Techmeme
May 9, 2025, 11:55 PM

Top News

Ryan Autullo / Bloomberg Law:
Google agrees to pay Texas $1.4B to settle two lawsuits claiming it tracks Texans' personal location and maintains their facial recognition data without consent  —  Google will pay the state of Texas $1.375 billion to resolve two privacy lawsuits claiming the tech giant tracks Texans' personal location …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Epic Games says it has submitted Fortnite to the US App Store for review  —  Update: Epic Games says it has submitted Fortnite to the U.S. App Store for review.  The ball is now in Apple's court to approve the app submission.  —  If Fortnite does return to the U.S. App Store this week, it won't be before Friday.
Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Whoop sparks a backlash after asking its subscribers to pay to upgrade to 5.0, despite earlier promises of free hardware upgrades after six months of membership  —  Whoop promised members who'd been around at least six months would get free next-gen hardware.  Now, you'll have to pay.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Danai Nesta Kupemba / BBC:
President Claudia Sheinbaum says Mexico is suing Google for ignoring requests not to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America on Google Maps in the US  —  Mexico is suing Google for ignoring repeated requests not to call the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of America on Google Maps for US users, President Claudia Sheinbaum says.
Conor Hale / Fierce Biotech:
The US FDA plans to deploy AI tools to all centers by June 30, 2025 to speed up scientific reviews, after completing a pilot and naming its first AI chief  —  FDA Artificial Intelligence AI and Machine Learning Biotech  —  The FDA has appointed its first chief artificial intelligence officer …
Eli Tan / New York Times:
Pinterest agrees to pay $34.7M to settle a 2021 lawsuit from Christine Martinez, an early adviser who claimed she co-created the platform without compensation  —  Christine Martinez, who was a friend of two of Pinterest's three co-founders, sued the company in 2021 for breach of implied contract and other claims.
Charles Rollet / TechCrunch:
Source: US DOL ended its probe into Scale AI's Fair Labor Standards Act compliance, after announcing a friendlier approach to classifying workers as contractors  —  The U.S. Department of Labor has dropped its investigation into Scale AI's compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act …
More: Reuters
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Google agrees to pay $50M to settle a lawsuit accusing it of systemic racial bias against Black employees, covering 4,000+ employees in California and New York  —  Google agreed to pay $50 million to settle a lawsuit accusing the search engine company of systemic racial bias against Black employees.
Emily Birnbaum / Bloomberg:
Tech companies warn they may pull back from US investment pledges if Congress doesn't fully reinstate the R&D tax deduction pared back in Trump's 2017 tax bill  —  Major tech companies lobbying to salvage a tax deduction for research and development are warning they may pull …
Forums: Slashdot
Nancy Scola / Politico:
A profile of Gail Slater, the head of the DOJ's antitrust unit who has become the leader of the MAGA antitrust movement over Big Tech “censorship” concerns  —  Gail Slater, the head of the DOJ's antitrust division, will show how serious the right is about bringing big tech companies to heel.

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Copilot to autopilot: Why no single safeguard is enough  —  Microsoft designed a layered model that lets an AI agent resolve network incidents on its own within defined boundaries.
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Featured Podcasts

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Great Chat:
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Sources:
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Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
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Machine Gods:
Bots Behaving Badly + Is AI Regulation On The Right Track + Kevin's Sloppelganger
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
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Big Technology Podcast:
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The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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