Techmeme
February 6, 2025, 9:20 AM

Top News

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Stanford and University of Washington AI researchers claim they trained AI reasoning model s1, distilled from a Gemini 2.0 model, for under $50 in cloud compute  —  AI researchers at Stanford and the University of Washington were able to train an AI “reasoning” model for under $50 in cloud compute credits …
Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal:
Email: Google eliminates its goal of hiring more employees from historically underrepresented groups and is reviewing some DEI programs after Donald Trump's EOs  —  Search giant is eliminating goals to hire more minority employees and reviewing DEI programs, part of a pullback across Silicon Valley
Emma Roth / The Verge:
OpenAI opens ChatGPT search to users who are not logged in, after launching it to paying subscribers in October 2024 and logged-in users in December 2024  —  OpenAI is making its AI search engine more accessible.  —  OpenAI is making its AI search engine more accessible.
Max A. Cherney / Reuters:
Arm reports Q3 revenue up 19% YoY to $983M, vs. $946.7M est., royalty revenue up 23% YoY to $580M, and lowers is FY revenue guidance; ARM drops 5%+  —  Chip tech provider Arm Holdings (O9Ty.F), said on Wednesday it will no longer meet the top end of its previous full-year guidance …
Greg Bensinger / Reuters:
Amazon announces an Alexa-focused event on February 26 in New York; sources say the company will preview its long-delayed Alexa generative AI revamp  —  Amazon (AMZN.O) is set to release its long-awaited - and delayed - Alexa generative artificial intelligence voice service …
Politico:
The Senate Commerce Committee approves the Kids Off Social Media Act to ban under-13s from social media, clearing the way for consideration by the Senate  —  The Senate Commerce Committee approved legislation Wednesday to ban children under 13 from social media.
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Kaspersky researchers found apps in Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store that use OCR to steal crypto wallet recovery phrases from images on users' devices  —  Android and iOS apps on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store contain a malicious software development kit (SDK) …
Henry Stockdale / UploadVR:
Interviews with nearly two dozen VR studios on shipping games on Quest, Meta's increased focus on Horizon Worlds, concerns over declining game sales, and more  —  With concerns about declining sales and discoverability, UploadVR spoke with nearly two dozen VR studios to discuss the state of VR development for Quest.
Casey Hall / Reuters:
Trump's de minimis cancellation is likely to hit Shein harder than online dollar-store Temu, which has shifted to an Amazon-like bulk overseas shipment strategy  —  The Trump administration move to stop low-cost imports entering the U.S. tariff-free is likely to hit fast fashion retailer Shein harder …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: banks sold $5.5B in debt that X borrowed, at $0.97 on the dollar, after strong investor demand; they had planned to sell ~$3B at ~$0.95 on the dollar  —  X CEO tells investors that the financial health of social-media company is improving  —  Elon Musk's power in Washington …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google adds Gemini 2.0 Flash, 2.0 Flash-Lite, and 2.0 Pro Experimental to Gemini's API, and 2.0 Pro Experimental and 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental to its apps  —  Gemini 2.0 AI updates include cheaper access for developers, and AI that can use other Google apps like YouTube.
Kate Clark / Bloomberg:
SEC filing: Sequoia's evergreen fund has grown to $19.6B, up from $13.6B in early 2023, a signal that the firm continues to grow despite a VC funding slowdown  —  The fund's total includes new cash commitments, shares of now-public companies that Sequoia previously backed and cash returns from mergers and acquisitions.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sonos lays off ~200 employees, or 12% of its staff, as it reorganizes to make its product teams “flatter, smaller, and more focused”, weeks after losing its CEO  —  Sonos Inc. said it's cutting about 12% of its staff, or 200 workers, in a bid to make its product teams “flatter, smaller and more focused.”

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Grit:
The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google's secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
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.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:20 AM ET, February 6, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:

Earlier Picks

Karissa Bell / Engadget:
404 Media:
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Jason Shubnell / The Block:
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Chainalysis: