About: blatcho

Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk: Decentralized wireless communication network Helium plans to move to Solana on March 27 after 81% of its community voted in favor of migration in September 2022  —  Decentralized wireless communication network Helium will entirely shift to the Solana blockchain by March 27 …

Financial Times: The disappearance of China Renaissance’s Bao Fan, coming as Beijing eases its tech crackdown, casts a chill across China’s tech sector and worries executives  —  In May 2021, a group of Chinese banks agreed to lend $300mn to investment bank China Renaissance with a condition: if Bao Fan …

Wall Street Journal: A look at Meta’s “The Cube”, a cubicle made of felt-like recycled PET plastic that absorbs sound and blocks distractions, rolling out to Meta’s offices globally  —  The Facebook and Instagram parent needed a new setup for the loud hybrid workplace.  Here’s a first look at the quieter cubicle.

All-in on Google services? Then check out our favorite Chrome OS laptops and 2-in-1 tablets for school, work, or home.

Sitting at a desk for hours? Upgrade your WFH setup and work in style with these comfy WIRED-tested seats.

Passcodes are out.

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 […]

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.

Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook: Meta rolls out its 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 …

This new technology offers an opportunity to free animals from exploitation. So why are some vegans opposed to it?

Sifted: A look at e-scooter sharing startups in Europe, like Bolt, which raised $1.9B, amid some city bans and questions about the vehicles’ environmental credentials  —  On April 2 the people of Paris will vote on whether escooter rental should be banned from the city.

Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post: A preview of Gonzalez v. Google SCOTUS case and a look at the Israeli nonprofit Shurat HaDin that is arguing the case against Google at the February 21 hearing  —  Are tech companies liable when their algorithms recommend terrorist content?  The Court’s answer could upend the way the internet […]

Financial Times: Research: total USD invested in Chinese startups fell by ~75% in 2022; 19% of the total capital put into Chinese startups was in USD, compared to 39% in 2021  —  The country’s newest crop of technology companies is more likely to list at home rather than in the US

Shopping for a new phone can be an ordeal. Let us take some of the pain out of it with these WIRED-tested picks and tips.

The company will soon require users to pay for a Twitter Blue subscription to get sign-in codes via SMS. Security experts are baffled.

Also: Instagram launches a new messaging system for creators, and Minecraft gets some new branded casual footwear.

Richard Waters / Financial Times: A human player beat a top-ranked AI system in 14 out 15 games of Go, using tactics suggested by a computer program that had probed the AI system for weaknesses  —  Amateur Kellin Pelrine exploited weakness in systems that have otherwise dominated board game’s grandmasters

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 …

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

It’s George Washington’s birthday, and he wants you to have a robot vacuum. These deals are perfect for gearing up for spring.

Age verification laws miss the point. It’s time to talk to your children honestly not just about what they might see online, but about their own bodies.

Events in East Palestine are a stark reminder that plastic is destroying the planet. From its production to its use to its disposal, the stuff is a poison.

Phineas Rueckert / Forbidden Stories: Leaked docs detail reputation management company Eliminalia’s tactics to remove public-interest info from the internet, like via fake sites and copyright claims  —  Leaked documents obtained by Forbidden Stories reveal the inner world of Eliminalia, a Spanish reputation management company.

John Herrman / New York Magazine: The depictions of various interactions with Bing’s AI show that the chatbot is doing what it was trained to do, albeit more broadly than Microsoft would prefer  —  In his 1976 book, Computer Power and Human Reason: From Judgment to Calculation, the computer scientist Joseph Weizenbaum observed …

Bloomberg: Sources: the UK government will conduct a war-game exercise to prepare for a chip shortage if China invades Taiwan, which would cause dire economic consequences  —  It’s 2027 and London’s black market for vintage smartphones is thriving.  Second-hand cars are selling faster than any rolling off UK assembly lines.

From The Sea Beast to Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, here are our picks for the best streaming titles to feast your eyes on.

From You to Wednesday, these are our picks for the best streaming titles to binge this week.

Everything you need to know about the past, present, and future of data security—from Equifax to Yahoo—and the problem with Social Security numbers.

Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft says Bing chats will now be capped at 50 questions per day and five per session; after five questions, Bing will prompt users to start a new topic  —  Microsoft says it’s implementing some conversation limits to its Bing AI just days after the chatbot went off the rails […]

Zoë Schiffer / @zoeschiffer: Sources: Twitter plans to unveil a new policy that only Blue subscribers will be able to use SMS-based two-factor authentication  —  NEW: Twitter is planning to unveil a new policy as soon as this afternoon that only Blue subscribers will be able to use SMS-based two-factor authentication, according to company sources.

Decrypt: Sources: Blockchain.com, which lent $270M to 3AC, is attempting to sell off assets, as it seeks to raise capital even at a severely lowered valuation  —  The crypto exchange and wallet provider had major exposure to Three Arrows Capital and conducted more layoffs last month.

Moves by Google, Microsoft and Baidu to bring AI chatbots into their search engines may bring big advantages, but they could also damage many industries and change the very way we interact with the web

US president Joe Biden has spoken publicly for the first time about the objects recently shot out of the sky above North America. In a press conference, he outlined how the country would deal with potential spy balloons in the future

The following letter was sent to the MIT community yesterday by President Sally Kornbluth. Dear members of the MIT community, In January 2022, a faculty-led working group began to develop a statement of principle around freedom of expression as well as a set of supporting recommendations. The faculty approved a final version of the statement […]

Lessons from the pre-vaccine days of the pandemic.

How businesses can navigate the increasing uncertainty around where and how antitrust law is enforced.

Waning pricing power, a tight labor market, and expensive capital all present challenges for business.

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal: Sources: ByteDance’s Slack-like app Feishu, which reportedly had ~9.3M MAUs in November 2022, reached $100M revenue in 2022, up 270% from 2021  —  Feishu chief executive says annual recurring revenue jumped 270%  —  SINGAPORE—ByteDance Ltd.’s Slack-like work-collaboration tool Feishu …

Chainalysis: Analysis: 24% of the tokens launched in 2022 that “got traction” saw a price drop of 90% or more in the first week of trading, suggesting pump-and-dump activity  —  The 2023 Crypto Crime Report  —  Available now!  —  Get the report  —  Pump and dump schemes in traditional finance …

Janko Roettgers / Lowpass: A patent and job listing hint at Meta working on an advanced smart glasses assistant; docs show staff have been testing a proactive assistant on Ray-Ban Stories  —  Hey Facebook … Meta has been working on advanced assistant features that could one day make devices like the company’s Ray …

Some researchers are driven by the quest to improve a specific product, like a battery or a semiconductor. Others are motivated by tackling questions faced by a given industry. Rob Macfarlane, MIT’s Paul M. Cook Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering, is driven by a more fundamental desire. “I like to make things,” Macfarlane […]

More than 360,000 vehicles will receive an over-the-air update after the US government said that Autopilot can be dangerous in some driving situations.

AI-powered chatbots will only make us more efficient, according to the companies selling said AI-powered chatbots.

Microsoft’s new chatbot for Bing has displayed some strange behavior, proving that AI is more fallible than tech companies let on.

Bloomberg: The US SEC sues Terraform Labs and its founder Do Kwon for selling unregistered securities and perpetrating a fraudulent scheme that lost $40B+ in market value  —  The US Securities and Exchange Commission is preparing to sue the company behind TerraUSD, a crypto stablecoin whose collapse …

Bloomberg: The FCC is investigating whether ISPs exaggerated their coverage to authorities preparing to distribute billions in subsidies for broadband in underserved areas  —  US regulators are investigating whether broadband-service providers exaggerated their level of coverage to authorities preparing …

Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg: DoorDash announces a $750M stock buyback program and says Chief Financial Officer Prabir Adarkar will replace President and COO Christopher Payne on March 1  —  DoorDash Inc. forecast earnings that beat analyst expectations as cost-cutting efforts meet resilient consumer demand for pricey takeout.

US president Joe Biden has spoken publicly for the first time about the objects recently shot out of the sky above North America. In a press conference, he outlined how the country would deal with potential spy balloons in the future

New Titanic footage has emerged, taken from the first submersible dives to the wreckage in July 1986

A telecommunications museum in Seattle, with a working exchange from the 1940s, shows how telephones brought us together – but also tore us apart, says Annalee Newitz