Techmeme
May 5, 2026, 4:50 PM

Top News

OpenAI:
OpenAI launches GPT-5.5 Instant, which it says is smarter, with more accurate and personalized responses, replacing GPT-5.3 Instant as ChatGPT's default model  —  We're updating ChatGPT's default model, available to everyone, to be smarter and more accurate, with clearer, more concise answers that feel better tailored to you.
Megan Morrone / Axios:
OpenAI says GPT-5.5 Instant produces 52.5% fewer hallucinated claims “on high-stakes prompts covering areas like medicine, law, and finance”  —  - GPT-5.5 Instant is rolling out to all ChatGPT users and to the API.  —  Enhanced personalization is initially for Plus and Pro on the web.
Bloomberg:
The US Commerce Department's CAISI says Google, Microsoft, and xAI join OpenAI and Anthropic in granting early access to evaluate models prior to public release  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google, Microsoft Corp. and xAI have agreed to give the US government early access to their artificial intelligence models …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Memo: Xbox CEO Asha Sharma overhauls the group's leadership, including bringing over executives from Microsoft's CoreAI engineering unit where she worked before  —  Microsoft Xbox CEO Asha Sharma told employees in a Tuesday memo that she's appointing new leaders, as the software company looks to return its video game unit to growth.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reuters:
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong announces the company is cutting ~700 jobs, or ~14% of its global workforce, to reduce costs, saying “AI is changing how we work”  —  Coinbase (COIN.O) said on Tuesday it will cut about 700 jobs, or about 14% of its global workforce …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple held exploratory talks with Intel and Apple executives visited a Samsung plant in Texas to explore producing core chips for its devices in the US  —  Apple Considers Using Intel, Samsung to Build Device Processors  —  Video Player is loading.  —  Unmute
Lola Murti / CNBC:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Meta is using AI on Facebook and Instagram to detect under-13 users by analyzing bone structure, height, and visual cues, but says it's “not facial recognition”  —  ‘We want to be clear: this is not facial recognition,’ Facebook says. … Facebook and Instagram have a new way to detect …
Alice Speri / The Guardian:
Letter: UK-based Google DeepMind workers voted to unionize with the Communication Workers Union and Unite in April, representing 1K+ staff, amid the US DOD deal  —  Exclusive: Worker pointed to Iran war and Pentagon's Anthropic feud as indications the department is ‘not a responsible partner’
Bloomberg:
Musk v. Altman: Greg Brockman testified about tense negotiations with Musk in 2017, saying “he knows rockets, he knows electric cars” but “does not know AI”  —  OpenAI President Greg Brockman testified that Elon Musk called a ChatGPT predecessor “stupid,” …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to let users choose from multiple third-party AI models to perform tasks like generating and editing text and images in iOS 27  —  Apple Inc. will let users choose from a range of outside artificial intelligence services to power features across its software …
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
Anthropic unveils 10 new AI agents for the financial sector, including for drafting pitch decks, reviewing financial statements, and escalating compliance cases  —  Anthropic PBC unveiled a set of new artificial intelligence agents designed to handle a broader mix of financial services tasks …
Alexandra Alter / New York Times:
Hachette, Macmillan, McGraw Hill, Elsevier, and Cengage, alongside novelist Scott Turow, file a class-action copyright lawsuit against Meta and Mark Zuckerberg  —  The class-action lawsuit accuses the tech giant and its founder and chief executive of infringing on authors' copyrights.
@mingchikuo:
Kuo: OpenAI appears to be fast-tracking its AI agent phone with two NPUs and a custom MediaTek Dimensity 9600 SoC, targeting mass production as early as H1 2027  —  【Industry Check Update】OpenAI appears to be fast-tracking its first AI agent phone, with mass production targeted as early as 1H27. Potential drivers include supporting a year-end IPO narrative and intensifying competition in AI agent phones. MediaTek currently appears better
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Pennsylvania sues Character.AI, alleging that one of its characters posed as a psychiatrist, as the state seeks to prevent chatbots from impersonating doctors  —  Pennsylvania has sued the artificial intelligence company behind Character.AI to stop its chatbot from posing as doctors.
Kyt Dotson / SiliconANGLE:
Subquadratic launches with a $29M seed and debuts SubQ, an LLM that uses a subquadratic sparse attention architecture to achieve a 12M-token context window  —  Subquadratic, a company developing a novel generative artificial intelligence model, launched today with $29 million in seed funding.
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Crypto exchange Bullish agrees to acquire UK-based financial services outsourcing business Equiniti from Siris Capital for $4.2B, set to close in January 2027  —  Bullish agreed to buy Equiniti from Siris Capital in a $4.2 billion deal, as the crypto exchange seeks to expand in blockchain-based capital markets infrastructure.
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Sources: Meta is building agentic tools, including an OpenClaw-like assistant powered by its new Muse Spark AI model to help users create AI bots  —  Social media platform invests in equivalent to OpenClaw that aims to seamlessly carry out everyday tasks for users
More: Reuters
Samantha Kelly / Bloomberg:
Match Group reports Q1 revenue up 4% YoY to $864M, vs. $855M est., as Tinder's new user registrations grew for the first time since 2024, up 1%  —  Match Group Inc. reported first-quarter revenue that beat analysts' estimates as a decline in Tinder users moderated, suggesting its turnaround strategy is resonating with younger daters.
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
a16z crypto raised $2.2B for its fifth fund, down from its record $4.5B Fund 4 in May 2022, taking its total capital raised across five funds to ~$9.8B  —  Quick Take  — a16z crypto has raised $2.2 billion for its fifth fund as the venture capital firm points to growing use of stablecoins …

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Earlier Picks

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Paige Smith / Bloomberg: