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April 15, 2025, 4:50 PM
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Top News

The Verge:
Sources: OpenAI is in the early stages of building its own X-like social network, focused on ChatGPT image generation, and is asking some outsiders for feedback  —  Is Sam Altman ready to up his rivalry with Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg? … OpenAI is working on its own X-like social network …
Ben Sherry / Inc:
Anthropic's Claude adds Research, capable of searching the web and internal documents to give comprehensive answers, in beta for Max, Team, Enterprise plans  —  The integration should make Claude even more effective as a virtual assistant.  Plus, there's a new ‘Research’ mode.
Bloomberg:
FTC v. Meta: Mark Zuckerberg testified about his acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, including a 2012 email exchange rationalizing the apps' acquisition  —  - Meta CEO asked in email if deal may ‘neutralize a competitor’  — FTC claims acquisitions created a social networking monopoly
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Mark Zuckerberg's $1B Instagram and $19B WhatsApp deals, central to the FTC's antitrust case, were mocked at the time, and the trial hinges on hypotheticals  —  Meta's antitrust trial, in which the government contends the company killed competition by buying young rivals …
Bloomberg:
A 2018 email from Mark Zuckerberg explored spinning off Instagram; he testified his thinking at the time took into account where politics seemed to be going  —  Mark Zuckerberg considered spinning off Instagram into a separate company in 2018 as he increasingly became concerned that the photo …
Reuters:
Chinese state media: police in Harbin accuse the NSA of launching “advanced” cyberattacks during the Asian Winter Games in February 2025 and name three agents  —  Chinese police in the northeastern city of Harbin have accused the United States National Security Agency (NSA) …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google rolls out its text-to-video AI model Veo 2 to Gemini Advanced subscribers and makes its Whisk Animate tool available for Google One AI Premium users  —  A new Whisk Animate tool is coming to Google One AI Premium users, as well. … Google is letting Gemini Advanced subscribers try out Veo 2 …
Bloomberg:
Sources: activist investor Elliott has built a position worth $1.5B+ in HPE, making it one of the company's top five shareholders; HPE is down ~30% in 2025  —  Elliott Investment Management has built a large position worth more than $1.5 billion in Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., according to people familiar with the matter.
Jenna McLaughlin / NPR:
Whistleblower: at NLRB, DOGE staff disabled monitoring tools, deleted logs, one worked on “NxGenBdoorExtract”; one DOGE account tried to log in via a Russian IP  —  In the first days of March, a team of advisers from President Trump's new Department of Government Efficiency initiative arrived …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out a Play services update, including an Android security feature to auto-reboot phones and tablets that are “locked for three consecutive days”  —  With the latest Google Play services update, Android is rolling out a new security feature that automatically restarts …
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
4chan is down after an apparent hack late on April 14; an Imgur post seems to show a hacker gained shell access to 4chan's hosting server and doxxed some users  —  More like 404chan, amirite?  —  4chan, the controversial forum known for birthing early meme culture and Gamergate, is down, following an apparent hack.
Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:
Japan's FTC orders Google to stop alleged abuse of its market power over local smartphone manufacturers, ahead of high-stakes US trade negotiations this week  —  Japan's Fair Trade Commission ordered Alphabet Inc.'s Google to stop alleged abuse of its market power over local smartphone manufacturers …
Anton Shilov / Tom's Hardware:
AMD announces its first 2nm silicon fabricated on TSMC's N2 process, set to debut on its sixth-gen EPYC “Venice” chip, which is expected to launch in 2026
Wall Street Journal:
Nvidia's $500B US spending plan follows a familiar pattern of companies trying to please President Trump and offers few details on what AI gear would be US-made  —  The chip maker's plan to build AI tech in Texas comes on the heels of a new tariff threat  —  Chip maker Nvidia unveiled plans Monday …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Nvidia starts making its Blackwell chips at TSMC's Phoenix plant and says it aims to make up to $500B of AI infrastructure in the US in the next four years
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI releases GPT‑4.1, GPT‑4.1 mini, and GPT‑4.1 nano, which excel at coding, instruction following, and long context understanding, available via its API  —  OpenAI on Monday launched a new family of models called GPT-4.1.  Yes, “4.1” — as if the company's nomenclature wasn't confusing enough already.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:50 PM ET, April 15, 2025.

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

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93

More News

David Pierce / The Verge:
Notion releases Notion Mail, a lightweight Gmail client to help users schedule meetings and organize and draft emails, available as a free macOS and web app
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nvidia unveils its RTX 5060 family, including the RTX 5060 Ti with 4,608 CUDA cores for $379 with 8GB of VRAM or $429 for 16GB of VRAM, launching on April 16

Earlier Picks

Financial Times:
FCC Chair Brendan Carr says “allied western democracies” need to focus on China and those “concerned about Starlink” should be more fearful of a Chinese version
Bloomberg:
An interview with eFishery CEO Gibran Huzaifah and 20+ sources detail how Gibran's “fake-it-till-you-make-it” deceptions spiraled, losing investors $300M+
Reuters:
South Korea increases assistance to its chip industry by ~25% to $23.25B amid US tariffs and competition with China; the sector represents 21% of its exports
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