The Bar
OpenAI staff flagged a mass shooting suspect. The company decided it "didn't meet the bar." On the same day, we learned half its users are under 24, it's building a smartphone, and it's targeting $600 billion.
Phil Spencer will retire after 38 years at Microsoft; Asha Sharma, the president of product in Microsoft's Core AI business, will become the CEO of gaming
Microsoft's head of gaming, Phil Spencer, is leaving the software maker following a 38-year tenure, as the company's Xbox business faces increased challenges.
Google is ending Gmailify and POP access in Gmail; new users will lose access in Q1 2026, and existing users will keep both features until later in 2026
If you have multiple email accounts, your Gmail setup may soon need some reorganizing. — Google giveth, and Google taketh away.
Open source projects like VLC and Blender are seeing a decline in the average quality of contributions, likely as AI coding tools lower barriers to entry
A world that runs on increasingly powerful AI coding tools is one where software creation is cheap — or so the thinking goes …
Interviews with Cluely's Roy Lee, Donald Boat, and other highly “agentic” young men, as agency becomes more valuable than technical skills in Silicon Valley
Tech's new generation and the end of thinking … Cluely and its co-founder Chungin “Roy” Lee were intensely, and intentionally, controversial.
Sources: OpenAI staff raised concerns about a Canadian mass shooting suspect months ago; OpenAI says her activity didn't meet the bar for reporting to police
ChatGPT maker opted against informing authorities about Jesse Van Rootselaar's descriptions of violence last June
Anthropic launches Claude Code Security, which “scans codebases for security vulnerabilities and suggests targeted software patches”; cybersecurity stocks fall
Shares of cybersecurity software companies tumbled Friday after Anthropic PBC introduced a new security feature into its Claude AI model.
Pinterest users, especially artists, say the platform has gotten worse in the past year due to AI moderation, AI-generated art, and AI features
Users are exhausted fighting AI moderation, AI-generated art, and AI-first features. — Pinterest has gone all in on artificial intelligence and users say it's destroying the site.
English-language Wikipedia bans Archive.today after editors discover it was used to direct a DDoS attack and tampered with snapshots; 695K+ links to be removed
The English-language edition of Wikipedia is blacklisting Archive.today after the controversial archive site was used to direct …
A look at the fundamental questions facing OpenAI: its models have a very large user base but very narrow engagement, incumbents are matching its tech, and more
“Jakub and Mark set the research direction for the long run. Then after months of work, something incredible emerges …
NanoClaw and other “claws”, smaller OpenClaw-like systems that can run on personal hardware, form a new layer running on top of agents that run on LLMs
Bought a new Mac mini to properly tinker with claws over the weekend. The apple store person told me they are selling like hotcakes and everyone is confused :) I'm definitely a bit sus'd to run OpenCl...
An interview with Notion CEO Ivan Zhao on Custom Notion AI agents launching in the coming week, over 50% of Notion databases now being built by agents, and more
CEO Ivan Zhao on the company's big custom agents launch, changing its business model for AI, hiring a 16-year-old engineer, and more.
Sources: OpenAI is telling investors it's targeting ~$600B in total compute spend by 2030, months after Sam Altman touted $1.4T in infrastructure commitments
OpenAI is telling investors that it's now targeting roughly $600 billion in total compute spend by 2030, months …
How Claude Code, released publicly a year ago, cemented Anthropic as a leader in the lucrative, emerging market for AI coding tools
Anthropic released Claude Code a year ago, forcing other rivals to play catch-up. — Even Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei was surprised …
Google announces a partnership with Sea to develop AI tools for Sea's Shopee, Southeast Asia's most dominant e-commerce platform, and Sea's gaming unit Garena
Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google and Southeast Asian technology conglomerate Sea Ltd (SE.N) announced a new tie-up on Thursday …
President Trump signs an EO to continue the suspension of the de minimis exemption, despite the SCOTUS' ruling that overturned most of Trump's 2025 tariffs
The president signed an executive order implementing 10 percent global tariffs after calling the justices who struck down his signature trade policy a “disgrace.”
Bengaluru-based Sarvam, which is building AI models for local languages, launches its Indus chat app in beta, powered by its Sarvam 105B model
Sarvam, an Indian AI startup focused on building models for local languages and users, on Friday launched its Indus chat app for web and mobile users …
The US launches the Tech Corps, a program under the Peace Corps to send volunteers abroad to promote American AI, as the US competes with China for AI dominance
Washington to send volunteers abroad to promote American AI models as Chinese open-weight models are proving popular.
India joins Pax Silica, a US-led initiative that aims to build secure supply chains for semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, and critical technologies
Peak XV, which split from Sequoia in 2023, raised $1.3B across new India- and Asia-focused funds, bringing its total assets under management to over $10B
Claude's C Compiler shows AI elevates the role of human judgment and vision; it's a milestone, but closely mirrors LLVM/GCC, and hard codes things to pass tests
Code Metal, which uses AI to let engineers translate legacy code into modern languages, raised a $125M Series B led by Salesforce Ventures at a $1.25B valuation
A US judge rejects Tesla's bid to overturn a $243M jury verdict over a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash, a blow for Tesla as it faces a growing wave of lawsuits
Sources: Google may invest $100M in Fluidstack at a $7.5B valuation and has backstopped crypto miners that are building datacenters, seeking to expand TPU use
Avantos, which makes an AI-native client management system for financial institutions, raised a $25M Series A led by Bessemer, taking its total funding to $35M
Sources: OpenAI has 200+ people working on AI devices, including a smart speaker with a camera costing $200 to $300, possibly smart glasses and a smart lamp
OpenAI has more than 200 people working on a family of AI-powered devices that will include a smart speaker and possibly smart glasses …
Pepper, which offers a digital storefront for independent food distributors, raised a $50M Series C led by Lead Edge Capital, taking its total funding to $100M
OpenAI says users aged 18 to 24 account for nearly 50% and under-30s represent 80% of ChatGPT messages in India; 35% of chats are related to professional tasks
Google rolls out Gemini 3.1 Pro, which it says is “a step forward in core reasoning”, for all users in the Gemini app; the .1 increment is a first for Google
Xbox President Sarah Bond, long thought to be Phil Spencer's heir, is leaving; Xbox Game Studios head Matt Booty is promoted to Chief Content Officer
Spencer's run with Xbox ends just months shy of the brand's 25th anniversary. — Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer …
Microsoft Gaming CEO Asha Sharma says she is committed to “the return of Xbox” and that the company won't “flood our ecosystem with soulless AI slop”
She's promising “The return of Xbox.” … Microsoft gaming boss Phil Spencer has just announced he's leaving …
Source: OpenAI is projecting that its revenue will exceed $280B in 2030; last month, OpenAI said its annualized revenue grew to $20B+ in 2025
Shirin Ghaffary /Bloomberg:
Tech stocks rose slightly from their morning lows on Friday after the Supreme Court ruled that Trump lacked the authority to impose sweeping global tariffs
what it means for AppleMichael Kan /PCMag:Supreme Court Kills Trump's Reciprocal Tariffs. Will Companies Get Reimbursed?Piero Cingari /Benzinga:Supreme Court Rules Against Trump's Tariffs: These 10 St...