Techmeme
May 8, 2025, 4:40 PM

Top News

OpenAI:
OpenAI hires Instacart CEO Fidji Simo as CEO of Applications, reporting to Sam Altman, who says he will remain CEO and focus on research, compute, and safety  —  Sam shared this message with the company earlier today:  —  Hi everyone - I have some exciting news to share.
Fidji Simo / Instacart Corporate Blog:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple aims to begin mass production of a chip for its smart glasses, with greater power efficiency and multi-camera control, by end of 2026 or in 2027  —  The company has made progress on the chip that it's developing for smart glasses, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Fortune:
Sources: Meta is in discussions with crypto firms to introduce stablecoins as a means to manage payouts, and has hired a VP of product with crypto experience  —  Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, speaks at a conference in September.  —  In 2019, Meta announced an audacious project …
Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:
Nintendo projects Switch 2 sales will reach 15M units for the fiscal year ending March 2026, below 16.8M est., and ~$2.2B in annual operating profit, below est.  —  What Trump's ‘Golden Dome’ Can Learn From Israeli Air Defenses  —  An exclusive look at what Israel's upgraded air defense system can …
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out AI-powered defenses to help combat scams on Chrome, including the use of Gemini Nano, its on-device LLM, in Enhanced Protection mode on desktop  —  Google announced on Thursday that it's rolling out new AI-powered defenses to help combat scams on Chrome.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
The LockBit ransomware gang has suffered a data breach, with 59,975 BTC addresses and 4,442 negotiation messages leaked, and posted on its dark web site  —  The LockBit ransomware gang has suffered a data breach after its dark web affiliate panels were defaced and replaced with a message linking to a MySQL database dump.
David Wallace-Wells / New York Times:
Q&A with Bill Gates on closing the Gates Foundation on December 31, 2045, donating ~$200B, President Trump, Elon Musk, AI drug discovery, AI advances, and more  —  Today the Gates Foundation celebrates its 25th anniversary by announcing its plans to close up shop.
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Rockstar says its second Grand Theft Auto VI trailer was “captured entirely in-game from a PlayStation 5, comprised of equal parts gameplay and cutscenes”  —  The trailer was also captured entirely in-game from a PS5. … A second trailer for Grand Theft Auto VI had a surprise drop this week …
Tanaya Macheel / CNBC:
Bitcoin jumps above $100,000 for first time since February 2025, after President Trump announced a US-UK trade agreement; ether, dogecoin, and solana rose 9%+  —  Bitcoin on Thursday hit its highest level since February and climbing back above the key $100,000 level.
Victoria Kennedy / Eurogamer.net:
Palworld developer Pocketpair says a 2024 update was due to “ongoing litigation” and a new update is “yet another compromise”, as it disputes Nintendo's claims  —  “We... assert the invalidity of the patents in question.”  —  Palworld developer Pocketpair has released …
Chris Vallance / BBC:
The Wikimedia Foundation says it is taking legal action to challenge the UK's Online Safety Act, saying it could threaten the safety of its volunteer editors  —  Wikipedia is taking legal action against new Online Safety Act regulations it says could threaten the safety of its volunteer editors …
Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg:
Senate Democrats block the Genius Act after Republicans rebuffed a provision to bar Trump and others from profiting off of crypto ventures while in office  —  Senate Democrats blocked stablecoin legislation backed by the digital assets industry amid a furor over President Donald Trump's extensive …
Paul Sandle / Reuters:
The UK says the Digital Services Tax remains unchanged under the trade deal agreed between the US and the UK, both of which will work on a “digital trade deal”  —  Britain's digital services tax, imposed on U.S. companies like Amazon (AMZN.O), Google (GOOGL.O) and Meta (META.O) …
Kevin Purdy / Ars Technica:
An interview with curl project founder Daniel Stenberg, who likens “AI slop” in HackerOne submissions to a DDoS attack, echoing Seth Larson and others' concerns  —  “A threshold has been reached.  We are effectively being DDoSed.  If we could, we would charge them for this waste of our time …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Eddy Cue's disclosure of Apple's plan to shift its browser to AI systems had a clear goal: downplaying the importance of Apple's existing Google Search deal  —  Apple Inc. made an unusual pitch in its bid to save a lucrative search partnership with Alphabet Inc.'s Google …
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Prepared testimony: Microsoft and other AI leaders urge US senators to streamline federal AI energy permits and open more government datasets for AI training  —  Microsoft (MSFT.O) and other AI leaders on Thursday will urge U.S. lawmakers to streamline federal permitting …
Bloomberg:
Analysis: ~66% of US data center projects built or in development since 2022 are in areas with high water stress, with five states having 72% of new facilities  —  Each time you ask an AI chatbot to summarize a lengthy legal document or conjure up a cartoon squirrel wearing glasses …
Tobias Mann / The Register:
IBM survey of 2,000 CEOs from 33 countries: 25% of AI initiatives have delivered the expected ROI over the past few years, and 16% have scaled enterprise wide  —  Just 1 in 4 bets paying off so far  —  Only a quarter of AI initiatives have delivered the expected return on investment, according to an IBM survey of 2,000 CEOs.
More: Computerworld, IBM, insideAI News, WebProNews, MarTech, IBM, and IBM
Bluesky: @justinhendrixLinkedIn: Adnan AnjumForums: r/technology
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Affirm reports Q3 revenue up 36% YoY to $783M, vs. $783M est., GMV up 36% to $8.6B, above est., and forecasts Q4 revenue below est.; AFRM drops 7%+ after hours  —  Affirm, the provider of buy now, pay later loans, gave a revenue forecast for the current quarter that trailed analysts' estimates …
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Palantir's valuation rises to $281B after its shares close up 7.85%, surpassing Salesforce and joining the top 10 largest US tech companies by market cap  —  There's a new member in the list of the top 10 U.S. technology companies by market cap.  —  Data analytics software vendor Palantir jumped …

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