Techmeme
February 11, 2025, 7:45 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Investors led by Elon Musk make an unsolicited $97.4B bid to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI, complicating Sam Altman's plans to convert to a for-profit  —  Unsolicited offer complicates Sam Altman's plans to convert OpenAI to a for-profit company — A consortium of investors led …
More: New York Times, MacRumors, Engadget, Tom's Hardware, TechCrunch, The Economic Times, BBC, Variety, Yahoo Finance, Silicon Republic, Moneycontrol, Computerworld, El País, New York Magazine, TechRadar, Wall Street Pit, Tech.co, Android Headlines, Le Monde, Financial Times, ITPro, The Rundown AI, Gizmodo, CryptoSlate, The Independent, BetaNews, NBC News, Blockonomi, CNBC, Politico, RNS, Windows Central, PYMNTS.com, Digital Music News, Euractiv, TechSpot, PhoneArena, Reuters, Information Age, Forbes, UPI, SFist, One America News Network, PC Gamer, SiliconANGLE, Decrypt, VentureBeat, The Hill, Tom's Guide, iClarified, The Sun, HotAir, The Guardian, Spyglass, Mashable, Adweek, CBS News, SlashGear, Fast Company, Futurism, Business Insider, Digital Trends, Neowin, The Boston Globe, San Francisco Business Times, Inc, Benzinga, Metro.co.uk, New York Post, CNN, Axios, WinBuzzer, 9to5Mac, The Wrap, CoinGape, The Straits Times, BGR, The Verge, Watcher Guru, ZeroHedge News, Toronto Star, and Semafor
The Hill:
In response to the $97.4B OpenAI bid, Sam Altman says on X “no thank you but we will buy twitter for $9.74 billion if you want”; Elon Musk replies “swindler”  —  OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman appeared to shut down a reported offer from an investor group led …
CNBC:
Investors behind the $97.4B OpenAI bid include xAI, Baron Capital, Valor, Atreides, Vy Capital, Joe Lonsdale's 8VC, and an investment vehicle led by Ari Emanuel  —  Elon Musk is leading a group of investors in offering to buy control of OpenAI for $97.4 billion, CNBC confirmed.
Wall Street Journal:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Paris AI summit takeaways: Europe has regulation regrets, AI doomsayers have lost ground, and policymakers can't seem to grasp how soon powerful AI could arrive  —  At times, Kevin Roose writes, it feels like he is watching policymakers on horseback trying to install seatbelts on a passing Lamborghini.
Reuters:
Paris AI summit: US VP JD Vance warns the EU that excessive AI regulation could strangle the tech and rejects content moderation as “authoritarian censorship”  —  U.S. Vice President JD Vance warned Europeans on Tuesday that what he called their excessive regulation …
Wall Street Journal:
At the AI Action Summit in Paris, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the bloc plans to mobilize €200B to invest in AI to catch the US and China  —  The announcement underscores efforts from the EU to position itself as a key player in the AI race
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google Calendar removes Pride month, Black History Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, and other events, saying it wasn't “scalable or sustainable” to keep them  —  Google says it switched to only showing default entries for public holidays and national observances last year.
Umar Shakir / The Verge:
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Google brings NotebookLM Plus, its AI research assistant tier with higher usage limits, to Google One AI Premium subscribers, and debuts a 50% student discount  —  Google has expanded NotebookLM Plus, a paid version of its AI-based note-taking and research assistant, to individual users subscribed …
Gloria Li / Financial Times:
Chinese EV maker BYD unveils a “God's Eye” self-driving system and aims to install it on its entire lineup, including its ~$9,600 Seagull hatchback  —  Tesla rival will equip hatchback on sale for less than $10,000 with features usually found only on upscale vehicles
Dan Mangan / CNBC:
An Alabama man pleads guilty over the SIM-swap hack of the US SEC's X account, which falsely claimed in January 2024 that the agency had approved bitcoin ETFs  —  An Alabama man pleaded guilty Monday in federal court in Washington, D.C., in connection with last year's hack of the U.S. Securities …

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Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Scott Rosenberg / Axios:
Liam Dawe / GamingOnLinux:
Kelcee Griffis / Bloomberg: