🕵️‍♂️ Chinese Hackers, Telegram's Crypto Allies & Xpeng's $22K EV

Good morning. It’s Wednesday, August 28. Today we are covering:

• Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy 

• Telegram's Loudest Defender: The Global Crypto Industry 

• Chinese EV maker Xpeng unveils $22,000 car with self-driving features 

• What Mark Zuckerberg really said - and didn't say - in that letter to Congress

• Meta nixed custom chip efforts for upcoming AR glasses 

Let’s dive in

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Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy 

By Joseph Menn via Washington Post

• Chinese government-backed hackers have infiltrated major U.S. internet service providers to spy on users, targeting government and military personnel.

• The attacks exploited zero-day vulnerabilities and included DNS manipulation, indicating a high level of sophistication and strategic intent.

• The Chinese Embassy denies state involvement, claiming that U.S. intelligence and cybersecurity firms are fabricating evidence.

𝕏: Security researchers say they found evidence that Chinese government-linked hacking group Volt Typhoon used a zero-day to target ISPs in the U.S. and India. The goal was to steal the credentials of the ISPs downstream customers. - Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai (@lorenzofb)

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Telegram's Loudest Defender: The Global Crypto Industry 

By David Yaffe-Bellany via The New York Times

• Pavel Durov, the founder of Telegram, was arrested in France, sparking strong support from the crypto industry which heavily relies on the app for communication and deal-making.

• Telegram is a critical tool for crypto entrepreneurs, hosting large group chats for marketing, crisis management, and high-stakes financial negotiations, including during the collapse of firms like Three Arrows Capital and FTX.

• The app’s ties to cryptocurrency run deep, with a significant investment in Toncoin by Pantera Capital, though the coin’s value has dropped since Durov's arrest.

𝕏: As I said the other day, nothing about this development has even a whiff of bad news to it. - Michael Weiss (@michaeldweiss)

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Chinese EV maker Xpeng unveils $22,000 car with self-driving features 

By Gloria Li via Financial Times

• Xpeng has launched the Mona M03, a $22,000 electric vehicle with advanced self-driving features, marking a shift into the affordable EV market.

• The M03's technology comes from Didi’s abandoned car project, allowing Xpeng to offer a price half that of Tesla's Model 3, positioning it against BYD in China’s competitive market.

• Despite achieving over 10,000 orders within an hour, the low pricing strategy is expected to squeeze Xpeng’s profitability amid a prolonged price war in the world’s largest car market.

𝕏: The Mona M03 features a Tesla-like button-free dashboard, AI-powered driving and a lower price than comparable models by Elon Musk's company - Financial Times (@FT)

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What Mark Zuckerberg really said - and didn't say - in that letter to Congress

By Peter Kafka via Business Insider Nederland

• Mark Zuckerberg sent a letter to Congress, admitting some missteps by Meta during the pandemic and 2020 election, giving Republicans a political talking point.

• Zuckerberg acknowledged Biden’s White House pressured Facebook to moderate Covid content and admitted that demoting the Hunter Biden laptop story was a mistake.

• The letter carefully offers concessions without exposing Meta to further risk, particularly amid ongoing federal antitrust scrutiny.

𝕏: While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook's third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform. - Andy Stone (@andymstone)

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Meta nixed custom chip efforts for upcoming AR glasses 

By Kali Hays via Fortune

• Meta has abandoned efforts to develop custom chips for its upcoming AR glasses, opting instead to use off-the-shelf chips from Qualcomm due to cost-cutting measures.

• The decision ends an ambitious project that began in 2019, which was intended to support the Orion and Apollo AR glasses, as well as a potential custom chip for the Quest VR headset.

• The move reflects a broader strategy within Meta to reduce expenses, with significant layoffs in the Silicon team and a shift in focus away from custom hardware development.

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Trending in AI

• Google Meet’s automatic AI note-taking is here 

• AI industry is influencing the world. Mozilla adviser Abeba Birhane is challenging its core values

• OpenAI Shows 'Strawberry' AI to the Feds and Uses It to Develop 'Orion' 

• Is That Voice Real or AI? This Startup Says It Can Tell

• Social platform X edits AI chatbot after election officials warn that it spreads misinformation

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Take care and see you tomorrow!

— Jose Montes de Oca

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