Techmeme
April 21, 2025, 11:05 AM

Top News

Ethan Mollick / One Useful Thing:
Models like o3 and Gemini 2.5 Pro feel like “Jagged AGI”: unreliable, even at some mundane tasks, but still offering superhuman capabilities in many areas  —  Amid today's AI boom, it's disconcerting that we still don't know how to measure how smart, creative, or empathetic these systems are.
More: Unite.AI and Every
Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toX: @rizznLinkedIn: Ethan MollickForums: Hacker News and r/artificial
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Paul Graham likened Palantir's ICE work to “infrastructure of the police state”; a Palantir exec said Paul's view is like Google's when it killed Project Maven  —  One of the founders of startup accelerator Y Combinator offered unsparing criticism this weekend …
Ionut Ilascu / BleepingComputer:
In a clever attack, hackers were able to send phishing emails that appeared to come from “no-reply@google.com”, after a similar attack on PayPal users in March  —  In a rather clever attack, hackers leveraged a weakness that allowed them to send a fake email that seemed delivered …
Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:
TSMC says its role in the semiconductor supply chain limits its ability to comply with export rules, after reports its tech was used in Huawei's Ascend 910B  —  “TSMC's role in the semiconductor supply chain inherently limits its visibility and information available to it regarding …
Knight First Amendment Institute:
A deep dive into AI as a normal technology vs. a humanlike intelligence and how major public policy based on controlling superintelligence may make things worse  —  An alternative to the vision of AI as a potential superintelligence  —  We articulate a vision of artificial intelligence (AI) as normal technology.
Tom Wiggins / Wired:
A look at the tactile devices from OneCourt, Field of Vision, and Touch2See that help visually impaired spectators follow live sports with their fingers  —  These three companies have developed tactile devices that help visually impaired spectators follow the live action playing out on the field.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Q&A with Dan Kim and Hassan Khan, former officials at the CHIPS Program Office, on subsidizing supply versus coercing demand, the program's future, and more  —  An interview with Dan Kim and Hassan Khan about their work distributing CHIPS program money, and why they are optimistic about U.S. industrial policy going forward.
Financial Times:
A look at the race to turn brainwaves into fluent speech, as researchers at universities in California and companies use brain implants and AI to make advances  —  Californian researchers and groups such as Precision Neuroscience use implants and AI to make advances in ‘voice prosthesis’
Ruth Reader / Politico:
After lobbying US Congress to shelve the Senate-passed KOSA bill in 2024, Meta has now made headway in lobbying for an app store age-verification bill  —  The Facebook founder is lobbying Congress to leave his firm alone — and making headway.  —  To protect kids online …
More: Fortune

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control  —  Picture this: It's Monday morning.  You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
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

Lenny's Podcast:
Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead)
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:
OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
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.
Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
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:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:05 AM ET, April 21, 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

Christopher Grimes / Financial Times:
Krishnapriya V.S. / The India Forum:
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
More: Social Media Today and Mirror
Bluesky: @airbagmomentsMastodon: @glinden@sigmoid.socialThreads: @mattnavarraLinkedIn: Mark Bergen

Earlier Picks

Ben Weiss / Fortune: