Techmeme Ride Home

So, the Binance case is already getting testy with some wild accusations flying in both directions. Twitch walks back some ad guidelines after only two days. WhatsApp is adding channels. Prime Video is probably about to add ads. Adobe will protect you from lawsuits if you use their AI tools. And how AI might have just extended Moore’s Law a bit. Sponsors: EarnIn App (type in techmeme under PODCAST when you sign up) Links: Binance lawyers allege SEC Chair Gensler offered to serve as advisor to crypto company in 2019 (CNBC) SEC says Binance and US affiliate redirected billions in customer assets to Zhao's funds (The Block) Twitch walks back controversial ad rules policy (The Verge) WhatsApp’s new Channels feature brings social media to your messaging app (The Verge) Amazon Plans Ad Tier for Prime Video Streaming Service (WSJ) Adobe is so confident its Firefly generative AI won’t breach copyright that it’ll cover your legal bills (Fast Company) Google claims that Bard is improving at math and pr

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe Apple does want to get serious about gaming on the Mac after all. Maybe I was right. Sequoia splitting in three IS about China after all. Samsung is holding an event at home for the first time in forever. And Matt Levine answers my questions about what now for Coinbase? Back to just trading bitcoin and ether? Sponsors: NewtonX.com/techmeme Links: macOS Sonoma lets developers port Windows games to the Mac; here’s how it works (9to5Mac) Apple makes iOS 17 developer beta free for registered developers (9to5Mac) Sequoia’s Split Sends Warning to US Companies Doing Business in China (Bloomberg) Samsung officially confirms first Unpacked event in Korea for new foldables (9to5Google) The SEC Comes for Crypto (Matt Levine/Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The SEC has officially sued Coinbase. Sequoia plans to split into 3 separate VC firms. Why did Apple announce a bunch of AI features yesterday but shy away from name dropping AI? And all anyone really cares about right now: two different hands on experiences with the Apple Vision Pro. What is this thing like to actually use? Sponsors: Collective.com Links: US Crypto Crackdown Reaches Fever Pitch as SEC Sues Coinbase (Bloomberg) Sequoia Is Splitting Into Three VC Firms (Forbes) Apple avoids “AI” hype at WWDC keynote by baking ML into products (ArsTechnica) First impressions: Yes, Apple Vision Pro works and yes, it’s good (TechCrunch) I wore the Apple Vision Pro. It’s the best headset demo ever. (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Apple headset is called the Apple Vision Pro. It’s more expensive than people thought, but it was maybe more impressive than I expected. Oh, also, a new 15-inch MacBook Air. New OS versions and features. And the SEC is officially suing CZ and Binance. Sponsors: Ramp.com/techmeme Links: Apple Vision Pro is Apple’s new $3,499 AR headset (The Verge) The Apple Vision Pro features an M2 chip, a ton of sensors and a new R1 chip (TechCrunch) Apple announces visionOS, the operating system for its Vision Pro headset (The Verge) Apple announces iOS 17 with Journal, Standby, FaceTime voicemail, more (9to5Mac) Apple Announces iOS 17 With 'Standby' View, Journal App, Siri Changes, and More (MacRumors) Apple unveils new Mac Studio and brings Apple silicon to Mac Pro (Apple Newsroom) Apple’s new 15-inch MacBook Air is the ‘world’s thinnest’ (The Verge) Mac Studio gets its first hardware update with M2 Max and the new M2 Ultra chip (9to5Mac) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a

Originally published August 2014 Jan Brandt is a legend in the world of marketing. She singlehandedly led the famous AOL "carpet-bombing" campaign that put millions of AOL trial discs and CDs in everything from magazines to popcorn boxes to banks. AOL was able to leap to the front of the online pack, over competitors like CompuServe and Prodigy largely on the success of this campaign. Jan tells us how this strategy developed, the thinking that went into it and goes into great detail about what worked and what didn't. But she was also a very early AOL executive, so she is able to give us some fantastic background about AOL the company: its culture, its people and its visionaries–people like Steve Case. She takes us from AOL's beginnings, through its considerable growing pains (remember "America On Hold?") its rise to dominance in the dot-com era, and even gives us her perspective on the legacy of the AOL/Time Warner merger. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A check-in with Elon and Twitter sees things pretty much as they’ve been for about a year now. Is Amazon about to release a low-cost cell phone plan for Prime members? Airbnb is suing New York City over a new law it sees as an existential threat. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: The Traceroute Podcast Links: Twitter's head of trust and safety says she has resigned (Reuters) Elon 'The Dogefather' Musk Accused of Insider Trading (Gizmodo) Russia accuses US of hacking thousands of Apple devices to spy on diplomats (The Record) Amazon Is in Talks to Offer Free Mobile Service to US Prime Members (Bloomberg) Airbnb sues NYC over new rules requiring hosts to register their homes as short-term rentals (Gothamist) Planned Layoffs Have Quadrupled So Far This Year in the US (Bloomberg) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: How a $13 Billion Fintech That Angered Jamie Dimon Won Over Banks (Bloomberg) A Week With the Wild Children of the A.I. Boom (NYTimes Magazine) China Is Drill

Zuck tried to front-run the Apple headset announcement this morning. Amazon pays some fines. Apple is testing two new high-end Macs. Microsoft actually seems to be struggling when it comes to game development. And what happens to your crypto project, if you can’t get in touch with the one person in the project who has control of the keys? Sponsors: SwissAmerica.com/ride Links: Zuck's Meta Quest 3 Announce Amazon to Pay $25 Million to Settle Children’s Privacy Charges (NYTimes) Amazon to Pay $30.8 Million to Settle FTC Privacy Claims (Bloomberg) Apple Tests New High-End Macs With M2 Max and M2 Ultra Chips Ahead of WWDC (Bloomberg) Instagram tests new user control for recommended posts, transparency tool for creators (TechCrunch) Inside the Making of Redfall, Xbox’s Latest Misfire (Bloomberg) Multichain team says it can't contact CEO amid protocol problems (The Block) Wall Street Banks Are Using AI to Rewire the World of Finance (Bloomberg) Apple touts $1.1 trillion in App Store commerce in 20

Big names in the AI industry are basically begging governments to regulate AI. But some people are wondering about their motives. The considerations the Biden administration is taking into account vis-à-vis AI regulation. New Garmin smartwatches. And why the Lovecraftian Shoggoth is the meme of the AI moment. Sponsors: NewtonX.com/techmeme Links: A.I. Poses ‘Risk of Extinction,’ Industry Leaders Warn (NYTimes) ChatGPT Risks Divide Biden Administration Over EU’s AI Rules (Bloomberg) Garmin’s Epix 2 and Fenix 7 lineups go ‘Pro’ (The Verge) The Race to Make A.I. Smaller (and Smarter) (NYTimes) Why an Octopus-like Creature Has Come to Symbolize the State of A.I. (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Nvidia joins the rarified trillion dollar market cap club, their recent announcements highlight why they’re truly the center of the current AI moment. ARM transitions to a comprehensive 64-bit platform. Hands-on with Meta's Quest 3 prototype. And those weird new CAPTCHA’s you’ve been seeing? Yes, AI is responsible. Sponsors: SwissAmerica.com/ride Bloomberg.com/careers Links: How Nvidia created the chip powering the generative AI boom (Financial Times) World’s Most Valuable Chipmaker Nvidia Unveils More AI Products After $184 Billion Rally (Bloomberg) Video of the NPC character demo Arm Unveils 2023 Mobile CPU Core Designs (AnandTech) A First Look at the Headset That Could Be Apple’s Biggest Competition (Bloomberg) Captcha Is Asking Users to Identify Objects That Don't Exist (Motherboard) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(Originally aired February 2017) Gary Flake has been involved with search technology ever since he got turned on to this particular field in college. In this wide-ranging discussion, Gary lays out for us, basically, the history of search technology before Google, the impact of Google, and then, since he lived it, the notion of competing with Google. The reason why Gary can talk so in depth about all of this is that he was Yahoo’s Chief Science Officer in the early 2000s, when Yahoo, via the infamous project Panama, and other initiatives, attempted to keep Google from taking over the entire search market. And because, prior to that, Gary was at Goto/Overture, he gives us basically the entire story of the birth of paid search as an industry. The story of Google is about two miracles. The first miracle is the Google algorithm that essentially solved search. And the second miracle is paid search… AdWords, AdSense, all of that… which is essentially the greatest advertising machine ever invented. But, not a lot of

When Larry and Sergey first met, they didn’t like each other much... (Originally aired April 2017 in two parts) BIBLIOGRAPHY: In The Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives The Google Story How Google Works The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture Googled: The End of the World As We Know It The Google Guys: Inside the Brilliant Minds of Google Founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59 http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2000/05/29/search-and-deploy http://archive.fortune.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1999/11/08/268521/index.htm Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(Originally published 01/04/2015) So, I ran across this quote from Star Trek television producer Rick Berman. He said, “Without porn and Star Trek, there would be no Internet.” That’s a notion that I have to say really kind of rang true to me, in a tonge and cheek sort of way. I mean, it’s something you hear all the time. The idea that pornography leads the way with any new technological innovation. That Porn is some x-large percentage of the overall internet Do you ever wonder how much of the internet is actually porn? If it’s such a large amount then wouldn’t it be worth investigating how porn has shaped the web and the internet generally? That’s sort of the thinking that led me to begin thinking about this episode. Bibliography:  The Erotic Engine: How Pornography has Powered Mass Communication, from Gutenberg to Google  Obscene Profits: The Entrepreneurs of Pornography in the Cyber Age  EroticaBiz: How Sex Shaped the Internet  The Unsexpected Story  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Relay_Cha

We get our first look at how Google is integrating AI into search. You heard me warn you, but the most concrete example yet that Crypto VCs might be turning their attention to AI. WhatsApp is probably moving to usernames. The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. And, for this long weekend, Brian’s Book Recommendations. Sponsors: Miro.com/podcast Bloomberg.com/careers Links: Google starts rolling out Search Generative Experience (SGE) in preview (9to5Google) Paradigm broadening crypto-only focus to areas including AI (The Block) WhatsApp beta for Android 2.23.11.15: what’s new? (WABetaInfo) The FDA will apparently let Elon Musk put a computer in a human’s brain (The Verge) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Meta's ‘Efficiency’ Layoffs Take a Toll on Employee Productivity (Bloomberg) Sergey Brin Has a Secret Plan to Put Airships Back in the Skies (BusinessWeek) Some Neural Networks Learn Language Like Humans (QuantaMagazine) A husband hid $500,000 in bitcoin during a divorce — and got busted by a cr

The whole Twitter Space presidential announce did not go well. Microsoft says Chinese hackers have burrowed into critical US infrastructure. Sony has a handheld gaming device, but a true descendent of the PlayStation Vita it is not. Quite. Has AI allowed a paralyzed man to walk again? And the world’s newest unicorn is maybe the most delightful interesting raise of the year. Sponsors: Miro.com/podcast Links: Twitter glitches plague Ron DeSantis’ much-hyped presidential announcement with Elon Musk (CNBC) Microsoft warns that China hackers attacked U.S. infrastructure (CNBC) Chinese Malware Hits Systems on Guam. Is Taiwan the Real Target? (NYTimes) OpenAI warns over split with Europe as regulation advances (Financial Times) Sony’s new Q handheld is official: 8-inch screen, streams PS5 games (The Verge) Apple Plans to Turn Locked iPhones Into Smart Displays With iOS 17 (Bloomberg) A Paralyzed Man Can Walk Naturally Again With Brain and Spine Implants (NYTimes) Indonesian agritech firm eFishery hi

All the headlines from yesterday’s Build conference. The big Netflix password crackdown has begun. Did Elon buy Twitter to dethrone Fox News? Is an Uber/Waymo partnership the start of a beautiful relationship? And is Final Cut Pro on the iPad actually what everyone wanted? Sponsors: Miro.com/podcast OregonState.edu Links: Microsoft’s Azure AI Studio lets developers build their own AI ‘copilots’ (TechCrunch) Microsoft’s Copilot and Bing AI plug-ins will be interoperable with ChatGPT (The Verge) Netflix’s password-sharing crackdown is here — and it costs $7.99 per month (The Verge) Elon Musk’s right-wing media venture scores another big win (WashingtonPost) Uber teams up with Waymo to add robotaxis to its app (The Verge) PSVR2’s early sales beat the original, Sony claims (VideoGamesChronicle) That podcast ad you're listening to may soon be AI. Spotify is reportedly developing bots to mimic your favorite hosts. (Insider) Final Cut Pro for the iPad is slick but limited (The Verge) Lea

Apple continues to play nice with Broadcom despite hoping to drop them someday. The thing people warned about with these bluechecks happened yesterday. HBOMax isn’t cool. You know what is cool, according to David Zaslov? Max. And how Shareit became the world’s favorite file sharing app. Sponsors: Miro.com/podcast ZocDoc.com/techmeme Links: Apple expands US investment with new multibillion-dollar Broadcom deal for 5G tech (9to5Mac) Verified Twitter Accounts Spread AI-Generated Hoax of Pentagon Explosion (Motherboard) Following UK antitrust order, Meta sells Giphy to Shutterstock for $53M after buying it for $400M (TechCrunch) Max will stream over 1,000 movies and TV episodes in 4K at launch (The Verge) Meta’s new AI models can recognize and produce speech for more than 1,000 languages (MIT Technology Review) Adobe is adding AI image generator Firefly to Photoshop (The Verge) Anthropic raises $450M to build next-gen AI assistants (TechCrunch) How China’s ShareIt became the world’s go-to file

Meta got hit by the biggest ever GDPR fine in Europe. A crypto project got taken over by hackers who voted themselves into power. The startup that wanted to dethrone Google is shutting down. The E-sports bubble seems to be popping. And what is it actually like to try to use Google’s new AI tools? Sponsors: Nutrafol.com/men promocode ride Miro.com/podcast Links: Meta Fined $1.3 Billion Over Data Transfers to U.S. (WSJ) Sanctioned Crypto Mixer Tornado Cash Hijacked by Hackers (Bloomberg) Neeva, the would-be Google competitor, is shutting down its search engine (The Verge) The E-Sports World Is Starting to Teeter (NYTimes) Facebook parent in talks with Magic Leap over augmented reality deal (Financial Times) We Put Google’s New AI Writing Assistant to the Test (Wired) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Re-releasing this one, hopefully with improved sound quality! The earliest days of Amazon with its earliest hire: Shel Kaphan. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I didn't know the whole story of Sam Bankman-Fried. This book will do that for you. From our very good friend of the show Brady Dale: SBF: How the FTX Bankruptcy Unwound Crypto's Very Bad Good Guy  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

OpenAI has launched an official ChatGPT app for iPhones and iPads. Android coming soon. The Supreme Court actually propped up Section 230, allowing it to live another day. Apple as an example of why companies are looking to keep the AI in house. And, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions. Sponsors: Mimecast.com TryNom.com/ride Links: AI in your pocket: ChatGPT officially comes to iPhone with new app (ArsTechnica) Link to the official ChatGPT App in the App Store Supreme Court shields Twitter from liability for terror-related content and leaves Section 230 untouched (CNN) Supreme Court Leaves 230 Alone For Now, But Justice Thomas Gives A Pretty Good Explanation For Why It Exists In The First Place (TechDirt) Apple Restricts Employee Use of ChatGPT, Joining Other Companies Wary of Leaks (WSJ) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: In Battle Over A.I., Meta Decides to Give Away Its Crown Jewels (NYTimes) This Is Catfishing on an Industrial Scale (Wired) Cheesier, Saucier, and Drowning in Cavi