A profile of Jack Ma, the Chinese tech icon who disappeared from public view for three months after regulators questioned him over a November 2020 speech (Lavender Au/Wired)

Lavender Au / Wired: A profile of Jack Ma, the Chinese tech icon who disappeared from public view for three months after regulators questioned him over a November 2020 speech  —  The iconic Alibaba founder disappeared from view after criticizing China’s government.  He returned to the country in March—as a teacher, not a businessman.

How a seminal 2017 paper by Google researchers laid the groundwork for the AI hype cycle, resulting in a Silicon Valley frenzy not seen since the dot-com boom (Brad Stone/Bloomberg)

Brad Stone / Bloomberg: How a seminal 2017 paper by Google researchers laid the groundwork for the AI hype cycle, resulting in a Silicon Valley frenzy not seen since the dot-com boom  —  In late May, 300 entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, journalists and assorted self-described thought leaders crammed into Shack15 …

Binance, Binance.US, and the SEC agree to ensure only Binance.US staff can access customer funds; the proposed agreement needs sign-off from a federal judge (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: Binance, Binance.US, and the SEC agree to ensure only Binance.US staff can access customer funds; the proposed agreement needs sign-off from a federal judge  —  The proposed agreement still needs judicial sign-off.  —  Binance, Binance.US and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) …

Crypto payments startup Wyre says it is winding down and that investors with assets on the company’s platform can withdraw them through July 14 (Niket Nishant/Reuters)

Niket Nishant / Reuters: Crypto payments startup Wyre says it is winding down and that investors with assets on the company’s platform can withdraw them through July 14  —  Cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Wyre is winding down, feeling the pinch of dwindling interest in a market that was once hailed as the next frontier of finance.

Félix Lengyel, aka xQc, a Twitch streamer with 12M followers, signs a ~$100M deal with Kick, a streaming service backed by Australian gaming and gambling sites (Kellen Browning/New York Times)

Kellen Browning / New York Times: Félix Lengyel, aka xQc, a Twitch streamer with 12M followers, signs a ~$100M deal with Kick, a streaming service backed by Australian gaming and gambling sites  —  The deal signed by Félix Lengyel, known as xQc, matches traditional athletes’ contracts, and is another sign …

Steve Huffman praises Elon Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting and layoffs at Twitter and says he saw Musk’s handling of Twitter as an example for Reddit to follow (David Ingram/NBC News)

David Ingram / NBC News: Steve Huffman praises Elon Musk’s aggressive cost-cutting and layoffs at Twitter and says he saw Musk’s handling of Twitter as an example for Reddit to follow  —  Steve Huffman said in an interview that Elon Musk’s cost-cutting at Twitter was inspiring and that the two have chatted “a handful of […]

Envisioning the future of computing

How will advances in computing transform human society? MIT students contemplated this impending question as part of the Envisioning the Future of Computing Prize — an essay contest in which they were challenged to imagine ways that computing technologies could improve our lives, as well as the pitfalls and dangers associated with them. Offered for […]

Hanan Elatr, the widow of Jamal Khashoggi, sues the NSO Group in Virginia, claiming Saudi Arabia used the Israeli company’s Pegasus tool to track them both (Dana Priest/Washington Post)

Dana Priest / Washington Post: Hanan Elatr, the widow of Jamal Khashoggi, sues the NSO Group in Virginia, claiming Saudi Arabia used the Israeli company’s Pegasus tool to track them both  —  In the lawsuit, Hanan Elatr says Saudi Arabia used NSO’s Pegasus spyware to track her and her husband’s whereabouts before he was murdered

Reddit says 80% of its top subreddits are currently open; Reddark estimates that 5K+ subreddits are limiting access, down from almost 9K on June 12 (Anne VanderMey/Bloomberg)

Anne VanderMey / Bloomberg: Reddit says 80% of its top subreddits are currently open; Reddark estimates that 5K+ subreddits are limiting access, down from almost 9K on June 12  —  Reddit Inc. said that most of the company’s communities were operating as normal — four days after a protest that shut down thousands …

Sources: OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe have met News Corp, the NYT, and others to discuss copyright issues over LLMs and a possible subscription fee (Financial Times)

Financial Times: Sources: OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe have met News Corp, the NYT, and others to discuss copyright issues over LLMs and a possible subscription fee  —  Google and OpenAI are discussing agreements to pay publishers over using content to train generative AI models

CEO Steve Huffman says Reddit’s API was “never designed to support third-party apps” and now takes issue with apps that are building a business on top of Reddit (Jay Peters/The Verge)

Jay Peters / The Verge: CEO Steve Huffman says Reddit’s API was “never designed to support third-party apps” and now takes issue with apps that are building a business on top of Reddit  —  Thousands of Reddit communities are still dark in protest of the API changes that are forcing some third-party developers to shut […]

Amazon officially opens Metropolitan Park in Arlington, Virginia, the first phase of its HQ2, where it has projected to bring 25,000 workers by 2030 (Teo Armus/Washington Post)

Teo Armus / Washington Post: Amazon officially opens Metropolitan Park in Arlington, Virginia, the first phase of its HQ2, where it has projected to bring 25,000 workers by 2030  —  After a national bidding war that prompted cities to offer billions in tax dollars and years of planning and construction that promised …

Sources: Meta is working on ways to make the next version of LLaMA available for commercial use; the model is currently only licensed for research use (Sylvia Varnham O’Regan/The Information)

Sylvia Varnham O’Regan / The Information: Sources: Meta is working on ways to make the next version of LLaMA available for commercial use; the model is currently only licensed for research use  —  Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his deputies want other companies to freely use and profit from new artificial intelligence software Meta […]

Novo Nordisk to support MIT postdocs working at the intersection of AI and life sciences

MIT’s School of Engineering and global health care company Novo Nordisk has announced the launch of a multi-year program to support postdoctoral fellows conducting research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and data science with life sciences. The MIT-Novo Nordisk Artificial Intelligence Postdoctoral Fellows Program will welcome its first cohort of up to 10 postdocs […]

A look at Nvidia’s long-planned transformation to an AI powerhouse, driven by CEO Jensen Huang; in 2022, data center operators collectively spent $15B on orders (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: A look at Nvidia’s long-planned transformation to an AI powerhouse, driven by CEO Jensen Huang; in 2022, data center operators collectively spent $15B on orders  —  The first time Jensen Huang tried ChatGPT, he asked it to write a poem about his company.  Huang, who’d made a bet …

Sources: Alphabet cautions staff not to enter confidential info into chatbots, including Bard, or directly use AI-generated code, following Amazon and others (Reuters)

Reuters: Sources: Alphabet cautions staff not to enter confidential info into chatbots, including Bard, or directly use AI-generated code, following Amazon and others  —  Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) is cautioning employees about how they use chatbots, including its own Bard, at the same time as it markets …

Microsoft begins selling replacement Surface components via the Microsoft Store, including displays, batteries, and SSDs, for “out-of-warranty, self repair” (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft begins selling replacement Surface components via the Microsoft Store, including displays, batteries, and SSDs, for “out-of-warranty, self repair”  —  Microsoft is starting to sell replacement components for its Surface devices.  The software giant now supplies replacement parts …

This salty gel could harvest water from desert air

MIT engineers have synthesized a superabsorbent material that can soak up a record amount of moisture from the air, even in desert-like conditions. As the material absorbs water vapor, it can swell to make room for more moisture. Even in very dry conditions, with 30 percent relative humidity, the material can pull vapor from the […]

Building a playbook for elite-level sports

“All I did was swim,” says Jerry Lu, recalling his teenage years as a competitive swimmer. “From age 12 to 19, it was close to 30 hours a week of training.” Although Lu no longer competes himself, his understanding of the dedication and impeccable technique required in elite sports continues to shape his path as […]