Techmeme
April 28, 2025, 3:55 PM

Top News

Ben Smith / Semafor:
A look at the network of group chats that surged in 2020 as a place where Silicon Valley leaders allied with the new right, revolving around Marc Andreessen  —  THE SCOOP  —  Last Thursday morning, a bit before 10 am in Austin and nearly 11 pm in Singapore, Joe Lonsdale had enough of Balaji Srinivasan's views on China.
More: The Verge, Inc, Vanity Fair, Boing Boing, Garbage Day, New Republic, emptywheel, Fortune, Raw Story, The Present Age, How Things Work, Spyglass, and New York Daily News
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Researchers say bots on Reddit posing as rape victims and more were effective at changing minds in over 1,000 posts, in an unauthorized AI persuasion experiment  —  A team of researchers who say they are from the University of Zurich ran an “unauthorized,” large-scale experiment …
The Citizen Lab:
In March 2025, World Uyghur Congress members were targeted with a spearphishing campaign via Windows malware in a legitimate Uyghur language word processor  —  Key Findings  — In March 2025, senior members of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) living in exile were targeted …
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
IBM plans to invest $150B in the US over the next five years, including in R&D, to fuel the economy and “accelerate its role as the global leader in computing”  —  IBM plans to invest $150 billion in the US over the next five years, including funds for research and development …
Reece Rogers / Wired:
OpenAI announces that it will start showing product recommendations in ChatGPT, even for logged-out users, with buy buttons that link to merchants' sites  —  OpenAI is launching a shopping experience inside of ChatGPT, complete with product picks and buy buttons.
Financial Times:
A deep dive into Apple's iPhone manufacturing process, which uses ~2,700 parts from 187 suppliers in 28 countries; just 30 suppliers have no presence in China  —  The administration wants the iPhone to be manufactured in America.  The components that power it show why that is highly impractical
David Heinemeier Hansson / HEY:
Google won the browser wars fair and square, and the web will be far worse off if Google is forced to sell Chrome, even to atone for ad market monopoly abuses  —  The web will be far worse off if Google is forced to sell Chrome, even if it's to atone for legitimate ad-market monopoly abuses.
CNBC:
Temu adds “import charges” of between 130% and 150% “due to recent changes in global trade rules and tariffs”; Shein also hikes prices but without explicit fees  —  Chinese e-tailer Temu has started adding “import charges” of about 145% in response to President Donald Trump's tariffs.

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More News

Zvi Mowshowitz / Don't Worry About the Vase:
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Earlier Picks

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