —  Technology used to automate dirty and repetitive jobs.  Now, artificial intelligence chatbots are coming after high-paid ones.