Techmeme: Telegram's Pavel Durov has left France, reportedly after a judge authorized him to leave the country for “several weeks”; the investigation is ongoing (Daryna Antoniuk/The Record)

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March 17, 2025, 1:45 PM

Top News

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

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, Neowin, PocketGamer.biz, VentureBeat, Axios, TechCrunch, WinBuzzer, Gameranx, and Roblox Corporate

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, Decrypt, NBC News, BBC, Cyber Security News, Cryptopolitan, PhoneArena, Bitcoin Insider, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Guardian, ZeroHedge News, WinBuzzer, Associated Press, Tech in Asia, NewsBTC, and CryptoSlate

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

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 — Consider, for a moment, that this AI-generated video of a bizarre creature turning into a spider, turning into a nightmare giraffe inside of a busy mall has been viewed 362 million times.

Bluesky: @karlbode.com, @joe.germuska.com, @carlivelocci.com, @samleecole, @climatebrad.hillheat.com, @josephcox, @robhorning, and @jasonkoebler

Mastodon: @sknob@mamot.fr, @matthew@opinuendo.com, and @lowficarrots@tenforward …. X: @jason_koebler

Forums: r/technology and Beehaw

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Users report that Gemini 2.0 Flash is very good at removing watermarks from images; many models allow this but some, like Claude 3.7 Sonnet and GPT-4o, do not — Users on social media have discovered a controversial use case for Google's new Gemini AI model: removing watermarks from images …

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

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Amazon devices chief Panos Panay aims to unveil the first products he has overseen in the fall, talks of new premium devices, hints at wearables like AR glasses — The introduction of tonier hardware, which will coexist with lower- and mid-priced products, is a bid to give consumers more choice …

More: Android Police, 9to5Mac, The Information, and AFTVnews

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, The Verge, Road to VR, Snap Newsroom, and AR Insider

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, Barron's Online, ZeroHedge News, Finextra, Proactive, Fast Company, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, The Paypers, Reuters, FinTech Futures, and Yahoo Finance

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

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, Engadget, and Digital Trends. X: @natlungfy

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The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

CBS News terminates 60 Minutes veteran Scott Pelley's contract; Nick Bilton says Pelley's “antipathy to the future of the show has come through loud and clear”

Bloomberg:

Bill Ackman's Pershing Square plans to sell its stake in Universal Music Group, days after the Amsterdam-listed group rejected his takeover bid

Christopher Vondracek / Minnesota Star Tribune:

The Minnesota Star Tribune, which has ~495 staffers, plans to cut its workforce by 15%, or 65 jobs, via buyouts and layoffs, one month after winning a Pulitzer

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More News

Paige Smith / Bloomberg:

Robinhood partners with Kalshi to launch a prediction markets hub in the US for retail traders, starting with bets on the federal funds rate and March Madness

More: Cryptopolitan, Finextra, Front Office Sports, crypto.news, CryptoSlate, Reuters, Fortune, and Barron's Online

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

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

Forums: r/intelstock and r/hardware

Qianer Liu / The Information:

Sources: Google plans to partner with Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek to design and produce its next-gen TPUs, set for 2026, but will still work with Broadcom

More: Reuters, Benzinga, Android Headlines, and Livemint

Firat Kozok / Bloomberg:

Sources: Turkey plans new EU-style rules to rein in major US tech companies, in a bill created by the ruling party and antitrust authority, risking a US clash

More: Tech Policy Press and WinBuzzer

Michael Levenson / New York Times:

Carl Lundstrom, who financed file sharing service The Pirate Bay, died in a small plane crash in Slovenia; The Pirate Bay once had an estimated 20M+ users

More: The Independent, TorrentFreak, Euronews, and PC Gamer

X: @itsbcjim and @marionawfal

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

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

Financial Times:

Sources detail Alibaba's pivot to AI, quietly led by Jack Ma after ChatGPT's 2022 debut, but question whether it can establish a lead in the competitive AI race

More: Barron's Online, Motley Fool, and South China Morning Post

Emma Jacobs / Financial Times:

A look at “coachbots”, AI virtual coaches like CoachHub's Aimy and Valence's Nadia that advise on salary talks, discuss work habits, and role-play conversations

Earlier Picks

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

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

Forums: r/NewsOfTheStupid and r/politics

Sam Kim / Bloomberg:

South Korea's Trade Ministry: chip sales to China fell 31.8% YoY in February, after a 22.5% drop in January, amid US tariffs and controls and weak global demand

More: Foreign Policy, DNyuz, Tech in Asia, Cryptopolitan, and AKIpress News Agency

Anissa Gardizy / The Information:

Crusoe, a startup helping build the first data center for Stargate, says it secured a deal with a gas turbine owner to generate 4.5 gigawatts of energy by 2027

More: TipRanks Financial

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Some developers say licenses for “open” AI models like Google's Gemma and Meta's Llama have limits that restrict commercial use without fear of legal reprisal

More: Entrepreneur. Bluesky: @mikebutcher. X: @xlr8harder, @natolambert, and @hanchunglee

Tom Dotan / Wall Street Journal:

A profile of Chetan Nayak, who leads Microsoft's Station Q team trying to build a quantum computer; source: Microsoft spends ~$300M annually on quantum research

More: Quartz, Finextra, CyberScoop, The Cloudflare Blog, Asia Times, Cointelegraph, and The Quantum Insider

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

Ofcom will enforce rules under the UK's Online Safety Act, designed to protect internet users from illegal content and harmful activity online, from March 17

More: Ofcom, TechCrunch, BBC, The Guardian, Forbes, Hello Partner, UPI, Reuters, The Independent, Neowin, UKTN, Advanced Television, Courthouse News Service, and The Guardian

X: @ofcom, @ofcom, @prestonjbyrne, @speechunion, and @hp4saferscreens

Forums: Hacker News, r/unitedkingdom, and r/ukpolitics