Techmeme
March 16, 2025, 11:30 AM

Top News

Kate Rooney / CNBC:
More: TechCrunch.  X: @tmrohan, @ashrust, and @garrytan.  LinkedIn: Priyankka Mani.  Forums: r/artificial
Bloomberg:
Baidu releases Ernie X1, an AI model that articulates its reasoning similarly to DeepSeek R1, and upgrades its flagship foundation model to Ernie 4.5, both free  —  The Ernie X1 model by China's internet search leader works similarly to DeepSeek R1 — which shocked Silicon Valley …
Catherine Thorbecke / Bloomberg:
The hype around AI agent Manus doesn't represent a second DeepSeek moment, but reveals that Chinese startups can compete with US companies building AI products  —  The viral AI agent from a Chinese startup isn't about research breakthroughs, it's about creating competitive consumer products.
Financial Times:
Current and former Meta employees describe GOP lobbyist Joel Kaplan's rise since joining Meta in 2011 to become Mark Zuckerberg's most trusted political fixer  —  Meta's newly promoted head of global affairs has masterminded social media giant's pivot towards Donald Trump
Financial Times:
Spotify slashed nearly €500M in marketing, R&D spending, and general administrative expenses in 2024, which helped the company swing to a net income of €1.1B  —  The Swedish music streaming service's size now gives it a durable advantage over rivals  —  Spotify has found its groove.
Scroll.in:
Jio and Airtel, which first opposed Starlink, partnered with SpaceX after PM Modi's meeting with Elon Musk and President Trump's plan to impose tariffs on India  —  The announcements about Starlink's tie-ups with the Indian telecommunication giants follow Trump's decision to impose reciprocal tariffs on India from April 2.
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google and other companies are considering bringing back in-person job interviews, as some startups sell AI tools that let engineers cheat in virtual interviews  —  After landing internship offers from Amazon, Meta and TikTok, computer science student Chungin “Roy” Lee has decided to move to San Francisco.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Bluesky proposes letting users indicate if their data can be used for AI training, web archiving, and more; critics see it as a reversal of its prior statements  —  Social network Bluesky recently published a proposal on GitHub outlining new options it could give users to indicate whether …
Francisco Rodrigues / CoinDesk:
21Shares plans to liquidate actively managed bitcoin and ether futures ETFs ARKC and ARKY, after $1.66B+ in outflows from US-listed spot bitcoin ETFs in March  —  The firm is liquidating its ARK 21Shares Active On-Chain Bitcoin Strategy ETF and ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Ethereum Strategy ETF amid the downturn.
More: 21Shares and CoinGape

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Earlier Picks

TechCrunch:
Abner Li / 9to5Google: