Meta reports takedowns of influence ops targeting US midterms, Ukraine war

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Another bit of self-reporting from Meta today vis-a-vis internal efforts to identify and shut down political disinformation networks operating on its social platforms (aka “coordinated, inauthentic behavior” — or CIB — as it prefers to term it). Specifically, it’s reported taking down two, separate political disinformation networks — one “small” network originating from China which … Read more

Microsoft’s M12 led $20M investment in web3 platform Space and Time

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Space and Time, a decentralized data platform, has raised $20 million in strategic funding to help businesses grow through smart contract technology. “Our mission is to make smart contracts smarter and expand the use cases of business logic through smart contracts,” Nate Holiday, co-founder and CEO of Space and Time, said to TechCrunch. “We see … Read more

WhatsApp fixes ‘critical’ security bug that put Android phone data at risk

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WhatsApp has published details of a “critical”-rated security vulnerability affecting its Android app that could allow attackers to remotely plant malware on a victim’s smartphone during a video call. Details of the flaw, tracked as CVE-2022-36934 with an assigned severity rating of 9.8 out of 10, is described by WhatsApp as an integer overflow bug. … Read more

Iliad launches its own payments processing platform Stancer

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Iliad, the telecom company owned by French billionaire and startup investor Xavier Niel, is launching a payment subsidiary called Stancer. The team has focused on one thing in particular — lowering transaction fees as much as possible. While French retailers, online shops and businesses can use Stancer starting today, Iliad has already been using Stancer for … Read more

Arthur.ai machine learning monitoring gathers steam with $42M investment

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It’s widely understood that after machine learning models are deployed in production, the accuracy of the results can deteriorate over time. Arthur.ai launched in 2019 with the goal of helping companies monitor their models to ensure they stayed true to their goals. Since then, the company has also added explainability and bias mitigation to the … Read more

The Freewrite Alpha boldly asks: Can a small screen be too small?

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If you’re reading this, you almost certainly have a complicated relationship with screens. Every year that passes, they become larger and increasingly present in our lives. Meanwhile, we continue to embrace the technology all while complaining about the hold it has on our lives. Astrohaus’ products have long occupied the strange nexus of technologies designed … Read more

The Freewrite typewriter gets a smaller design with a dramatic price cut

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The Freewrite Alpha typewriter | Image: Freewrite If you’ve been intrigued by the high-tech Freewrite typewriter but put off by its price tag, manufacturer Astrohaus’ new design is (maybe) for you. Astrohaus is opening preorders for the Freewrite Alpha, a lower-profile version of its first-generation device. Like the original Freewrite, it’s billed as a distraction-free … Read more