The $6 Million Precedent
A Los Angeles jury awarded $6 million to one plaintiff. Meta lost roughly $150 billion in market cap. The ratio — 25,000 to 1 — is the story. Two juries in two states, on two different legal theories, both found liability this week. The verdicts are small. The precedent is not.
Social media addiction trial: an LA jury finds Meta and YouTube were negligent and failed to warn users on the dangers of their platforms; both plan to appeal
A jury in Los Angeles determined on Wednesday that Meta and Google's YouTube were negligent and failed to warn users of the dangers associated …
Sources: Apple plans to open up Siri to run any AI service via App Store apps in iOS 27, dropping ChatGPT as exclusive partner in Apple Intelligence and Siri
Apple Inc. plans to open Siri to outside artificial intelligence assistants, a major move aimed at bolstering the iPhone as an AI platform.
Apple discontinues the Mac Pro and says it has no plans to offer future Mac Pro hardware
It's the end of an era: Apple has confirmed to 9to5Mac that the Mac Pro is being discontinued. It is being removed from Apple's website as of Thursday afternoon. The “buy” page on Apple's website …
The $6M LA social media verdict is a win for the plaintiffs bar, not kids or society; parenting helps mitigate the harms and most kids don't face severe issues
and, crucially, that both Meta & Google knew their products did this and didn't change anything. And buried the proof. And lied.@moonchilerose:Can two things not be true at once?@chinatowndjake:It nev...
Source: Meta on Wednesday laid off around 700 employees in the Reality Labs unit, as well as some in recruiting, sales, and Facebook
Meta on Wednesday laid off around 700 employees, a person with knowledge of the company said, the latest downsizing …
Google launches Gemini 3.1 Flash Live, an audio model with improved tonal understanding and lower latency for real-time dialogue, watermarked with SynthID
Our latest voice model has improved precision and lower latency to make voice interactions more fluid, natural and precise.
OpenAI shelves its erotic chatbot “indefinitely” as it refocuses on its core products, sources say after technical issues as well as staff and investor concerns
Decision follows staff and investor concerns about sexual AI content — OpenAI has shelved plans to release an erotic chatbot …
Netflix raises US prices following a January 2025 hike; standard with ads rises $1 to $8.99/month; standard with no ads and premium rise $2 to $19.99 and $26.99
Netflix, for the second time in a little over a year, is raising prices for its three plans in the U.S. The new pricing …
Pony AI reports 2025 revenue up 20% YoY to $90M, total annual losses down 72% YoY to $76.8M, and a $75.5M net income in Q4, marking its first profitable quarter
Pony AI Inc. delivered its first profitable quarter ever, bolstered by a windfall from an early investment, rather than its main robotaxi business.
A US federal judge dismisses X's antitrust lawsuit that accused the World Federation of Advertisers and a group of major companies of illegally boycotting X
A U.S. judge on Thursday dismissed X Corp's antitrust lawsuit that accused the World Federation of Advertisers and a group …
Fannie Mae will accept crypto-backed mortgages for the first time; Coinbase launches a mortgage product allowing buyers to pledge bitcoin or USDC as collateral
New offering from Better Home & Finance and Coinbase allows home buyers to pledge bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies when making a down payment
Apple expands its American Manufacturing Program, adding Bosch, Cirrus Logic, TDK, and Qnity Electronics to make components in the US for products sold globally
Apple announced a significant expansion of its American Manufacturing Program on Thursday, bringing four new partners — Bosch …
Google releases new tools for its Gemini AI assistant that let users upload chat history and context from other AI apps, making it easier to switch from them
Google released new tools for its Gemini artificial intelligence assistant that will let users upload chat history and context from other AI apps …
Sources: Apple granted out-of-cycle bonuses worth several hundred thousand dollars to iPhone hardware designers, as OpenAI and others poach its engineers
Apple Inc. awarded rare bonuses to iPhone hardware designers this week, aiming to stem a wave of departures to AI startups like OpenAI that are building their own devices.
WhatsApp rolls out features and updates: an AI tool that suggests replies based on a user's conversations, the ability to touch up photos with Meta AI, and more
WhatsApp is rolling out a slew of new features and updates, including one that generates AI-powered suggested replies based on your conversations.
X limits X Pro access to subscribers of the $40/month Premium+ plan without notifying users in advance; it was previously available in the $8/month Premium plan
Social network X is now limiting X Pro access to customers who subscribe to the X Premium+ plan, which is priced at $40 per month (or $33/month when paid annually).
Defense tech startup Shield AI raised $2B at a $12.7B valuation, up from $5.3B after raising $240M in March 2025; half of its business is autonomous software
The company, which develops autonomous military technology, also plans to buy a maker of simulation software as interest in next-generation defense soars.
Sources: X let go of 20+ staffers in nontechnical roles ahead of a SpaceX IPO; X staff have been told to focus on growing revenue since xAI brought on a CRO
Redundant roles have been removed as the social-media company tries to boost profit and integrate with Musk's space-exploration company
Cohere launches Transcribe, its first voice model; the 2B-parameter, open-source speech recognition model handles tasks like notetaking and speech analysis
Enterprise AI company Cohere on Thursday launched its first voice model: Transcribe is an open source automatic speech recognition model …
Wikipedia bans using AI for writing or rewriting articles on its English-language site, citing AI-written articles' tendency to violate “core content policies”
Wikipedia editors can only use AI for basic copy editing or translations. … Wikipedia will no longer allow editors to write or rewrite articles using AI.
The European Commission opens a DSA investigation into Snap for failing to protect kids on Snapchat, including whether it does enough to assess its users' ages
Investigation comes amid growing scrutiny of the impact and liability of technology platforms towards kids.
Italy-based Subbyx, which builds infrastructure that lets businesses offer access-based subscriptions, raised a €30M Series A
Subbyx will use the funding to expand its subscription infrastructure platform, supporting businesses in transitioning from ownership to access-based models …
OpenAI has surpassed $100M in annualized revenue from ChatGPT ads, has expanded to 600+ advertisers, and plans to launch self-serve advertiser access in April
OpenAI has surpassed $100 million in annualized revenue from its ChatGPT ads business, six weeks after the pilot was announced, according to a spokesperson.
The European Parliament votes to ban nudify apps and delay EU AI Act deadlines, including pushing compliance for high-risk AI systems back to December 2027
The proposals would push back looming deadlines for watermarking AI-generated content and high-risk AI systems.
Sources: Anthropic executives have discussed an IPO as soon as Q4, and bankers vying to take the company public expect it to raise more than $60B
Anthropic executives have discussed an initial public offering of the AI firm's shares as soon as the fourth quarter this year, according to people familiar with the matter.
Interviews with 37 Anduril sources detail safety concerns and project challenges at Anduril's manufacturing operations; Anduril calls the claims “inaccurate”
From drones to missiles to submarines, the $30.5 billion defense startup wants to transform how the tools of war are made.
An oral history of Apple's earliest days told by people who lived it, including Steve Wozniak, Ronald Wayne, Mike Markkula, and Liza Loop, as Apple turns 50
Before there was an iPod, an iPhone, an iPad, or an Apple Watch—before there was a Macintosh or Apple II or even an Apple-1 …
Xona, which aims to build a commercial alternative to GPS by launching a low-Earth orbit satellite constellation, raised a $170M Series C
Meta plans to increase its investment in a data center in El Paso, Texas, to more than $10B, a significant rise from the initial $1.5B commitment
Meta Platforms Inc. will spend more than $10 billion to develop a data center in El Paso, Texas, a jump from prior projections and the latest …
The China Computer Federation calls for a boycott of AI conference NeurIPS after organizers barred submissions from US-sanctioned companies like Huawei
The US FCC opens a comment period for a proposal to help return outsourced call center jobs to the US; critics say the plan could drive companies to automation
Glimpse, which uses AI agents to let 200+ brands automate financial deduction processes, raised a $35M Series A led by a16z, bringing its total raised to $52M
ByteDance launches its Dreamina Seedance 2.0 audio and video model in its CapCut editing platform, supporting clips up to 15 seconds across six aspect ratios
OpenAI may be dialing back its efforts in the video generation market with the shutdown of its Sora app, but ByteDance …
Meituan reports Q4 revenue up 4.1% YoY to ~$13.3B and a ~$2.2B adjusted net loss, vs. ~$1.9B est., amid an intense food delivery fight with Alibaba and JD.com
Meituan reported a modest 4.1% increase in sales as the company's expansion outside China helped offset pressure …
Cents, which makes operating and payments software for laundromats, raised a $110M Series C, following a $40M Series B in 2024
What to read next
Mistral launches Voxtral TTS, an open-source enterprise text-to-speech model that supports nine languages, including Hindi and Arabic, based on Ministral 3B
French AI company Mistral released a new open-source text-to-speech model on Thursday that can be used by voice AI assistants or in enterprise use cases like customer support.
Sources: AI science startup Periodic Labs, founded by ex-OpenAI VP Liam Fedus and DeepMind's Ekin Cubuk, aims to raise hundreds of millions at a ~$7B valuation
Revolut says it aims to base ~40% of its global workforce in India by the end of 2026, increasing its local headcount to 5,500; Revolut has 12K staff globally
European fintech firm Revolut plans to have around 40% of its global workforce based in India by the end of 2026 as it expands its India global capability centre.
Sources: Chinese chipmaker CXMT hit ~$8B in 2025 revenue, up 130% YoY, and projects ~$435M in adjusted net income, excluding one-time items, ahead of an IPO
ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc. more than doubled revenue to $8 billion in 2025, giving the strategically important Chinese chipmaker …
Melania Trump appeared alongside Figure AI's Figure 3 humanoid robot at the White House to push integrating tech into US children's educational and social lives
The first lady, Melania Trump, believes that more children should be educated by “humanoid educators.”
Sources: cloud provider Vultr is seeking to raise $1B+ to expand its AI computing capacity, after raising $333M at a $3.5B valuation in 2024
Epic Microsystems, which designs power delivery architecture for better thermal and efficiency management of AI data centers, raised a $21M Series A
Apple rolls out mandatory UK age verification with iOS 26.4, requiring users to provide a credit card or ID, a first in Europe, after UK government pressure
Temu owner PDD reports Q4 revenue up 12% YoY to ~$18B and net profit down 11% YoY to ~$3.56B, below ~$4B est., as it seeks to retain merchants on its platform
Book excerpt: how Google acquired DeepMind for $650M in 2014, beating Facebook to the deal; Mustafa Suleyman used poker-style bluffing to secure a safety board
Before artificial intelligence minted billionaires and roiled the stock market, the London startup caught the attention of tech's biggest names.
Sources: Google's top India counsel, Bijoya Roy, quit after 16 months to start a venture, a high-profile exit in a market where Google faces regulatory issues
Google's top India counsel, Bijoya Roy, has resigned after 16 months in the role, two sources said, a high-profile exit …
AI note taking startup Granola raised $125M led by Index Ventures at a $1.5B valuation, and plans Claude integrations and agentic AI features in the next year
The US Army selects Carlyle and KKR to build two data centers on military bases, set to cost $2B each, as its token usage rises 8x during the US' war in Iran
Army secretary says Iran war underscores need to adapt to AI's growing role in modern warfare — The US Army has selected Carlyle …
How Theia, a satellite imaging startup that raised $250M+ by 2020, collapsed after the US DOJ indicted its founder and four other execs on federal fraud charges
Theia raised big money to launch a next-level network of digital imagery, but its legacy is mostly lawsuits, including federal fraud charges.
The ARC Prize Foundation unveils ARC-AGI-3, an AI benchmark with simple video-game-like scenarios designed to measure on-the-fly reasoning, not memory recall
The influential AI researcher François Chollet has long argued that the field measures intelligence incorrectly …
Source: as part of its Google deal, Apple has full access to the Gemini model in its own data centers and can use distillation to produce smaller models
Before we get to today's column, we wanted to flag OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's major reorg, the company's new “Spud” model and its decision …
Uber partners with China-based Pony AI and Croatia-based, Rimac-spinoff Verne to launch Europe's first commercial robotaxi service, initially debuting in Zagreb
The companies are already testing autonomous vehicles in Croatia, where they will launch their first commercial service.
Reddit says it will label automated accounts that are providing a service to users and will require accounts suspected of being bots to verify if they are human
Would-be Reddit competitor Digg just shut down because it couldn't get a handle on the bots overrunning its site.
San Francisco became a lab for police surveillance after initially fighting it; the SFPD had a record 700 drone flights in February, up from 93 in February 2025
In 2019, the Board of Supervisors passed a landmark law making San Francisco the first major U.S. city to block the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement.
Charlotte-based Lucid Bots, which manufactures autonomous drones for cleaning windows, raised a $20M Series B co-led by Cubit and Idea Fund
President Trump names Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, Jensen Huang, and others to the Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, co-chaired by David Sacks
The US DOJ charges a Chinese national and two Americans for allegedly trying to smuggle nearly $62M worth of export-controlled Nvidia A100s and H100s into China
The US has disclosed a new Nvidia chip-smuggling case that also seems to involve San Jose-based server manufacturer Supermicro.
Sources: Reflection AI, which is developing open foundation models, seeks to raise $2.5B at a $25B pre-money valuation of; JPMorgan is in talks to participate
Google Research details TurboQuant, a quantization algorithm to enable massive compression of LLMs and vector search engines without sacrificing accuracy
We introduce a set of advanced theoretically grounded quantization algorithms that enable massive compression for large language models and vector search engines.
Google launches Lyria 3 Pro, a music generation model with better creative control and that lets users create three-minute tracks, up from Lyria 3's 30 seconds
Google announced on Wednesday that it's releasing Lyria 3 Pro, a music generation model, a month after Lyria 3's release.
Elon Musk's lawyers ask a Delaware judge to step back from cases involving him, after she “liked” a LinkedIn post celebrating his defeat in a California case
Quinn Emanuel says Delaware judge must recuse herself over post, which she says she may have liked ‘accidentally’
Deccan AI, which supplies post-training data and evaluation work, raised a $25M Series A led by A91 Partners; most of its workforce of experts is based in India
As demand grows for training and refining AI models, Deccan AI — a startup supplying post-training data and evaluation work …
Isara, which aims to build software that can coordinate the work of thousands of AI agents, raised $94M and says OpenAI backed the startup at a $650M valuation
Disney ends its three-year OpenAI licensing deal, signed in December 2025, in which it agreed to invest $1B in OpenAI and license 200+ of its characters to Sora
Leaked memo: Meta's Reality Labs is reorganizing employees into AI-native “pods” focused on specific outcomes, as part of a shift toward a flatter organization
Charles Rollet /Business Insider:
Filing: Apple settled its June 2025 lawsuit against former Vision Pro designer Di Liu, who agreed to return confidential docs to Apple and pay monetary damages
Apple has reached a settlement with a former employee who it says stole thousands of documents before departing for Snap.
Elon Musk says X will “pause” new creator monetization rules that would base payouts on engagement from a user's local audience, after criticism from creators
SCOTUS rules unanimously that Cox could not be held liable for the piracy of thousands of songs online, after music labels sued the internet provider in 2018
Leading music labels sued Cox Communications for failing to terminate accounts of subscribers flagged for distributing copyrighted music.
Nintendo says its new first-party games exclusive to Switch 2 will have different prices for their physical and digital versions in the US, beginning in May
Nintendo of America has announced that, beginning in May, it will introduce differing pricing for physical and digital versions of its Switch 2 games.
Senator Bernie Sanders and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduce legislation to pause new data center construction until AI safeguards are in place
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday will announce legislation to pause all new data center …
Singapore-based Startale, developer of the Strium blockchain for tokenized securities and JPYSC and USDSC stablecoins, raised a $63M Series A from SBI and Sony
Microsoft says it will use GitHub Copilot interaction data, like inputs, outputs, and code snippets, to train its AI models from April 24, unless users opt out
The generative AI models powering ChatGPT, Copilot Gemini, and other assistants were created with mountains of training data.
OpenRouter data: lower-cost Chinese AI models made by companies such as DeepSeek and MiniMax have overtaken their US rivals in token consumption since February
Legal AI company Harvey raised $200M led by GIC and Sequoia at an $11B valuation, up from $8B in December 2025, and reports 100K+ users at 1,300+ organizations
Google sets its post-quantum cryptography migration deadline for 2029, aiming to “secure the quantum era” as “quantum frontiers may be closer than they appear”
Google is dramatically shortening its readiness deadline for the arrival of Q Day, the point …
A jury in the Los Angeles social media trial awards the plaintiff $3M in compensatory damages and $3M in punitive damages; Meta will pay $4.2M and YouTube $1.8M
A jury found the companies harmed a young user with design features that were addictive and led to her mental health distress. — 1k
Back-to-back jury verdicts against Meta could spur a flood of litigation against social media companies and threaten to undermine Section 230 protections
Social-media giants confront existential dilemma as a flood of litigation challenges their product designs
As US lawmakers struggle to pass online safety laws, LA and New Mexico juries take the lead, holding social media companies accountable for harming young users
A pair of verdicts held social media companies accountable for harming young users, highlighting a growing backlash as Congress struggles to pass legislation.
Back-to-back jury verdicts holding Meta liable could spur a flood of litigation against social media companies and threaten to undermine Section 230 protections
Social-media giants confront existential dilemma as a flood of litigation challenges their product designs
The EU accuses Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos of failing to protect kids from exposure to pornographic content, in preliminary DSA investigation findings
Barbara Moens /Financial Times:
Meta stock fell 8% on Thursday after juries in two US trials found the company failed to adequately warn or protect young users
Harshita Mary Varghese /Reuters:
Google expands Search Live, its AI conversational search feature previously limited to the US and India, to all languages and regions where AI Mode is available
Aisha Malik /TechCrunch: