Techmeme: Zoom unveils AI Companion 2.0, which adds agentic AI features, including calendar management, meeting tools, and document creation, rolling out by July 2025 (Sean Michael Kerner/VentureBeat)

Top News

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:

AI slop, shared by thousands of prolific accounts, is brute forcing virality, and platforms like Meta embrace it; some AI videos get 350M+ views — Generative AI spammers are brute forcing the internet, and it is working. — Consider, for a moment, that this AI-generated video …

Bluesky: @carlivelocci.com, @samleecole, @climatebrad.hillheat.com, @josephcox, @robhorning, and @jasonkoebler. Mastodon: @lowficarrots@tenforward …. X: @jason_koebler. Forums: Beehaw

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Open letter: ~100 EU companies urge EU lawmakers to take “radical action” to shrink the reliance on foreign infrastructure by fostering a so-called “Euro stack” — A broad coalition drawn from across the ranks of Europe's tech industry is calling for “radical action” …

More: The Register, How-To Geek, TechRadar, Politico, Cautious Optimism, WinBuzzer, Tech.eu, Digital Trends, Reuters, and Werd I/O

Bluesky: @metacurity.com and @mathver

Mastodon: @alexlunaview@mastodon.social and @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org

Forums: r/BuyFromEU, r/europe, r/eutech, and Slashdot

New York Times:

HR service Rippling sues Deel, accusing its rival of hiring a mole in its Dublin office to comb through trade secrets, uncovered via a “honeypot” Slack channel — A lawsuit by Rippling accuses a top competitor, Deel, of placing a mole in its ranks — which it uncovered via a “honeypot” trap on Slack.

More: San Francisco Business Times, Axios, and The Information

Bluesky: @iainmartin and @utkan.com

X: @m_delamerced, @parkerconrad, @parkerconrad, @tomdavenport, @jsawadd, @parkerconrad, @haroonmeer, and @m_delamerced

Stephen Morris / Financial Times:

Alphabet spins off laser-based internet company Taara from its X “moonshot” incubator; Taara, which raised new funding, has its origins in Loon, closed in 2021 — Taara start-up aims to compete with Elon Musk's Starlink to connect remote areas to the internet using light beams

More: Engadget, DatacenterDynamics, en.ain.ua, The Verge, Sherwood News, and WinBuzzer. Mastodon: @1br0wn@eupolicy.social

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Roblox open sources Cube 3D, the first version of its AI foundation model for generating 3D objects, trained on licensed and public datasets and its own data — The model, Cube 3D, creates 3D models from a text prompt. … Roblox is launching and open-sourcing Cube 3D …

More: Roblox Corporate, Game Developer, Axios, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, WinBuzzer, Gameranx, and Roblox Corporate

Sean Michael Kerner / VentureBeat:

Zoom unveils AI Companion 2.0, which adds agentic AI features, including calendar management, meeting tools, and document creation, rolling out by July 2025 — Zoom became a household name during the pandemic as remote work became the norm nearly overnight.

More: The Verge, ZDNET, SiliconANGLE, Zoom, Forbes, Constellation Research, Zoom, WinBuzzer, diginomica, and Techstrong.ai

Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:

Bumble rolls out new ID verification in the US, the UK, Australia, France, India, and six other markets, as founder Whitney Wolfe Herd returns as its CEO — Bumble Inc. is adding ID verification to its dating app alongside other new features, an attempt to court safety-conscious younger users …

More: TechCrunch and Digital Trends. X: @natlungfy

Hugh Son / CNBC:

Walmart's OnePay says Klarna will replace Affirm to offer buy-now-pay-later to US shoppers later in 2025, and OnePay can buy a Klarna stake; AFRM drops 10%+ — Swedish fintech firm Klarna will be the exclusive provider of buy now, pay later loans for Walmart, taking a coveted partnership away from rival Affirm, CNBC has learned.

More: Klarna, The Information, Payments Dive, FinTech Global, Investor's Business Daily, PYMNTS.com, Finextra, Barron's Online, ZeroHedge News, Proactive, Bloomberg, Reuters, Fast Company, FinTech Futures, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, and The Paypers

Max A. Cherney / Reuters:

Sources: Intel's new CEO Lip-Bu Tan has considered restructuring Intel's AI approach and cutting staff to address a slow and bloated middle management layer — Intel's incoming CEO Lip-Bu Tan has considered significant changes to its chip manufacturing methods and artificial intelligence strategies ahead …

More: Capital Brief, New York Post, WinBuzzer, Barron's Online, Benzinga, and Tech in Asia

Forums: r/intelstock and r/hardware

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Discord launches a Social SDK to let developers offer friends lists, cross-platform messaging, voice, and more, with console and mobile support “coming soon” — An easier way to connect with Discord friends. … Discord is launching a way for developers to directly integrate …

More: PC Gamer, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Digital Trends, and Developer Tech News

Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:

Crypto exchange OKX says it has “temporarily” suspended its DEX aggregator services, used to launder the $1.5B Bybit hack, after reported EU scrutiny under MiCA — Digital-asset exchange OKX has suspended a service used by hackers to launder proceeds from a $1.5 billion heist …

More: OKX, DL News, Yahoo Finance, Coinpedia Fintech News, Decrypt, CoinGape, crypto.news, Blockonomi, CryptoNinjas, The Block, CryptoPotato, Cointelegraph, CryptoSlate, and CoinDesk

Nick Robins-Early / The Guardian:

How Elon Musk targeted 18F, as former employees say the GSA group focused on increasing bureaucratic efficiency through tech, similar to what DOGE claims to do — Rightwing campaign propelled by tech billionaire accuses General Services Administration's 18F of being a far-left cell

Bluesky: @montgomery, @angelacolter, @ronbronson.com, @metacurity.com, and @galenstone. X: @blakersdozen

Forums: r/NewsOfTheStupid and r/politics

Austin Carr / Bloomberg:

An interview with Snap CEO Evan Spiegel on Snap's fifth-generation smart glasses, unveiled in September 2024, competing with Apple and Meta, Snap OS, and more — The new Spectacles can project augmented-reality imagery onto the lenses. — Evan Spiegel sees something others don't …

More: TechCrunch, Snap Newsroom, The Verge, Road to VR, and AR Insider

Daryna Antoniuk / The Record:

Telegram's Pavel Durov has left France, reportedly after a judge authorized him to leave the country for “several weeks”; the investigation is ongoing — The Russian-born founder and owner of the messaging app Telegram said he returned to Dubai after spending several months …

More: New York Times, NBC News, BBC, Cryptopolitan, PhoneArena, Bitcoin Insider, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Associated Press, ZeroHedge News, WinBuzzer, Tech in Asia, NewsBTC, and CryptoSlate

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