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May 16, 2025, 1:01 PM
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Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI rolls out Codex, an AI coding agent powered by codex-1, a version of o3 optimized for software engineering, for ChatGPT Pro, Enterprise, and Team users  —  OpenAI announced on Friday it's launching a research preview of Codex, the company's most capable AI coding agent yet.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
After Grok's “white genocide in South Africa” X replies, xAI says “an unauthorized modification was made to Grok response bot's prompt” at 3:15 AM PST on May 14  —  xAI blamed an “unauthorized modification” for a bug in its AI-powered Grok chatbot that caused Grok …
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Epic Games says that Apple rejected its latest Fortnite submission to the US App Store and the game on iOS will be “offline worldwide until Apple unblocks it”  —  Epic says that the game is ‘offline’ on iPhones everywhere after Apple rejected its App Store resubmission.
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Sony's Haven Studios founder Jade Raymond leaves the company; sources: some developers were worried about its first game's external test reception and progress  —  Her company, Haven Studios, is developing an online shooter title called Fairgames … PlayStation leadership didn't give Haven staff …
Reuters:
Charter says it will acquire Cox Communications for $21.9B, valuing Cox at $34.5B including debt and uniting two of the biggest US cable and broadband operators  —  Charter Communications (CHTR.O) said on Friday it would merge with Cox Communications in a deal that would value its privately held rival …
Wall Street Journal:
Analysis: since January, 36+ staff and associates of Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, and Palmer Luckey got federal roles that oversee their companies  —  See how allies of four tech titans are staffing the agencies meant to regulate them, raising ethics flags and securing billions
Camille Bromley / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with Wired's Steven Levy on the evolving relationship between the tech industry and the press, media outlets' licensing deals with AI companies, and more  —  “What you find when you get into a place is always more interesting than any preconception you have.”
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: Microsoft has stopped production of its Surface Laptop Studio 2 and plans to mark the device as end of life in June, with no apparent successor plans  —  The Surface Laptop Studio 2 is no longer being manufactured and there's no replacement in sight.
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Windsurf launches SWE-1, its first family of software engineering AI models, claiming its largest model rivals Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4.1, and Gemini 2.5 Pro  —  On Thursday, Windsurf, a startup that develops popular AI tools for software engineers, announced the launch of its first family …
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
Klarna CEO says its AI agent now handles two-thirds of customer service chats, an equivalent of 800 jobs, but Klarna is hiring workers for higher-end chats  —  Headlines announcing Klarna's AI pullback were wrong, its CEO says.  Instead of retreating, it's handing more tasks to the bots.
Bloomberg:
Source: Coinbase's hackers had bribed enough customer service representatives to achieve effectively on-demand access to customer info in the past five months  —  On the long list of crypto companies that have been hacked, there are plenty of examples of financial losses that are much more painful …
Niket Nishant / Reuters:
Coinbase says hackers accessed data of a “small subset” of users, but not credentials, expects to incur $180M-$400M in costs, and refuses to pay a $20M ransom

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:01 PM ET, May 16, 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.

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

Bloomberg:
Sources: President Trump's Middle East AI deals open a rift with China hawks in his administration over concerns that US chips sent to the Gulf end up in China
Matthew Guariglia / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Montana becomes the first US state to close a data broker loophole that lets police buy users' geolocation data and other digital info without a judge's warrant
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple says warnings on EU App Store listings for apps not using IAP have been up since March 2024, and the EU told it to hold off on tweaks that Apple proposed

Earlier Picks

Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Take-Two reports Q4 net bookings up 17% YoY to $1.58B, vs. $1.55B est., net revenue up 13% YoY to $1.58B, and forecasts FY 2026 net bookings below expectations
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Court filing: Anthropic apologizes for one of its expert witnesses citing an article hallucinated by Claude in the company's legal battle with music publishers
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Meta has delayed rolling out its Behemoth LLM, internally slated for an April release, to fall or later, after struggling to improve its capabilities
Jon Victor / The Information:
Sources: Cohere, which has raised nearly $1B, was on pace to generate $70M in annual revenue as of February 2025; in 2023, it projected ~$450M in 2024 revenue
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Threads now lets users add up to five links to their profile bios and rolls out analytics tools to track clicks on profile links and links shared in posts
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple rolls out CarPlay Ultra, the next generation of CarPlay, in new and existing Aston Martins in North America after months of delays, before a wider rollout
Bloomberg:
President Trump says he told Tim Cook that “I don't want you building in India”, “India can take care of themselves”, and Apple will be “upping” US production
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