YouTube rolls out tools for microdramas, an AI storytelling assistant for script analysis, video A/B-testing, and more, as it battles Netflix over top creators  —  Google-owned platform rolling out better tools for digital producers that could help it keep more of their content exclusively

Google releases Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS, its “most expressive audio generation models yet”, with support for more than 100 languages  —  Gemini 3.8 Flash TTS and Gemini 3.8 Flash-Lite TTS are our most expressive audio generation models yet.

Q&A with Jensen Huang on AI creating more jobs than it destroys, pushing back against AI doomerism, Chinese open models, the Hugging Face acquisition, and more  —  This is an edited transcript of “The Ezra Klein Show.”  You can listen to the episode wherever you get your podcasts.

Patreon co-founder Sam Yam says he is joining OpenAI to lead Creator Product, alongside Patreon's Head of Product Drew Rowny and Head of Engineering Shannon Ma  —  1/ I'm joining @OpenAI to lead Creator Product after over 13 years since starting @Patreon. Coming with me are my favorite crew Drew Rowny and Shannon Ma, Patreon's (now former) Head of Product and Head of Engineering. We're going to build together with Creators at OpenAI and share early access to ...

Disney raises Disney+ and Hulu prices, the fourth price hike in as many years; the ad-free tiers will each cost $21.49/month, an increase of $2.50  —  Subscribing to a bundle is now almost exactly half the price of individual plans for each streamer.

The US criticizes Australia's digital duty-of-care proposal, which has a provision that would require social media platforms to let users opt out of algorithms  —  The US government criticized Australia's plan to clamp down on social media algorithms and harmful content online …

Discord is rolling out its updated age-verification policy this week, sorting users into either the Adult or Teen group based on account age, activity, and more  —  It will offer several privacy-focused options for users who aren't automatically confirmed as adults.

At its Accelerate conference, Amazon says it is opening its seller tools to third-party AI agents, starting with Claude, in beta for US merchants  —  Amazon announced new AI tools for its independent sellers Wednesday, led by a plugin that lets them run their Amazon businesses from Anthropic's Claude or Amazon's own Quick assistant.

Sources and Nscale's US SEC filings: ByteDance accounted for nearly 75% of Nscale's sales in 2025 and used Nscale's facility in Norway to access Nvidia AI chips  —  Chinese tech giant was AI cloud provider's largest customer last year but is not prominently named in pitch to stock market investors

Gallup survey of 37 countries: in 34, positive AI sentiment outweighed the negative; 90%+ of people in China and 66%+ in Nigeria say AI will improve daily life  —  A Gallup poll found that a majority of people surveyed across 37 countries said they were curious or excited about artificial intelligence, more than scared or worried.

Pilgrim, whose device combines air sampling and genomic sequencing to detect biological threats, raised a $25M seed led by Buckley at a $150M valuation  —  Pilgrim has raised $25 million and has developed a 50-pound device that detects biological threats  —  Two Anthropic leaders are investing …

Sources: China's SASAC, which oversees state-owned companies, is surveying the number of Broadcom switches in state-backed data centers amid a domestic AI drive  —  Survey comes amid drive to boost domestic players and reduce reliance on foreign AI infrastructure

OpenAI says it will give its AI cyber defense system Daybreak and GPT-5.6 Sol to the Ukrainian government for free to help it protect civilian infrastructure  —  The tech giant OpenAI will share its AI cyber defence system Daybreak for free with the Ukraine government to help …

Seattle-based satellite startup Hubble, which is working to enable global Bluetooth connectivity, raised $200M at a $1.6B valuation, for $300M in total funding  —  Satellite startup Hubble Network raised $200 million in a new funding round, taking the company's valuation to $1.6 billion …

Anthropic and OpenEvidence partner to offer a specialized version of OpenEvidence's AI search tool for physicians in about 100 low- and middle-income countries  —  Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic and medical knowledge platform OpenEvidence are collaborating to bring AI-powered …

Ema, which uses AI agents to automate corporate processes across HR, IT, and finance, raised a $77M Series B led by Creaegis, taking its total funding to $140M  —  Ema, a startup that uses teams of AI agents to automate corporate processes across HR, IT, and finance, has raised $77 million …

The UK CMA proposes rules requiring Google and Android OEMs to offer search choice screens on first use and via yearly prompts, new AI assistant rules, and more  —  It would also require smartphone makers to give users a choice of AI assistants.  —  The UK's Competition and Markets Authority …

A Facebook co-founder proposes creating an “Office of AI Supervision” to embed teams inside frontier AI labs, with a three-year term to avoid regulatory capture  —  Both industries change rapidly and reach throughout the economy, requiring officials to weigh the benefits of innovation against risks

Bessemer raised $5.75B, allocating $4B to growth-stage funding, including young companies raising large rounds at high valuations, and $1.75B for early-stage  —  Bessemer Venture Partners is set to announce $5.75 billion in fresh funding to support a broader shift towards more growth stage investments …

Anthropic reported disrupting a Beijing-aligned operation to monitor religious leaders and diaspora communities, including a DC-based advocacy group for Tibet  —  Anthropic uncovers a Beijing-aligned operation targeting my organization among other dissidents.

A profile of Noah Shinn, founder of AI assistant Instinct, who soft-launched it as an invite-only site for VCs and is reportedly fundraising at a $10B valuation  —  Noah Shinn was publishing influential AI research before he graduated from college.  Now, at the ripe age of 23, he's taking on Mark Zuckerberg.

ShinyHunters claims it used an Oracle PeopleSoft zero-day to hack FBI-related services and steal employee and applicant data, and also defaced the FBI jobs site  —  A sample of 5,000 alleged agents seen by 404 Media includes names, addresses, phone numbers, and details on FBI employees' spouses.

Sony Music becomes the first music company to join ARIAM, which advocates for responsible AI adoption in the creative industry and includes the NYT and Disney  —  Sony Music Group has joined the Alliance for Responsible Innovation in the Arts & Media (ARIAM), becoming the first music company …

London-based AI life sciences startup Basecamp Research raised a $140M Series C led by S32, with participation from Anthropic, taking its total funding to $225M  —  Basecamp says it will use the funding to train a new generation of its AI models.  —  A UK life sciences startup using AI …

Carnegie China: China passed the US as the top destination for elite AI talent in 2025, rising from 2022's 27.1% share to 40.6%; the US fell from 46.4% to 34.2%  —  Chinese AI researchers have increasingly opted to stay and work in their home country, leading China to become the top destination …

NADI, a new DARPA-like Dutch government agency, launches a €40M challenge to accelerate chip design with AI in collaboration with its German counterpart SPRIND  —  A new Dutch government agency set up to achieve strategic innovation will work with its German counterpart to pursue breakthroughs …

Six major banks, including BofA and Capital One, warn that increased autonomy for agentic commerce chatbots could lead to more scams, fraud, and disputes  —  Agentic commerce could increase the amount of scams, fraud and disputes, the banks warn in a new report.