Techmeme
April 17, 2026, 10:50 PM

Top News

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Bill Peebles, the researcher behind Sora, is leaving OpenAI, along with Srinivas Narayanan, OpenAI's CTO of enterprise applications  —  OpenAI is losing two of the architects of its most ambitious moonshots.  Kevin Weil, who led the company's science research initiative, and Bill Peebles …
More: Benzinga, OpenAI, and The Boar
X: @billpeeb, @zeffmax, and @snsfBluesky: @carnage4life
Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
Kevin Weil, OpenAI's former CPO who became VP of OpenAI for Science, is leaving the company; Prism, a web app for scientists launched in Jan., will be shuttered  —  The former Instagram VP is departing the ChatGPT-maker, which is folding the AI science application he led into Codex.
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.
More: Anthropic, TechCrunch, The Register, The Verge, The Indian Express, Yahoo Finance, CNET, Neowin, Gizmodo, How-To Geek, MakeUseOf, Quartz, eWeek, The New Stack, MacRumors, The Tech Buzz, The Next Web, The Verge, Innovation Village, TestingCatalog, Business Wire, Gadget Review, Yahoo Tech, Inc.com, Crypto Briefing, OfficeChai, iPhone in Canada, Digital Trends, PCWorld, Rolling Out, Agence France-Presse, The Decoder, TechJuice, The Information, EdTech Innovation Hub, Implicator.ai, 9to5Mac, Investing.com, Yahoo Tech, The Deep View, VentureBeat, Engadget, Fast Company, Inc, and SiliconANGLE
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 …
Siladitya Ray / Forbes:
What some leaders think of using universal income to mitigate AI-fueled layoffs: Musk calls it the “best way”, OpenAI's policy doc mentions a Public Wealth Fund  —  Topline  —  Elon Musk on Friday touted what he described as “Universal HIGH INCOME” as a solution to deal …
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 …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Cerebras files to go public on Nasdaq and reports $510M in 2025 revenue, up 76% YoY, with a net income of $87.9M, up from a $485M net loss in 2024  —  Cerebras, a producer of chips that run artificial intelligence models, on Friday filed to go public on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “CBRS.”
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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
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
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.
Martin Peers / The Information:
In disclosures due to Broadcom CEO Hock Tan's presence on the Meta board, Meta says it paid Broadcom $2.3B in 2025; Tan is leaving the board  —  Meta Platforms paid Broadcom $2.3 billion in 2025, Meta disclosed in a securities filing, a rare disclosure of how much tech firms pay Broadcom for help designing their AI chips.

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Featured Podcasts

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More News

Ivan Lam / Counterpoint Research:
Grace Kay / Business Insider:

Earlier Picks

David Gewirtz / ZDNET: