Techmeme
April 17, 2026, 6:20 PM

Top News

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Anthropic launches Claude Design, a new experimental product that lets users create visuals like prototypes, slides, one-pagers, and more using Claude  —  Anthropic announced on Friday that it's launching Claude Design, a new experimental product that lets users create visuals like prototypes, slides, one-pagers, and more using Claude.
Politico:
Cyber experts say the EU's age verification app has glaring privacy and security problems; after saying it was ready, EU officials say the app is “still a demo”  —  BRUSSELS — The European Union's unveiling of a mobile app to check people's age online has quickly turned sour …
Reuters:
Sources: Meta intends to conduct a first wave of sweeping layoffs planned for this year on May 20, laying off ~10% of its global workforce, or ~8,000 employees  —  Meta (META.O) intends to conduct a first wave of sweeping layoffs planned for this year on May 20, with more coming later …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Netflix plans to launch a vertical video feed, to help with content discovery, this month, and plans to use AI for content creation and recommendations  —  Netflix is going to launch a TikTok-like vertical video feed within its apps this month, and plans to use AI broadly for content creation …
The Information:
Zvi Mowshowitz / Don't Worry About the Vase:
A deep dive into Dwarkesh Patel's interview with Jensen Huang, including Huang's takes on Nvidia's moat and chip sales to China, and reactions to the interview  —  Some podcasts are self-recommending on the 'yep, I'm going to be breaking this one down' level.  This was one of those.  So here we go.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: some shareholders are questioning whether Sam Altman should lead OpenAI through the turbulence of an IPO and have floated Bret Taylor as a successor  —  Ahead of a planned IPO, Altman's personal investments remain opaque, making it hard to spot any conflicts
Will Canny / CoinDesk:
Kraken parent company Payward agrees to acquire Bitnomial, a digital asset derivatives platform, for up to $550M in cash and stock, which values Payward at $20B  —  The deal gives Payward control of a fully licensed U.S. crypto derivatives stack, accelerating its expansion in regulated markets.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Cursor is in advanced talks to raise about $2B co-led by a16z at a pre-money valuation of more than $50B, with Nvidia participating  —  Cursor, a leading artificial intelligence startup for coding, is in advanced talks with investors to raise about $2 billion in a funding round …
More: TechCrunch, Motley Fool, and Yahoo Finance
X: @mtemkin and @nmasc_Bluesky: @k2mey
The Guardian:
Docs: US tech companies successfully lobbied the EU to hide data centers' environmental toll; one of their demands was written almost verbatim into EU rules  —  Legally questionable confidentiality clause adopted almost word for word from demands of Microsoft and trade groups
Axios:
White House says a meeting between Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Dario Amodei had been “productive and constructive”; source: Scott Bessent joined the meeting  —  Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joined a meeting on Friday between White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles …
Tanaya Macheel / CNBC:
Charles Schwab unveils its long-awaited crypto investing product, Schwab Crypto, with a 0.75% fee on every crypto trade and plans to launch in the coming weeks  —  Charles Schwab on Thursday introduced its long-awaited crypto investing product, making bitcoin and ether trading available …
Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
World expands its Tinder partnership and partners with Zoom and others to verify human users, as it continues its pivot from crypto to identity verification  —  Honestly, what's hotter than a real person?  —  Sam Altman's iris-scanning, humanity-verifying World project announced at an event …
Grace Kay / Business Insider:
Sources: xAI plans to let Cursor train Composer 2.5 AI coding model using tens of thousands of xAI's GPUs, a new strategy for xAI in a competitive AI landscape  —  - Elon Musk's AI company xAI plans to allow Cursor to use some of its compute power for training.

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Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + 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.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout
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.
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Great Chat:
Who are the billboards for?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Access:
AI is turning sketches into real-world products
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
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The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Is AI Conscious?
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
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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.
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More News

Ivan Lam / Counterpoint Research:

Earlier Picks

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Jessica Hill / Associated Press:
David Gewirtz / ZDNET: