Month: October 2023
Inserted AI-generated Microsoft poll about woman’s death rankles The Guardian
Speculative AI news poll presented three choices: murder, accident, or suicide.
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images)
On Tuesday, The Guardian accused Microsoft of damaging its journalistic reputation by publishing an AI-generated poll beside one of its articles on the Microsoft Start website. The poll, created by an AI model on Microsoft’s news platform, speculated on the cause of a woman’s death, reportedly triggering reader anger and leading to reputational concerns for the news organization.
“This has to be the most pathetic, disgusting poll I’ve ever seen,” wrote one commenter on the story. The comment section has since been disabled.
The poll appeared beside a republished Guardian story about Lilie James, a 21-year-old water polo coach who was found dead with head injuries in Sydney. The AI-generated poll presented readers with three choices to speculate on the cause of James’ death: murder, accident, or suicide. Following negative reactions, the poll was removed, but critical comments remained visible for a time before their removal.
Sam Bankman-Fried didn’t ask where the $8 billion went
MFW my supervisees tell me to stop asking questions because it is distracting. | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Bloomberg, Getty Images
His employees told him he ‘should stop asking questions because it was distracting.’ Let’s say I am the owner of a hedge fund, and one fine June day, my employees come to me and say, “Hey, Liz, we have an accounting problem. We are missing several billion dollars.” How would I react?
I have been wondering this since Danielle Sassoon walked Sam Bankman-Fried through his reaction to the FTX software bug fixed by Adam Yedidia. In my case, there would probably be shouting? Like, a lot of shouting. I would also probably have my assistant figure out which law enforcement agency to call immediately. Misplacing $900 million is a five-alarm fire even for Citibank; misplacing several billion is kicking over a lantern in Chicago in 1871.
Obviously, this is not how Bankman-Fried reacted to the software bug that overestimated the amount Alameda owed to FTX by about $8 billion. Nor is it how he reacted to finding out that even after fixing the bug, Alameda still owed FTX about $8 billion. Instead, Bankman-Fried directed alleged co-conspirator Caroline Ellison to repay third-party loans and went on making investments.
Bankman-Fried said that he found out about the fiat@ftx account — that’s the one that tracked how much Alameda owed FTX — in June 2022 while his senior staff was focused on fixing the software bug. He did not, however, discover what the account was for until October. I know this sounds unbelievable, but this is his actual testimony.
His employees told him “they were busy and I should stop asking questions because it was distracting.”
Simple questions nailed Bankman-Fried to the wall. Had he given his employees at Alameda the direction not to spend FTX customer deposits? Had he put in any policies to prevent Alameda employees from spending FTX customer money? Did he put in place any measures at Alameda to protect the FTX customer money? No, no, and no. Oh, but he was testifying to Congress about keeping customer funds safe.
Who was making decisions to spend $8 billion of customer funds? Bankman-Fried couldn’t recall knowing anything about it. Were there rules or requirements for how money borrowed from FTX would be returned? Were there rules for risk management? “I was concerned with overall risk management,” Bankman-Fried said.
But it was the testimony about June 2022 that resonated the most to me. Didn’t Bankman-Fried ask what “fiat@ftx” was? He did. But — I did hear these words uttered aloud in a court of law this morning, I am not creative enough to make this kind of thing up — his employees told him “they were busy and I should stop asking questions because it was distracting.”
Yedidia — Bankman-Fried’s college friend, Bahamas roommate, and employee at FTX — had testified that he’d asked Bankman-Fried about the $8 billion hole on a padel tennis court in their luxury complex in June or July. Today, in testimony, Bankman-Fried seemed to be trying to deny that conversation had ever taken place. It was not until Judge Lewis Kaplan intervened to ask if Bankman-Fried had ever been told by Yedidia about that money, in words or in substance, that Bankman-Fried admitted he’d been told.
I have come to believe that if you know the meaning of the word “epistemology,” you absolutely should not testify in your own defense
“So it’s your testimony that your supervisees told you to stop asking questions?” Sassoon asked. She could have been filing her nails, her tone was so level. Had Bankman-Fried called anyone in to ask who spent $8 billion? “I wasn’t trying to build out blame for it,” he said. He was focused on solutions! Did he fire anyone? Nope!
We also saw an Alameda balance sheet from June 13th, 2022, that included the money it was borrowing from FTX as “ftx borrows.” Bankman-Fried seemed pretty hazy on this, too.
If you are wondering how Bankman-Fried’s parents reacted to this, I can’t tell you — they weren’t there. I couldn’t really blame them. I wouldn’t want to watch my child be vivisected, either. The jurors, however, watched the operation attentively. I suppose for most of us, $8 billion has a way of focusing the mind.
Look, uttering phrases like “hole isn’t really the word I would use” and responding to a question by saying you wanted “a few more qualifiers and scoping on it” do not, as a general rule, bode well for your believability. Yes, this will win certain kinds of nerd arguments. But this is a courtroom, and I have come to believe that if you know the meaning of the word “epistemology,” you absolutely should not testify in your own defense.
“His name is Ryan Salame :p”
Bankman-Fried, like Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes before him, got on the stand to speak directly to his state of mind in a way no other witness can. But telling your side of the story opens you to a great many questions you might not want to answer on cross-examination. I have watched a lot of crosses. This was the nastiest I think I’ve ever seen.
The charges in this case hinge on conspiracy and intentional deceit. Just losing $8 billion is not a crime, though it is very embarrassing. (Even losing $900 million is very embarrassing because people will make jokes about it forever!) But if Bankman-Fried lied to customers and lenders about what he was doing and how safe FTX was, that’s a crime.
Establishing that would have been enough, but Sassoon also managed to get in some flourishes about Bankman-Fried’s relationships to Bahamian power. For instance, she asked him if he’d made comments about paying off the Bahamian national debt. (You will be shocked, shocked to discover he didn’t recall.) We then saw an internal FTX group chat called “Project Chinchilla Chatter” in which another member asked who in the Bahamian government they needed to talk to for the project. “His name is Ryan Salame :p,” Bankman-Fried replied. Salame was one of FTX’s executives.
In another part of the chat, Bankman-Fried noted that the Bahamian prime minister was at the FTX arena in FTX seats with his wife.
We then saw a November 9th email from Bankman-Fried to Ryan Pinder, attorney general of the Bahamas, that said “we are deeply grateful” for what the Bahamas had done for FTX. As a token of that gratitude, Bankman-Fried wrote:
We would be more than happy to open up withdrawals for all Bahamian customers on FTX, so that they can, tomorrow, fully withdraw all of their assets, making them fully whole. It’s your call whether you want us to do this, but we are more than happy to and would consider it the very least of our duty to the country, and could open it up immediately if you reply saying you want us to. If we don’t hear back from you, we are going to go ahead and do it tomorrow.
Bankman-Fried did indeed open withdrawals for Bahamian customers. The upshot of this testimony seemed to be that Bankman-Fried had a cozy, perhaps even inappropriately cozy, relationship with the Bahamian government — which isn’t what he’s on trial for but probably doesn’t make him look any better to a jury.
Sassoon successfully established yesterday that Bankman-Fried has a long history of dishonesty. Today, through a set of questions about what Bankman-Fried did and didn’t do, she established that the story he told on direct examination was absurd. After a brief redirect examination by Bankman-Fried’s own lawyers, which was resplendent with word salad, Bankman-Fried stepped down, and the defense rested their case.
Closing arguments start tomorrow, and then the case will be handed to the jury. In the meantime, I will continue to ponder the appropriate response to misplacing $8 billion. Crying? Fainting? Maybe it actually is padel tennis — I wouldn’t know. Net sports are not my area, and no one has ever given me $8 billion to misplace.
MFW my supervisees tell me to stop asking questions because it is distracting. | Photo Illustration by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Bloomberg, Getty Images
His employees told him he ‘should stop asking questions because it was distracting.’
Let’s say I am the owner of a hedge fund, and one fine June day, my employees come to me and say, “Hey, Liz, we have an accounting problem. We are missing several billion dollars.” How would I react?
I have been wondering this since Danielle Sassoon walked Sam Bankman-Fried through his reaction to the FTX software bug fixed by Adam Yedidia. In my case, there would probably be shouting? Like, a lot of shouting. I would also probably have my assistant figure out which law enforcement agency to call immediately. Misplacing $900 million is a five-alarm fire even for Citibank; misplacing several billion is kicking over a lantern in Chicago in 1871.
Obviously, this is not how Bankman-Fried reacted to the software bug that overestimated the amount Alameda owed to FTX by about $8 billion. Nor is it how he reacted to finding out that even after fixing the bug, Alameda still owed FTX about $8 billion. Instead, Bankman-Fried directed alleged co-conspirator Caroline Ellison to repay third-party loans and went on making investments.
Bankman-Fried said that he found out about the fiat@ftx account — that’s the one that tracked how much Alameda owed FTX — in June 2022 while his senior staff was focused on fixing the software bug. He did not, however, discover what the account was for until October. I know this sounds unbelievable, but this is his actual testimony.
Simple questions nailed Bankman-Fried to the wall. Had he given his employees at Alameda the direction not to spend FTX customer deposits? Had he put in any policies to prevent Alameda employees from spending FTX customer money? Did he put in place any measures at Alameda to protect the FTX customer money? No, no, and no. Oh, but he was testifying to Congress about keeping customer funds safe.
Who was making decisions to spend $8 billion of customer funds? Bankman-Fried couldn’t recall knowing anything about it. Were there rules or requirements for how money borrowed from FTX would be returned? Were there rules for risk management? “I was concerned with overall risk management,” Bankman-Fried said.
But it was the testimony about June 2022 that resonated the most to me. Didn’t Bankman-Fried ask what “fiat@ftx” was? He did. But — I did hear these words uttered aloud in a court of law this morning, I am not creative enough to make this kind of thing up — his employees told him “they were busy and I should stop asking questions because it was distracting.”
Yedidia — Bankman-Fried’s college friend, Bahamas roommate, and employee at FTX — had testified that he’d asked Bankman-Fried about the $8 billion hole on a padel tennis court in their luxury complex in June or July. Today, in testimony, Bankman-Fried seemed to be trying to deny that conversation had ever taken place. It was not until Judge Lewis Kaplan intervened to ask if Bankman-Fried had ever been told by Yedidia about that money, in words or in substance, that Bankman-Fried admitted he’d been told.
“So it’s your testimony that your supervisees told you to stop asking questions?” Sassoon asked. She could have been filing her nails, her tone was so level. Had Bankman-Fried called anyone in to ask who spent $8 billion? “I wasn’t trying to build out blame for it,” he said. He was focused on solutions! Did he fire anyone? Nope!
We also saw an Alameda balance sheet from June 13th, 2022, that included the money it was borrowing from FTX as “ftx borrows.” Bankman-Fried seemed pretty hazy on this, too.
If you are wondering how Bankman-Fried’s parents reacted to this, I can’t tell you — they weren’t there. I couldn’t really blame them. I wouldn’t want to watch my child be vivisected, either. The jurors, however, watched the operation attentively. I suppose for most of us, $8 billion has a way of focusing the mind.
Look, uttering phrases like “hole isn’t really the word I would use” and responding to a question by saying you wanted “a few more qualifiers and scoping on it” do not, as a general rule, bode well for your believability. Yes, this will win certain kinds of nerd arguments. But this is a courtroom, and I have come to believe that if you know the meaning of the word “epistemology,” you absolutely should not testify in your own defense.
Bankman-Fried, like Theranos’ Elizabeth Holmes before him, got on the stand to speak directly to his state of mind in a way no other witness can. But telling your side of the story opens you to a great many questions you might not want to answer on cross-examination. I have watched a lot of crosses. This was the nastiest I think I’ve ever seen.
The charges in this case hinge on conspiracy and intentional deceit. Just losing $8 billion is not a crime, though it is very embarrassing. (Even losing $900 million is very embarrassing because people will make jokes about it forever!) But if Bankman-Fried lied to customers and lenders about what he was doing and how safe FTX was, that’s a crime.
Establishing that would have been enough, but Sassoon also managed to get in some flourishes about Bankman-Fried’s relationships to Bahamian power. For instance, she asked him if he’d made comments about paying off the Bahamian national debt. (You will be shocked, shocked to discover he didn’t recall.) We then saw an internal FTX group chat called “Project Chinchilla Chatter” in which another member asked who in the Bahamian government they needed to talk to for the project. “His name is Ryan Salame :p,” Bankman-Fried replied. Salame was one of FTX’s executives.
In another part of the chat, Bankman-Fried noted that the Bahamian prime minister was at the FTX arena in FTX seats with his wife.
We then saw a November 9th email from Bankman-Fried to Ryan Pinder, attorney general of the Bahamas, that said “we are deeply grateful” for what the Bahamas had done for FTX. As a token of that gratitude, Bankman-Fried wrote:
We would be more than happy to open up withdrawals for all Bahamian customers on FTX, so that they can, tomorrow, fully withdraw all of their assets, making them fully whole. It’s your call whether you want us to do this, but we are more than happy to and would consider it the very least of our duty to the country, and could open it up immediately if you reply saying you want us to. If we don’t hear back from you, we are going to go ahead and do it tomorrow.
Bankman-Fried did indeed open withdrawals for Bahamian customers. The upshot of this testimony seemed to be that Bankman-Fried had a cozy, perhaps even inappropriately cozy, relationship with the Bahamian government — which isn’t what he’s on trial for but probably doesn’t make him look any better to a jury.
Sassoon successfully established yesterday that Bankman-Fried has a long history of dishonesty. Today, through a set of questions about what Bankman-Fried did and didn’t do, she established that the story he told on direct examination was absurd. After a brief redirect examination by Bankman-Fried’s own lawyers, which was resplendent with word salad, Bankman-Fried stepped down, and the defense rested their case.
Closing arguments start tomorrow, and then the case will be handed to the jury. In the meantime, I will continue to ponder the appropriate response to misplacing $8 billion. Crying? Fainting? Maybe it actually is padel tennis — I wouldn’t know. Net sports are not my area, and no one has ever given me $8 billion to misplace.
SEC sues SolarWinds and CISO, says they ignored flaws that led to major hack
SolarWinds misled public about security while hackers accessed network, SEC says.
Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Sean Gladwell)
The US Securities and Exchange Commission sued SolarWinds Corp. and Chief Information Security Officer Timothy Brown yesterday, alleging that they concealed security failures that led to a nearly two-yearlong cyberattack known as “Sunburst.” The attack, reportedly carried out by Russian hackers, inserted malicious code into SolarWinds network-management software used by thousands of customers, including US government agencies and private companies.
From the time of its initial public offering in October 2018 until January 2021, SolarWinds and Brown “defrauded SolarWinds’ investors and customers through misstatements, omissions, and schemes that concealed both the Company’s poor cybersecurity practices and its heightened—and increasing—cybersecurity risks,” the SEC lawsuit said. “SolarWinds’ public statements about its cybersecurity practices and risks painted a starkly different picture from internal discussions and assessments about the Company’s cybersecurity policy violations, vulnerabilities, and cyberattack.”
The SEC sued the company and Brown in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. The SEC is seeking disgorgement of “ill-gotten gains,” civil monetary penalties, and a permanent ban on Brown from acting as an officer or director for any company that issues securities.
How Thryv Provides a SaaS Platform with the Tools Small Businesses Need to Succeed
Building a tech stack can be a daunting (and long-term) process for any size business. Paying for several applications, each
The post How Thryv Provides a SaaS Platform with the Tools Small Businesses Need to Succeed appeared first on ReadWrite.
Building a tech stack can be a daunting (and long-term) process for any size business. Paying for several applications, each of which is “necessary for success,” can strain a budget. Keeping those apps organized, understanding their value, and choosing the necessary version of each tool can easily overwhelm limited team resources, too.
Managing a tech stack for a smaller business is particularly challenging. The time and effort alone required to sort through all of the options and keep everything up-to-date drains resources.
Thryv equips small businesses with a solution to get over the burden of app management. If a small business struggles to manage its tech stack, Thryv’s comprehensive communication, CRM, and marketing software solutions unify and simplify processes, delivering the ideal tech stack.
The Struggle With Too Much Tech
Too much tech has been an issue for decades now. In the 2020s, though, the struggle has shifted from too much hardware to an oversaturation of software.
Statista reports that the average number of SaaS applications used by individual businesses worldwide is 130. BusinessWire puts the number at 254 total applications.
With either estimate, the sheer number of tech tools that every business, department and individual manages has become mind-numbing. And simply updating every app properly is a task in and of itself. Tracking efficiency, value and overall spend can feel impossible. This is what motivated the team at Thryv to create a solution that brings order to the tech chaos.
How Thryv Brings Order to the Technological Chaos
Thryv is an all-in-one small business software platform designed to support small businesses in ways that are hard to achieve without large enterprise resources. The software brand has a proven track record and deep experience in SaaS spend management.
Thryv more recently pivoted into the SaaS CRM space, filling a growing need for SMBs. The company has empowered over 55,000 customers to achieve success.
These organizations utilize Thryv to streamline communications, improve day-to-day management and improve brand awareness, setting the stage to scale their operations in the process.
Thryv offers three distinct product offerings:
Thryv Command Center
Thryv Business Center
Thryv Marketing Center
Together, this dynamic trio of tools are, in the words of the company, “impactful when used on their own, but unstoppable when used together.” Let’s take a closer look at each one and the benefits it offers a smaller brand.
The Command Center Unifies Communication
The sophisticated, streamlined software deftly brings the majority of a brand’s communication channels into a single inbox.
This centralized inbox provides an omnichannel experience for customers, meeting them where they are and allowing them to engage with a brand on their terms. At the same time, it provides a single, simple go-to spot for customer communication and an easy way to capture communication history with each client.
The Business Center Simplifies CRM
Thryv Business Center attacks one of the biggest issues small businesses face: excessive workloads. Small business team members wear a lot of hats, and they can easily drown in a sea of administrative minutia.
This software solution encapsulates several of the most important tasks, from managing client portals and CRMs to generating invoices, scheduling appointments, sending emails, and organizing files. Altogether, this turns the tech tool into a software assistant capable of saving small business teams as much as 18 hours of busywork per week.
The Marketing Center Amplifies Advertisements
21st century marketing is a challenge due to an overabundance of options. Small businesses often lack the resources to effectively take advantage of the plethora of marketing options available.
Thryv Marketing Center solves this issue by centralizing a small business’s marketing endeavors. It provides comprehensive campaign management, website and landing page templates, and AI-powered recommendations — once again, all in one single dashboard.
Add-ons and Industry Customizations
While Thryv’s central SaaS management software consists of its three-headed solution, the company is constantly innovating to improve and target its services.
One way is through analytics. Thryv’s software automatically analyzes internet referral traffic, feeding it into the larger software system to impact recommendations and improve marketing over time.
The SaaS offering also provides market-leading display, search, social, and print directory solutions. In addition, it can promote brands in front of consumers on its proprietary search sites, including Yellowpages.com, Superpages.com, and Dexknows.com.
Thryv has also created over 20 specific industry customizations. The brand also has a selection of 34 different small business niches to choose from to help potential customers target their software solutions as they shop. These span the gamut from retail services to dental practice software.
Thryv: A Tech Stack on a Platter
Thryv understands the challenge of running a small business. Its commitment to modern technology has allowed Thryv to create innovative and comprehensive SaaS management software offerings. From communication to marketing, business administration to niche industry needs, the company helps small businesses streamline their activity and deliver a lean, mean tech stack that helps brand growth.
The post How Thryv Provides a SaaS Platform with the Tools Small Businesses Need to Succeed appeared first on ReadWrite.
Tesla wins first U.S. Autopilot trial involving fatal crash
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Log analysis and security firm Graylog raises $9M in equity, $30M in debt
The decline in VC funding for cybersecurity startups might finally be reversing course after months of discouraging trend lines. Recently, Crunchbase reported that cybersecurity startups raised nearly $1.9 billion through 153 deals in Q3 — a 12% increase from the $1.7 billion raised across 181 deals in the previous quarter. There’s anecdotal evidence of a
© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
The decline in VC funding for cybersecurity startups might finally be reversing course after months of discouraging trend lines. Recently, Crunchbase reported that cybersecurity startups raised nearly $1.9 billion through 153 deals in Q3 — a 12% increase from the $1.7 billion raised across 181 deals in the previous quarter. There’s anecdotal evidence of a […]
© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Nokia Sues Amazon From US To India Over Streaming-Tech Patents
Nokia sued Amazon in courts across three continents, alleging the e-commerce giant uses its technologies in streaming services and devices without authorization. From a report: The suits were filed in the US, Germany, India, the UK, and the European Unified Patent Court, Arvin Patel, Nokia’s Chief Licensing Officer said in a statement on the company’s website. Separately, a suit was also filed against HP in the US over video-related technologies, he said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Nokia sued Amazon in courts across three continents, alleging the e-commerce giant uses its technologies in streaming services and devices without authorization. From a report: The suits were filed in the US, Germany, India, the UK, and the European Unified Patent Court, Arvin Patel, Nokia’s Chief Licensing Officer said in a statement on the company’s website. Separately, a suit was also filed against HP in the US over video-related technologies, he said.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.