South Korea’s K-pop industry is embracing the metaverse, expanding on commonplace virtual counterparts for artists, including by creating the virtual band Mave (New York Times)

New York Times: South Korea’s K-pop industry is embracing the metaverse, expanding on commonplace virtual counterparts for artists, including by creating the virtual band Mave  —  In the world’s testing ground for tech, K-pop singers are being spun up out of pixels and doing battle in a virtual universe.

The US’ Berman amendments, passed during the Cold War to protect the free flow of content between the US and hostile countries, may complicate a TikTok ban (John D. McKinnon/Wall Street Journal)

John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal: The US’ Berman amendments, passed during the Cold War to protect the free flow of content between the US and hostile countries, may complicate a TikTok ban  —  Decades-old measures protect free flow of content internationally, even with hostile nations  —  How TikTok Could Become a U.S. Company

After layoffs, Meta, which used remote work during the pandemic to advance its diversity goals, now faces an uphill battle to continue making progress with DEI (Naomi Nix/Washington Post)

Naomi Nix / Washington Post: After layoffs, Meta, which used remote work during the pandemic to advance its diversity goals, now faces an uphill battle to continue making progress with DEI  —  Brit Levy, 35, was eager to join Meta’s paid training program for aspiring human resources managers last year because she wanted …

Chess players face a tough foe: air pollution

Here’s something else chess players need to keep in check: air pollution. That’s the bottom line of a newly published study co-authored by an MIT researcher, showing that chess players perform objectively worse and make more suboptimal moves, as measured by a computerized analysis of their games, when there is more fine particulate matter in […]

Unnatural selection

Across the U.S., about three-quarters of people enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans — a form of private insurance following the rules of Medicare — receive free gym memberships. Why is this? The answer, research has shown, is that it improves insurers’ client base: The promise of free workout time does not lure existing customers from […]

Analysis: US Black Web3 founders raised $60M in 2022, up from $16M in 2021; total money raised by US Web3 startups in 2022 fell to $11.9B from $16.5B in 2021 (Dominic-Madori Davis/TechCrunch)

Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch: Analysis: US Black Web3 founders raised $60M in 2022, up from $16M in 2021; total money raised by US Web3 startups in 2022 fell to $11.9B from $16.5B in 2021  —  Startups in the space are more bullish than ever  —  Much hope remains after the crypto winter almost froze the […]

Court records since 2011 show how police in some US states used digital data, like text messages, search history, and emails, in abortion-related prosecutions (TechCrunch)

TechCrunch: Court records since 2011 show how police in some US states used digital data, like text messages, search history, and emails, in abortion-related prosecutions  —  In late April, police in Nebraska received a tip saying 17-year-old Celeste Burgess had given birth to a stillborn baby and buried the body.

Analysis: Florida startups raised $9.7B in 601 deals in 2022 vs. $7.8B in 652 deals in 2021; VC funding fell 40%+ in 2022 in California, Massachusetts, and NY (Chris Metinko/Crunchbase News)

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News: Analysis: Florida startups raised $9.7B in 601 deals in 2022 vs. $7.8B in 652 deals in 2021; VC funding fell 40%+ in 2022 in California, Massachusetts, and NY  —  Last year could not top the banner year venture capital saw in 2021 — at least in most geographies.

Researchers detail how ProGen, an LLM trained on 280M proteins, designed proteins with anti-microbial properties that were tested in real life and shown to work (Karmela Padavic-Callaghan/New Scientist)

Karmela Padavic-Callaghan / New Scientist: Researchers detail how ProGen, an LLM trained on 280M proteins, designed proteins with anti-microbial properties that were tested in real life and shown to work  —  An AI was tasked with creating proteins with anti-microbial properties.  Researchers then created a subset of the proteins and found some did the job

How the “enshittification” cycle, in which platforms first are good to users and business customers before abusing them, has infected TikTok, Amazon, and others (Cory Doctorow/Pluralistic)

Cory Doctorow / Pluralistic: How the “enshittification” cycle, in which platforms first are good to users and business customers before abusing them, has infected TikTok, Amazon, and others  —  Today’s links  — Tiktok’s enshittification: The company manually allocates surplus to creators, and they can take it away again, too.

The White House publishes a roadmap for mitigating risks posed by cryptocurrencies and urges Congress to hasten efforts to create a crypto regulatory framework (Sander Lutz/Decrypt)

Sander Lutz / Decrypt: The White House publishes a roadmap for mitigating risks posed by cryptocurrencies and urges Congress to hasten efforts to create a crypto regulatory framework  —  Four senior Biden officials penned a note Friday urging lawmakers to hasten their efforts to create a regulatory framework for crypto.

Q&A with Princeton CS professor Arvind Narayanan on why he calls ChatGPT a “bullshit generator”, his worries over its boom, developing his AI taxonomy, and more (Julia Angwin/The Markup)

Julia Angwin / The Markup: Q&A with Princeton CS professor Arvind Narayanan on why he calls ChatGPT a “bullshit generator”, his worries over its boom, developing his AI taxonomy, and more  —  Hello, friends,  —  If you have been reading all the hype about the latest artificial intelligence chatbot …

As the GOP assumes US House leadership, the antitrust subcommittee shifts its focus from bipartisan efforts to curb Big Tech’s power to free speech issues (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: As the GOP assumes US House leadership, the antitrust subcommittee shifts its focus from bipartisan efforts to curb Big Tech’s power to free speech issues  —  The new GOP House majority is turning away from last year’s bipartisan efforts to rein in the dominance of the largest tech companies with a change in leadership […]

Q&A with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer on Xbox having no major 2022 releases, 2023 momentum, layoffs, the Activision deal amid the FTC lawsuit, and more (Kat Bailey/IGN)

Kat Bailey / IGN: Q&A with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer on Xbox having no major 2022 releases, 2023 momentum, layoffs, the Activision deal amid the FTC lawsuit, and more  —  Xbox’s CEO talks about the recent Developer Direct, 2022 struggles, layoffs, and what 2023 could hold.

ShareChat employees and investors shed light on the company’s leadership crisis and say revenue has not kept pace with cash burn and the ~$5B 2022 valuation (Moneycontrol)

Moneycontrol: ShareChat employees and investors shed light on the company’s leadership crisis and say revenue has not kept pace with cash burn and the ~$5B 2022 valuation  —  The company’s top and middle management are hollowing out, revenue has not kept pace with cash burn and Sharechat’s top-tier valuation …

What poet, playboy, and prophet of investment bubbles Charles Mackay, plagiarizing in 1841 on the Dutch tulip bubble, can tell us about crypto’s rise and fall (Tim Harford/Financial Times)

Tim Harford / Financial Times: What poet, playboy, and prophet of investment bubbles Charles Mackay, plagiarizing in 1841 on the Dutch tulip bubble, can tell us about crypto’s rise and fall  —  One winter morning in early 1637, a sailor presented himself at the counting-house of a wealthy Dutch merchant and was offered a hearty […]

Gaggle, which offers a tool for monitoring online student communication, says it will no longer flag LGBTQ keywords in assignments after discrimination concerns (Mark Keierleber/The 74)

Mark Keierleber / The 74: Gaggle, which offers a tool for monitoring online student communication, says it will no longer flag LGBTQ keywords in assignments after discrimination concerns  —  Company will no longer flag students who use words like “gay” and “lesbian” online, citing greater acceptance of queer kids in schools

Counterpoint: China’s smartphone sales fell 14% YoY in 2022 to reach their lowest level in a decade; iPhone sales fell 3% as it became the country’s No. 2 brand (Ben Jiang/South China Morning Post)

Ben Jiang / South China Morning Post: Counterpoint: China’s smartphone sales fell 14% YoY in 2022 to reach their lowest level in a decade; iPhone sales fell 3% as it became the country’s No. 2 brand  —  Apple topped smartphone sales in China in the fourth quarter of 2022, enabling the US tech giant to […]

Source: the SEC is investigating Elon Musk’s role in shaping Tesla’s self-driving car claims, as part of a probe into the company’s statements about Autopilot (Lydia Beyoud/Bloomberg)

Lydia Beyoud / Bloomberg: Source: the SEC is investigating Elon Musk’s role in shaping Tesla’s self-driving car claims, as part of a probe into the company’s statements about Autopilot  —  US regulators are investigating Elon Musk’s role in shaping Tesla Inc.’s self-driving car claims, the latest effort by watchdogs …

Sources: the Biden administration has secured an agreement with the Netherlands and Japan to restrict exports of some advanced chipmaking machinery to China (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Sources: the Biden administration has secured an agreement with the Netherlands and Japan to restrict exports of some advanced chipmaking machinery to China  —  President Joe Biden’s administration secured an agreement with the Netherlands and Japan to restrict exports of some advanced chipmaking machinery …

Bilge Yildiz wins Rahmi M. Koç Medal of Science

Before being awarded the Koç University Rahmi M. Koç Medal of Science in her native Turkey, Bilge Yildiz was nervous. But it wasn’t standing in front of an audience of hundreds that stressed the Breene M. Kerr Professor in the departments of Nuclear Science and Engineering and of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE). It wasn’t […]

Exploring the rich traditions of Brazilian music

Student presentations tackled themes of identity, nation-building, racism, multiculturalism, and more, as reflected in the rich traditions of Brazilian music at “The Beat of Brazil” last month at the Lewis Music Library. The presentations were by students of Portuguese enrolled in class 21G.821 (The Beat of Brazil: Portuguese Language Through Brazilian Society), taught by Nilma […]

The EU Commission says Google has agreed to update its Store, Play Store, Hotels, and Flights to provide clear and accurate information and comply with EU laws (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: The EU Commission says Google has agreed to update its Store, Play Store, Hotels, and Flights to provide clear and accurate information and comply with EU laws  —  Many of Google’s offerings will soon be updated to provide clear and accurate information in compliance with consumer protection laws in the […]