id stringlengths 1 5 | contents stringlengths 354 1.98k |
|---|---|
23600 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
The company has been very deliberately pursuing this very publicly, confidently and on a long-term basis. Altman and the board seem to be in sync on this, at least for the present.
3. Do the numbers not add up?
On the other hand, could OpenAI be losing even more money than Altman admitted or projected? It seems impossible, but the costs of running this operation have no precedent, nor really does the operation itself.
Or what if, and again this is purely speculation, Altman has been secretly pursuing an internal project, perhaps at significant cost, against the advice of the board and without the necessary safety measures that probably should accompany such research? It sounds a little wild, but firing your CEO like this is also a little wild.
Some kind of major mismatch in the financial department could be cause for dismissal, but it’s hard to imagine what Altman could have kept from the board and CTO that would be so damning.
There’s also the possibility that Altman was making personal investments in a way that the board disagreed with. |
23601 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
Altman and the board seem to be in sync on this, at least for the present.
3. Do the numbers not add up?
On the other hand, could OpenAI be losing even more money than Altman admitted or projected? It seems impossible, but the costs of running this operation have no precedent, nor really does the operation itself.
Or what if, and again this is purely speculation, Altman has been secretly pursuing an internal project, perhaps at significant cost, against the advice of the board and without the necessary safety measures that probably should accompany such research? It sounds a little wild, but firing your CEO like this is also a little wild.
Some kind of major mismatch in the financial department could be cause for dismissal, but it’s hard to imagine what Altman could have kept from the board and CTO that would be so damning.
There’s also the possibility that Altman was making personal investments in a way that the board disagreed with. With OpenAI poised to be a kingmaker in the field, he would certainly be in a position of power. |
23602 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
Do the numbers not add up?
On the other hand, could OpenAI be losing even more money than Altman admitted or projected? It seems impossible, but the costs of running this operation have no precedent, nor really does the operation itself.
Or what if, and again this is purely speculation, Altman has been secretly pursuing an internal project, perhaps at significant cost, against the advice of the board and without the necessary safety measures that probably should accompany such research? It sounds a little wild, but firing your CEO like this is also a little wild.
Some kind of major mismatch in the financial department could be cause for dismissal, but it’s hard to imagine what Altman could have kept from the board and CTO that would be so damning.
There’s also the possibility that Altman was making personal investments in a way that the board disagreed with. With OpenAI poised to be a kingmaker in the field, he would certainly be in a position of power. One would think that, as an ideologically driven person already rich beyond belief and at the head of the world’s leading AI company, Altman would have risen beyond having to do this kind of side deal, or at the very least that scrutiny on him and those close to him would prevent them. |
23603 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
It sounds a little wild, but firing your CEO like this is also a little wild.
Some kind of major mismatch in the financial department could be cause for dismissal, but it’s hard to imagine what Altman could have kept from the board and CTO that would be so damning.
There’s also the possibility that Altman was making personal investments in a way that the board disagreed with. With OpenAI poised to be a kingmaker in the field, he would certainly be in a position of power. One would think that, as an ideologically driven person already rich beyond belief and at the head of the world’s leading AI company, Altman would have risen beyond having to do this kind of side deal, or at the very least that scrutiny on him and those close to him would prevent them. But one can never be sure.
4. Could it be a major security or privacy incident? |
23604 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
It sounds a little wild, but firing your CEO like this is also a little wild.
Some kind of major mismatch in the financial department could be cause for dismissal, but it’s hard to imagine what Altman could have kept from the board and CTO that would be so damning.
There’s also the possibility that Altman was making personal investments in a way that the board disagreed with. With OpenAI poised to be a kingmaker in the field, he would certainly be in a position of power. One would think that, as an ideologically driven person already rich beyond belief and at the head of the world’s leading AI company, Altman would have risen beyond having to do this kind of side deal, or at the very least that scrutiny on him and those close to him would prevent them. But one can never be sure.
4. Could it be a major security or privacy incident?
The idea that the company has experienced a major, perhaps pervasive, security issue is bolstered by the fact that Microsoft reportedly suspended use of ChatGPT internally a few days ago. |
23605 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
There’s also the possibility that Altman was making personal investments in a way that the board disagreed with. With OpenAI poised to be a kingmaker in the field, he would certainly be in a position of power. One would think that, as an ideologically driven person already rich beyond belief and at the head of the world’s leading AI company, Altman would have risen beyond having to do this kind of side deal, or at the very least that scrutiny on him and those close to him would prevent them. But one can never be sure.
4. Could it be a major security or privacy incident?
The idea that the company has experienced a major, perhaps pervasive, security issue is bolstered by the fact that Microsoft reportedly suspended use of ChatGPT internally a few days ago. OpenAI subsequently stopped allowing new signups. If there was a serious security problem in its biggest product and Altman downplayed it, that would obviously create distrust with the board. |
23606 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
With OpenAI poised to be a kingmaker in the field, he would certainly be in a position of power. One would think that, as an ideologically driven person already rich beyond belief and at the head of the world’s leading AI company, Altman would have risen beyond having to do this kind of side deal, or at the very least that scrutiny on him and those close to him would prevent them. But one can never be sure.
4. Could it be a major security or privacy incident?
The idea that the company has experienced a major, perhaps pervasive, security issue is bolstered by the fact that Microsoft reportedly suspended use of ChatGPT internally a few days ago. OpenAI subsequently stopped allowing new signups. If there was a serious security problem in its biggest product and Altman downplayed it, that would obviously create distrust with the board.
There is also the potential for misuse at scale with the enormous amount of personal data that travels through OpenAI’s APIs and services. |
23607 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
One would think that, as an ideologically driven person already rich beyond belief and at the head of the world’s leading AI company, Altman would have risen beyond having to do this kind of side deal, or at the very least that scrutiny on him and those close to him would prevent them. But one can never be sure.
4. Could it be a major security or privacy incident?
The idea that the company has experienced a major, perhaps pervasive, security issue is bolstered by the fact that Microsoft reportedly suspended use of ChatGPT internally a few days ago. OpenAI subsequently stopped allowing new signups. If there was a serious security problem in its biggest product and Altman downplayed it, that would obviously create distrust with the board.
There is also the potential for misuse at scale with the enormous amount of personal data that travels through OpenAI’s APIs and services.
Working against this theory is the fact that CTO Mira Murati was just elevated to interim CEO in Altman’s place. |
23608 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
But one can never be sure.
4. Could it be a major security or privacy incident?
The idea that the company has experienced a major, perhaps pervasive, security issue is bolstered by the fact that Microsoft reportedly suspended use of ChatGPT internally a few days ago. OpenAI subsequently stopped allowing new signups. If there was a serious security problem in its biggest product and Altman downplayed it, that would obviously create distrust with the board.
There is also the potential for misuse at scale with the enormous amount of personal data that travels through OpenAI’s APIs and services.
Working against this theory is the fact that CTO Mira Murati was just elevated to interim CEO in Altman’s place. It seems unlikely that anything security-related would go through the CEO and not the CTO, or that the two would be at odds to the point where one could be fired like this and the other swapped in to clean up the mess. |
23609 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
But one can never be sure.
4. Could it be a major security or privacy incident?
The idea that the company has experienced a major, perhaps pervasive, security issue is bolstered by the fact that Microsoft reportedly suspended use of ChatGPT internally a few days ago. OpenAI subsequently stopped allowing new signups. If there was a serious security problem in its biggest product and Altman downplayed it, that would obviously create distrust with the board.
There is also the potential for misuse at scale with the enormous amount of personal data that travels through OpenAI’s APIs and services.
Working against this theory is the fact that CTO Mira Murati was just elevated to interim CEO in Altman’s place. It seems unlikely that anything security-related would go through the CEO and not the CTO, or that the two would be at odds to the point where one could be fired like this and the other swapped in to clean up the mess. As the board’s statement notes, Murati is in charge of product and safety, among other things. |
23610 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
The idea that the company has experienced a major, perhaps pervasive, security issue is bolstered by the fact that Microsoft reportedly suspended use of ChatGPT internally a few days ago. OpenAI subsequently stopped allowing new signups. If there was a serious security problem in its biggest product and Altman downplayed it, that would obviously create distrust with the board.
There is also the potential for misuse at scale with the enormous amount of personal data that travels through OpenAI’s APIs and services.
Working against this theory is the fact that CTO Mira Murati was just elevated to interim CEO in Altman’s place. It seems unlikely that anything security-related would go through the CEO and not the CTO, or that the two would be at odds to the point where one could be fired like this and the other swapped in to clean up the mess. As the board’s statement notes, Murati is in charge of product and safety, among other things. Any significant snafu in that department would reflect on her, as well as Altman. |
23611 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
OpenAI subsequently stopped allowing new signups. If there was a serious security problem in its biggest product and Altman downplayed it, that would obviously create distrust with the board.
There is also the potential for misuse at scale with the enormous amount of personal data that travels through OpenAI’s APIs and services.
Working against this theory is the fact that CTO Mira Murati was just elevated to interim CEO in Altman’s place. It seems unlikely that anything security-related would go through the CEO and not the CTO, or that the two would be at odds to the point where one could be fired like this and the other swapped in to clean up the mess. As the board’s statement notes, Murati is in charge of product and safety, among other things. Any significant snafu in that department would reflect on her, as well as Altman.
5. Perhaps a difference of AI ethics or philosophy? |
23612 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
OpenAI subsequently stopped allowing new signups. If there was a serious security problem in its biggest product and Altman downplayed it, that would obviously create distrust with the board.
There is also the potential for misuse at scale with the enormous amount of personal data that travels through OpenAI’s APIs and services.
Working against this theory is the fact that CTO Mira Murati was just elevated to interim CEO in Altman’s place. It seems unlikely that anything security-related would go through the CEO and not the CTO, or that the two would be at odds to the point where one could be fired like this and the other swapped in to clean up the mess. As the board’s statement notes, Murati is in charge of product and safety, among other things. Any significant snafu in that department would reflect on her, as well as Altman.
5. Perhaps a difference of AI ethics or philosophy?
Altman is a proud techno-optimist, and often speaks fondly of the possibilities of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, a theoretical software system that achieves human-like intellect and versatility. |
23613 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
There is also the potential for misuse at scale with the enormous amount of personal data that travels through OpenAI’s APIs and services.
Working against this theory is the fact that CTO Mira Murati was just elevated to interim CEO in Altman’s place. It seems unlikely that anything security-related would go through the CEO and not the CTO, or that the two would be at odds to the point where one could be fired like this and the other swapped in to clean up the mess. As the board’s statement notes, Murati is in charge of product and safety, among other things. Any significant snafu in that department would reflect on her, as well as Altman.
5. Perhaps a difference of AI ethics or philosophy?
Altman is a proud techno-optimist, and often speaks fondly of the possibilities of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, a theoretical software system that achieves human-like intellect and versatility.
The board’s statement pointedly includes that “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity” and that new leadership was necessary. |
23614 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
It seems unlikely that anything security-related would go through the CEO and not the CTO, or that the two would be at odds to the point where one could be fired like this and the other swapped in to clean up the mess. As the board’s statement notes, Murati is in charge of product and safety, among other things. Any significant snafu in that department would reflect on her, as well as Altman.
5. Perhaps a difference of AI ethics or philosophy?
Altman is a proud techno-optimist, and often speaks fondly of the possibilities of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, a theoretical software system that achieves human-like intellect and versatility.
The board’s statement pointedly includes that “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity” and that new leadership was necessary. It’s possible that Sam’s zeal for AGI, even absent a secret project or agreement, led to a major rift between him and the board. |
23615 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
As the board’s statement notes, Murati is in charge of product and safety, among other things. Any significant snafu in that department would reflect on her, as well as Altman.
5. Perhaps a difference of AI ethics or philosophy?
Altman is a proud techno-optimist, and often speaks fondly of the possibilities of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, a theoretical software system that achieves human-like intellect and versatility.
The board’s statement pointedly includes that “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity” and that new leadership was necessary. It’s possible that Sam’s zeal for AGI, even absent a secret project or agreement, led to a major rift between him and the board.
It’s been obvious to all that Altman took the company in a much more corporate direction from its origins, changing its legal status and aggressively pursuing enterprise and consumer applications. That doesn’t sound a lot like the “mission” the board wants to advance. |
23616 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
Any significant snafu in that department would reflect on her, as well as Altman.
5. Perhaps a difference of AI ethics or philosophy?
Altman is a proud techno-optimist, and often speaks fondly of the possibilities of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, a theoretical software system that achieves human-like intellect and versatility.
The board’s statement pointedly includes that “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity” and that new leadership was necessary. It’s possible that Sam’s zeal for AGI, even absent a secret project or agreement, led to a major rift between him and the board.
It’s been obvious to all that Altman took the company in a much more corporate direction from its origins, changing its legal status and aggressively pursuing enterprise and consumer applications. That doesn’t sound a lot like the “mission” the board wants to advance. Then again, this shift didn’t happen today, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a plausible reason for abruptly firing the CEO and a few others on a beautiful fall Friday afternoon. |
23617 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
Altman is a proud techno-optimist, and often speaks fondly of the possibilities of AGI, or artificial general intelligence, a theoretical software system that achieves human-like intellect and versatility.
The board’s statement pointedly includes that “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity” and that new leadership was necessary. It’s possible that Sam’s zeal for AGI, even absent a secret project or agreement, led to a major rift between him and the board.
It’s been obvious to all that Altman took the company in a much more corporate direction from its origins, changing its legal status and aggressively pursuing enterprise and consumer applications. That doesn’t sound a lot like the “mission” the board wants to advance. Then again, this shift didn’t happen today, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a plausible reason for abruptly firing the CEO and a few others on a beautiful fall Friday afternoon.
6. What about IP and legal liability? |
23618 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
The board’s statement pointedly includes that “OpenAI was deliberately structured to advance our mission: to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all humanity” and that new leadership was necessary. It’s possible that Sam’s zeal for AGI, even absent a secret project or agreement, led to a major rift between him and the board.
It’s been obvious to all that Altman took the company in a much more corporate direction from its origins, changing its legal status and aggressively pursuing enterprise and consumer applications. That doesn’t sound a lot like the “mission” the board wants to advance. Then again, this shift didn’t happen today, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a plausible reason for abruptly firing the CEO and a few others on a beautiful fall Friday afternoon.
6. What about IP and legal liability?
Altman told me at OpenAI’s Dev Day earlier this month that the company doesn’t want to incur any copyright problems by using (as I had asked about) datasets of pirated books. |
23619 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
It’s possible that Sam’s zeal for AGI, even absent a secret project or agreement, led to a major rift between him and the board.
It’s been obvious to all that Altman took the company in a much more corporate direction from its origins, changing its legal status and aggressively pursuing enterprise and consumer applications. That doesn’t sound a lot like the “mission” the board wants to advance. Then again, this shift didn’t happen today, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a plausible reason for abruptly firing the CEO and a few others on a beautiful fall Friday afternoon.
6. What about IP and legal liability?
Altman told me at OpenAI’s Dev Day earlier this month that the company doesn’t want to incur any copyright problems by using (as I had asked about) datasets of pirated books. But a lot of research I’ve been reading contradicts that, as does pretty much every AI data scientist I talk to. |
23620 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
It’s possible that Sam’s zeal for AGI, even absent a secret project or agreement, led to a major rift between him and the board.
It’s been obvious to all that Altman took the company in a much more corporate direction from its origins, changing its legal status and aggressively pursuing enterprise and consumer applications. That doesn’t sound a lot like the “mission” the board wants to advance. Then again, this shift didn’t happen today, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a plausible reason for abruptly firing the CEO and a few others on a beautiful fall Friday afternoon.
6. What about IP and legal liability?
Altman told me at OpenAI’s Dev Day earlier this month that the company doesn’t want to incur any copyright problems by using (as I had asked about) datasets of pirated books. But a lot of research I’ve been reading contradicts that, as does pretty much every AI data scientist I talk to. It’s exceedingly hard to imagine that OpenAI built GPT-3 with the copyrighted books database (as seems to be the case) but not GPT-4 or succeeding models. |
23621 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
That doesn’t sound a lot like the “mission” the board wants to advance. Then again, this shift didn’t happen today, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a plausible reason for abruptly firing the CEO and a few others on a beautiful fall Friday afternoon.
6. What about IP and legal liability?
Altman told me at OpenAI’s Dev Day earlier this month that the company doesn’t want to incur any copyright problems by using (as I had asked about) datasets of pirated books. But a lot of research I’ve been reading contradicts that, as does pretty much every AI data scientist I talk to. It’s exceedingly hard to imagine that OpenAI built GPT-3 with the copyrighted books database (as seems to be the case) but not GPT-4 or succeeding models. (I was going to write this up next week, so thanks OpenAI board for eating my lunch.) |
23622 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
That doesn’t sound a lot like the “mission” the board wants to advance. Then again, this shift didn’t happen today, and it certainly doesn’t seem like a plausible reason for abruptly firing the CEO and a few others on a beautiful fall Friday afternoon.
6. What about IP and legal liability?
Altman told me at OpenAI’s Dev Day earlier this month that the company doesn’t want to incur any copyright problems by using (as I had asked about) datasets of pirated books. But a lot of research I’ve been reading contradicts that, as does pretty much every AI data scientist I talk to. It’s exceedingly hard to imagine that OpenAI built GPT-3 with the copyrighted books database (as seems to be the case) but not GPT-4 or succeeding models. (I was going to write this up next week, so thanks OpenAI board for eating my lunch.)
If you were the board and facing the mounting accusations that your product was built on a dataset that includes thousands or millions of copyrighted works — and your CEO had systematically downplayed the potential liability there — how would you feel? |
23623 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
6. What about IP and legal liability?
Altman told me at OpenAI’s Dev Day earlier this month that the company doesn’t want to incur any copyright problems by using (as I had asked about) datasets of pirated books. But a lot of research I’ve been reading contradicts that, as does pretty much every AI data scientist I talk to. It’s exceedingly hard to imagine that OpenAI built GPT-3 with the copyrighted books database (as seems to be the case) but not GPT-4 or succeeding models. (I was going to write this up next week, so thanks OpenAI board for eating my lunch.)
If you were the board and facing the mounting accusations that your product was built on a dataset that includes thousands or millions of copyrighted works — and your CEO had systematically downplayed the potential liability there — how would you feel? I’d feel very hurt.
But again, if copyright liability was the reason, it seems unlikely that the board would promote the CTO. |
23624 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
Altman told me at OpenAI’s Dev Day earlier this month that the company doesn’t want to incur any copyright problems by using (as I had asked about) datasets of pirated books. But a lot of research I’ve been reading contradicts that, as does pretty much every AI data scientist I talk to. It’s exceedingly hard to imagine that OpenAI built GPT-3 with the copyrighted books database (as seems to be the case) but not GPT-4 or succeeding models. (I was going to write this up next week, so thanks OpenAI board for eating my lunch.)
If you were the board and facing the mounting accusations that your product was built on a dataset that includes thousands or millions of copyrighted works — and your CEO had systematically downplayed the potential liability there — how would you feel? I’d feel very hurt.
But again, if copyright liability was the reason, it seems unlikely that the board would promote the CTO. Presumably, OpenAI’s Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever would also have been in the know, and he’s still on the board. |
23625 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
But a lot of research I’ve been reading contradicts that, as does pretty much every AI data scientist I talk to. It’s exceedingly hard to imagine that OpenAI built GPT-3 with the copyrighted books database (as seems to be the case) but not GPT-4 or succeeding models. (I was going to write this up next week, so thanks OpenAI board for eating my lunch.)
If you were the board and facing the mounting accusations that your product was built on a dataset that includes thousands or millions of copyrighted works — and your CEO had systematically downplayed the potential liability there — how would you feel? I’d feel very hurt.
But again, if copyright liability was the reason, it seems unlikely that the board would promote the CTO. Presumably, OpenAI’s Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever would also have been in the know, and he’s still on the board.
7. Did CTO Mira Murati launch a coup? |
23626 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
It’s exceedingly hard to imagine that OpenAI built GPT-3 with the copyrighted books database (as seems to be the case) but not GPT-4 or succeeding models. (I was going to write this up next week, so thanks OpenAI board for eating my lunch.)
If you were the board and facing the mounting accusations that your product was built on a dataset that includes thousands or millions of copyrighted works — and your CEO had systematically downplayed the potential liability there — how would you feel? I’d feel very hurt.
But again, if copyright liability was the reason, it seems unlikely that the board would promote the CTO. Presumably, OpenAI’s Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever would also have been in the know, and he’s still on the board.
7. Did CTO Mira Murati launch a coup?
Probably not — she seems cool, and anyway what CTO wants to be CEO? Mira, answer my email!
8. Was it a “personal matter”? |
23627 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
(I was going to write this up next week, so thanks OpenAI board for eating my lunch.)
If you were the board and facing the mounting accusations that your product was built on a dataset that includes thousands or millions of copyrighted works — and your CEO had systematically downplayed the potential liability there — how would you feel? I’d feel very hurt.
But again, if copyright liability was the reason, it seems unlikely that the board would promote the CTO. Presumably, OpenAI’s Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever would also have been in the know, and he’s still on the board.
7. Did CTO Mira Murati launch a coup?
Probably not — she seems cool, and anyway what CTO wants to be CEO? Mira, answer my email!
8. Was it a “personal matter”?
When someone is kicked out in a hurry, it’s not uncommon that there was some kind of unprofessional behavior in the workplace. |
23628 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
If you were the board and facing the mounting accusations that your product was built on a dataset that includes thousands or millions of copyrighted works — and your CEO had systematically downplayed the potential liability there — how would you feel? I’d feel very hurt.
But again, if copyright liability was the reason, it seems unlikely that the board would promote the CTO. Presumably, OpenAI’s Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever would also have been in the know, and he’s still on the board.
7. Did CTO Mira Murati launch a coup?
Probably not — she seems cool, and anyway what CTO wants to be CEO? Mira, answer my email!
8. Was it a “personal matter”?
When someone is kicked out in a hurry, it’s not uncommon that there was some kind of unprofessional behavior in the workplace. Some CEOs get a pass on things like having kids with direct reports, but not all. |
23629 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
If you were the board and facing the mounting accusations that your product was built on a dataset that includes thousands or millions of copyrighted works — and your CEO had systematically downplayed the potential liability there — how would you feel? I’d feel very hurt.
But again, if copyright liability was the reason, it seems unlikely that the board would promote the CTO. Presumably, OpenAI’s Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever would also have been in the know, and he’s still on the board.
7. Did CTO Mira Murati launch a coup?
Probably not — she seems cool, and anyway what CTO wants to be CEO? Mira, answer my email!
8. Was it a “personal matter”?
When someone is kicked out in a hurry, it’s not uncommon that there was some kind of unprofessional behavior in the workplace. Some CEOs get a pass on things like having kids with direct reports, but not all.
Altman also has three siblings, and his younger sister Annie has publicly accused him of abuse. |
23630 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
I’d feel very hurt.
But again, if copyright liability was the reason, it seems unlikely that the board would promote the CTO. Presumably, OpenAI’s Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever would also have been in the know, and he’s still on the board.
7. Did CTO Mira Murati launch a coup?
Probably not — she seems cool, and anyway what CTO wants to be CEO? Mira, answer my email!
8. Was it a “personal matter”?
When someone is kicked out in a hurry, it’s not uncommon that there was some kind of unprofessional behavior in the workplace. Some CEOs get a pass on things like having kids with direct reports, but not all.
Altman also has three siblings, and his younger sister Annie has publicly accused him of abuse. We have no way of evaluating these allegations, which involve private matters. |
23631 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
I’d feel very hurt.
But again, if copyright liability was the reason, it seems unlikely that the board would promote the CTO. Presumably, OpenAI’s Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever would also have been in the know, and he’s still on the board.
7. Did CTO Mira Murati launch a coup?
Probably not — she seems cool, and anyway what CTO wants to be CEO? Mira, answer my email!
8. Was it a “personal matter”?
When someone is kicked out in a hurry, it’s not uncommon that there was some kind of unprofessional behavior in the workplace. Some CEOs get a pass on things like having kids with direct reports, but not all.
Altman also has three siblings, and his younger sister Annie has publicly accused him of abuse. We have no way of evaluating these allegations, which involve private matters.
Our read on the board’s language in dismissing Altman, however, is that it was not a legal or personal problem that provoked the action, but a professional or business one. |
23632 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
Presumably, OpenAI’s Chief Science Officer Ilya Sutskever would also have been in the know, and he’s still on the board.
7. Did CTO Mira Murati launch a coup?
Probably not — she seems cool, and anyway what CTO wants to be CEO? Mira, answer my email!
8. Was it a “personal matter”?
When someone is kicked out in a hurry, it’s not uncommon that there was some kind of unprofessional behavior in the workplace. Some CEOs get a pass on things like having kids with direct reports, but not all.
Altman also has three siblings, and his younger sister Annie has publicly accused him of abuse. We have no way of evaluating these allegations, which involve private matters.
Our read on the board’s language in dismissing Altman, however, is that it was not a legal or personal problem that provoked the action, but a professional or business one.
We probably won’t know the full truth on this for a long time, as the characters in the drama are likely to be NDA’ed up. |
23633 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
7. Did CTO Mira Murati launch a coup?
Probably not — she seems cool, and anyway what CTO wants to be CEO? Mira, answer my email!
8. Was it a “personal matter”?
When someone is kicked out in a hurry, it’s not uncommon that there was some kind of unprofessional behavior in the workplace. Some CEOs get a pass on things like having kids with direct reports, but not all.
Altman also has three siblings, and his younger sister Annie has publicly accused him of abuse. We have no way of evaluating these allegations, which involve private matters.
Our read on the board’s language in dismissing Altman, however, is that it was not a legal or personal problem that provoked the action, but a professional or business one.
We probably won’t know the full truth on this for a long time, as the characters in the drama are likely to be NDA’ed up. Per various whispers and leaks, an all-hands meeting about the situation this afternoon didn’t produce any revelations beyond banal reassurances that the company is fine and they’ll get a fresh CEO soon. |
23634 | WTF is going on at OpenAI? We have theories
8. Was it a “personal matter”?
When someone is kicked out in a hurry, it’s not uncommon that there was some kind of unprofessional behavior in the workplace. Some CEOs get a pass on things like having kids with direct reports, but not all.
Altman also has three siblings, and his younger sister Annie has publicly accused him of abuse. We have no way of evaluating these allegations, which involve private matters.
Our read on the board’s language in dismissing Altman, however, is that it was not a legal or personal problem that provoked the action, but a professional or business one.
We probably won’t know the full truth on this for a long time, as the characters in the drama are likely to be NDA’ed up. Per various whispers and leaks, an all-hands meeting about the situation this afternoon didn’t produce any revelations beyond banal reassurances that the company is fine and they’ll get a fresh CEO soon. Expect to hear a lot of rumors before we hear the real thing. |
23635 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Hey, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter that recaps the past few days in tech. AI stole the headlines once again, with tech giants from Google to X (formerly Twitter) heading off against OpenAI for chatbot supremacy. But plenty happened besides.
In this edition of WiR, we cover Google faking a demo of its new AI model (and giving out offensive notebooks to Black summit attendees), defense startup Anduril unveiling a fighter jet weapon, the continued fallout from the 23andMe hack, and the release of the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. Also on the roster are stories about patient scans and health records spilling online, Meta’s new AI-powered image generator, Spotify cutting jobs and an autonomous truck startup leaving the U.S.
It’s a lot to get to, so we won’t delay. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already done so. |
23636 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
AI stole the headlines once again, with tech giants from Google to X (formerly Twitter) heading off against OpenAI for chatbot supremacy. But plenty happened besides.
In this edition of WiR, we cover Google faking a demo of its new AI model (and giving out offensive notebooks to Black summit attendees), defense startup Anduril unveiling a fighter jet weapon, the continued fallout from the 23andMe hack, and the release of the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. Also on the roster are stories about patient scans and health records spilling online, Meta’s new AI-powered image generator, Spotify cutting jobs and an autonomous truck startup leaving the U.S.
It’s a lot to get to, so we won’t delay. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already done so.
Most read
AI, faked: Google unveiled a new flagship AI model this week called Gemini. |
23637 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
AI stole the headlines once again, with tech giants from Google to X (formerly Twitter) heading off against OpenAI for chatbot supremacy. But plenty happened besides.
In this edition of WiR, we cover Google faking a demo of its new AI model (and giving out offensive notebooks to Black summit attendees), defense startup Anduril unveiling a fighter jet weapon, the continued fallout from the 23andMe hack, and the release of the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. Also on the roster are stories about patient scans and health records spilling online, Meta’s new AI-powered image generator, Spotify cutting jobs and an autonomous truck startup leaving the U.S.
It’s a lot to get to, so we won’t delay. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already done so.
Most read
AI, faked: Google unveiled a new flagship AI model this week called Gemini. But it didn’t release the full model, Gemini Ultra — only a “lite” version called Gemini Pro. |
23638 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
But plenty happened besides.
In this edition of WiR, we cover Google faking a demo of its new AI model (and giving out offensive notebooks to Black summit attendees), defense startup Anduril unveiling a fighter jet weapon, the continued fallout from the 23andMe hack, and the release of the Grand Theft Auto VI trailer. Also on the roster are stories about patient scans and health records spilling online, Meta’s new AI-powered image generator, Spotify cutting jobs and an autonomous truck startup leaving the U.S.
It’s a lot to get to, so we won’t delay. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already done so.
Most read
AI, faked: Google unveiled a new flagship AI model this week called Gemini. But it didn’t release the full model, Gemini Ultra — only a “lite” version called Gemini Pro. In a press briefing and blog posts, Google touted Gemini’s coding capabilities and multimodal prowess, claiming that the model can understand images, audio and videos just as well as text. |
23639 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Also on the roster are stories about patient scans and health records spilling online, Meta’s new AI-powered image generator, Spotify cutting jobs and an autonomous truck startup leaving the U.S.
It’s a lot to get to, so we won’t delay. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already done so.
Most read
AI, faked: Google unveiled a new flagship AI model this week called Gemini. But it didn’t release the full model, Gemini Ultra — only a “lite” version called Gemini Pro. In a press briefing and blog posts, Google touted Gemini’s coding capabilities and multimodal prowess, claiming that the model can understand images, audio and videos just as well as text. But Gemini Pro — which is strictly text-in, text-out — has proven to be mistake-prone. And in a worse look for Google, the company was caught faking a Gemini demo by tuning text prompts with still images off camera. |
23640 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
It’s a lot to get to, so we won’t delay. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already done so.
Most read
AI, faked: Google unveiled a new flagship AI model this week called Gemini. But it didn’t release the full model, Gemini Ultra — only a “lite” version called Gemini Pro. In a press briefing and blog posts, Google touted Gemini’s coding capabilities and multimodal prowess, claiming that the model can understand images, audio and videos just as well as text. But Gemini Pro — which is strictly text-in, text-out — has proven to be mistake-prone. And in a worse look for Google, the company was caught faking a Gemini demo by tuning text prompts with still images off camera.
Offensive notebooks: In another Google PR blunder, people who attended the company’s K&I Black Summit in August were given third-party notebooks containing highly insensitive language. |
23641 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already done so.
Most read
AI, faked: Google unveiled a new flagship AI model this week called Gemini. But it didn’t release the full model, Gemini Ultra — only a “lite” version called Gemini Pro. In a press briefing and blog posts, Google touted Gemini’s coding capabilities and multimodal prowess, claiming that the model can understand images, audio and videos just as well as text. But Gemini Pro — which is strictly text-in, text-out — has proven to be mistake-prone. And in a worse look for Google, the company was caught faking a Gemini demo by tuning text prompts with still images off camera.
Offensive notebooks: In another Google PR blunder, people who attended the company’s K&I Black Summit in August were given third-party notebooks containing highly insensitive language. My colleague Dominic-Madori writes that the inside of the notebooks were printed with the phrase “I was just cotton the moment, but I came back to take your notes” (emphasis ours). |
23642 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
But it didn’t release the full model, Gemini Ultra — only a “lite” version called Gemini Pro. In a press briefing and blog posts, Google touted Gemini’s coding capabilities and multimodal prowess, claiming that the model can understand images, audio and videos just as well as text. But Gemini Pro — which is strictly text-in, text-out — has proven to be mistake-prone. And in a worse look for Google, the company was caught faking a Gemini demo by tuning text prompts with still images off camera.
Offensive notebooks: In another Google PR blunder, people who attended the company’s K&I Black Summit in August were given third-party notebooks containing highly insensitive language. My colleague Dominic-Madori writes that the inside of the notebooks were printed with the phrase “I was just cotton the moment, but I came back to take your notes” (emphasis ours). It goes without saying that this wouldn’t have been well received by the mostly Black audience in attendance; Google has pledged to “avoid similar situations as [it engages] with [merchandise] vendors going forward.”
Anduril’s new weapon: Anduril, the controversial defense company co-founded by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, has developed a new product designed to take on the proliferation of low-cost, high-powered aerial threats. |
23643 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
And in a worse look for Google, the company was caught faking a Gemini demo by tuning text prompts with still images off camera.
Offensive notebooks: In another Google PR blunder, people who attended the company’s K&I Black Summit in August were given third-party notebooks containing highly insensitive language. My colleague Dominic-Madori writes that the inside of the notebooks were printed with the phrase “I was just cotton the moment, but I came back to take your notes” (emphasis ours). It goes without saying that this wouldn’t have been well received by the mostly Black audience in attendance; Google has pledged to “avoid similar situations as [it engages] with [merchandise] vendors going forward.”
Anduril’s new weapon: Anduril, the controversial defense company co-founded by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, has developed a new product designed to take on the proliferation of low-cost, high-powered aerial threats. Dubbed Roadrunner, the modular, twin-jet-powered autonomous vertical take-off and landing air vehicle — one version of which is capable of carrying a warhead — can take off, follow and destroy targets or, if there’s no need to intercept the target, autonomously maneuver back to base for refueling and reuse. |
23644 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
My colleague Dominic-Madori writes that the inside of the notebooks were printed with the phrase “I was just cotton the moment, but I came back to take your notes” (emphasis ours). It goes without saying that this wouldn’t have been well received by the mostly Black audience in attendance; Google has pledged to “avoid similar situations as [it engages] with [merchandise] vendors going forward.”
Anduril’s new weapon: Anduril, the controversial defense company co-founded by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, has developed a new product designed to take on the proliferation of low-cost, high-powered aerial threats. Dubbed Roadrunner, the modular, twin-jet-powered autonomous vertical take-off and landing air vehicle — one version of which is capable of carrying a warhead — can take off, follow and destroy targets or, if there’s no need to intercept the target, autonomously maneuver back to base for refueling and reuse.
More 23andMe victims: Last Friday, genetic testing company 23andMe announced that hackers managed to access the personal data of 0.1% of customers, or about 14,000 individuals. |
23645 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
It goes without saying that this wouldn’t have been well received by the mostly Black audience in attendance; Google has pledged to “avoid similar situations as [it engages] with [merchandise] vendors going forward.”
Anduril’s new weapon: Anduril, the controversial defense company co-founded by Oculus founder Palmer Luckey, has developed a new product designed to take on the proliferation of low-cost, high-powered aerial threats. Dubbed Roadrunner, the modular, twin-jet-powered autonomous vertical take-off and landing air vehicle — one version of which is capable of carrying a warhead — can take off, follow and destroy targets or, if there’s no need to intercept the target, autonomously maneuver back to base for refueling and reuse.
More 23andMe victims: Last Friday, genetic testing company 23andMe announced that hackers managed to access the personal data of 0.1% of customers, or about 14,000 individuals. But the company didn’t initially say how many other users might’ve been impacted by the breach, which 23andMe first disclosed in October. |
23646 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Dubbed Roadrunner, the modular, twin-jet-powered autonomous vertical take-off and landing air vehicle — one version of which is capable of carrying a warhead — can take off, follow and destroy targets or, if there’s no need to intercept the target, autonomously maneuver back to base for refueling and reuse.
More 23andMe victims: Last Friday, genetic testing company 23andMe announced that hackers managed to access the personal data of 0.1% of customers, or about 14,000 individuals. But the company didn’t initially say how many other users might’ve been impacted by the breach, which 23andMe first disclosed in October. A lot, as it turns out — 6.9 million people had their names, birth years, relationship labels, the percentage of DNA they share with relatives, ancestry reports and self-reported locations exposed. |
23647 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Dubbed Roadrunner, the modular, twin-jet-powered autonomous vertical take-off and landing air vehicle — one version of which is capable of carrying a warhead — can take off, follow and destroy targets or, if there’s no need to intercept the target, autonomously maneuver back to base for refueling and reuse.
More 23andMe victims: Last Friday, genetic testing company 23andMe announced that hackers managed to access the personal data of 0.1% of customers, or about 14,000 individuals. But the company didn’t initially say how many other users might’ve been impacted by the breach, which 23andMe first disclosed in October. A lot, as it turns out — 6.9 million people had their names, birth years, relationship labels, the percentage of DNA they share with relatives, ancestry reports and self-reported locations exposed.
Grand Theft Auto goes viral: In just 22 hours, the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI racked up 85 million views — breaking a MrBeast video’s record for most YouTube views in 24 hours. |
23648 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
More 23andMe victims: Last Friday, genetic testing company 23andMe announced that hackers managed to access the personal data of 0.1% of customers, or about 14,000 individuals. But the company didn’t initially say how many other users might’ve been impacted by the breach, which 23andMe first disclosed in October. A lot, as it turns out — 6.9 million people had their names, birth years, relationship labels, the percentage of DNA they share with relatives, ancestry reports and self-reported locations exposed.
Grand Theft Auto goes viral: In just 22 hours, the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI racked up 85 million views — breaking a MrBeast video’s record for most YouTube views in 24 hours. The excitement for Grand Theft Auto VI is a decade in the making; the previous entry in Rockstar Games’ long-running franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, remains the second-best-selling video game of all time, falling short only of Minecraft. |
23649 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
But the company didn’t initially say how many other users might’ve been impacted by the breach, which 23andMe first disclosed in October. A lot, as it turns out — 6.9 million people had their names, birth years, relationship labels, the percentage of DNA they share with relatives, ancestry reports and self-reported locations exposed.
Grand Theft Auto goes viral: In just 22 hours, the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI racked up 85 million views — breaking a MrBeast video’s record for most YouTube views in 24 hours. The excitement for Grand Theft Auto VI is a decade in the making; the previous entry in Rockstar Games’ long-running franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, remains the second-best-selling video game of all time, falling short only of Minecraft.
Patient records leak: Thousands of exposed servers are spilling the medical records and personal health information of millions of patients due to security weaknesses in a decades’ old industry standard designed for storing and sharing medical images. |
23650 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
A lot, as it turns out — 6.9 million people had their names, birth years, relationship labels, the percentage of DNA they share with relatives, ancestry reports and self-reported locations exposed.
Grand Theft Auto goes viral: In just 22 hours, the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI racked up 85 million views — breaking a MrBeast video’s record for most YouTube views in 24 hours. The excitement for Grand Theft Auto VI is a decade in the making; the previous entry in Rockstar Games’ long-running franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, remains the second-best-selling video game of all time, falling short only of Minecraft.
Patient records leak: Thousands of exposed servers are spilling the medical records and personal health information of millions of patients due to security weaknesses in a decades’ old industry standard designed for storing and sharing medical images. This standard, known as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), is the internationally recognized format for medical imaging. |
23651 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Grand Theft Auto goes viral: In just 22 hours, the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI racked up 85 million views — breaking a MrBeast video’s record for most YouTube views in 24 hours. The excitement for Grand Theft Auto VI is a decade in the making; the previous entry in Rockstar Games’ long-running franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, remains the second-best-selling video game of all time, falling short only of Minecraft.
Patient records leak: Thousands of exposed servers are spilling the medical records and personal health information of millions of patients due to security weaknesses in a decades’ old industry standard designed for storing and sharing medical images. This standard, known as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), is the internationally recognized format for medical imaging. But as discovered by Aplite, a Germany-based cybersecurity consultancy, security shortcomings in DICOM mean many medical facilities have unintentionally made private data accessible to the open web. |
23652 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Grand Theft Auto goes viral: In just 22 hours, the first trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI racked up 85 million views — breaking a MrBeast video’s record for most YouTube views in 24 hours. The excitement for Grand Theft Auto VI is a decade in the making; the previous entry in Rockstar Games’ long-running franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, remains the second-best-selling video game of all time, falling short only of Minecraft.
Patient records leak: Thousands of exposed servers are spilling the medical records and personal health information of millions of patients due to security weaknesses in a decades’ old industry standard designed for storing and sharing medical images. This standard, known as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), is the internationally recognized format for medical imaging. But as discovered by Aplite, a Germany-based cybersecurity consultancy, security shortcomings in DICOM mean many medical facilities have unintentionally made private data accessible to the open web.
Meta generates images: Not to be outdone by Google’s Gemini launch, Meta rolled out a new, stand-alone generative AI experience on the web, Imagine with Meta AI, that allows users to create images by describing them in natural language. |
23653 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
The excitement for Grand Theft Auto VI is a decade in the making; the previous entry in Rockstar Games’ long-running franchise, Grand Theft Auto V, remains the second-best-selling video game of all time, falling short only of Minecraft.
Patient records leak: Thousands of exposed servers are spilling the medical records and personal health information of millions of patients due to security weaknesses in a decades’ old industry standard designed for storing and sharing medical images. This standard, known as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), is the internationally recognized format for medical imaging. But as discovered by Aplite, a Germany-based cybersecurity consultancy, security shortcomings in DICOM mean many medical facilities have unintentionally made private data accessible to the open web.
Meta generates images: Not to be outdone by Google’s Gemini launch, Meta rolled out a new, stand-alone generative AI experience on the web, Imagine with Meta AI, that allows users to create images by describing them in natural language. Similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, Imagine with Meta AI, which is powered by Meta’s existing Emu image-generation model, creates high-resolution images from text prompts. |
23654 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Patient records leak: Thousands of exposed servers are spilling the medical records and personal health information of millions of patients due to security weaknesses in a decades’ old industry standard designed for storing and sharing medical images. This standard, known as Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine (DICOM), is the internationally recognized format for medical imaging. But as discovered by Aplite, a Germany-based cybersecurity consultancy, security shortcomings in DICOM mean many medical facilities have unintentionally made private data accessible to the open web.
Meta generates images: Not to be outdone by Google’s Gemini launch, Meta rolled out a new, stand-alone generative AI experience on the web, Imagine with Meta AI, that allows users to create images by describing them in natural language. Similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, Imagine with Meta AI, which is powered by Meta’s existing Emu image-generation model, creates high-resolution images from text prompts.
Spotify makes cuts: Spotify is eliminating about 1,500 jobs, or roughly 17% of its workforce, in its third round of layoffs this year as the music streaming giant looks to become “both productive and efficient.” In a note to employees Monday, Spotify founder and chief executive Daniel Ek — citing slow economic growth and rising capital costs — said right-sizing the workforce is crucial for the company to face the “challenges ahead.”
TuSimple exits: When TuSimple went public in 2021, it was flying high as the leading self-driving trucks developer in the U.S. |
23655 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, Imagine with Meta AI, which is powered by Meta’s existing Emu image-generation model, creates high-resolution images from text prompts.
Spotify makes cuts: Spotify is eliminating about 1,500 jobs, or roughly 17% of its workforce, in its third round of layoffs this year as the music streaming giant looks to become “both productive and efficient.” In a note to employees Monday, Spotify founder and chief executive Daniel Ek — citing slow economic growth and rising capital costs — said right-sizing the workforce is crucial for the company to face the “challenges ahead.”
TuSimple exits: When TuSimple went public in 2021, it was flying high as the leading self-driving trucks developer in the U.S. Now — after a string of internal controversies and the loss of a critical partnership with truck manufacturer Navistar — TuSimple is exiting the U.S. altogether. |
23656 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, Imagine with Meta AI, which is powered by Meta’s existing Emu image-generation model, creates high-resolution images from text prompts.
Spotify makes cuts: Spotify is eliminating about 1,500 jobs, or roughly 17% of its workforce, in its third round of layoffs this year as the music streaming giant looks to become “both productive and efficient.” In a note to employees Monday, Spotify founder and chief executive Daniel Ek — citing slow economic growth and rising capital costs — said right-sizing the workforce is crucial for the company to face the “challenges ahead.”
TuSimple exits: When TuSimple went public in 2021, it was flying high as the leading self-driving trucks developer in the U.S. Now — after a string of internal controversies and the loss of a critical partnership with truck manufacturer Navistar — TuSimple is exiting the U.S. altogether. TuSimple said in a regulatory filing Monday that it’s laying off the majority of its U.S. |
23657 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Spotify makes cuts: Spotify is eliminating about 1,500 jobs, or roughly 17% of its workforce, in its third round of layoffs this year as the music streaming giant looks to become “both productive and efficient.” In a note to employees Monday, Spotify founder and chief executive Daniel Ek — citing slow economic growth and rising capital costs — said right-sizing the workforce is crucial for the company to face the “challenges ahead.”
TuSimple exits: When TuSimple went public in 2021, it was flying high as the leading self-driving trucks developer in the U.S. Now — after a string of internal controversies and the loss of a critical partnership with truck manufacturer Navistar — TuSimple is exiting the U.S. altogether. TuSimple said in a regulatory filing Monday that it’s laying off the majority of its U.S. workforce and selling assets here as it exits the country for Asia. |
23658 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Spotify makes cuts: Spotify is eliminating about 1,500 jobs, or roughly 17% of its workforce, in its third round of layoffs this year as the music streaming giant looks to become “both productive and efficient.” In a note to employees Monday, Spotify founder and chief executive Daniel Ek — citing slow economic growth and rising capital costs — said right-sizing the workforce is crucial for the company to face the “challenges ahead.”
TuSimple exits: When TuSimple went public in 2021, it was flying high as the leading self-driving trucks developer in the U.S. Now — after a string of internal controversies and the loss of a critical partnership with truck manufacturer Navistar — TuSimple is exiting the U.S. altogether. TuSimple said in a regulatory filing Monday that it’s laying off the majority of its U.S. workforce and selling assets here as it exits the country for Asia.
ZestMoney shuts down: ZestMoney — a buy now, pay later startup whose ability to underwrite small-ticket loans to first-time internet customers attracted many high-profile investors, including Goldman Sachs — is shutting down following unsuccessful efforts to find a buyer. |
23659 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Now — after a string of internal controversies and the loss of a critical partnership with truck manufacturer Navistar — TuSimple is exiting the U.S. altogether. TuSimple said in a regulatory filing Monday that it’s laying off the majority of its U.S. workforce and selling assets here as it exits the country for Asia.
ZestMoney shuts down: ZestMoney — a buy now, pay later startup whose ability to underwrite small-ticket loans to first-time internet customers attracted many high-profile investors, including Goldman Sachs — is shutting down following unsuccessful efforts to find a buyer. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup employed about 150 people at peak and raised more than $130 million over its eight-year journey.
Audio
TechCrunch’s roster of podcast episodes keeps growing — just in time for weekend listening. |
23660 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Now — after a string of internal controversies and the loss of a critical partnership with truck manufacturer Navistar — TuSimple is exiting the U.S. altogether. TuSimple said in a regulatory filing Monday that it’s laying off the majority of its U.S. workforce and selling assets here as it exits the country for Asia.
ZestMoney shuts down: ZestMoney — a buy now, pay later startup whose ability to underwrite small-ticket loans to first-time internet customers attracted many high-profile investors, including Goldman Sachs — is shutting down following unsuccessful efforts to find a buyer. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup employed about 150 people at peak and raised more than $130 million over its eight-year journey.
Audio
TechCrunch’s roster of podcast episodes keeps growing — just in time for weekend listening.
Equity featured a throwback conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, when Alex sat down with Serhii Bohoslovskyi, the founder of a no-code app builder, Trible, that helps people construct online courses. |
23661 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
altogether. TuSimple said in a regulatory filing Monday that it’s laying off the majority of its U.S. workforce and selling assets here as it exits the country for Asia.
ZestMoney shuts down: ZestMoney — a buy now, pay later startup whose ability to underwrite small-ticket loans to first-time internet customers attracted many high-profile investors, including Goldman Sachs — is shutting down following unsuccessful efforts to find a buyer. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup employed about 150 people at peak and raised more than $130 million over its eight-year journey.
Audio
TechCrunch’s roster of podcast episodes keeps growing — just in time for weekend listening.
Equity featured a throwback conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, when Alex sat down with Serhii Bohoslovskyi, the founder of a no-code app builder, Trible, that helps people construct online courses. The pair caught up on the state of the creator economy, the use of no-code tooling today (and how it’s received by nontechnical creators) and the security of startups with roots in Ukraine. |
23662 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
ZestMoney shuts down: ZestMoney — a buy now, pay later startup whose ability to underwrite small-ticket loans to first-time internet customers attracted many high-profile investors, including Goldman Sachs — is shutting down following unsuccessful efforts to find a buyer. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup employed about 150 people at peak and raised more than $130 million over its eight-year journey.
Audio
TechCrunch’s roster of podcast episodes keeps growing — just in time for weekend listening.
Equity featured a throwback conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, when Alex sat down with Serhii Bohoslovskyi, the founder of a no-code app builder, Trible, that helps people construct online courses. The pair caught up on the state of the creator economy, the use of no-code tooling today (and how it’s received by nontechnical creators) and the security of startups with roots in Ukraine.
Over on Found, the crew talked to David Rogier, the CEO and founder of MasterClass, a streaming platform where you can learn from the world’s experts on a range of topics. |
23663 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
The Bengaluru-headquartered startup employed about 150 people at peak and raised more than $130 million over its eight-year journey.
Audio
TechCrunch’s roster of podcast episodes keeps growing — just in time for weekend listening.
Equity featured a throwback conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, when Alex sat down with Serhii Bohoslovskyi, the founder of a no-code app builder, Trible, that helps people construct online courses. The pair caught up on the state of the creator economy, the use of no-code tooling today (and how it’s received by nontechnical creators) and the security of startups with roots in Ukraine.
Over on Found, the crew talked to David Rogier, the CEO and founder of MasterClass, a streaming platform where you can learn from the world’s experts on a range of topics. Before Rogier launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC, and — through his connections — he received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company. |
23664 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Audio
TechCrunch’s roster of podcast episodes keeps growing — just in time for weekend listening.
Equity featured a throwback conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, when Alex sat down with Serhii Bohoslovskyi, the founder of a no-code app builder, Trible, that helps people construct online courses. The pair caught up on the state of the creator economy, the use of no-code tooling today (and how it’s received by nontechnical creators) and the security of startups with roots in Ukraine.
Over on Found, the crew talked to David Rogier, the CEO and founder of MasterClass, a streaming platform where you can learn from the world’s experts on a range of topics. Before Rogier launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC, and — through his connections — he received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company.
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. |
23665 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Equity featured a throwback conversation from TechCrunch Disrupt 2023, when Alex sat down with Serhii Bohoslovskyi, the founder of a no-code app builder, Trible, that helps people construct online courses. The pair caught up on the state of the creator economy, the use of no-code tooling today (and how it’s received by nontechnical creators) and the security of startups with roots in Ukraine.
Over on Found, the crew talked to David Rogier, the CEO and founder of MasterClass, a streaming platform where you can learn from the world’s experts on a range of topics. Before Rogier launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC, and — through his connections — he received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company.
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. |
23666 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
The pair caught up on the state of the creator economy, the use of no-code tooling today (and how it’s received by nontechnical creators) and the security of startups with roots in Ukraine.
Over on Found, the crew talked to David Rogier, the CEO and founder of MasterClass, a streaming platform where you can learn from the world’s experts on a range of topics. Before Rogier launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC, and — through his connections — he received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company.
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club, which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. |
23667 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
The pair caught up on the state of the creator economy, the use of no-code tooling today (and how it’s received by nontechnical creators) and the security of startups with roots in Ukraine.
Over on Found, the crew talked to David Rogier, the CEO and founder of MasterClass, a streaming platform where you can learn from the world’s experts on a range of topics. Before Rogier launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC, and — through his connections — he received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company.
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club, which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And, in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was part of Apple’s system software product marketing group. |
23668 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Over on Found, the crew talked to David Rogier, the CEO and founder of MasterClass, a streaming platform where you can learn from the world’s experts on a range of topics. Before Rogier launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC, and — through his connections — he received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company.
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club, which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And, in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was part of Apple’s system software product marketing group.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. |
23669 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Before Rogier launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC, and — through his connections — he received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company.
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club, which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And, in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was part of Apple’s system software product marketing group.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. |
23670 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Before Rogier launched MasterClass, he worked as a VC, and — through his connections — he received a $500,000 seed round before he even had an idea for a company.
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club, which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And, in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was part of Apple’s system software product marketing group.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Bitcoin surge: Jacquelyn writes about Bitcoin’s rapid-fire ascent to $44,000, which came on the back of roughly 25% gains in the last week. |
23671 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
And on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn interviewed David Pakman, managing partner and head of venture investments at CoinFund. Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club, which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And, in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was part of Apple’s system software product marketing group.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Bitcoin surge: Jacquelyn writes about Bitcoin’s rapid-fire ascent to $44,000, which came on the back of roughly 25% gains in the last week. Her piece for TC+ explores what’s driving Bitcoin’s price ascent and similar value gains among other tokens — and whether the good vibes continue into the new year. |
23672 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
Before CoinFund, David spent 14 years at the venture capital firm Venrock. He also led the Series A and B rounds at Dollar Shave Club, which was acquired by Unilever for $1 billion. And, in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was part of Apple’s system software product marketing group.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Bitcoin surge: Jacquelyn writes about Bitcoin’s rapid-fire ascent to $44,000, which came on the back of roughly 25% gains in the last week. Her piece for TC+ explores what’s driving Bitcoin’s price ascent and similar value gains among other tokens — and whether the good vibes continue into the new year.
To swap, or not to swap: Tim reports on how consumer EV battery swapping could usher in freedom for a wide range of people, allowing them to participate in the EV transition in ways that traditional built-in batteries don’t. |
23673 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
And, in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was part of Apple’s system software product marketing group.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Bitcoin surge: Jacquelyn writes about Bitcoin’s rapid-fire ascent to $44,000, which came on the back of roughly 25% gains in the last week. Her piece for TC+ explores what’s driving Bitcoin’s price ascent and similar value gains among other tokens — and whether the good vibes continue into the new year.
To swap, or not to swap: Tim reports on how consumer EV battery swapping could usher in freedom for a wide range of people, allowing them to participate in the EV transition in ways that traditional built-in batteries don’t. The challenge is making the unit economics work. |
23674 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
And, in 1991, David co-created Apple Music when he was part of Apple’s system software product marketing group.
TechCrunch+
TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys — which you know if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Bitcoin surge: Jacquelyn writes about Bitcoin’s rapid-fire ascent to $44,000, which came on the back of roughly 25% gains in the last week. Her piece for TC+ explores what’s driving Bitcoin’s price ascent and similar value gains among other tokens — and whether the good vibes continue into the new year.
To swap, or not to swap: Tim reports on how consumer EV battery swapping could usher in freedom for a wide range of people, allowing them to participate in the EV transition in ways that traditional built-in batteries don’t. The challenge is making the unit economics work.
Coinbase and Robin and the future of fintech: Investors are betting that consumer trading of equity and crypto is rebounding and are consequently pushing the value of some former startups higher, Alex writes. |
23675 | Google fakes an AI demo, Grand Theft Auto VI goes viral and Spotify cuts jobs
If you’re not, consider signing up. Here are a few highlights from this week:
Bitcoin surge: Jacquelyn writes about Bitcoin’s rapid-fire ascent to $44,000, which came on the back of roughly 25% gains in the last week. Her piece for TC+ explores what’s driving Bitcoin’s price ascent and similar value gains among other tokens — and whether the good vibes continue into the new year.
To swap, or not to swap: Tim reports on how consumer EV battery swapping could usher in freedom for a wide range of people, allowing them to participate in the EV transition in ways that traditional built-in batteries don’t. The challenge is making the unit economics work.
Coinbase and Robin and the future of fintech: Investors are betting that consumer trading of equity and crypto is rebounding and are consequently pushing the value of some former startups higher, Alex writes. That could spell good news for startups offering consumer trading services directly — or indirectly, for that matter. |
23676 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
Following a content moderation warning from European Union regulators earlier this week, Meta has published an overview of how its responding to risks on its social media platforms stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.
Its blog post covers what it frames as “ongoing efforts”, with some existing policies and tools for users rehashed. But the company confirms it’s made some changes in light of fast moving events in Israel and Gaza.
These include what it says is a temporary expansion of its Violence and Incitement policy in order to prioritize the safety of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.
Under this change Meta says it will be removing content that “clearly identifies hostages when we’re made aware of it, even if it’s being done to condemn or raise awareness of their situation”. “We are allowing content with blurred images of the victims but, in line with standards established by the Geneva Convention, we will prioritize the safety and privacy of kidnapping victims if we are unsure or unable to make a clear assessment,” it added. |
23677 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
Following a content moderation warning from European Union regulators earlier this week, Meta has published an overview of how its responding to risks on its social media platforms stemming from the Israel-Hamas war.
Its blog post covers what it frames as “ongoing efforts”, with some existing policies and tools for users rehashed. But the company confirms it’s made some changes in light of fast moving events in Israel and Gaza.
These include what it says is a temporary expansion of its Violence and Incitement policy in order to prioritize the safety of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.
Under this change Meta says it will be removing content that “clearly identifies hostages when we’re made aware of it, even if it’s being done to condemn or raise awareness of their situation”. “We are allowing content with blurred images of the victims but, in line with standards established by the Geneva Convention, we will prioritize the safety and privacy of kidnapping victims if we are unsure or unable to make a clear assessment,” it added.
Meta also says it’s prioritizing checks on livestreaming functions on Facebook and Instagram — including watching for any attempts by Hamas to use the tools to broadcast footage of captured Israelis or other hostages. |
23678 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
Its blog post covers what it frames as “ongoing efforts”, with some existing policies and tools for users rehashed. But the company confirms it’s made some changes in light of fast moving events in Israel and Gaza.
These include what it says is a temporary expansion of its Violence and Incitement policy in order to prioritize the safety of Israelis kidnapped by Hamas.
Under this change Meta says it will be removing content that “clearly identifies hostages when we’re made aware of it, even if it’s being done to condemn or raise awareness of their situation”. “We are allowing content with blurred images of the victims but, in line with standards established by the Geneva Convention, we will prioritize the safety and privacy of kidnapping victims if we are unsure or unable to make a clear assessment,” it added.
Meta also says it’s prioritizing checks on livestreaming functions on Facebook and Instagram — including watching for any attempts by Hamas to use the tools to broadcast footage of captured Israelis or other hostages.
In a particularly disturbing report on Israeli media this week, which was widely recirculated on social media, a girl recounted how she and her family had learnt about the death of her grandmother after Hamas militants had uploaded a video of her dead body to Facebook, apparently using her own mobile phone to post the graphic content to the dead woman’s Facebook page. |
23679 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
Under this change Meta says it will be removing content that “clearly identifies hostages when we’re made aware of it, even if it’s being done to condemn or raise awareness of their situation”. “We are allowing content with blurred images of the victims but, in line with standards established by the Geneva Convention, we will prioritize the safety and privacy of kidnapping victims if we are unsure or unable to make a clear assessment,” it added.
Meta also says it’s prioritizing checks on livestreaming functions on Facebook and Instagram — including watching for any attempts by Hamas to use the tools to broadcast footage of captured Israelis or other hostages.
In a particularly disturbing report on Israeli media this week, which was widely recirculated on social media, a girl recounted how she and her family had learnt about the death of her grandmother after Hamas militants had uploaded a video of her dead body to Facebook, apparently using her own mobile phone to post the graphic content to the dead woman’s Facebook page.
“We recognize that the immediacy of Live brings unique challenges, so we have restrictions in place on the use of Live for people who have previously violated certain policies. |
23680 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
“We are allowing content with blurred images of the victims but, in line with standards established by the Geneva Convention, we will prioritize the safety and privacy of kidnapping victims if we are unsure or unable to make a clear assessment,” it added.
Meta also says it’s prioritizing checks on livestreaming functions on Facebook and Instagram — including watching for any attempts by Hamas to use the tools to broadcast footage of captured Israelis or other hostages.
In a particularly disturbing report on Israeli media this week, which was widely recirculated on social media, a girl recounted how she and her family had learnt about the death of her grandmother after Hamas militants had uploaded a video of her dead body to Facebook, apparently using her own mobile phone to post the graphic content to the dead woman’s Facebook page.
“We recognize that the immediacy of Live brings unique challenges, so we have restrictions in place on the use of Live for people who have previously violated certain policies. We’re prioritizing livestream reports related to this crisis, above and beyond our existing prioritization of Live videos,” Meta wrote, highlighting measure it took in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch attacks in New Zealand when a single shooter livestreamed a killing spree that targeted two mosques on Facebook. |
23681 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
In a particularly disturbing report on Israeli media this week, which was widely recirculated on social media, a girl recounted how she and her family had learnt about the death of her grandmother after Hamas militants had uploaded a video of her dead body to Facebook, apparently using her own mobile phone to post the graphic content to the dead woman’s Facebook page.
“We recognize that the immediacy of Live brings unique challenges, so we have restrictions in place on the use of Live for people who have previously violated certain policies. We’re prioritizing livestream reports related to this crisis, above and beyond our existing prioritization of Live videos,” Meta wrote, highlighting measure it took in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch attacks in New Zealand when a single shooter livestreamed a killing spree that targeted two mosques on Facebook.
“We’re also aware of Hamas’ threats to broadcast footage of the hostages and we’re taking these threats extremely seriously. |
23682 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
In a particularly disturbing report on Israeli media this week, which was widely recirculated on social media, a girl recounted how she and her family had learnt about the death of her grandmother after Hamas militants had uploaded a video of her dead body to Facebook, apparently using her own mobile phone to post the graphic content to the dead woman’s Facebook page.
“We recognize that the immediacy of Live brings unique challenges, so we have restrictions in place on the use of Live for people who have previously violated certain policies. We’re prioritizing livestream reports related to this crisis, above and beyond our existing prioritization of Live videos,” Meta wrote, highlighting measure it took in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch attacks in New Zealand when a single shooter livestreamed a killing spree that targeted two mosques on Facebook.
“We’re also aware of Hamas’ threats to broadcast footage of the hostages and we’re taking these threats extremely seriously. Our teams are monitoring this closely, and would swiftly remove any such content (and the accounts behind it), banking the content in our systems to prevent copies being re-shared,” it added. |
23683 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
“We recognize that the immediacy of Live brings unique challenges, so we have restrictions in place on the use of Live for people who have previously violated certain policies. We’re prioritizing livestream reports related to this crisis, above and beyond our existing prioritization of Live videos,” Meta wrote, highlighting measure it took in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch attacks in New Zealand when a single shooter livestreamed a killing spree that targeted two mosques on Facebook.
“We’re also aware of Hamas’ threats to broadcast footage of the hostages and we’re taking these threats extremely seriously. Our teams are monitoring this closely, and would swiftly remove any such content (and the accounts behind it), banking the content in our systems to prevent copies being re-shared,” it added.
Other steps taken by Meta to respond to the situation in Israel and Gaza include making it less likely that its systems will actively recommend potentially violating or borderline content and to reduce the visibility of potentially offensive comments; and applying hashtag blocking to render certain terms related to the conflict non-searchable on its platforms. |
23684 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
We’re prioritizing livestream reports related to this crisis, above and beyond our existing prioritization of Live videos,” Meta wrote, highlighting measure it took in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch attacks in New Zealand when a single shooter livestreamed a killing spree that targeted two mosques on Facebook.
“We’re also aware of Hamas’ threats to broadcast footage of the hostages and we’re taking these threats extremely seriously. Our teams are monitoring this closely, and would swiftly remove any such content (and the accounts behind it), banking the content in our systems to prevent copies being re-shared,” it added.
Other steps taken by Meta to respond to the situation in Israel and Gaza include making it less likely that its systems will actively recommend potentially violating or borderline content and to reduce the visibility of potentially offensive comments; and applying hashtag blocking to render certain terms related to the conflict non-searchable on its platforms. Its blog post does not specify which hashtags Meta is blocking in relation to the Israel-Hamas war. |
23685 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
“We’re also aware of Hamas’ threats to broadcast footage of the hostages and we’re taking these threats extremely seriously. Our teams are monitoring this closely, and would swiftly remove any such content (and the accounts behind it), banking the content in our systems to prevent copies being re-shared,” it added.
Other steps taken by Meta to respond to the situation in Israel and Gaza include making it less likely that its systems will actively recommend potentially violating or borderline content and to reduce the visibility of potentially offensive comments; and applying hashtag blocking to render certain terms related to the conflict non-searchable on its platforms. Its blog post does not specify which hashtags Meta is blocking in relation to the Israel-Hamas war.
Meta’s blog post also says it established a special operations center staffed with experts, including Arabic and Hebrew speakers, to dial up its ability to quickly respond to content report.
It also says it’s taking feedback from local partners (such as NGOs) on emerging risks — and claiming to be “moving quickly to address them”. |
23686 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
Our teams are monitoring this closely, and would swiftly remove any such content (and the accounts behind it), banking the content in our systems to prevent copies being re-shared,” it added.
Other steps taken by Meta to respond to the situation in Israel and Gaza include making it less likely that its systems will actively recommend potentially violating or borderline content and to reduce the visibility of potentially offensive comments; and applying hashtag blocking to render certain terms related to the conflict non-searchable on its platforms. Its blog post does not specify which hashtags Meta is blocking in relation to the Israel-Hamas war.
Meta’s blog post also says it established a special operations center staffed with experts, including Arabic and Hebrew speakers, to dial up its ability to quickly respond to content report.
It also says it’s taking feedback from local partners (such as NGOs) on emerging risks — and claiming to be “moving quickly to address them”.
“In the three days following October 7, we removed or marked as disturbing more than 795,000 pieces of content for violating these policies in Hebrew and Arabic,” it wrote. |
23687 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
Other steps taken by Meta to respond to the situation in Israel and Gaza include making it less likely that its systems will actively recommend potentially violating or borderline content and to reduce the visibility of potentially offensive comments; and applying hashtag blocking to render certain terms related to the conflict non-searchable on its platforms. Its blog post does not specify which hashtags Meta is blocking in relation to the Israel-Hamas war.
Meta’s blog post also says it established a special operations center staffed with experts, including Arabic and Hebrew speakers, to dial up its ability to quickly respond to content report.
It also says it’s taking feedback from local partners (such as NGOs) on emerging risks — and claiming to be “moving quickly to address them”.
“In the three days following October 7, we removed or marked as disturbing more than 795,000 pieces of content for violating these policies in Hebrew and Arabic,” it wrote. “As compared to the two months prior, in the three days following October 7, we have removed seven times as many pieces of content on a daily basis for violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy in Hebrew and Arabic alone.”
In light of the dialled up attention on and concern about the situation, Meta says it’s possible non-violating content may be removed “in error”. |
23688 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
Its blog post does not specify which hashtags Meta is blocking in relation to the Israel-Hamas war.
Meta’s blog post also says it established a special operations center staffed with experts, including Arabic and Hebrew speakers, to dial up its ability to quickly respond to content report.
It also says it’s taking feedback from local partners (such as NGOs) on emerging risks — and claiming to be “moving quickly to address them”.
“In the three days following October 7, we removed or marked as disturbing more than 795,000 pieces of content for violating these policies in Hebrew and Arabic,” it wrote. “As compared to the two months prior, in the three days following October 7, we have removed seven times as many pieces of content on a daily basis for violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy in Hebrew and Arabic alone.”
In light of the dialled up attention on and concern about the situation, Meta says it’s possible non-violating content may be removed “in error”.
“To mitigate this, for some violations we are temporarily removing content without strikes, meaning these content removals won’t cause accounts to be disabled,” it notes. |
23689 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
It also says it’s taking feedback from local partners (such as NGOs) on emerging risks — and claiming to be “moving quickly to address them”.
“In the three days following October 7, we removed or marked as disturbing more than 795,000 pieces of content for violating these policies in Hebrew and Arabic,” it wrote. “As compared to the two months prior, in the three days following October 7, we have removed seven times as many pieces of content on a daily basis for violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy in Hebrew and Arabic alone.”
In light of the dialled up attention on and concern about the situation, Meta says it’s possible non-violating content may be removed “in error”.
“To mitigate this, for some violations we are temporarily removing content without strikes, meaning these content removals won’t cause accounts to be disabled,” it notes. “We also continue to provide tools for users to appeal our decisions if they think we made a mistake.”
Compliance with the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) kicked in for Meta in August as the owner of a so-called very large online platform (VLOP). |
23690 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
“In the three days following October 7, we removed or marked as disturbing more than 795,000 pieces of content for violating these policies in Hebrew and Arabic,” it wrote. “As compared to the two months prior, in the three days following October 7, we have removed seven times as many pieces of content on a daily basis for violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy in Hebrew and Arabic alone.”
In light of the dialled up attention on and concern about the situation, Meta says it’s possible non-violating content may be removed “in error”.
“To mitigate this, for some violations we are temporarily removing content without strikes, meaning these content removals won’t cause accounts to be disabled,” it notes. “We also continue to provide tools for users to appeal our decisions if they think we made a mistake.”
Compliance with the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) kicked in for Meta in August as the owner of a so-called very large online platform (VLOP).
The Commission designated 19 VLOPs back in April — including Meta owned Facebook and Instagram. |
23691 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
“As compared to the two months prior, in the three days following October 7, we have removed seven times as many pieces of content on a daily basis for violating our Dangerous Organizations and Individuals policy in Hebrew and Arabic alone.”
In light of the dialled up attention on and concern about the situation, Meta says it’s possible non-violating content may be removed “in error”.
“To mitigate this, for some violations we are temporarily removing content without strikes, meaning these content removals won’t cause accounts to be disabled,” it notes. “We also continue to provide tools for users to appeal our decisions if they think we made a mistake.”
Compliance with the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) kicked in for Meta in August as the owner of a so-called very large online platform (VLOP).
The Commission designated 19 VLOPs back in April — including Meta owned Facebook and Instagram.
The designation puts obligations on VLOPs to respond diligently to reports of illegal content, as well as clearly communicate their T&Cs to users and properly enforce their terms. |
23692 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
“To mitigate this, for some violations we are temporarily removing content without strikes, meaning these content removals won’t cause accounts to be disabled,” it notes. “We also continue to provide tools for users to appeal our decisions if they think we made a mistake.”
Compliance with the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) kicked in for Meta in August as the owner of a so-called very large online platform (VLOP).
The Commission designated 19 VLOPs back in April — including Meta owned Facebook and Instagram.
The designation puts obligations on VLOPs to respond diligently to reports of illegal content, as well as clearly communicate their T&Cs to users and properly enforce their terms. But it also ranges more widely — requiring these larger platforms to take steps to identify and mitigate systemic risks such as disinformation.
The regulation also contains a “crisis response” mechanism which the Commission may adopt on VLOPs in situations where use of their platforms could contribute to serious threats such as war. |
23693 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
“We also continue to provide tools for users to appeal our decisions if they think we made a mistake.”
Compliance with the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) kicked in for Meta in August as the owner of a so-called very large online platform (VLOP).
The Commission designated 19 VLOPs back in April — including Meta owned Facebook and Instagram.
The designation puts obligations on VLOPs to respond diligently to reports of illegal content, as well as clearly communicate their T&Cs to users and properly enforce their terms. But it also ranges more widely — requiring these larger platforms to take steps to identify and mitigate systemic risks such as disinformation.
The regulation also contains a “crisis response” mechanism which the Commission may adopt on VLOPs in situations where use of their platforms could contribute to serious threats such as war. Although this aspect of the regulation won’t start operating until early next year (Feburary 17) as it requires an advisory body, called the European Board for Digital Services, to be operational so it can recommend the Commission to adopt a crisis response mechanism (and the set up of the Board is waiting on Member States to establish national Digital Services Coordinators, aka the bodies that will oversee DSA compliance for non-VLOPs). |
23694 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
The designation puts obligations on VLOPs to respond diligently to reports of illegal content, as well as clearly communicate their T&Cs to users and properly enforce their terms. But it also ranges more widely — requiring these larger platforms to take steps to identify and mitigate systemic risks such as disinformation.
The regulation also contains a “crisis response” mechanism which the Commission may adopt on VLOPs in situations where use of their platforms could contribute to serious threats such as war. Although this aspect of the regulation won’t start operating until early next year (Feburary 17) as it requires an advisory body, called the European Board for Digital Services, to be operational so it can recommend the Commission to adopt a crisis response mechanism (and the set up of the Board is waiting on Member States to establish national Digital Services Coordinators, aka the bodies that will oversee DSA compliance for non-VLOPs).
Penalties for failing to comply with the pan-EU regulation can reach as high as 6% of global annual turnover — which, in Meta’s case, could run to multiple billions. |
23695 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
But it also ranges more widely — requiring these larger platforms to take steps to identify and mitigate systemic risks such as disinformation.
The regulation also contains a “crisis response” mechanism which the Commission may adopt on VLOPs in situations where use of their platforms could contribute to serious threats such as war. Although this aspect of the regulation won’t start operating until early next year (Feburary 17) as it requires an advisory body, called the European Board for Digital Services, to be operational so it can recommend the Commission to adopt a crisis response mechanism (and the set up of the Board is waiting on Member States to establish national Digital Services Coordinators, aka the bodies that will oversee DSA compliance for non-VLOPs).
Penalties for failing to comply with the pan-EU regulation can reach as high as 6% of global annual turnover — which, in Meta’s case, could run to multiple billions.
The social media giant is not alone in being warned by the bloc over content concerns attached to the Israel-Hamas war: Elon Musk’s X has been singled out for even greater attention here — with the bloc issuing both an “urgent” warning earlier this week and following that with a formal request for information about its compliance approach. |
23696 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
Although this aspect of the regulation won’t start operating until early next year (Feburary 17) as it requires an advisory body, called the European Board for Digital Services, to be operational so it can recommend the Commission to adopt a crisis response mechanism (and the set up of the Board is waiting on Member States to establish national Digital Services Coordinators, aka the bodies that will oversee DSA compliance for non-VLOPs).
Penalties for failing to comply with the pan-EU regulation can reach as high as 6% of global annual turnover — which, in Meta’s case, could run to multiple billions.
The social media giant is not alone in being warned by the bloc over content concerns attached to the Israel-Hamas war: Elon Musk’s X has been singled out for even greater attention here — with the bloc issuing both an “urgent” warning earlier this week and following that with a formal request for information about its compliance approach.
TikTok has also received a warning from the EU about DSA content risks related to the conflict. |
23697 | Meta says it’s prioritizing livestreaming checks during Israel-Hamas war
Penalties for failing to comply with the pan-EU regulation can reach as high as 6% of global annual turnover — which, in Meta’s case, could run to multiple billions.
The social media giant is not alone in being warned by the bloc over content concerns attached to the Israel-Hamas war: Elon Musk’s X has been singled out for even greater attention here — with the bloc issuing both an “urgent” warning earlier this week and following that with a formal request for information about its compliance approach.
TikTok has also received a warning from the EU about DSA content risks related to the conflict.
This report was updated with details about the operational timeline for the DSA crisis response mechanism coming into operation |
23698 | How Chinese firm linked to repression of Uyghurs aids Israeli surveillance in West Bank
In the occupied Palestinian territories, there are cameras everywhere. In Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem, residents say cameras were installed by Israeli police up and down their streets, peering into their homes. One resident named Sara said she and her family “could be detected as if the cameras were just in our house … we couldn’t feel at home in our own house and had to be fully dressed all the time.”
Surveillance cameras now cover the Damascus Gate, the main entrance into the old city of Jerusalem and one of the only public areas for Palestinians to gather socially and hold demonstrations. It’s at that gate that “Palestinians are being watched and assessed at all times”, according to an Amnesty International report, Automated Apartheid. These cameras have created a chilling effect on not just the ability to protest but also on the daily lives of Palestinians who live under occupation, according to Amnesty investigators. The organization had previously concluded that Israel has established a system of apartheid against Palestinians. |
23699 | How Chinese firm linked to repression of Uyghurs aids Israeli surveillance in West Bank
In Silwan, in occupied East Jerusalem, residents say cameras were installed by Israeli police up and down their streets, peering into their homes. One resident named Sara said she and her family “could be detected as if the cameras were just in our house … we couldn’t feel at home in our own house and had to be fully dressed all the time.”
Surveillance cameras now cover the Damascus Gate, the main entrance into the old city of Jerusalem and one of the only public areas for Palestinians to gather socially and hold demonstrations. It’s at that gate that “Palestinians are being watched and assessed at all times”, according to an Amnesty International report, Automated Apartheid. These cameras have created a chilling effect on not just the ability to protest but also on the daily lives of Palestinians who live under occupation, according to Amnesty investigators. The organization had previously concluded that Israel has established a system of apartheid against Palestinians.
Among the vendors behind these surveillance cameras is a company that has been accused of aiding what the US has categorized as a genocide: Hikvision. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.