Techmeme: Sources: Google, Scale AI's largest customer, plans to cut ties with the company after the Meta deal; Microsoft, OpenAI, and xAI also plan to step back (Reuters)

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June 14, 2025, 4:30 AM

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Reuters:

Sources: Google, Scale AI's largest customer, plans to cut ties with the company after the Meta deal; Microsoft, OpenAI, and xAI also plan to step back — Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google, the largest customer of Scale AI, plans to cut ties with Scale after news broke that rival Meta (META.O) …

Kate Clark / Bloomberg:

Source: Accel, which owns 18.5% of Scale AI after investing a total of ~$350M, expects to gain over $2.5B from Meta's $14.3B investment in the startup — Accel is among a handful of VC firms poised to see big returns from early bets on Scale AI. — A handful of venture capital firms …

More: Scale AI, TechCrunch, Accel, Verdict, and MarketWatch

X: @accel, @daniel_levine, @everettrandle, and @garrytan

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Google says it is testing Audio Overviews for certain Search queries, available for Labs users in English in the US — If you opt into the test, you'll see the option to generate an Audio Overview based on some of your searches. … Google is rolling out a test that puts its AI-powered Audio Overviews …

More: The Keyword, 9to5Google, Engadget, Agence France-Presse, Tech Times, CNET, Neowin, PCMag, Android Authority, Android Central, Ars Technica, Thurrott, TechCrunch, Search Engine Journal, XDA Developers, NERDS.xyz, The Decoder, and Search Engine Roundtable. Forums: Slashdot

Matt O'Brien / Associated Press:

Harvard releases Institutional Books 1.0, a dataset for AI researchers with 242B tokens, from 394M scanned pages and 983K public domain books in 254 languages — Everything ever said on the internet was just the start of teaching artificial intelligence about humanity.

More: Institutional Books on Hugging Face, arXiv.org, Institutional Data Initiative, Institutional Data Initiative, Institutional Books on Hugging Face, Institutional Books on Hugging Face, and Institutional Data Initiative on GitHub

Bluesky: @tedunderwood.me and @jmberger.com. X: @instdin

LinkedIn: Matt O'Brien and Institutional Data Initiative …

Chris Metinko / Axios:

Horizon3.ai, whose AI-based penetration testing platform NodeZero helps find and exploit attack paths in production systems, raised a $100M Series D led by NEA — Autonomous security startup Horizon3.ai locked up a $100 million Series D led by NEA, co-founder and CEO Snehal Antani tells Axios Pro.

More: Business Wire, VC News Daily, FinSMEs, FinTech Global, The Stack, and SiliconANGLE

LinkedIn: Ilya Kirnos and Horizon3.ai

Wall Street Journal:

23andMe says TTAM Research Institute, a nonprofit backed by Anne Wojcicki, is the new buyer for the company's assets, offering $305M and topping Regeneron's bid — Regeneron is backing away from buying the DNA-testing company after a nonprofit controlled by co-founder Wojcicki made a higher bid

More: CNBC, 23andMe, Inc., Reuters, The Information, Engadget, Los Angeles Times, MarketWatch, The Verge, San Francisco Business Times, and STAT

X: @23andme and @rolfewinkler. LinkedIn: Anne Wojcicki. Forums: Hacker News

Samantha Stokes / Business Insider:

A look at 10 AI agent startups from YC's first-ever spring Demo Day; the batch included 144 companies, 70 of which focused on agentic AI — - Y Combinator's spring 2025 batch featured 70 startups focused on agentic AI. — The intensive, three-month accelerator program invests $500,000 in each selected startup.

More: Forbes and TechCrunch. Forums: Hacker News

Kashmir Hill / New York Times:

Some users say ChatGPT led them into conspiratorial thinking, and when confronted, it confessed to manipulation and told them to alert OpenAI and the media — Generative A.I. chatbots are going down conspiratorial rabbit holes and endorsing wild, mystical belief systems.

More: The Economic Times, The Verge, Futurism, Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, The Indian Express, Daring Fireball, HotAir, Raw Story, and WinBuzzer

Bluesky: @amandalitman, @jessicawildfire, @isaacdovere, @cmonstah, @mehdirhasan, @harrymccracken.com, @bvd100, @gelliottmorris.com, @carnage4life, @joemenn, @karlbode.com, @aaronrosspowell.com, @davidnir.com, @robinwigglesworth.ft.com, @justinhendrix, and @martinsfp

Threads: @lulugnavarro, @jbillinson, and @tomgara

X: @anukasan1977, @garymarcus, @whstancil, @rob_flaherty, @nedstanley, @tonybiasotti, @kashhill, @mcmansionhell, @esyudkowsky, @virginiahughes, @berlinger, @ericnewcomer, @miles_brundage, @lakitukl, @bartongellman, @esyudkowsky, @alex_panetta, and @kashhill

LinkedIn: James Souttar and Anne Trumbore

Forums: Hacker News, r/ChatGPT, r/ArtificialSentience, r/OpenAI, r/neoliberal, r/Longreads, r/slatestarcodex, and r/skeptic

Aarian Marshall / Wired:

Waymo temporarily limits service in SF, Austin, and Atlanta, and stops service in LA, as US cities prepare for protests against federal immigration policies — A week after five robot cars were burned in Los Angeles, the Google sister company isn't taking risks.

More: San Francisco Chronicle and Texas Public Radio

Forums: r/sanfrancisco and r/waymo

Rachyl Jones / Semafor:

AIM Intelligent Machines, which retrofits heavy construction equipment to operate autonomously, raised $50M from Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, and others — THE SCOOP — Tech startup AIM Intelligent Machines, which retrofits heavy construction equipment to operate autonomously …

More: AIM Intelligent Machines, GeekWire, Seattle Business Journal, and 425 Business

X: @scale_earth and @khoslaventures. LinkedIn: AIM

Austin Carr / Bloomberg:

As the world moves toward digital artificiality, Airbnb's redesign and Apple's Liquid Glass UI bring back skeuomorphism and dimensionality to digital interfaces — From Airbnb's new app icons to Apple's “Liquid Glass” design, skeuomorphism is back and everything in the digital world has dimensionality again.

Threads: @asallen. X: @austincarr, @asallen, and @austincarr

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Oracle stock jumped 24% this week, its best performance since 2001, and is up 29% in 2025, vs. Nasdaq's 1%, after the company reported cloud momentum — Oracle shares enjoyed their best week since 2001 as Wall Street cheered a strong earnings report and bullish comments on the company's prospects in cloud computing.

More: Cryptopolitan, Blockchain.News, and MarketWatch. Bluesky: @quinnypig.com

Sean Michael Kerner / Network World:

The Ultra Ethernet Consortium, whose members include AMD, Cisco, HPE, and Intel, publishes its 1.0 specification for enhancing Ethernet standards for AI and HPC — The UEC 1.0 specification includes a modern RDMA approach, new transport protocols, and congestion control mechanisms designed for AI and HPC requirements.

More: SemiAnalysis, Tom's Hardware, Phoronix, Ultra Ethernet Consortium, Ultra Ethernet Consortium, and Ultra Ethernet Consortium. X: @techjournalist

Josh Sisco / Bloomberg:

Sources: the US DOJ is reviewing whether Google's planned $32B acquisition of cybersecurity company Wiz would illegally limit competition in the market — Justice Department antitrust enforcers are reviewing whether Google's planned $32 billion acquisition of cybersecurity company Wiz Inc …

More: Reuters and Cryptopolitan

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Brian Stelter / CNN:

WBD shareholders vote early Thursday on the Paramount deal, likely to be OK'ed; David Ellison will be in DC later for Paramount's event honoring the White House

Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:

The FCC launches a review of TV Parental Guidelines, citing concerns that “gender identity issues are being included or promoted in children's programs”

Michael Schneider / Variety:

Q&A with Katie Couric about her media company, the state of broadcast news, why “both sides” reporting will fail, media companies' “capitulation” to Trump, more

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Dominic-Madori Davis / TechCrunch:

Canary, which offers hotel guest management tools, raised an $80M Series D led by Brighton Park Capital, valuing the company at about $600M

More: The American Bazaar, Canary Technologies, Hotel Dive, FinSMEs, Hospitality Net, PhocusWire, and VC News Daily. X: @dflieb

New York Times:

President Trump's 2024 financial disclosure report shows he earned ~$57M from his stake in World Liberty Financial and $1.2M from an NFT licensing deal

More: USA Today, Office of Government Ethics, NBC News, Times of India, Cointelegraph, Reuters, The Week, Coinpedia Fintech News, Blockchain.News, KRDO, New York Post, and Pravda Trump

Brian Gormley / Wall Street Journal:

Ellipsis Health, which developed an AI voice agent to check in on patients between doctor visits, raised a $45M Series A led by Salesforce, Khosla, and CVS

More: Fierce Healthcare, Ellipsis Health, MobiHealthNews, and VC News Daily

X: @khoslaventures. LinkedIn: Ash Patel

Emily Mason / Bloomberg:

Source: Ramp raised $200M led by Founders Fund, valuing the startup at $16B, up from $13B in March, when it conducted a $150M share sale

More: The Information. X: @pitdesi and @jasonlk

Dan Primack / Axios:

A White House memo says David Sacks and Craft Ventures are divesting holdings in AI companies and hyperscalers like xAI and Meta

More: The White House. Bluesky: @thinkyparts. X: @danprimack, @danprimack, and @danprimack

James Hunt / The Block:

Yupp, which rewards users in crypto for comparing answers from multiple AI models and giving feedback, emerges from stealth with a $33M seed led by a16z crypto

More: a16z crypto, Wired, SiliconANGLE, and NFTgators

X: @pankaj, @emiliemc, @gilad, @sreeramkannan, @gilad, @jasonrosenthal, @pankaj, and @cdixon. LinkedIn: Wenny Yustalim

Axios:

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Samantha Cole / 404 Media:

Digital rights organizations urge the FTC to investigate Character.AI and Meta's “unlicensed practice of medicine facilitated” by therapy AI chatbots

More: Dexerto, Futurism, and Consumer Federation of America

Bluesky: @smcgrath.phd, @darlakay, @sesmith.lol, @samleecole, @fabiochiusi, and @jonchristian.net

Mastodon: @remixtures@tldr.nettime.org and @Mikal@sfba.social

X: @iwillleavenow and @consumerfed. LinkedIn: Kevin Klyman

Forums: r/artificial, r/BetterOffline, and Slashdot

Earlier Picks

CNBC:

Amazon reorganizes its healthcare business into six “pillars” to simplify its structure, following executive departures and its struggles in the market

More: PYMNTS.com, Chain Store Age, Reuters, and Becker's Hospital Review. Forums: r/business

Bloomberg:

China releases draft guidelines on cross-border transmission of automobile data, which could pave the way for the wider rollout of Tesla's FSD in the country

More: Carscoops, InsideEVs, Sherwood News, and EV

Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal:

The Army Reserve launches Detachment 201, an innovation corps with Palantir CTO, Meta CTO, and other tech execs advising on AI and tech as lieutenant colonels

More: TechCrunch, Task & Purpose, The Free Press, Blaze Media, The Register, Breitbart, The Information, WinBuzzer, Defense News, Breaking Defense, DefenseScoop, and Associated Press

Bluesky: @davidjroth, @rmac, @newsincontext, and @hypervisible. Mastodon: @jeffjarvis@mastodon.social

Threads: @bilawal.ai, @boztank, and @boztank

X: @ericnewcomer, @johnwilson, @ssankar, @katienotopoulos, @elianoayounes, @pitdesi, @chafkin, and @kevinweil

LinkedIn: Ryan Fedasiuk, Ruth Ann Clark, Jim Perkins, and Kevin Weil

Forums: Hacker News, r/BetterOffline, r/army, and r/Military

Dominic Preston / The Verge:

Google plans to shut down Android's Instant Apps, which let users launch apps without installing them, later this year citing low usage and engagement

More: Android Authority, Ars Technica, The Mac Observer, News.ng, Thurrott, The Hans India, Nairametrics, Pocket-lint, Android Headlines, Android Police, and Phone Scoop

Bluesky: @codybrom.com. Mastodon: @tbernard@mastodon.social. LinkedIn: Tobias Kunisch. Forums: r/mAndroidDev

Dong Cao / Bloomberg:

Sources: Tencent is in early talks to acquire Nexon, the South Korean gaming giant behind Dungeon & Fighter Mobile; Tencent pursued a Nexon acquisition in 2019

More: Coinmonks, CoinDesk, Gameranx, TechNode, Verdict, crypto.news, THE INVESTOR, Korea Joongang Daily, KED Global, and Cointelegraph

LinkedIn: Richard King and Nathan Naidu. Forums: r/Maplestory

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Betting platform Kalshi aired a fully AI-generated 30-second ad during the NBA Finals, reportedly made in 2-3 days with 300-400 generations using Google's Veo 3

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X: @pjaccetturo, @kalshi, @drorpoleg, @pjaccetturo, and @pjaccetturo. LinkedIn: Ben Colman