Google unveils Gemma 3, the “world's best single-accelerator model”, running on a single GPU, in 1B, 4B, 12B, and 27B sizes, and says it outperforms Llama-405B
Following version 1 in February 2024 and 2 in May, Google today announced Gemma 3 as its latest open model for developers.
Niantic Labs says it is selling its video game division, including Pokémon Go, to Saudi Arabia-owned developer Scopely for $3.5B, subject to regulatory approval
The $3.5 billion Scopely deal could bring Niantic's AR gaming catalog under Saudi ownership.
Thoughts on using LLMs for coding, which can often be difficult and unintuitive, and why “vibe coding” is a fantastic way to explore the capabilities of LLMs
Online discussions about using Large Language Models to help write code inevitably produce comments from developers who's experiences have been disappointing.
Sam Altman says OpenAI trained an AI model that is good at creative writing and shares a short story it wrote; he's “not sure yet how/when it will get released”
we trained a new model that is good at creative writing (not sure yet how/when it will get released). this is the first time i have been really struck by something written by AI; it got the vibe of me...
Sources: TSMC has pitched Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and Qualcomm about taking stakes in a JV to run Intel Foundry; TSMC would hold no more than a 50% stake
TSMC (2330.TW) has pitched U.S. chip designers Nvidia (NVDA.O), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) and Broadcom (AVGO.O) …
Google updates Chrome's extension rules to ban affiliate link injection without user action or benefit, after Honey allegedly stole creators' affiliate revenue
Honey was accused of shadily swapping out affiliate links, and now Google has new rules for extensions targeting exactly that.
Google DeepMind launches two AI models, Gemini 2.0-based Robotics and Robotics-ER, to help robots “perform a wider range of real-world tasks than ever before”
Gemini Robotics also makes robots more dexterous, allowing them to perform more precise tasks, like folding a piece of paper.
Filings: Google owns a 14% Anthropic stake but holds no voting rights, board seats, or board observer rights; Google aims to invest $750M more in September 2025
The internet giant owns 14% of the high-profile artificial intelligence company, according to legal filings obtained by The New York Times.
Mike Verdu, who joined Netflix in 2021 to launch its game offering and took on a new role as VP of Generative AI for games four months ago, has left the company
Plus: Some key changes for this year's Game Developers Conference — Mike Verdu, the executive who led Netflix's foray …
Niantic's $3.5B deal gives Scopely, acquired by Saudi-owned Savvy Games Group in 2023 for $4.9B, a total audience of 500M+ players, driven by Monopoly Go!
Financial Times :
Roomba maker iRobot warns of “substantial doubt” over its ability to continue operating, after Amazon abandoned a $1B+ takeover in January 2024; IRBT drops 35%+
IRobot Corp., the consumer robotics company that Amazon.com Inc. once planned to buy for more than $1 billion …
Binance says Abu Dhabi's MGX acquired a minority stake for $2B, the first institutional investment in the exchange and MGX's first entry into the crypto
Binance said Abu Dhabi's MGX has acquired a minority stake for $2 billion, the first institutional investment in the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.
Manus partners with Alibaba's Qwen to integrate Manus' AI agent functions with AI models and computing platforms in China and to collaborate on Qwen's AI models
China's Manus AI announced on Tuesday a strategic partnership with the team behind tech giant Alibaba's Qwen AI models …
Amazon, Google, and Meta join a World Nuclear Association statement, alongside Occidental, Dow, and others, to triple capacity by 2050; Microsoft didn't sign
Tech giants join banks in calling for new power stations to meet growing energy demands and combat climate change
Sources: Google is in final talks to acquire AdHawk Microsystems, a Canadian maker of eye-tracking tech, for $115M, including $15M in performance-based payments
Alphabet Inc.'s Google is in final talks to acquire AdHawk Microsystems Inc., a maker of eye-tracking technology, part of a renewed push into headsets and smart glasses.
Investigation: AI-powered student monitoring tool Gaggle, used to track ~6M US student, isn't always secure, and there's no research showing it increases safety
One student asked a search engine, “Why does my boyfriend hit me?” Another threatened suicide in an email to an unrequited love.
Sakana CEO David Ha says its AI CUDA Engineer “cheated” to speed up training by 100x and “preliminary results” show it “will be closer to the 10% to 100% level”
TOKYO — Sakana AI's announcement that its recent artificial intelligence breakthrough …
Bengaluru is becoming an AI talent hub as overseas startups compete with Big Tech; Bain & Co predicts India's AI talent gap will reach 1M workers by 2027
The San Francisco-based startup plans to hire more than 300 people for its AI, product and engineering teams at its Bangalore development center …
OpenAI debuts a Responses API to help developers build agents that search the web, scan for files, and perform tasks on PCs, and an Agents SDK for orchestration
But really, why isn't OpenAI building their own agents if their tech is so powerful? [embedded post] X: Atty Eleti / @athyuttamre : Introducing the Responses API: the new primitive of the OpenAI API. ...
A look at community apps like Kutumb mobilizing millions of Indians for politics, spreading disinformation, and inciting hate, beyond civil watchdogs' scrutiny
Away From Scrutiny, New Networking Apps Are Mobilising Millions of Indians For Politics, Disinformation and Hate. X: @anoophilip , @reporters_co , @majuli_chapori , @reporters_co , @adiroy_notkapur , ...
BeReal CEO Aymeric Roffe says Japan is now the photo sharing app's second-largest market with over 4.5M MAUs, 83% aged 14 to 27; BeReal has 40M users globally
TOKYO — BeReal is eager to expand in Japan's fast-growing and highly engaged market, said its CEO in an interview with Nikkei Asia.
Estonian startups aim to turn its thriving tech sector into a military-industrial complex, including making autonomous drones, as Europe boosts defense spending
The Baltic country hopes to turn its thriving tech sector into a military-industrial complex, and tap into rising European defense spending.
Mac Studio with M3 Ultra and 512GB of unified memory review: opens up new workflows on a ~$10,000 desktop, like running a quantized version of DeepSeek R1 671B
if confusing — performance magic Federico Viticci / MacStories : The M3 Ultra Mac Studio for Local LLMs Brandon Hill / Tom's Hardware : Apple Mac Studio review: M3 Ultra offers amazing performance, si...
The Senate approves Gail Slater, President Trump's pick to lead the DOJ's antitrust unit, by a 78-19 vote; she has been critical of power in the tech industry
for what it's worth, filling the job more than six months sooner than in the first Trump administration. @mrddmia : Statement on Bipartisan Senate Confirmation of Gail Slater as Assistant Attorney Gen...
India's largest telco Jio Platforms partners with SpaceX to offer Starlink in the country, just hours after rival Airtel announced a similar partnership
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch :
Spotify says it paid $10B+ in royalties in 2024, “the largest in music history”, making up 60%+ of its $17.13B+ 2024 revenue, with ~1,500 artists earning $1M+
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times :
After Palantir's stock jumped 350%+ in 2024, founder Alex Karp has sold $1.9B in shares since January 2024; VerityData says his PLTR holdings are worth $12.8B
Data intelligence group's chief cashed in on surging shares to make $1.9bn, behind only Meta's Mark Zuckerberg
A profile of Caroline Crenshaw, the lone Democratic SEC Commissioner, who is offering dissenting views as the regulator rolls back Biden-era crypto enforcement
Matthew Goldstein / New York Times :
Mesh raised an $82M Series B, settled mostly in PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin and led by Paradigm, to expand its stablecoin-based payments settlement network
Krisztian Sandor / CoinDesk :
Spain's government approves a bill, pending lower house assent, imposing fines of up to €35M or 7% of annual turnover on firms not labeling AI-generated content
David Latona / Reuters :
A look at UK fintechs Revolut and Monzo's push to expand in the US, where they face steep challenges in a complex regulatory environment and strong competition
Akila Quinio / Financial Times :
Ditto, which aims to enable “resilient” edge device connectivity, raised an $82M Series B at a $462M post-money valuation, after a $45M Series A in April 2023
Ditto, a company that's setting out to bring “resilient” connectivity to edge devices, has raised $82 million …
Deliveroo exits Hong Kong after tough competition from Foodpanda and Meituan's Keeta, which has expanded to Saudi Arabia, with 1M weekly users, per Sensor Tower
Bloomberg :
Alibaba demos R1-Omni, an open-source model that its Tongyi Lab researchers say can read emotions, building on HumanOmni, in a bid to compete with OpenAI
In two demonstrations, Alibaba's Tongyi Lab researchers showed their new open source R1-Omni inferring the emotional state of a person …
Delivery Hero says Uber has terminated its $950M deal to acquire Foodpanda in Taiwan and will pay a ~$250M termination fee after Taiwan's FTC blocked the deal
Source: Anthropic's annualized revenue grew from $1B at the end of 2024 to $1.4B in early March; Manus uses tools including Claude 3.7 Sonnet to power its agent
The Information :
Cartesia, which is developing real-time generative AI models for voice AI, raised a $64M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins, taking its total funding to $91M
Allie Garfinkle / Fortune :
OpusClip, which offers a multimodal AI tool to simplify short-form video editing for creators, raised $20M led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $215M valuation
Riddhi Kanetkar / Business Insider :
Sources: self-driving simulation software maker Applied Intuition is in talks to raise hundreds of millions at a $15B valuation, and reached $400M ARR in 2024
The Information :
After tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft made huge bets on AI, the gadget boom that started with the launch of Alexa in 2014 has largely fizzled
Go ahead and guess how likely I am to buy another piece of Amazon branded hardware that isn't a e-reader? [embedded post] Forums: Misk To / Beehaw : Gadget Boom Fizzles Amid AI Hoopla: 'It's a Bloodba...
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.