🚀 Leaked memo reveals how Snap plans to turn itself around

Today’s pick

Leaked memo reveals how Snap plans to turn itself around. It's hard to recall any point in my lifetime when we have faced so much instability, uncertainty, and change as a society - yet remained so optimistic about the future earnings growth of technology companies... Simultaneously, we are struggling to… (Alex Heath / The Verge)

Alex Heath @alexeheath

Inside Snap’s turnaround plan: After a stock price collapse and brutal layoffs, CEO Evan Spiegel yesterday told employees how he plans to still grow Snapchat’s users to 450 million. Goal is to hit $6 billion in revenue next year. Full internal memo here:

theverge.comLeaked memo reveals how Snap plans to turn itself aroundEvan Spiegel isn’t going down without a fight.

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The 1,000 Chinese SpaceX engineers who never existed. The profile of “Mai Linzheng” is actually one of the millions of fraudulent pages set up on LinkedIn to lure users into scams, often involving cryptocurrency investments and targeting people of Chinese descent all over the world. (Zeyi Yang via MIT Technology Review)

Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @ZeyiYang

Who are these brilliant engineers who graduated from Tsinghua Univ & work at SpaceX? Turns out, these fake profiles on LinkedIn are the latest iteration of “pig-butchering scams” that drained millions of $ from victims, with the help of crypto. My latest:

technologyreview.comThe 1,000 Chinese SpaceX engineers who never existedLinkedIn users are being scammed of millions of dollars by fake connections posing as graduates of prestigious universities and employees at top tech companies.

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Disney knew Twitter had bots but wanted to buy it anyway. Elon Musk wanted to buy Twitter. Then he decided he didn't. In 2016, Iger, then the CEO of Disney, had convinced himself that his company should own Twitter because it would be an excellent way to distribute Disney's content around the world. Then… (Peter Kafka / Vox)

Peter Kafka @pkafka

Cc @elonmusk

Vox @voxdotcom

Disney knew Twitter had bots but wanted to buy it anyway https://t.co/fi3DqKxbkb

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Startup Behind AI Image Generator Stable Diffusion Is In Talks To Raise At A Valuation Up To $1 Billion. With the image generator Stable Diffusion, you can conjure within seconds a potrait of Beyoncé as if painted by Vincent van Gogh, a cyberpunk cityscape in the style of 18th century Japanese artist Hokusai and a complex alien world straight… (Kenrick Cai / Forbes)

Kenrick Cai @kenrickcai

Scoop: Stability AI, the startup behind AI text-to-image generator Stable Diffusion, is looking to raise $100M at a valuation up to $1B. Coatue and Lightspeed are potential investors. The talks follow Stable Diffusion's buzzy release just two weeks ago.

forbes.comStartup Behind AI Image Generator Stable Diffusion Is In Talks To Raise At A Valuation Up To $1 BillionStability AI’s open source text-to-image generator was released to the general public in late August. It has already accumulated massive community goodwill — and controversy over how it’s been used by individuals on websites like 4chan.

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Apple's Killing the Password. Here's Everything You Need to Know. For years, we've been promised the end of password-based logins. Now the reality of a passwordless future is taking a big leap forward, with the ability to ditch passwords being rolled out for millions of people. When Apple launches iOS 16 on… (Matt Burgess via WIRED)

WIRED @WIRED

The reality of a passwordless future is taking a big leap forward, with the ability to ditch passwords being rolled out for millions of people.

wired.trib.alApple’s Killing the Password. Here’s Everything You Need to KnowWith iOS 16 and macOS Ventura, Apple is introducing passkeys—a more convenient and secure alternative to passwords.

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