~techmeme | Bookmarks (1054)

Mayank Parmar / BleepingComputer: Palisade Research claims that OpenAI's o3 altered a shutdown script to avoid being turned off, even when explicitly instructed to allow shutdown  —  A new report claims that OpenAI's o3 model altered a shutdown script to avoid being turned off, even when explicitly instructed to allow shutdown.

Sean Heelan / Sean Heelan's Blog: A security researcher details how he discovered a zero-day vulnerability in the Linux kernel's SMB implementation by analyzing the code using OpenAI's o3 API  —  In this post I'll show you how I found a zeroday vulnerability in the Linux kernel using OpenAI's o3 model.

Emma Roth / The Verge: A look at updates that weren't in the Google I/O keynote, including a Nearby Passes notification in Wallet and the Play Store's Ask Someone Else to Pay button  —  The Google Play Store will let you ask other people to pay for your purchases, and Live Updates are coming to smartwatches.

David Cendon Garcia / EU-Startups: Paris-based Veesion, which offers AI-powered video surveillance software for spotting suspicious behavior in stores, raised a €38M Series B led by White Star  —  Veesion, a French startup building AI tools to detect suspicious behaviour in physical stores, has announced …

Colin Demarest / Axios: CX2, a defense tech startup building software and hardware, including autonomous drones, for electronic warfare, raised a $31M Series A led by Point72 Ventures  —  Defense-tech upstart CX2 plans to hire more people and accelerate development of its electronic warfare tools on the heels of a $31 million raise, executives told Axios.

Jason Del Rey / Fortune: General Medicine, an online storefront for medical care founded by PillPack founders TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen, launches with $32M in funding led by Matrix  —  General Medicine's founding team has disrupted health care once.  They're trying again.  —  Courtesy of General Medicine

Leo Schwartz / Fortune: OpenFX, which is building a near-instant payments and settlement network for cross-border transactions, emerges from stealth with $23M in funding led by Accel  —  OpenFX founder Prabhakar Reddy.  —  Courtesy of OpenFX  —  Outside of AI, there's no hotter sector than stablecoins.

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post: Amap, Alibaba's mapping and local services business, introduces a ride-hailing feature on the app's English version, targeting foreign visitors in China  —  Amap's ride-hailing feature, available on the platform's English version, reflects support for China's visa-free travel scheme

Evan Ochsner / Bloomberg Law: Legora, whose AI tools help legal teams review, draft, research, and advise, raised an $80M Series B at a $675M valuation led by ICONIQ and General Catalyst  —  Legora, the legal AI startup that's taking aim at the U.S. legal market, raised $80 million in a startup funding round that values the company at $675 million.

New York Times: Crypto investor John Woeltz from Kentucky was charged in NYC for allegedly kidnapping and torturing an Italian tourist for three weeks to gain crypto passwords  —  The investor, 37-year-old John Woeltz, and another man abused their victim for three weeks in a Manhattan townhouse as they tried …

Geoffrey Bunting / The Verge: Accessibility consultants say the video game industry's accessibility advancements, which gained momentum in 2020, have slowed down due to cutbacks  —  Video game consultants like Laura Kate Dale came into 2023 with a lot of hope. … Yet, as the year drew on, she says, “there started to be signs that …

Adam Edelman / NBC News: Texas is set to enact one of the strictest bans on social media for minors, with age verification requirements and letting parents request account deletions  —  It's the latest attempt in a growing effort by states to enact significant limits on the use of social media by young people.

Jason Snell / Six Colors: Sam Altman and Jony Ive's awkward io video feels like empty hype until a compelling device is released, especially given Ive's post-Jobs design missteps  —  Ever since OpenAI announced a couple of days ago that it's integrating Jony Ive's hardware startup, I've been struggling with what to write about it.

Allison Johnson / The Verge: Despite Google's guardrails, Veo 3 users are generating realistic clips of news, disasters, and fictional events, some with dialogue not included in the prompt  —  Cursed AI-generated videos come with very convincing audio now. … Even at first glance, there's something off about the body on the street.

Valentine Baldassari / Bloomberg: Elon Musk says he needs to be “super focused on X/xAI and Tesla”, saying major operational improvements need to be made “as evidenced by the X uptime issues”  —  Billionaire Elon Musk said he needs to be “super focused” on his companies, pointing to issues at X …

Abram Brown / The Information: A look at The Technology Brothers Podcast Network, a daily tech news talk show that has captured the attention of Silicon Valley's investors and founders  —  In recent months, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, co-hosts of “TBPN,” a daily tech news talk show that has captured the attention …

Dan Gallagher / Wall Street Journal: A look at the rise of “sovereign AI”, wherein countries invest directly in chip companies like Nvidia and AMD, making AI chips a highly politicized business  —  As Nvidia and others strike deals with sovereign nations, their business will become politicized as never before

Phoebe Liu / Forbes: Metaverse startup Infinite Reality, which claims a $15B+ valuation, told shareholders it is rebranding as Napster, an “AI-powered digital experiences” provider  —  Florida-based metaverse startup Infinite Reality, which claimed to have raised one of this year's largest funding rounds …

Ryan Barwick / Axios: Utah-based Awardco, which makes HR software that helps AT&T, Adobe, and other clients manage employee rewards, raised a $165M Series B at an over $1B valuation  —  Awardco announced Tuesday it has raised a $165 million Series B, valuing the employee rewards platform at more than $1 billion.

Financial Times: Sources: Builder.ai collapsed after it revised its 2024 revenue estimate from $220M to ~$55M and restated its previously reported 2023 sales from $180M to ~$45M  —  Failed UK start-up revised down revenues to just a quarter of prior estimates  —  Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Daniel Kuhn / The Block: Polygon cofounder Mihailo Bjelic steps down from the project's development studio, Polygon Labs, and from the foundation board, marking the third founder exit  —  - Mihailo Bjelic is stepping back from his active role developing Polygon and from the foundation's board, according to an announcement on Friday.

Reuters: Thoma Bravo-backed Nearmap agrees to acquire property and casualty insurance tech provider itel from PE firm GTCR, a source says for over $1.3B, including debt  —  Thoma Bravo-backed Nearmap has agreed to buy insurance technology provider itel from private equity firm GTCR …

Bloomberg: A US judge vacates Avraham Eisenberg's convictions for fraud and manipulation related to a $110M theft on Mango Markets in 2022 due to insufficient evidence  —  A trader charged in the first US case tied to cryptocurrency manipulation won a legal challenge to overturn his convictions …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: RevenueCat, which offers tools for devs to add subscriptions to their apps, raised a $50M Series C led by Bain Capital Ventures, valuing the company at $500M  —  RevenueCat, a company so tied to the mobile economy that now one-in-three new subscription apps launch with its software under the hood, is preparing to expand its business.