Techmeme
April 26, 2025, 4:25 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Docs and sources detail the opaque market for shares of Elon Musk's private companies; Valor recently offered investors $1B worth of shares in SpaceX and xAI  —  Lucrative stock deals have allowed SpaceX to avoid public scrutiny even as it has grown into one of the largest companies in the U.S.
Gabe Kaminsky / The Free Press:
Leaked letter: interim US Attorney for DC Ed Martin accused Wikipedia of allowing foreign manipulation and propaganda, threatening its tax-exempt status  —  In a letter obtained by The Free Press, Trump appointee Ed Martin accuses the Wikimedia Foundation of violating the law.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google says it will end support for 1st- and 2nd-gen Nest thermostats on October 25, and won't launch new models in Europe due to its “unique” heating systems  —  The company is also pulling Nest thermostats out of Europe entirely, citing “unique” heating challenges.
Dario Amodei:
Interpretability, or understanding how AI models work, can help mitigate many AI risks, such as misalignment and misuse, that stem from AI systems' opacity  —  In the decade that I have been working on AI, I've watched it grow from a tiny academic field to arguably the most important economic and geopolitical issue in the world.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft makes Recall available to all Copilot+ PCs, along with a new AI-powered Windows search and Click to Do, which works like Google's Circle to Search  —  Microsoft's Click to Do image and text tool is also rolling out today. … We knew Microsoft was about to launch Recall for real this time …
Washington Post:
Sources: China has quietly exempted from tariffs at least eight classifications of US-made microchips, as it seeks to exempt “irreplaceable” goods  —  Levies on certain U.S.-made microchips have been dropped, importers say.  Meanwhile, China denied President Trump's claims that talks to reduce tariffs are happening.
Financial Times:
Deliveroo, which listed in London with a £7.6B valuation in 2021, says it received a buyout proposal from DoorDash that would value the company at £2.7B  —  UK food delivery group valued at £7.6bn in London listing four years ago  —  Deliveroo, the food delivery company …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Chinese AI startup Manus raised $75M led by Benchmark at a $500M valuation, and plans to expand to markets including the US, Japan, and the Middle East  —  The Chinese startup behind Manus AI secured a round of financing led by US venture firm Benchmark, scoring capital to explore …
Dan Primack / Axios:
Deel sues Rippling for alleged defamation, libel, and deceptive trade practices, says Rippling placed an insider within Deel, is not tax compliant, and more  —  The legal battle between HR software unicorns Deel and Rippling escalated on Friday, with Deel suing Rippling for alleged defamation, libel, and deceptive trade practices.
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Meta and Booz Allen partner to deploy Space Llama, a fine-tuned version of Llama 3.2, for research aboard the International Space Station National Laboratory  —  On Friday, Meta and Booz Allen Hamilton launched “Space Llama.”  —  Llama, Meta's open-source artificial intelligence model …
Newcomer:
Internal presentation by Microsoft's CFO Amy Hood: number of users for Copilot has been flat over the past year with ~20M weekly users, as ChatGPT grew to 400M  —  Mustafa Suleyman hasn't delivered the turnaround he was hired to bring  —  At Microsoft's annual executive huddle last month …
More: XDA Developers, Engadget, and GeekWire
Bluesky: @sadtiricMastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toX: @rustybrick and @cityofthetownForums: Slashdot
Pete Koomen:
Many AI features, like Gmail's AI assistant, feel useless because they don't allow users to edit system prompts, constraining the AI models they're built with  —  I noticed something interesting the other day: I enjoy using AI to build software more than I enjoy using most AI applications—software built with AI.
Asa Fitch / Wall Street Journal:
IBM has booked $6B in sales around generative AI and Red Hat's revenue has about doubled since IBM bought it, fueling a ~2x jump in IBM's stock since April 2020  —  ‘Big Blue’ has clawed back into investor favor, but needs to show staying power in AI to cement its comeback
More: CRN
Nnaemeka Onyekachi / Nairametrics:
A Nigerian tribunal upholds a $220M fine imposed on Meta in July 2024 for discriminatory and exploitative practices against Nigerian consumers  —  Nigeria's Competition and Consumer Protection Tribunal on Friday ordered WhatsApp and Meta Platforms Incorporated to pay a $220 million penalty …

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