Securing web-scraping accounts

  • Apify adds security restrictions after account data was accessed — Users of the scraping platform have a concrete setting to check while its investigation continues.
    • In its November 13 update, Apify says it now stores API tokens as hashes and has added network restrictions and stronger internal authentication.
    • It recommends setting Console → Settings → General resource access to Restricted. When access is open, anyone who knows a storage ID can read that storage, the company says.
    • Apify says an attacker used a compromised credential on November 9 and 10 to obtain account credentials and access related accounts. It says affected users have been notified and some external connections were revoked as a precaution.
    • Caveat: Apify’s investigation is ongoing; it says it will contact additional customers if it identifies further affected accounts. (HN 73 points · 10 comments · Apify incident updates)

Models for fixed-choice decisions

  • Perplexity updates its decision models and adds text extraction — Developers can test classification and extraction using models designed to return scores instead of generated prose.
    • Decider v1.3 and the smaller Decider Flash v1.3 answer yes/no, multiple-choice and ordered-score questions about shared input. The new Locate feature extracts matching text and character positions.
    • Perplexity says the models are Apache-licensed and available through its own API and Hugging Face. Its larger model card describes roughly 49 GiB of GPU memory for weights, plus working memory; the smaller card says roughly 8.5 GiB plus working memory.
    • Both model cards say their repositories are private and require an authorized Hugging Face token, despite the announcement’s availability claim. The documented local setup requires Python 3.12 or newer and a CUDA GPU.
    • Caveat: Perplexity recommends tuning score thresholds against representative labeled examples; the probabilities are not automatically reliable for every task.
    • Related background: Google’s separate fixed-choice API appeared earlier this week. (HN 52 points · 12 comments · Perplexity announcement and model cards)

Paying through an assistant

  • OpenAI launches a wallet for assistant purchases — The feature lets eligible users approve purchases found by a personal assistant without giving that assistant their card details.
    • CNBC reports that ChatGPT Wallet initially serves US ChatGPT Pro subscribers over 18. Users enter card information once and approve each purchase with a security check.
    • OpenAI says its partners American Express, Mastercard and Visa provide transaction-specific payment credentials to the assistant. Existing card rewards and protections remain available, according to the report.
    • Caveat: Merchant access remains uneven; CNBC reports that United and Amazon restrict some automated purchasing.
    • Related background: United’s policy on unauthorized booking assistants. (Techmeme · CNBC)

Robotics research

  • OpenAI folds its standalone robotics team into larger groups — The reorganization tests the company’s belief that general-purpose models can help control robots.
    • OpenAI confirmed to Fortune that robotics researchers moved into its main research team. Applied robotics and hardware staff moved into its Applied organization.
    • The company told Fortune that results using general models for robotics motivated the change. It says robotics remains part of its long-term plans.
    • Caveat: Fortune’s cited comparison uses simulated robot manipulation; it does not show that a general model can reliably operate robots in every physical workplace. (HN 110 points · 43 comments · Techmeme · Fortune)
Gathered items not included (4)