Would You Pay $60 For A Browser? (ft. Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons)
Our top stories this week:
- Brave Origin strips the web browser down to its core and asks you to pay for less
- Maryland becomes first state to pass bill banning ‘surveillance pricing’
- Mozilla Used Anthropic’s Mythos to Find and Fix 271 Bugs in Firefox
- Unauthorized group has gained access to Anthropic’s exclusive cyber tool Mythos, report claims
- Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training data
TWIP Live 🔴
Updates from the Team
Carissa Véliz Interview
In case you missed it last week, our interview with Carissa Véliz is out now! We talked about the impact AI and algorithms have on society, like how it could impact the idea of "meritocracy," how chatbots manipulate us, and how we can make sure AI doesn't control us.
The Parents Decide Act
Last week we briefly discussed age verification broadly after some new developments, one of them being the introduction of the "Parents Decide Act." At the time the text of the bill wasn't available, but based on the press release we had a pretty cynical outlook. Now it turns out we may have been wrong. Jonah took to the camera this week to discuss why he thinks that the act may actually have the potential to be a positive attempt to tackle child online protection.
News
This week's news briefs cover some of the stories we discussed this week, but also the facial recognition being used at Madison Square Garden, Apple patching the bug that stored notifications on iPhones, and a Tor vulnerability that could've allowed tracking across browser sessions. Definitely check those out!
Jonah Aragon
Sources
Brave Origin strips the web browser down to its core and asks you to pay for less
This week, Brave released a minimalist version of their browser dubbed Brave Origin. The catch is that it's a one-time $60 license fee. This move has been met with a lot of polarization in the community - some say it's a valid business model while others criticize the idea of paying to remove features that you never asked for in the first place.
Brian Fagioli
Maryland becomes first state to pass bill banning ‘surveillance pricing’
The Maryland legislature this week passed the Protection From Predatory Pricing Act, which would ban the food retailers and third-party delivery services from customizing prices based on a user's personal data. The governor is likely to sign the act. Critics have expressed that the act could further as it currently doesn't apply to subscription services or rewards programs.
Scripps News Group
Mozilla Used Anthropic’s Mythos to Find and Fix 271 Bugs in Firefox
Mozilla claims to have worked with Anthropic to use their new Claude Mythos model on Firefox and found hundreds of vulnerabilities that will be fixed in Firefox 150. Mozilla is not part of Anthropic's "Project Glasswing" but they do have a pre-existing working relationship that allowed them access anyways.
Lily Hay Newman
Unauthorized group has gained access to Anthropic’s exclusive cyber tool Mythos, report claims
When Anthropic announced Mythos, they claimed it was so powerful that it would be unethical to publicly release it without first giving other Big Tech companies early access with the goal of giving them a head start to fix the vulnerabilities it could find. Unfortunately that window may have passed as one group now claims to have access through a third-party vendor.
Lucas Ropek
Meta to start capturing employee mouse movements, keystrokes for AI training data
The new Model Capability Initiative (MCI) will run on work-related apps and websites and also sometimes take snapshots of the screen. The stated goal is to improve training on places where AI agents typically struggle, such as choosing from dropdown menus and keyboard shortcuts. The company insists this will not be used for performance assessments and that "sensitive content" will be protected, but did not say what that means.
Forum Updates
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