Tech Meme

New York Times: A look at the cottage industry of tech contractors in Russia, many employed by oligarch-linked Citadel Group, building digital surveillance tools for the FSB  —  Russia is incubating a cottage industry of new digital surveillance tools to suppress domestic opposition to the war in Ukraine. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Wall Street Journal: How some crypto miners want to repurpose their idle rigs to train AI models, which isn’t easy or cheap but can be more affordable than Big Tech’s cloud services  —  Demand for high-end chips allows cryptocurrency companies to repurpose idle equipment  —  The boom in demand for high-end chips powering … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Financial Times: A look at Mukesh Ambani’s JioCinema, which had 400M+ viewers on IPL cricket streams, acquired rights from NBC, HBO, and WBD, and is challenging Disney in India  —  Asia’s richest man is on a mission to transform Reliance Industries into a digital group  —  India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani … Lees verder op Tech Meme

New York Times: Sources detail ByteDance’s book publishing push and uneven playing field concerns; BookScan: 100+ authors with large #BookTok followings had $760M in 2022 sales  —  As ByteDance launches a publishing company, many in the book world wonder if it will create an uneven playing field by boosting its own authors at the expense of others. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times: Sources: Netflix plans to develop targeted and tailor-made ad formats, like “episodic” campaigns, and discussed the strategy with ad executives at Cannes Lions  —  US streaming service introduced ad-supported subscriptions last year  —  Netflix will develop increasingly targeted … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Meta held talks with Tencent and other Chinese tech companies about selling Quests in China, but Mark Zuckerberg’s past China comments may cause issues  —  Meta is in talks with Tencent to bring Meta’s Quest VR headset to a huge new market, but potential partners worry about Zuckerberg’s past criticisms of China Lees verder op Tech Meme

Julian Lucas / New Yorker: A look at MoMA’s free Never Alone exhibit, which features 35 video games, making MoMA one of very few art museums to build games into its permanent collection  —  After years of neglect, art institutions are coming around to games.  Can they master the controls? Lees verder op Tech Meme

Benedict Evans: An analysis of whether generative AI will destroy, displace, create, and accelerate jobs over years like other automation waves, or if this time is different  —  Pretty much everyone in tech agrees that generative AI, Large Language Models and ChatGPT are a generational change … Lees verder op Tech Meme

Stuart A. Thompson / New York Times: A look at uncensored and loosely moderated AI chatbots like WizardLM-Uncensored, Open Assistant, and Falcon, causing polarizing debates on free speech and risks  —  A new generation of chatbots doesn’t have many of the guardrails put in place by companies like Google and OpenAI, presenting new possibilities — and risks. Lees verder op Tech Meme

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: India’s Jio Platforms unveils a $12 4G phone with mobile payment tech and access to Jio’s video and music streaming, alongside a new $1.5/month 14GB data plan  —  Reliance’s digital arm, Jio Platforms, has unveiled a new mobile handset and associated tariff plans, the latest in a series … Lees verder op Tech Meme