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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” -
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 -
New York Times: Sources: the Trump administration is discussing an EO to form an AI working group that would examine AI oversight procedures, like vetting models before release -
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 -
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” -
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 -
Lola Murti / CNBC: Intel's stock jumps 12%+ and hits a new all-time high on a report that Apple has had early-stage talks with Intel to produce chips for Apple's devices in the US -
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” -
Foo Yun Chee / Reuters: Meta says it will expand Instagram teen account safeguards to 27 EU countries, and plans to roll them out on Facebook in the US ahead of the UK and EU in June -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
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 -
John Reynolds / Tech.eu: ElevenLabs raised $550M+ in its Series D, up from a previously announced $500M, adding BlackRock, Nvidia, and others as investors; its ARR passed $500M in Q1 -
Counterpoint Research: In Q1, the iPhone 17 was the world's best-selling smartphone, with 6% of global sales; the iPhone 17 Pro Max and 17 Pro were 2nd and 3rd, and Galaxy A07 was 4th -
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: The FTC will ban data broker Kochava and its subsidiary CDS from selling Americans' location data as part of a settlement over charges brought in 2022 -
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 -
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 -
Liv McMahon / BBC: Aylo says it will restore Pornhub access in the UK, but only for users who have verified their age via iOS 26.4's device-level age verification system -
New! Sara Fischer / Axios: OpenAI rolls out a beta version of its new Ads Manager tool to advertisers in the US, making it easier for SMBs to buy ChatGPT ads on a cost-per-click basis -
John Gruber / Daring Fireball: Source: YC owns ~0.6% of OpenAI, which was seeded by a YC offshoot called YC Research in 2016; at OpenAI's current $852B valuation, the stake is worth $5B+ -
Ram Iyer / TechCrunch: Seattle-based CopilotKit, whose popular AG-UI protocol lets developers deploy app-native AI agents, raised a $27M Series A led by Glilot, NFX, and SignalFire -
Natasha Mascarenhas / Bloomberg: Sao Paulo-based Enter, which uses AI to handle litigation for companies like Airbnb, raised $100M led by Founders Fund at a $1.2B valuation -
Paige Smith / Bloomberg: PayPal reports Q1 revenue up 7% YoY to $8.4B and plans $1.5B+ in savings over the next 2-3 years, a source says including a ~20% workforce cut; PYPL drops 10%+ -
Ignacio Gonzalez / Bloomberg: Shopify reports Q1 revenue up 34% YoY to $3.17B, above $3.12B est., GMV up 35% YoY to $100.74B, and forecasts slower Q2 revenue growth; SHOP drops 10%+ -
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 -
Nikkei Asia: Sources: China targets 70%+ of silicon wafers that its chipmakers use to be made domestically by 2026's end, and has an unspoken mandate to use local 12" wafers -
Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal: RadixArk, led by former xAI employee Ying Sheng, raised a $100M seed at a $400M valuation to make AI inference more efficient via its open-source SGLang engine