Technology

A profile of Nex, which makes the $249 Nex Playground m...

Ben Cohen / Wall Street Journal: A profile of Nex, which makes the $249 Nex Play...

Google has removed dozens of AI videos from YouTube that depicted Disney characters, after Disney sent a cease&and&desist letter flagging the links (Gene Maddaus/Variety)

Google has removed dozens of AI videos from YouTube tha...

Gene Maddaus / Variety: Google has removed dozens of AI videos from YouTube that...

Microsoft expands its bug bounty program so that any critical vulnerability, including in third&party code, impacting its online services is eligible for awards (Duncan Riley/SiliconANGLE)

Microsoft expands its bug bounty program so that any cr...

Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE: Microsoft expands its bug bounty program so that an...

OpenAI quietly adopted Anthropic's "skills" mechanism in ChatGPT and Codex; ChatGPT's skills include creating and modifying spreadsheets, docx files, and PDFs (Simon Willison/Simon Willison's Weblog)

OpenAI quietly adopted Anthropic's "skills" mechanism i...

Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog: OpenAI quietly adopted Anthropic's “sk...

Switzerland launches a preliminary investigation into whether Apple's terms for granting third&party access to NFC tech on iPhones violate its antitrust laws (Tim Hardwick/MacRumors)

Switzerland launches a preliminary investigation into w...

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors: Switzerland launches a preliminary investigation into ...

Sources: Nvidia tells its Chinese clients that it is considering adding production capacity for its H200 chips in response to robust demand (Reuters)

Sources: Nvidia tells its Chinese clients that it is co...

Reuters: Sources: Nvidia tells its Chinese clients that it is considering adding...

TechInsights: Huawei's Kirin 9030 processor, used in its Mate 80 Pro Max phone, is China's most advanced chip to date and produced with SMIC's updated 7nm tech (Ian King/Bloomberg)

TechInsights: Huawei's Kirin 9030 processor, used in it...

Ian King / Bloomberg: TechInsights: Huawei's Kirin 9030 processor, used in its M...

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan reveals that Anthropic placed a $10B order for Google's Ironwood TPU racks in Q3 and says it placed an additional $11B order in Q4 (CNBC)

Broadcom CEO Hock Tan reveals that Anthropic placed a $...

CNBC: Broadcom CEO Hock Tan reveals that Anthropic placed a $10B order for Googl...

President Trump signs an executive order aimed at preempting a growing number of state AI laws, saying "we want to have one central source of approval" (Reuters)

President Trump signs an executive order aimed at preem...

Reuters: President Trump signs an executive order aimed at preempting a growing ...

On OpenAI's 10th anniversary, Sam Altman reflects on "a decade of breakthroughs, learnings, and the path toward AGI that benefits all of humanity" (OpenAI)

On OpenAI's 10th anniversary, Sam Altman reflects on "a...

OpenAI: On OpenAI's 10th anniversary, Sam Altman reflects on “a decade of breakt...

Israeli startup Port, which offers a proprietary developer portal competitor to Spotify's open&source Backstage, raised a $100M Series C at an $800M valuation (Julie Bort/TechCrunch)

Israeli startup Port, which offers a proprietary develo...

Julie Bort / TechCrunch: Israeli startup Port, which offers a proprietary develo...

Harness, which uses AI to automate code testing, verification, security, and governance, raised a $240M Series E led by Goldman Sachs at a $5.5B valuation (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)

Harness, which uses AI to automate code testing, verifi...

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Harness, which uses AI to automate code testing, ver...

Runware, which operates a developer tool platform that generates images, video, and audio in real&time, raised a $50M Series A, taking its total funding to $66M (Dominic&Madori Davis/TechCrunch)

Runware, which operates a developer tool platform that ...

Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch: Runware, which operates a developer tool plat...

ChatGPT was 2025's most downloaded free app in the US iOS App Store, up from No. 4 in 2024, followed by Threads, Google, TikTok, WhatsApp, and Instagram (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

ChatGPT was 2025's most downloaded free app in the US i...

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: ChatGPT was 2025's most downloaded free app in the US ...

Amazon now offers same&day perishable grocery delivery in 2,300+ US markets and has expanded the service's grocery offerings by 30%+ since its August launch (Peyton Bigora/Grocery Dive)

Amazon now offers same&day perishable grocery delivery ...

Peyton Bigora / Grocery Dive: Amazon now offers same-day perishable grocery deli...

Google rolls out Preferred Sources globally, letting users customize "top stories" in Search, and launches highlighted links from users' news subscriptions (Barry Schwartz/Search Engine Land)

Google rolls out Preferred Sources globally, letting us...

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land: Google rolls out Preferred Sources globally...

Ford, Renault team up on low&cost electric cars to counter Chinese rivals

Ford, Renault team up on low&cost electric cars to coun...

Automotive heavyweights Renault and Ford are to join forces to develop a line of...

An interview with Tencent Games Global CEO Michelle Liu, whose hands&on dealmaking approach generated $10B in international gaming revenue over the past year (Bloomberg)

An interview with Tencent Games Global CEO Michelle Liu...

Bloomberg: An interview with Tencent Games Global CEO Michelle Liu, whose hands-...

Cambridge, UK&based Nu Quantum, which builds networking infrastructure to link and scale quantum computers, raised a $60M Series A led by National Grid Partners (Isabella Ward/Bloomberg)

Cambridge, UK&based Nu Quantum, which builds networking...

Isabella Ward / Bloomberg: Cambridge, UK-based Nu Quantum, which builds networki...

Documents and former US government officials detail ICE's digital surveillance capabilities, amid a drive to deport 1M people in President Trump's first year (Peter Andringa/Financial Times)

Documents and former US government officials detail ICE...

Peter Andringa / Financial Times: Documents and former US government officials d...

Instagram appears to be generating often misleading SEO&style headlines and long descriptions for users' Instagram posts, appearing in Google Search results (Emanuel Maiberg/404 Media)

Instagram appears to be generating often misleading SEO...

Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media: Instagram appears to be generating often misleading...

Sources: SpaceX plans an IPO in mid&to&late 2026, seeking to raise far above $30B and targeting a ~$1.5T valuation, potentially making it the largest IPO ever (Bloomberg)

Sources: SpaceX plans an IPO in mid&to&late 2026, seeki...

Bloomberg: Sources: SpaceX plans an IPO in mid-to-late 2026, seeking to raise fa...

Hamish McKenzie says Substack is starting to test native sponsorships with some writers but won't take a cut for now (Emily Sundberg/Feed Me)

Hamish McKenzie says Substack is starting to test nativ...

Emily Sundberg / Feed Me: Hamish McKenzie says Substack is starting to test nati...

The future of AI development could resemble the rivalry between iOS and Android, with China's AI approach closer to Google's open and customizable Android OS (Kai&Fu Lee/Financial Times)

The future of AI development could resemble the rivalry...

Kai-Fu Lee / Financial Times: The future of AI development could resemble the ri...

An overview of AI in 2025, including arguments for and against above&trend model capabilities growth, the state of evals, and the safety of reasoning models (Gavin Leech/LessWrong)

An overview of AI in 2025, including arguments for and ...

Gavin Leech / LessWrong: An overview of AI in 2025, including arguments for and ...

AI browsers, still far from making legacy browsers obsolete, are forcing web developers to rethink whether they are designing websites for humans or for robots (Natalie Lung/Bloomberg)

AI browsers, still far from making legacy browsers obso...

Natalie Lung / Bloomberg: AI browsers, still far from making legacy browsers obs...

Samsung's Galaxy XR gets beta support for Google's real...

David Heaney / UploadVR: Samsung's Galaxy XR gets beta support for Google's real...

An Airwallex executive warned in 2023 that China staff were pushing to access client data; Keith Rabois accuses Airwallex of enabling Chinese access to US data (Lucas Baird/Australian Financial Review)

An Airwallex executive warned in 2023 that China staff ...

Lucas Baird / Australian Financial Review: An Airwallex executive warned in 2023...

Hands&on with Xreal's Project Aura prototype glasses: they feel like VR shrunken to a far smaller form, the 70° FoV is small but enough for immersion, and more (Scott Stein/CNET)

Hands&on with Xreal's Project Aura prototype glasses: t...

Scott Stein / CNET: Hands-on with Xreal's Project Aura prototype glasses: they f...

How "cash to crypto" swaps allow users everywhere to convert national currencies to stablecoins and then debit cards, avoiding financial oversight and sanctions (Aaron Krolik/New York Times)

How "cash to crypto" swaps allow users everywhere to co...

Aaron Krolik / New York Times: How “cash to crypto” swaps allow users everywhere...

Sources: IBM is in advanced talks to buy data streaming software maker Confluent for ~$11B, above its market value of ~$8B as of December 5 close (Lauren Thomas/Wall Street Journal)

Sources: IBM is in advanced talks to buy data streaming...

Lauren Thomas / Wall Street Journal: Sources: IBM is in advanced talks to buy da...

A look at an "etiquette camp" for young founders in San Francisco, which teaches them how to dress, act, and talk, amid shifting expectations for tech founders (Lisa Bonos/Washington Post)

A look at an "etiquette camp" for young founders in San...

Lisa Bonos / Washington Post: A look at an “etiquette camp” for young founders i...

Nikita Bier accuses the European Commission of trying to deceptively amplify the reach of its post about the €120M fine on X; X terminates the EC's ad account (Bjarke Smith&Meyer/Politico)

Nikita Bier accuses the European Commission of trying t...

Bjarke Smith-Meyer / Politico: Nikita Bier accuses the European Commission of tr...

Lemurian Labs, which aims to develop hardware&agnostic portability software for AI workloads, raised a $28M Series A co&led by Pebblebed Ventures and Hexagon (Sally Ward&Foxton/EE Times)

Lemurian Labs, which aims to develop hardware&agnostic ...

Sally Ward-Foxton / EE Times: Lemurian Labs, which aims to develop hardware-agno...

Essential AI, whose CEO co&wrote Google's Attention Is All You Need paper, unveils Rnj&1, an 8B&parameter open model with SWE&bench performance close to GPT&4o (Ashish Vaswani/Essential AI)

Essential AI, whose CEO co&wrote Google's Attention Is ...

Ashish Vaswani / Essential AI: Essential AI, whose CEO co-wrote Google's Attenti...

Digital asset treasuries, one of the hottest trends in public markets in H1 2025, saw a dramatic reversal in H2; SharpLink stock has fallen 86% from its peak (Monique Mulima/Bloomberg)

Digital asset treasuries, one of the hottest trends in ...

Monique Mulima / Bloomberg: Digital asset treasuries, one of the hottest trends ...

A profile of Byron Cook, a VP at Amazon who is leading ...

John Pavlus / Fast Company: A profile of Byron Cook, a VP at Amazon who is leadi...

In recent months, several companies like Airtable, Handshake, and Opendoor have announced that they are "refounding", as they scramble to add new AI features (Lora Kelley/New York Times)

In recent months, several companies like Airtable, Hand...

Lora Kelley / New York Times: In recent months, several companies like Airtable,...

Short seller Grizzly shorts London&listed Trustpilot, alleging the review site pressures businesses to pay for subscriptions; Trustpilot refutes the claims (Bloomberg)

Short seller Grizzly shorts London&listed Trustpilot, a...

Bloomberg: Short seller Grizzly shorts London-listed Trustpilot, alleging the re...

A look at Phreeli, a privacy&focused phone carrier that lets users sign up with only a ZIP code and uses an encryption system based on "zero&knowledge proofs" (Andy Greenberg/Wired)

A look at Phreeli, a privacy&focused phone carrier that...

Andy Greenberg / Wired: A look at Phreeli, a privacy-focused phone carrier that ...

A look at various quirks in AI&generated prose, mainly influenced by "overfitting" in AI models, as humans increasingly mimic AI language in writing and speech (Sam Kriss/New York Times)

A look at various quirks in AI&generated prose, mainly ...

Sam Kriss / New York Times: A look at various quirks in AI-generated prose, main...

A US judge rules Google must renegotiate annually any contract that makes its search engine or AI app the default on smartphones and other devices (Bloomberg)

A US judge rules Google must renegotiate annually any c...

Bloomberg: A US judge rules Google must renegotiate annually any contract that m...

Seattle&based Yoodli, which sells AI&powered communication training software, raised a $40M Series B led by WestBridge Capital, valuing the startup at $300M+ (Jagmeet Singh/TechCrunch)

Seattle&based Yoodli, which sells AI&powered communicat...

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: Seattle-based Yoodli, which sells AI-powered communi...

Waymo plans to issue a voluntary software recall over how its robotaxis operate around school buses following an NHTSA investigation opened in October (Kirsten Korosec/TechCrunch)

Waymo plans to issue a voluntary software recall over h...

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch: Waymo plans to issue a voluntary software recall o...

Sources and docs: India's government is considering forcing phone makers to enable always&on satellite location tracking; Apple, Google, and Samsung are opposed (Reuters)

Sources and docs: India's government is considering for...

Reuters: Sources and docs: India's government is considering forcing phone maker...

Netflix agrees to buy WBD's studios and streaming business in an $82.7B cash&and&stock deal; the transaction is expected to close after Q3 2026 (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times)

Netflix agrees to buy WBD's studios and streaming busin...

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times: Netflix agrees to buy WBD's studios and streami...

The EU fines X €120M for breaching online content rules, the first fine under the DSA, citing issues including the deceptive design of its blue checkmarks (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters)

The EU fines X €120M for breaching online content rules...

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: The EU fines X €120M for breaching online content rules,...

Two studies suggest AI chatbots can shift political views more effectively than TV campaign ads, especially by presenting many claims, regardless of accuracy (Will Oremus/Washington Post)

Two studies suggest AI chatbots can shift political vie...

Will Oremus / Washington Post: Two studies suggest AI chatbots can shift politic...

TBPN signs a partnership with the NYSE, giving the video podcast the same on&floor access enjoyed by major financial networks such as CNBC (Sam Becker/Fast Company)

TBPN signs a partnership with the NYSE, giving the vide...

Sam Becker / Fast Company: TBPN signs a partnership with the NYSE, giving the vi...

Google Cloud partners with Replit to expand the use of Google's cloud offerings and AI models and to jointly support AI use cases for enterprise customers (CNBC)

Google Cloud partners with Replit to expand the use of ...

CNBC: Google Cloud partners with Replit to expand the use of Google's cloud offe...

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