Sources: Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin since late 2022; Putin asked Musk to not activate Starlink in Taiwan as a favor to Xi Jinping
Regular contacts between world's richest man and America's chief antagonist raise security concerns; topics include geopolitics, business and personal matters
Source: OpenAI plans to launch its next flagship model, codenamed Orion, by December, rolling it out in phases starting with the company's trusted partners
OpenAI plans to launch Orion, its next frontier model, by December, The Verge has learned. — Unlike the release of OpenAI's last two models …
UnitedHealth says over 100M people had their data stolen in the February ransomware attack on Change Healthcare, the largest-ever US healthcare data breach
UnitedHealth has confirmed for the first time that over 100 million people had their personal information and healthcare data stolen …
Apple makes its Private Cloud Compute Virtual Research Environment publicly available for researchers, adds bounties for Private Cloud Compute vulnerabilities
Private Cloud Compute is a cloud intelligence system that Apple designed for private artificial intelligence processing …
Waymo closed a $5.6B Series C led by Alphabet to expand its robotaxi service in and beyond LA, San Francisco, and Phoenix, bringing its total funding to $11.1B
Waymo has closed a $5.6 billion funding round to expand its robotaxi service in and beyond Los Angeles, San Francisco and Phoenix, where it operates today.
Microsoft launches Black Ops 6, the first Call of Duty game to debut on Xbox Game Pass, in the biggest test of its gaming strategy since acquiring Activision
Tech giant hopes ‘Black Ops 6’ will boost Game Pass subscription service as Xbox sales decline — Microsoft is seeking to boost …
Arkham Intelligence: hackers returned $19.3M of $20M+ worth of crypto they stole from US government-controlled wallet on Thursday
A government-controlled wallet that had been drained of $20 million on Thursday received most of its funds back Friday, adding another layer of mystery …
Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas says the AI-powered search engine now serves 100M queries each week; in July, Perplexity said it was serving 250M per month
Aravind Srinivas, the CEO of Perplexity, says that the AI-powered search engine is now performing 100 million queries each week.
Sources: Meta strikes a multi-year deal with Reuters to use its news content to provide real-time answers to user queries in Meta AI chatbot, a first for Meta
- Meta has backed away from news content in its platforms' main feeds amid regulatory scrutiny, but news content may prove harder …
LinkedIn says it has verified 55M+ users for free, the most verified individual human identities of any social network, to combat AI-fueled misinformation
LinkedIn has verified more than 55 million of its users, for free, in order to combat the spread of misinformation fueled by the rise …
Filing: Satya Nadella earned $79.1M during the FY ending June 30, up from $48.5M a year ago; compensation was reduced by $5M+ due to Microsoft's security issues
but his total compensation still went up more than $30 million Rocio Fabbro / Quartz : Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella asked for a pay cut — but he still made more than before Kaustubh Bagalkote / Benzing...
A look at the fight over valuable social media accounts when couples divorce; data: 44% of 27M paid US content creators say social media is their full-time job
When couples who make their living online split up, assessing the accounts' future value and divvying them up fairly is a drag
Source: TSMC's US division president said during a webinar that production yields in Arizona are 4 percentage points higher than at similar facilities in Taiwan
Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg :
Apple SVP Greg Joswiak says “we have an exciting week of announcements ahead, starting on Monday morning”; rumors suggest new M4-powered Macs
https://www.macrumors.com/... X: Greg Joswiak / @gregjoz : Mac (😉) your calendars! We have an exciting week of announcements ahead, starting on Monday morning. Stay tuned... [video] Mark Gurman / @mar...
Replying to an X post linking to a report on OpenAI planning to launch its next frontier model Orion by December, Sam Altman says “fake news out of control”
The Verge last night published an exclusive and seemingly well researched and sourced report (it's great in my opinion …
In a post, Perplexity criticizes media companies that have sued over AI, saying they wish AI tools didn't exist and prefer that corporations own reported facts
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch :
A look at the dispute between Arm and Qualcomm, whose relationship soured after Qualcomm became one of the main opponents to Nvidia's attempted Arm acquisition
A licensing dispute clouds an important chip industry partnership — On paper, Arm and Qualcomm look like natural allies …
Bluesky says it has 13M+ users, has raised a $15M Series A led by Blockchain Capital, and plans a subscription for features like higher quality video uploads
But Says No to Tokens Kris Holt / Engadget : Bluesky's upcoming premium plan won't give paid users special treatment Matt Novak / Gizmodo : Bluesky Teases Creator Payments While New Sign-Ups Explode A...
Filing: Microsoft puts an “assessment of investing in bitcoin” as a voting item for its December 10 shareholder meeting; its board recommends voting against it
☒ — No fee required — ☐ — Fee paid previously with preliminary materials Jez Corden / Windows Central : Is Microsoft about to jump on the bitcoin train? Microsoft will give shareholders a vote ...
Google will add an AI info section in the image details view of Google Photos, for images edited with tools like Magic Editor and Magic Eraser
Chris Welch / The Verge :
Chinese self-driving firm WeRide raised $120M in its US IPO at a $4.21B valuation, and sold 7.7M shares at $15.50 a piece, the lower end of its targeted range
Notion previews Mail, an email client that uses AI to organize, archive, or draft emails and handle scheduling and follow-ups, saying it is “coming soon”
the most dramatic new feature releases from @NotionHQ in one day... ever! I cover th big ones in the video below. ✉️ Notion Mail is officially announced as coming soon! 🗒️ Plus Notion Forms + Layouts ...
Meta debuts “quantized” versions of Llama 3.2 1B and 3B models, designed to run on low-powered devices and developed in collaboration with Qualcomm and MediaTek
so today we're releasing new quantized versions of Llama 3.2 1B & 3B that deliver up to 2-4x increases in inference speed and, on average, 56% reduction in model size, and 41% reduction in memory foot...
Anthropic launches an analysis tool to help Claude write and run JavaScript code, perform calculations, and analyze data from files, in preview
the analysis tool! Claude can now write and run JavaScript to analyze CSVs, and then visualize the results with an Artifact. Check it out! https://www.anthropic.com/... Tibor Blaho / @btibor91 : Anthr...
A profile of and an interview with CISA Director Jen Easterly, as the agency ramps up efforts to protect the US elections from cyberattacks and misinformation
Max Ufberg / Fast Company :
A US federal judge allows 150+ cases from school districts against Meta, Google, and Snap alleging their apps contributed to students' mental health crisis
Isaiah Poritz / Bloomberg :
Raspberry Pi unveils the Raspberry Pi AI HAT+ in 13 and 26 TOPS versions in partnership with Hailo, after announcing branded SSDs, micro SD cards, and a bumper
Les Pounder / Tom's Hardware :
Identity verification service provider Socure agrees to acquire Effectiv, which helps businesses manage fraud prevention tools, for $136M in cash and equity
Emily Mason / Bloomberg :
A look at the White House's big bet on Intel; sources: Gina Raimondo urged companies to order Intel's US chips, but most favored TSMC's more advanced techniques
New York Times :
Q&A with Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on AI slop, the company's partnerships with Google and OpenAI, content moderation during an election year, and more
What makes Reddit a gold mine for AI models, he says, is all of the human-led content on its variety of forums
The UK CMA opens a phase one merger probe into chip designer Synopsys' $35B takeover of 3D design software maker Ansys due to competition concerns
Katharine Gemmell / Bloomberg :
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.