Techmeme
January 12, 2025, 2:00 PM

Top News

Riley Griffin / Bloomberg:
Mark Zuckerberg lamented the rise of “culturally neutered” companies that have sought to distance themselves from “masculine energy”  —  - Rogan interview is latest in sign of shift toward Trump  — CEO says Biden staffers would ‘scream’ and ‘curse’ about Covid
Aitor Hernández-Morales / Politico:
Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
Tyler Wilde / PC Gamer:
Tim Sweeney says Big Tech leaders, who used to pretend to be Democrats, are now pretending to be Republicans to skirt antitrust laws and “crush competitors”  —  The Trump administration is expected to be softer on antitrust cases, which as we know are one of Sweeney's major pursuits.
David Allen Green / Financial Times:
How aligning with Trump's new administration lets Meta and X pivot from futile cooperation with the EU and other jurisdictions to confrontation and coercion  —  Behind the alignment of X and Meta with Trump is a cold business logic — and a position of weakness rather than strength
Michael Savage / The Guardian:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A look at Apple's plans for 2025, a year likely to be seen as a stepping stone toward more revolutionary products, rather than one of remarkable innovation  —  Apple plans a loaded 2025, with plans for an overhauled iPhone line, new AI features, a smart home push and updates to products it hasn't refreshed in a while.
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Matt Mullenweg deactivates the accounts of several WordPress.org members, some of whom have been leading a push to create a new fork of the open-source project  —  Automattic CEO and WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg has deactivated the accounts of several WordPress.org community members …
Ethan Mollick / One Useful Thing:
As researchers talk about the arrival of supersmart AI, far fewer voices are trying to envision and articulate what a world awash in AI might actually look like  —  What to make of the statements of the AI labs?  —  Recently, something shifted in the AI industry.
Abigail Bassett / The Verge:
A look at Watch Duty, a free app that has become a crucial lifeline for LA during the wildfires by showing active fires, evacuation zones, and other vital info  —  ‘We view what we are doing as a public service,’ says the cofounder of the nonprofit that millions of people are relying on to stay safe.
Jon Keegan / Sherwood News:
A case study of the amount and kinds of ads in 12 shows on the ad-supported tiers of Netflix, Peacock, Disney+, Max, Paramount+, and Hulu  —  We watched 12 shows on six platforms to find out how much of your life you give up to save a few bucks each month.  —  It's getting harder to avoid ads on streaming video.
Tyler Cowen / Bloomberg:
US export controls may have slowed China's AI progress but they also spurred DeepSeek to innovate and release DeepSeek-V3, a top LLM, without the latest chips  —  A promising new model shows that innovations in artificial intelligence don't necessarily depend on the latest chips.

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Earlier Picks

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
The News Minute:
Ming-Chi Kuo:
Julie Bort / TechCrunch: