OceanGate’s Shocking Decision on Whistleblower Sparks Hacker Threat Over Reddit Data Leak, While Marvel Takes a Bold Leap into AI Artistry You Won’t Believe!

Hi guys, and welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter that rounds up the week in tech. For many people, this work week was one day shorter, thanks to the Juneteenth celebration on Monday. But many things happened.

Have coverage about the OceanGate tragedy, and we have closely followed Reddit API controversy – which shows no signs of abating. Elsewhere, TC has a full review of the new Google Pixel Tablet (spoiler alert: the included dock is a major highlight), and we’ve got details on Microsoft’s quantum plans and more.

If you haven’t already, sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday. Then read on for the week’s recap.

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OceanGate fired a whistleblower: The director of marine operations for OceanGate, the company whose submersible disappeared Sunday on an expedition to the Titanic in the North Atlantic, has been fired after raising concerns about its carbon-fiber hull and other systems ahead of its maiden voyage. , according to a court filing in a 2018 lawsuit.

Hackers threaten to leak data from Reddit: Hackers threaten to release sensitive data stolen from Reddit unless the company pays a ransom demand and reverses its controversial API price increases. In a post on its dark web leak site, the BlackCat ransomware gang, also known as ALPHV, claims to have stolen 80 gigabytes of compressed data from Reddit during a February breach of the company’s systems.

Reddit protests continue: In more Reddit news, several subreddits are adopting alternative methods to protest the aforementioned API changes, such as only publishing one type of post, changing the topic they focus on, and the days the community goes private. Many of these communities participated in a “blackout” from June 12-14 to protest API rule changes, which could take down a large number of third-party applications.

Google Pixel Tablet Review: Brian reviews the new Pixel tablet, Google’s first attempt at a minute at an Android device in a tablet form factor. The verdict? The regular whiteboard is greater than the sum of its parts with the addition of an included smart home dock. Keep reading for the rest of your impressions.

Microsoft is serious about quantum: This week, Microsoft announced its roadmap for building a quantum supercomputer, using the topological qubits that the company’s researchers have been working on for quite some time. There are still many intermediate milestones to be reached. But the company believes it will take less than 10 years to build a quantum supercomputer using these qubits.

WhatsApp is automatically muted: WhatsApp has introduced a new feature to automatically silence calls from unknown numbers. It comes after several clients in India, the largest market for the chat app with over 500 million users. complained of an increase in spam calls in the last year.

Marvel AI Art Controversy: Marvel’s latest series, “Secret Invasion,” made its debut on Disney+ this week, prompting backlash after it was confirmed the intro sequence was AI-generated. Method Studios, the VFX company responsible for the graphics, said the hollywood reporter“No artist work was replaced by the addition of these new tools,” but that didn’t stop many artists from venting their frustrations on Twitter.

Board members resigned from Byju: On Thursday, global giant Deloitte resigned as Byju’s auditor and three members of the board of directors of India’s most valuable company resigned, sending an industry uproar a year after the Indian firm’s belated financial reports. drew worldwide scrutiny.

Audio

Need a podcast to get you through the commute, or just a lazy Sunday afternoon? TechCrunch has you covered. There is likely something to appeal in TC’s growing stable audio content.

This week’s episode of Found introduced Web Sun, co-founder and president of Komodo Health, a startup that uses data to create a comprehensive map of the US healthcare system. Web opened up about what led him to entrepreneurship and how mutual friends introduced him to their co-founder, thinking they would hit it off (little did they know!). He also discussed how to navigate fundraising during the bull market and layoffs, a timely topic to be sure.

TechCrunch+

TC+ subscribers get access to detailed feedback, analysis and surveys, which you know about if you’re already a subscriber. If you’re not here consider signing up. Here are some highlights from this week:

The unicorns of Europe and Israel: Accel partner Harry Nelis writes about how, over the past two decades, we have seen a host of strong founders and operators emerge in Europe and Israel, creating innovative products and category-defining unicorn companies that now compete on the global stage. .

Coinbase, the next super app: As crypto markets continue to face uncertainty, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong sees further potential for the digital asset ecosystem to grow. In the next five to seven years, Armstrong’s vision for Coinbase includes turning it into a “super app,” referring to apps like WeChat and Alipay, used for messaging, commerce, banking, lending, payments, and even ordering food.

AI infiltrates collaborative work: A new paper from researchers at the Swiss university EPFL suggests that between 33% and 46% of distributed collective workers on Amazon Mechanical Turk appear to have “cheated” while performing a particular task assigned to them, using tools like ChatGPT to do some of the chores. work. If the practice is widespread, it can become quite a serious problem, Haje writes.

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