Techmeme
June 17, 2025, 5:10 PM

Top News

Tulsee Doshi / The Keyword:
Google makes Gemini 2.5 Flash and Pro generally available and introduces 2.5 Flash-Lite, which it says is its most cost-efficient and fastest 2.5 model yet  —  Gemini 2.5 Flash and Pro are now generally available, and we're introducing 2.5 Flash-Lite, our most cost-efficient and fastest 2.5 model yet.
Steve Kopack / NBC News:
In a memo to employees, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says AI “will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains” over time  —  Amazon CEO Andy Jassy says the retail and tech giant “will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today.”
CNBC:
Sources: Meta and EssilorLuxottica plan AI-powered smart glasses under Oakley and Prada brands; they will be aimed at athletes, and the Oakleys may cost ~$360  —  Meta and EssilorLuxottica plan to release versions of their AI-powered smart glasses under the Oakley and Prada brands, CNBC has learned.
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
US appeals court rules in Apple's favor by throwing out a $300M verdict that found it infringed on Optis' wireless tech patents, sending the case to a new trial  —  Apple (AAPL.O) has convinced a U.S. appeals court to throw out a $300 million verdict by a jury that found …
John Koblin / New York Times:
Nielsen: in May, Americans watched more TV on streaming than on cable and broadcast networks combined, the first time streaming was king of TV over a full month  —  In May, more Americans watched television on streaming than on cable and network television combined, Nielsen said.
Nieman Lab:
Bloomberg:
Sources: xAI is in talks to raise $4.3B via an equity investment on top of the $5B in debt it's trying to borrow; of its previously raised $14B, it has $4B left  —  Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is in talks to raise $4.3 billion through an equity investment on top …
David Pierce / The Verge:
Threads launches a fediverse feed and a way to search for fediverse users, with support for Mastodon and others, for users who turned on fediverse sharing  —  A dedicated feed, and better search, will make social web content much more visible in Threads.
More: Meta Newsroom, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Engadget, and WinBuzzer
Bluesky: @werd.io.  Mastodon: @ricmac@mastodon.social.  Threads: @mosseri, @pcottle, and @quillmatiq.  Forums: Hacker News
Bloomberg:
Shanghai-based MiniMax open sources MiniMax-M1, a model for complicated productivity tasks that supports 1M input tokens and it says beats DeepSeek's R1-0528  —  Chinese AI upstart MiniMax released a new large language model, joining a slew of domestic peers inspired to surpass DeepSeek in the field of reasoning AI.
The Information:
Sources: OpenAI wants Microsoft to take a ~33% stake in exchange for foregoing future profit rights, and seeks to modify its exclusive cloud deal with Microsoft  —  Negotiations between Microsoft and OpenAI over the startup's plan to restructure its for-profit unit, which requires Microsoft's approval …
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe debuts Firefly for iOS and Android, letting mobile users generate images and videos using text prompts and experiment with popular AI photo editing tools  —  The iPhone and Android Firefly app can sync AI image and video projects to desktops via Creative Cloud.
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Self-driving simulation software maker Applied Intuition raised $600M co-led by BlackRock and Kleiner Perkins at a $15B valuation, up from $6B in March 2024  —  The company raised $600 million from investors as it prepares for an eventual IPO. … The financing, which the company plans to announce Tuesday …
Jez Corden / Windows Central:
Microsoft and AMD announce a “strategic, multi-year partnership” to design custom silicon for a number of devices, including next-generation Xbox consoles  —  Xbox President Sarah Bond shared an update on Xbox consoles today, confirming their ongoing partnership with AMD for first-party hardware …
Mike Rogoway / Oregonian:
Memo: Intel's manufacturing VP says Intel plans to cut 15%-20% of factory staff from July “to meet our affordability challenges and current financial position”  —  Intel plans to lay off up to a fifth of its factory workers, an enormous cutback that will have a profound effect on one of the chipmaker's core businesses.
Financial Times:

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Earlier Picks

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
New York Times:
Todd Spangler / Variety: