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May 13, 2025, 10:50 PM
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Mindy Brooks / The Keyword:
Google announces its Material 3 Expressive design, which it will roll out to Android and Wear OS, nearly four years after introducing Material You  —  Material 3 Expressive is making using your phone and watch more fluid, personal and glanceable.  —  Personalization is core to Android …
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Google rebrands Find My Device to Find Hub, which recently added a People tab to track contacts, and adds UWB support to the app for more precise tracking  —  Trackers like the Moto Tag will soon support precise location tracking. … A year after launching its Find My Device location tracking network …
Guemmy Kim / The Keyword:
Google will add Gemini to Wear OS 6, Android Auto, Google TV, and Android XR later this year
Il-Sung Lee / Google Online Security Blog:
Google says Android 16 adds device-level security features for its Advanced Protection Program, including intrusion logging for threat analysis
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google says that over one billion RCS messages are sent each day in the US
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Google announces Android 16 security features like expanded fraud detection in Messages, prevention of some actions while on calls, like side loading apps, more
Bloomberg:
Nvidia and Humain partner to build data centers in Saudi Arabia over the next five years, with the first phase involving 18,000 GB300 Grace Blackwell chips  —  Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang announced the partnership on stage at the Saudi-US Investment Forum in Riyadh, the Gulf nation's capital.
Ian King / Bloomberg:
AMD and Humain partner to invest up to $10B on AI infrastructure over the next five years, including in data centers stretching from Saudi Arabia to the US  —  Silicon Valley Is Coming for the Pentagon's $1 Trillion Budget  —  The Trump administration wants startups to remake the US military …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Amazon says it will work with Humain to invest $5B+ in a strategic partnership to help build an “AI Zone” in Saudi Arabia
Kelsey Warner / Semafor:
Sources: Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund-backed AI company Humain picked US-based chipmaker Groq for inference; Groq plans to expand its Dammam data center
Bloomberg:
Microsoft says it will lay off 6,000 staff in a bid to cut management layers, including at LinkedIn; Microsoft had 228K staff in June 2024 and cut 10K in 2023  —  The planned terminations will amount to less than 3% of total headcount and occur across geographies, employee levels and include LinkedIn, a spokesperson said.
Rebecca Szkutak / TechCrunch:
The US Commerce Department formally rescinds the Biden-era AI Diffusion Rule, which would have limited US AI chip exports and taken effect on May 13  —  After a week or so of rumors, the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) formally rescinded the Biden Administration's Artificial Intelligence Diffusion Rule days …
Clare Duffy / CNN:
Airbnb revamps its app with a Services section featuring personal chefs, trainers, hair stylists, and more; bookings can be made without vacation reservations  —  New York CNN —  —  Nearly a decade ago, Airbnb envisioned being more than just an app to book a home for a vacation.
Steven Levy / Wired:
A look at Brian Chesky's efforts to turn Airbnb into a storefront for real-world services, after struggling with previous experiments to expand beyond vacations  —  CEO Brian Chesky is spending hundreds of millions to relaunch his travel company as an everything app.  Fitness!  Food!  Microdermabrasion?
CNBC:
Chime files for a Nasdaq IPO under the symbol CHYM, reporting 8.6M active members at the end of March, up 23% YoY, and average revenue per active member of $251  —  Financial technology company Chime on Tuesday filed paperwork to go public on the Nasdaq.  The company intends to file under the ticker symbol “CHYM.”
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google says it is testing an “AI Mode” button on the Search homepage with Labs users, replacing the “I'm Feeling Lucky” button  —  Google's stalwart search button has a new neighbor: AI Mode.  —  The artificial intelligence feature is being tested directly beneath …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple unveils iOS and macOS accessibility features: App Store Accessibility Nutrition Labels, Magnifier for Mac, Accessibility Reader, Braille Access, and more  —  Ahead of WWDC kicking off in June, Apple today has officially unveiled this year's new accessibility features for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision Pro.
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Apple has worked with brain-computer interface startup Synchron to explore letting iPhone users control the device using brain signals via a stent-like implant
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
House Republicans introduced language to the Budget Reconciliation bill that would ban US states from enforcing any AI regulation for 10 years  —  Republicans try to use the Budget Reconciliation bill to stop states from regulating AI entirely for 10 years.
Tina Nguyen / The Verge:
Trump's acting replacements for the Copyright Office are known to be unfriendly to the tech industry and not the kind of people that AI proponents would support  —  What initially appeared to be a power play by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) …
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
TikTok launches TikTok AI Alive, which lets users turn static photos into videos in TikTok Stories using Story Camera  —  TikTok is launching its first image-to-video AI feature, the company announced on Tuesday.  The new feature is called “TikTok AI Alive” and allows users to turn static photos into videos within TikTok Stories.
Josh Scott / BetaKit:
Robinhood acquires Toronto-based WonderFi, which owns Bitbuy, Coinsquare, and other crypto exchanges, for CA$250M, or CA$0.36 per share, set to close in H2 2025  —  After spending years gobbling up other Canadian cryptocurrency companies, Toronto-based WonderFi has agreed to be acquired by American trading platform Robinhood Markets.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / TechCrunch:
WhatsApp v. NSO Group: NSO kept targeting WhatsApp users even after Meta sued, it spent $59M on R&D in 2024, and its customers pay ~$3M-$30M to use Pegasus  —  On Tuesday, WhatsApp scored a major victory against NSO Group when a jury ordered the infamous spyware maker to pay …
More: 9to5Mac and Techdirt
Bluesky: @zackwhittaker.com and @lorenzofb.  X: @lorenzofb
The Guardian:
The UK House of Lords again rebuffs the government's AI plans by adding an amendment to a bill to require AI firms list copyrighted content used to train models  —  Peers back amendment to data bill requiring AI companies to reveal which copyrighted material they have used
Bloomberg:
Former employees, analysts, VCs, and executives detail how DeepSeek works and how it fits into China's broader AI ambitions  —  The company's sudden emergence illustrates how China's industry is thriving despite Washington's efforts to slow it down.  —  With his wispy frame and reserved style …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Elliptic: Colorado-registered Xinbi Guarantee runs a Telegram black market for Chinese crypto scammers that has facilitated $8.4B in transactions since 2022  —  Before a crackdown by Telegram, Xinbi Guarantee grew into one of the internet's biggest markets for Chinese-speaking crypto scammers and money laundering.
More: Elliptic.  Bluesky: @joetidy, @timmarchman, @agreenberg, @couts, @agreenberg, and @wired.com.  Mastodon: @mathewi@journa.host.  X: @tomrobin.  Forums: r/Buttcoin
Alex Perry / The Information:
Amazon's Zoox offers free robotaxi rides to employees and other invited users in Las Vegas, after receiving approval to accept paying customers in Clark County  —  Zoox, the Amazon-backed robotaxi company, has been offering free robotaxi rides in Las Vegas to some users over an app that staff refer to as Concierge.

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From Mediagazer

Bloomberg:
Sources: WBD begins exclusive talks with Netflix to sell its film and TV studios and HBO Max; Netflix is offering a $5B breakup fee if the deal isn't approved

The Guardian:
Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands exit Eurovision after Israel received an all-clear to compete; the BBC and Germany's SWR plan to participate

James Faris / Business Insider:
Kalshi strikes a deal with CNBC that will integrate Kalshi's prediction data into CNBC's channel, site, and app starting in 2026, days after striking a CNN deal

More News

Matthew Gault / 404 Media:
Unlike most mainstream social networks, Instagram hasn't scrubbed Kanye's pro-Nazi song “Heil Hitler”, with several posts featuring the song garnering 1M+ views
Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
FTC v. Meta: the US case may come down to whether Judge James Boasberg believes blockchain social platform MeWe is a closer competitor to Instagram than TikTok

Earlier Picks

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Spotify updates its AI DJ to let Premium subscribers use English voice commands to personalize what music it plays, like taking artist, genre, and mood requests
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Chinese drone company DJI unveils the €2,099 Mavic 4 Pro with a 360° rotating gimbal, and says it won't be available in the US at launch, a first for its drones
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