Google DeepMind and Isomorphic Labs detail AlphaFold 3, an AI model to predict interactions and structures of proteins, DNA, RNA, more, beating many top methods  —  AlphaFold 3 aims to reveal biological secrets and boost drug search efforts  —  Google DeepMind has unveiled …

Microsoft plans to invest $3.3B to build a data center in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, and train locals, alongside investing in a University of Wisconsin AI lab  —  Company has been on a global spending spree, trying to build infrastructure and goodwill for artificial intelligence

OpenAI publishes Model Spec, which specifies how its models should behave, including objectives, rules, and default behaviors, and asks the public for feedback  —  OpenAI isn't done trying to live up to the “open” in its name.  —  While not making any of its new models open source …

A look at potential successors to Tim Cook; sources say Apple's hardware engineering chief John Ternus is the most likely long-term successor  —  John Ternus, the head of hardware engineering, is emerging as a potential successor to the CEO.  —  Tim Cook has transformed Apple Inc. since taking …

The US Commerce Department revokes some export licenses that let companies ship chips and other goods to Huawei, affecting Intel and, sources say, also Qualcomm  —  Move marks latest effort by Biden administration to target the country's tech sector  —  The Biden administration …

Apple's iPad Pro ad “Crush”, which shows paints, toys, guitars, sculptures, and more being crushed to reveal the thin device, draws criticism on social media  —  The minute-long Apple ad showing art equipment and materials being crushed down into the new iPad Pro is being called heartbreaking, wanton, and creepy.

Airbnb reports Q1 revenue up 18% YoY to $2.14B, vs. $2.06B est., Nights and Experiences Booked up 9.5% to 132.6M, and forecasts Q2 revenue below expectations  —  In this photo illustration, the Airbnb logo is displayed on a computer monitor and cell phone on February 13, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.

Sources: US prosecutors are examining if Tesla committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers about Autopilot and Full Self-Driving  —  U.S. prosecutors are examining whether Tesla (TSLA.O) committed securities or wire fraud by misleading investors and consumers …

Ofcom proposes new rules requiring tech companies to change their algorithms to hide “toxic” material from children, have more robust age checks, and more  —  Ofcom has warned social media sites they could be named and shamed - and banned for under-18s - if they fail to comply with new online safety rules.

Shopify reports Q1 revenue up 23% YoY to $1.9B, GMV up 23% YoY to $60.9B, and expects gross margins to drop by ~50 basis points YoY in Q2; SHOP plummets 18%+  —  - Gross margins in current quarter are expected to narrow  — President: ‘This is how you achieve long-term durable growth’

Arm reports Q4 revenue up 47% YoY to $928M, vs. $875.6M est., royalty revenue up 37%, and forecasts FY 2025 revenue below expectations  —  Chip designer Arm Holdings (O9Ty.F), gave a fiscal first-quarter revenue forecast on Wednesday that beat Wall Street's expectations, but its full-year forecast was below expectations.

Uber reports Q1 revenue up 15% YoY to $10.1B, Gross Bookings up 20% YoY to $37.7B, below $38B est., and adjusted EBITDA up 82% YoY to $1.4B; UBER falls 5%+  —  - Bookings growth still tops 20% on rides, order frequency gains  — Operating profit falls on anticipated legal fees, settlements

Robinhood reports Q1 revenue up 40% YoY to $618M, vs. $549M est., crypto transaction revenue up 232% to $126M, net income of $157M, vs. a net loss of $511M YoY  —  Shares of Robinhood rose in extended trading Wednesday afternoon after the retail brokerage announced stronger-than-expected first-quarter results.

The Connectivity Standards Alliance releases Matter 1.3, adding support for more appliances, energy and water management, and new casting protocol features  —  The latest Matter spec brings a number of improvements to the smart home standard founded by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung.

Instacart Q1: revenue up 8% YoY to $820M, vs. $794.5M est., gross transaction value up 11% to $8.32B; CFO Nick Giovanni is retiring, replaced by Emily Reuter  —  - Emily Reuter named CFO after joining Instacart six months ago  — Instacart reports better-than-expected first-quarter results

An investigation into AdVon, the company behind Sports Illustrated's fake writers, finds its AI content and fake authors at the LA Times, Miami Herald, and more  —  Remember that AI company behind Sports Illustrated's fake writers?  We did some digging — and it's got tendrils into other surprisingly prominent publications.

Sources: the US Commerce Department is considering a new regulatory push to restrict the export of proprietary or closed source AI models to China  —  The Biden administration is poised to open up a new front in its effort to safeguard U.S. AI from China with preliminary plans …

US hospital operator Ascension reports disruptions to its clinical operations due to a suspected cybersecurity incident and engages Mandiant to help investigate  —  Hospital operator Ascension reported disruptions to its clinical operations on Wednesday due to a suspected cybersecurity incident …

Google says “rare issues at Google Cloud” caused a week-long private cloud outage at UniSuper, an Australian pension fund for the education and research sectors  —  Google problems resulting in an inadvertent misconfiguration of UniSuper's systems

Microsoft plans to add an auto-complete feature to Copilot for Microsoft 365 in the coming months that offers suggestions to add details to improve AI prompts  —  Microsoft is attempting to solve the problem of coming up with a good prompt for generative AI, aiming to turn everyone into a prompt engineer.

Disney and WBD announce a streaming bundle of Disney+, Hulu, and Max, with ad-supported and ad-free plans, beginning this summer in the US, with pricing to come  —  Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are breaking ground in streaming with a bundled offering featuring Disney+, Hulu and Max in a single package.

Filing: Orlando-based lidar manufacturer Luminar says Tesla was its “largest LiDAR customer in Q1”, contributing 10%+ of its revenue, or ~$2.1M for the quarter  —  Elon Musk previously dismissed the laser sensor as a ‘crutch’ and said that any company relying on lidar to power self-driving was ‘doomed.’

An investigation finds a vast web of fake shops run from China touting designer brands that duped 800K+ people in Europe and the US into sharing personal data  —  Exclusive: Vast web of fake shops touting designer brands took money and personal details from 800,000 people in Europe and US, data suggests

The UK is investigating “potential failings” at IT contractor SSCL, which was breached by suspected Chinese hackers to expose payroll records for 272K people  —  Grant Shapps announces investigation into attack by ‘malign actor’ that targeted up to 270,000 military personnel records

Bluesky details its product roadmap: an off-protocol DM system to facilitate one-on-one chats, improved custom feeds, anti-harassment tools, and video support  —  Bluesky has launched a new product roadmap for the coming months.  The decentralized social network said on Tuesday that it is planning …

Sources: OpenAI has been aggressively trying to poach Google employees for a team working on a ChatGPT feature to search the web and show results with citations  —  OpenAI is developing a search engine for ChatGPT, giving users the ability to crawl the web for answers to their questions, Bloomberg reports.

Samsung Electronics' medical device unit Samsung Medison plans to acquire Paris-based Sonio, which makes AI-powered ultrasound workflows software, for ~$92.7M  —  Samsung Medison, a medical device unit of Samsung Electronics that specializes in developing diagnostic imaging devices …