|
April 27, 2025, 7:40 AM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Jeff Horwitz / Wall Street Journal: |
Test conversations with some Meta AI digital companions, including celebrity-voiced ones, show them engaging in sexual chats even when users identify as minors — Chatbots on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are empowered to engage in ‘romantic role-play’ that can turn explicit.| Furquan Ameen / Rest of World: |
Experts say that India lags behind China in deep tech innovation due to its historical focus on services, lower R&D investment, and a brain drain of AI talent — India's government urges the private sector to take the lead in tech innovation, while industry experts say it's complicated.| Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog: |
Watching OpenAI's o3 guess a photo's location, including the model running Python code to examine license plates, is surreal, dystopian, and entertaining — Watching OpenAI's new o3 model guess where a photo was taken is one of those moments where decades of science fiction suddenly come to life.| Coco Feng / South China Morning Post: |
Filing: China's leading flash memory chipmaker YMTC raised ~$219M from Hebei Yangyuan Zhihui Beverage Co. at a ~$22.1B valuation in December 2023 — The deal was signed in December 2023 but was only announced on Friday as it ‘involved commercial secrets’, Yangyuan said| Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal: |
Prompt engineering roles, one of the buzziest jobs in 2023, become obsolete as AI models better intuit user intent and companies train staff in writing prompts — Prompt engineering, a role aimed at crafting the perfect input to send to a large language model, was poised to become one of the hottest jobs in artificial intelligence.
Bluesky: @tappedlands.com and @skynetandchill.com. Mastodon: @harrymccracken@mastodon …
LinkedIn: Ariel Guersenzvaig and Isabelle Bousquette
| Financial Times: |
Trump's tariffs could slow robot adoption in the US, as buyer demand weakens and supplies of key components like magnets and actuators are disrupted — Depressed buyers and global supply chains could delay the adoption of futuristic technology — Elon Musk, facing disarray in his corporate …
Bluesky: @evansutton
| Owen Carry / Know Your Meme: |
4chan is back online after being down for 10 days, following a hack that leaked the emails of its lead administrators called “janitors” — 4chan is officially back online today. — The imageboard site had been down for 10 days, ever since a hack that restored its /QA/ board …
More: 4chan Blog, WinBuzzer, Boing Boing, and 4chan Blog
| Ryan Lawler / Axios: |
Salsa, which provides APIs and UI components that let vertical SaaS platforms offer payroll as a feature to their customers, raised a $20M Series A led by Altos — Salsa, a startup providing embedded payroll infrastructure to vertical SaaS platforms, raised $20 million in Series A funding, CEO John Kramer tells Axios exclusively.
More: FinSMEs, Salsa, The Paypers, Finextra, PYMNTS.com, FinTech Global, and VC News Daily
| Ryan Naraine / SecurityWeek: |
Tel Aviv-based Sentra, whose cloud data security software now includes controls aimed at keeping AI prompts free from restricted data, raised a $50M Series B — Sentra has now raised north of $100 million for controls technology to keep sensitive data out of misconfigured AI workflows.
More: CTech, Sentra, SiliconANGLE, Unite.AI, VC News Daily, FinSMEs, FinTech Global, Tech in Asia, and Verdict
| Erin Brodwin / Axios: |
NYC-based Healthee, whose AI assistant Zoe lets its clients' workers navigate health insurance and benefits options, raised a $50M Series B led by Key1 Capital — Health benefits navigation startup Healthee raised $50 million in Series B funds led by Key1 Capital.
More: Healthee, AlleyWatch, FinSMEs, and MobiHealthNews
| Kate Park / TechCrunch: |
Alpaca, which offers APIs for financial firms to connect and trade in US stocks, raised a $52M Series C to expand into the Middle East, Europe, and Asia — For all the turmoil these days, the U.S. stock market remains extremely attractive to investors around the world, simply because of its sheer size and liquidity.
More: Alpaca Blog, FinTech Global, VC News Daily, FinSMEs, and FinTech Futures
| Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg: |
Bitcoin miners' earnings power and stocks have diverged from the asset they help produce, as the hashrate languishes amid technical and macroeconomic headwinds — Bitcoin miners' earnings power and stocks have diverged from the asset they help produce, a stark reminder of the deteriorating economics …
More: GreenBot, Bitcoin News, Bitcoin Insider, NullTX, and Motley Fool
| The Information: |
a16z, which owns ~20% of Deel, a stake worth $2.5B+, is advising Deel in fighting Rippling, whose CEO Parker Conrad said a16z pushed him out of Zenefits in 2016 — Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has landed in the middle of a nasty Silicon Valley spy scandal between … | Dan Primack / Axios: |
More: StrictlyVC, Bloomberg, Deel, TechCrunch, and The Information
X: @parkerconrad, @maxclark, @nearcyan, @martymadrid, @parkerconrad, @parkerconrad, and @drawl
Sponsor Posts
ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs — You know us for voice. Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency. Hear it for yourself.
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs — You know us for voice. Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency. Hear it for yourself.
Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data — Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics. Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
World models need real-world data — Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics. Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
ETL tool evaluation checklist: 6 things to look for before you choose — Your data is only as valuable as your ability to move, prepare, and access it efficiently. Choosing the wrong ETL tool can lead to months of rework …
ETL tool evaluation checklist: 6 things to look for before you choose — Your data is only as valuable as your ability to move, prepare, and access it efficiently. Choosing the wrong ETL tool can lead to months of rework …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Big Technology Podcast:
Apple After Tim Cook, OpenAI's New Mojo, Meta's Internal Tracking Escapade
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Tim Cook's Legacy + The Future of U.B.I. With Andrew Yang + HatGPT
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Chapter's Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz: From Palantir To $3B Medicare Disruptor
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Lenny's Podcast:
How Anthropic's product team moves faster than anyone else | Cat Wu (Head of Product, Claude Code)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Access:
Silicon Valley finally has its "Succession"
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:40 AM ET, April 27, 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
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:Bloomberg:
Calista Wong / The Straits Times:
Upcoming Tech Events
Earlier Picks
| Gabe Kaminsky / The Free Press: |
More: Gizmodo, PCMag, The Verge, Washington Post, U.S. Department of Justice, WinBuzzer, “At some point …, and Raw Story
Bluesky: @whitehouse.senate.gov, @brewster.kahle.org, @sanho, @scotinus, @seth-stern, @justcallmefrank, @sybren, @rop.gonggri.jp, @elisethomas, @cartogeek, @juurd, @johnrhutchinson, @adzebill, @scottnover, @carnage4life, @jvagle.me, @noupside, @willoremus.com, @mmasnick, @paleofuture, @teddyrosenbluth, and @sarahemclaugh
Mastodon: @johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz, @molly0xfff@hachyderm.io, @brucelawson@social …, @petersuber@fediscience.org, @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org, @storytracer@mastodon.social, @TheDJ@mastodon.social, @a@paperbay.org, and @cwebber@social.coop. Threads: @willoremus
X: @molly0xfff, @ryangrim, @wikibias2024, @gekaminsky, @molly0xfff, and @jamesrbuk
LinkedIn: Tamara Tal, Guillaume Paumier, Ph.D, and Georg Zoeller
Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, r/Global_News_Hub, r/law, r/opensource, r/wikipedia, r/politics, r/technology, r/Destiny, r/prolife, r/politics, r/Conservative, r/politics, and Slashdot