Techmeme: A study finds that asking LLMs to be concise in their answers, particularly on ambiguous topics, can negatively affect factuality and worsen hallucinations (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

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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 …

More: The Verge, Washington Post, The Hacker News, The Information, Engadget, Texas Attorney General, Moneycontrol, Associated Press, FOX 7 Austin, Cryptopolitan, WinBuzzer, WebProNews, CGTN, Technology News, The Economic Times, CNBC, Malay Mail, Cord Cutters News, Dallas Morning News, Austin American-Statesman, Just The News, Raw Story, and Reuters

Bluesky: @quinnypig.com, @gateklons, and @rayminehane

X: @txag, @taygoldenstein, @kenpaxtontx, and @statelinx. Forums: r/technology

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

A study finds that asking LLMs to be concise in their answers, particularly on ambiguous topics, can negatively affect factuality and worsen hallucinations — Turns out, telling an AI chatbot to be concise could make it hallucinate more than it otherwise would have.

More: New Scientist, Hugging Face, Giskard on Hugging Face, and eWeek

Bluesky: @smcgrath.phd and @hypervisible. Mastodon: @mttaggart@infosec.exchange. LinkedIn: Carl Brenninkmeijer. Forums: r/technology

Bloomberg:

A look at Microsoft's Threat Intelligence Center, staffed largely by ex-intelligence and military personnel, which has become a key pillar of US cyber defense — Over the past decade, the software company has become a pillar of US cyber defenses — a position that could become more complicated under Trump.

More: WebProNews. X: @mattmday and @jzbleiberg. LinkedIn: Dina Bass

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.

More: Engadget, The Guardian, Yahoo News, Fox News, Le Monde, Anadolu Ajansı …, The Hill, The Daily Beast, Times of India, Salt Lake Tribune, Law.com International, The Times, Al Jazeera, Global News, The National Pulse, WinBuzzer, CBS News, Irish Examiner, Livemint, and Ukrainian National News

Bluesky: @carnage4life. Mastodon: @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org. Forums: r/anime_titties, r/Global_News_Hub, r/google, r/politics, r/technology, r/Lawyertalk, r/worldnews, and Slashdot

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 …

More: US Food and Drug …, The American Bazaar, RAPS, Akin Gump Strauss Hauer …, MedTech Dive, Benzinga, UPI, Reuters, Nextgov/FCW, and Pharmaceutical Technology

Bluesky: @edzitron.com and @paleofuture

X: @drmakaryfda, @drmakaryfda, @us_fda, and @us_fda

LinkedIn: Andy Lee and Jeremy Walsh. Forums: r/biotech

Financial Times:

The UK stopped asking Uber to pay VAT on the full cost of rides, instead collecting VAT only on its commission, after a setback in a similar dispute with Bolt — HMRC has stopped demanding ridesharing company pay VAT on the full cost of rides after legal setback in related matter

Stuart Condie / Wall Street Journal:

US real estate analytics provider CoStar agrees to acquire Domain, an Australian property listings website that competes with News Corp's REA, for about $1.92B — Domain shareholder Nine Entertainment said it supported the proposal — SYDNEY—U.S. real-estate analytics provider CoStar agreed …

More: Reuters, MarketWatch, Washington …, Morningstar, Inc., 9News, and Capital Brief

Jessica Mathews / Fortune:

The Trump administration's plan to cut the budget of the NSF, considered key to US tech leadership, by about 57% to $3.9B is alarming the startup and VC sector — From NASA to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Trump's reform agenda has thrown numerous federal agencies under …

LinkedIn: Jessica Mathews

Bloomberg:

A profile of OpenAI's CEO of Applications Fidji Simo, who is tasked with broadening ChatGPT amid a straining Microsoft relationship and a battle with Elon Musk — Simo will oversee executives and seek to broaden the company's hit chatbot into a Swiss Army knife of artificial intelligence software.

More: Futurism, The Information, Newcomer, AIN, Bloomberg Law, and Computerworld. Bluesky: @stagefright

Rebecca Szkutak / TechCrunch:

ServiceNow agrees to acquire cloud-native data catalog and data governance startup Data.World, which had raised over $130M and was valued at $350M in 2022 — Enterprise workflow management platform ServiceNow on Wednesday announced its second AI-related acquisition this year.

More: The New Stack, ServiceNow, SC Media, and Constellation Research. LinkedIn: Philippe Mouret

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

SoundCloud quietly changed its policies to allow the company to use audio uploaded by users on its platform to “inform, train, develop or serve as input to AI” — SoundCloud appears to have quietly changed its terms of use to allow the company to train AI on audio that users upload to its platform.

More: SoundCloud, The Verge, Futurism, The Decoder, The Hollywood Reporter, SlashGear, Fast Company, and Breakfast At Ralf's

Bluesky: @andrewfolks.com. Forums: r/Monstercat

Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:

How the three largest US gig economy companies, Lyft, DoorDash, and Uber, are aggressively expanding into Europe and Turkey through acquisitions — Tech Across the Globe … Revalued — Companies from Apple Inc. to Ford Motor Co. have revealed the shock their bottom lines are experiencing …

More: Proactive and CNBC

Bluesky: @parismarx.com. LinkedIn: Ali Alenizi

Reuters:

Japan's NTT, which owns 57.7% of IT services provider and data center operator NTT Data, launches a $16.4B take-private tender offer to buy the remaining stake — Japanese telecoms firm Nippon Telegraph and Telephone (9432.T) announced plans on Thursday to take its subsidiary NTT Data …

More: Bloomberg, NTT DATA, Nikkei Asia, DatacenterDynamics, and Mingtiandi

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Datadog acquires Eppo, which offers feature flagging and app experimentation tools, reportedly for $220M; Eppo had raised $47.5M and was valued at $80M in 2022 — Datadog is on an acquisition spree. Just a few weeks after snatching up Metaplane, an AI-powered observability startup …

More: Datadog, Inc., Yahoo Finance, Statsig, Constellation Research, RedState, and Verdict

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