The fight for a Montana bill to ban TikTok, which passed in the Senate and will likely pass in the House, previews the legally perilous road for a federal push (David McCabe/New York Times)
David McCabe / New York Times: The fight for a Montana bill to ban TikTok, which passed in the Senate and will likely pass in the House, previews the legally perilous road for a federal push — The fight has shown the difficult test and legally perilous road facing lawmakers or the White House if […].
A study finds that assigning ChatGPT a persona, like “a bad person” or a certain historical figure, using the API, increases the chatbot’s toxicity sixfold (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: A study finds that assigning ChatGPT a persona, like “a bad person” or a certain historical figure, using the API, increases the chatbot’s toxicity sixfold — It’s no secret that OpenAI’s viral AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, can be prompted to say sexist, racist and pretty vile things. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/BCpEGq6.
PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, after Twitter labeled it “Government-funded Media”, and says it has no plans to resume tweeting (Sara Fischer/Axios)
Sara Fischer / Axios: PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, after Twitter labeled it “Government-funded Media”, and says it has no plans to resume tweeting — PBS has not tweeted from its main Twitter handle since April 8, following Elon Musk’s decision to label the outlet “government-funded news.” from […].
A teenage member of the Discord server where classified Pentagon documents were shared claims the leaker, who went by the name “OG”, worked on a military base (Washington Post)
Washington Post: A teenage member of the Discord server where classified Pentagon documents were shared claims the leaker, who went by the name “OG”, worked on a military base — The man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has exposed spying on allies, revealed the grim prospects … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/coMC4Rw.
Italy outlines compliance demands for lifting ChatGPT suspension order, requiring OpenAI to publish info about its data processing, adopt age gating, and more (Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch)
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: Italy outlines compliance demands for lifting ChatGPT suspension order, requiring OpenAI to publish info about its data processing, adopt age gating, and more — Italy’s data protection watchdog has laid out what OpenAI needs to do for it to lift an order against ChatGPT issued at the end of last month […].
A profile of Alexandr Wang, a co-founder of Scale AI, which outsources ~240K workers via its subsidiary Remotasks to label the data used to train AI systems (Kenrick Cai/Forbes)
Kenrick Cai / Forbes: A profile of Alexandr Wang, a co-founder of Scale AI, which outsources ~240K workers via its subsidiary Remotasks to label the data used to train AI systems — Alexandr Wang briefly became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire at 24 by supplying artificial intelligence companies with the one thing they all need: […].
FTX’s attorneys say the company recovered $7.3B in liquid assets and is considering using creditors’ holdings to reopen the exchange; FTX’s FTT token jumps 70%+ (Cheyenne Ligon/CoinDesk)
Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk: FTX’s attorneys say the company recovered $7.3B in liquid assets and is considering using creditors’ holdings to reopen the exchange; FTX’s FTT token jumps 70%+ — FTT jumped 55%. — Featured SpeakerBrett Harrison — Founder and CEOArchitect — Don’t miss “FTX: What Happened” … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/JFCwPYd.
Italy gives OpenAI initial to-do list for lifting ChatGPT suspension order
Italy’s data protection watchdog has laid out what OpenAI needs to do for it to lift an order against ChatGPT issued at the end of last month — when it said it suspected the AI chatbot service was in breach of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ordered the US-based company to stop […].
Google releases Android 14 Beta 1 for Pixel devices, with sharesheet custom actions, a more prominent back arrow, per-app language preferences, and more (Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch)
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Google releases Android 14 Beta 1 for Pixel devices, with sharesheet custom actions, a more prominent back arrow, per-app language preferences, and more — Google’s Android development cycle runs on a rather predictable cadence these days. Today, after two developer previews … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/1vZ298C.
Sources: IBM explores selling its weather unit in a deal that could be valued at $1B+; IBM reportedly paid $2B+ for The Weather Company’s digital assets in 2015 (Wall Street Journal)
Wall Street Journal: Sources: IBM explores selling its weather unit in a deal that could be valued at $1B+; IBM reportedly paid $2B+ for The Weather Company’s digital assets in 2015 — Weather.com owner could fetch more than $1 billion in a sale — International Business Machines Corp. is exploring a sale … from Techmeme […].
Daily Crunch: Twitter CEO admits he purchased platform for $44B because ‘I kind of had to’
To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here. Good morning, you glorious souls. Have you stretched today? As you’re settling in for the newsletter and the top stories from TechCrunch for today, can you grab yourself a glass of water? […].
Filings: SoftBank has sold ~$7.2B worth of Alibaba shares in 2023, reducing its stake in the Chinese company to just 3.8%, after a record $29B selldown in 2022 (Financial Times)
Financial Times: Filings: SoftBank has sold ~$7.2B worth of Alibaba shares in 2023, reducing its stake in the Chinese company to just 3.8%, after a record $29B selldown in 2022 — Japanese investor makes $7.2bn from forward sales of shares in Chinese ecommerce group as lucrative partnership wanes from Techmeme https://ift.tt/bMLaqsu.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs a bill requiring that social media companies verify new users’ ages and get a parent’s consent for users under 18 (Brian Fung/CNN)
Brian Fung / CNN: Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders signs a bill requiring that social media companies verify new users’ ages and get a parent’s consent for users under 18 — Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has signed a sweeping bill imposing a minimum age limit for social media usage … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/Tg9CNpV.
Arts Help launches $6M fundraise to build digital climate library and ESG certification program
Nonprofit Arts Help is launching a $6 million fund to build the world’s first digital climate library to provide public access to the archives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCCC, which was formed in 1992, has more than 1.7 million paper documents related to the treaty, many of which […].
Warner Bros. Discovery promises Max will be a more personalized, technically improved streaming service
With next month’s arrival of the new streaming service “Max” from Warner Bros. Discovery, the company is also promising a revamped product experience with an expanded feature set, improved recommendations, and better performance. The new service, which combines HBO Max and Discovery+ content into one offering, will gain an updated user interface that’s delivered by […].
The stocks of Apple suppliers Cirrus Logic and AAC fall 12%+ and 14%+, respectively, after Ming-Chi Kuo said iPhone 15 Pro models won’t have solid-state buttons (Rohan Goswami/CNBC)
Rohan Goswami / CNBC: The stocks of Apple suppliers Cirrus Logic and AAC fall 12%+ and 14%+, respectively, after Ming-Chi Kuo said iPhone 15 Pro models won’t have solid-state buttons — – Shares of Cirrus Logic fell after Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said the next iPhone wouldn’t feature expanded use of Cirrus’ technology … from […].
Twitter changes the label on the main BBC account to “Publicly funded media” from “Government Funded Media”, after the broadcaster called the label inaccurate (Paul Glynn/BBC)
Paul Glynn / BBC: Twitter changes the label on the main BBC account to “Publicly funded media” from “Government Funded Media”, after the broadcaster called the label inaccurate — Twitter has changed a label on the main BBC account, saying it is “publicly-funded” instead of … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/GXV8WnR.
OpenAI looks beyond diffusion with ‘consistency’ based image generator
The field of image generation moves quickly. Though the diffusion models used by popular tools like Midjourney and Stable Diffusion may seem like the best we’ve got, the next thing is always coming — and OpenAI might have hit on it with “consistency models,” which can already do simple tasks an order of magnitude faster […].
‘Game of Thrones’ fans are getting a new spinoff based on characters Dunk and Egg
Among the many announcements during today’s Warner Bros. Discovery press event, the company revealed it greenlit a new Game of Thrones prequel called “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.” A release date has yet to be announced, but the show will eventually debut on Max, WBD’s new streaming service. “A Knight of […].
Apple leads charge as India’s smartphone exports double in record surge
India’s smartphone exports have more than doubled, reaching over $11 billion in the fiscal year that ended in March, according to trade data examined by the industry body India Cellular and Electronics Association and government officials, underscoring the South Asian market’s growing ambition to become a global hardware manufacturing hub. Smartphone exports of $11.2 billion […].