The Token Meter
Amazon set weekly AI usage targets so its workforce would actually use the tools the company had bought. Eighteen weeks later, employees have built a tool whose only purpose is to fake hitting them — the fastest Goodhart cycle on record.
Musk v. Altman: Satya Nadella says Elon Musk never contacted him with concerns that Microsoft's investments in OpenAI violated any special terms or commitments
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella took the stand in the Musk v. Altman trial on Monday, where he testified that Elon Musk never contacted …
Apple releases iOS 26.5, introducing end-to-end encryption for RCS messaging in beta for supported carriers and on by default, new Apple Maps features, and more
iOS 26.5 is now available to everyone after six weeks of beta testing. The update adds fresh wallpapers, new features to Apple Maps, and more.
Many npm packages for Mistral, UiPath, and TanStack's web developer tools like react-router were compromised, likely in the Mini Shai-Hulud supply chain attack
- Immediate triage: Run shasum -a 256 on all router_init.js files in your dependency tree.
Instructure reaches a deal with the hackers who breached its Canvas edtech platform to return stolen data and destroy copies, without saying what it exchanged
Instructure, which provides Canvas software to thousands of schools and universities around the world, did not say what it had given …
Google's TIG reports the first known example of hackers using AI to discover and weaponize a zero-day; TIG's chief analyst says “this is the tip of the iceberg”
The company said that it had identified, for the first time, hackers using artificial intelligence to discover an unknown bug.
Thinking Machines Lab unveils a preview of interaction models, which can think, respond, and act in real time, letting users continuously collaborate with AI
Today, we're announcing a research preview of interaction models: models that handle interaction natively rather than through external scaffolding.
Google unveils Googlebook, its new laptop lineup featuring a unified OS merging ChromeOS and Android, with devices from Dell, HP, and others coming this fall
ZDNET's key takeaways — Googlebook is a new device line coming this fall. — It merges Android and ChromeOS for smoother phone-to-laptop use.
Musk v. Altman: Altman testified that in 2017 Musk demanded complete control of a proposed OpenAI for-profit arm, musing that he would pass it to his children
OpenAI's Sam Altman testified that he was “extremely uncomfortable” with Elon Musk's insistence that he have complete control …
OpenAI launches Daybreak, a cybersecurity initiative integrating AI models and Codex Security to help organizations find, validate, and patch vulnerabilities
Texas AG Ken Paxton sues Netflix for allegedly spying on kids and consumers by collecting their data without consent, and designing its platform to be addictive
Netflix (NFLX.O) was sued on Monday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused the streaming company of spying on consumers …
Sources: Jensen Huang was not invited to travel with President Trump on his China trip, a potential setback to Nvidia; Huang expressed his willingness to join
The roster of business leaders invited to join President Donald Trump on his trip to China this week left off one notable …
Sources: Apple plans to make the Camera app fully customizable in iOS 27, along with noticeable design changes across Siri, Safari, Weather, and more
Apple Inc. is planning to upgrade its Camera app, making the software fully customizable as part of a broader set of user interface changes coming in its next iPhone software update.
GM plans to lay off IT workers in an effort to trim costs and bring in staff with skills in other tech areas; sources say the cuts will affect 500 to 600 staff
General Motors Co. plans to cut hundreds of salaried workers from its information technology ranks in an effort to trim costs …
GitLab announces layoffs, saying they are “not an AI optimization or cost cutting exercise”, and says it will reduce the number of countries it operates in
GitLab Inc., which makes software that helps developers on coding projects, said it is cutting jobs to free up money to spend …
Anthropic names eight unauthorized secondary market sellers of its shares, including Hiive and Forge Global, warning that any share transactions there are void
Anthropic PBC identified a number of secondary marketplaces as unauthorized sellers of the company's shares, telling investors that buying the stock won't work.
Digg relaunches as an aggregator of AI news and social media commentary, with plans to expand to other topics; its prior reboot shut down in March after months
Digg is back from the dead. Again. — Just months after launching, the reboot of Kevin Rose's once-popular link-sharing site shut down in March, as the company shifted course.
The US Commerce Department removed details from its website about its May 5 agreement with Google, xAI, and Microsoft to test their AI models for security flaws
The U.S. Commerce Department removed details from its website about its agreement with Google, xAI and Microsoft to test their artificial intelligence models …
Source: Microsoft Israel's GM leaves after an internal probe into alleged unethical use of Azure by Israel's MOD; Microsoft France will manage Microsoft Israel
Alon Haimovich is leaving after an investigation into alleged unethical use of Azure by the Ministry of Defense, “Globes” has learned.
The US House Oversight Committee launches a probe into potential conflicts in Sam Altman's personal investments; letter: several GOP AGs call for an SEC review
Republican-led House Oversight Committee says it is investigating, and six GOP state attorneys general are calling for SEC review after WSJ article
Source: new revenue sharing terms cap OpenAI's payments to Microsoft at $38B; OpenAI previously owed up to $135B through 2030 if it hit long-term revenue goals
OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar has plenty of things to worry about. But paying OpenAI's early backer Microsoft …
curl founder Daniel Stenberg says Mythos identified five vulnerabilities in curl, but a manual review found three were false positives and one was “just a bug”
Q&A with Scott Wu, CEO of Cognition, which hit a $445M revenue run rate in its first 18 months, on his math competition roots, the Devin coding agent, and more
An afternoon with Cognition founder and nerd emperor Scott Wu … There is a familiar arc to the type of mathematical genius …
AppMagic: Grok downloads fell to ~8.3M in April, from a high of 20M+ in January; Recon Analytics: Grok's paid adoption in the US remains nearly flat YoY in Q2
Adoption by business and consumer users has slowed as parent SpaceX rents out spare computing capacity to rival Anthropic
Spotify celebrates its 20th anniversary with a Wrapped-like experience that features “never-before-shared data” going back to when users first joined Spotify
The company will include ‘never-before-shared data’ as part of its 20th anniversary celebrations.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen says the EU will take action against “addictive design” features on TikTok and Instagram, like “endless scrolling”
An Anthropic engineer argues HTML is a better output format for AI agents than Markdown, citing information density, ease of sharing, and two-way interaction
CME Group and Silicon Data announce a futures market for computing capacity, with contracts based on daily GPU benchmarks for on-demand rental rates
A new futures market for semiconductors will let traders hedge their artificial intelligence investments with bets on the increasingly expensive price of computing power.
OpenAI launches the OpenAI Deployment Company with a $4B+ investment to help organizations build and deploy AI systems, and acquires AI consulting firm Tomoro
Foxconn says some of its North American factories suffered a cyberattack in recent days; ransomware group Nitrogen claims it stole 8TB of data
Famous for helping build Apple's iPhones, Foxconn just suffered another cyberattack, highlighting the perils of warehousing some of the world's most valuable data.
A Hollywood writer recounts working as an “AI trainer” for Mercor, Outlier, and others, as AI gig work becomes the new waiting tables for entertainment workers
For screenwriters like me—and job seekers all over—AI gig work is the new waiting tables.Forums:Hacker Newsandr/longformSee also MediagazerForums:Hacker News:I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to ...
Qualcomm closed down 11.46% on Tuesday as chip stocks pull back from record AI-driven rally; Intel closed down 6.82%, Sandisk dropped 6%, and Micron 3.61%
Chip stocks dropped on Tuesday, pulling back from a massive rally that broadened the artificial intelligence trade beyond Nvidia and propelled the sector to new highs.
Sources: Anthropic is in early talks to raise at least $30B at a $900B+ valuation; the round is expected to close as soon as the end of this month
Anthropic PBC is in early talks with investors to raise at least $30 billion in fresh financing, according to people familiar with the matter …
SAP invests in German workflow automation platform n8n at a $5.2B valuation, up from $2.5B after an October 2025 equity raise, and agrees to embed n8n's tools
SAP SE is investing in workflow automation platform n8n, doubling the startup's valuation to $5.2 billion, as the German software giant builds …
Sources: some Amazon employees are using in-house OpenClaw-like tool MeshClaw for unnecessary tasks to inflate AI token use after Amazon set weekly AI targets
In-house MeshClaw tool enables employees to delegate jobs to AI agents and climb company's AI leaderboard
TikTok is rolling out TikTok Ad-Free, a £3.99-per-month subscription for UK accounts aged 18 or older “over the coming months”, after testing the option in 2023
Amazon launches Amazon Now, its 30-minute delivery service, in dozens of US cities including Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Philadelphia, and Seattle, after pilots
Amazon deliveries keep getting faster. On Tuesday, the online retailer announced the launch of its 30-minute delivery option …
Isomorphic Labs, an AI-powered drug discovery spinoff from Google DeepMind, raised $2.1B led by Thrive, after raising $600M in its first round in March 2025
Isomorphic Labs, an artificial intelligence-driven drug discovery company, said on Wednesday it has raised $2.1 billion …
Robinhood confidentially files for its second publicly traded venture fund, Robinhood Venture Fund II, focusing on early-stage and growth-stage startups
AI voice startup Vapi raised a $50M Series B led by Peak XV, a source says at a $500M post-money valuation, after Amazon chose Vapi to handle 100% of Ring calls
Amazon Ring, facing a surge in customer-support calls during last year's holiday season, evaluated more than 40 AI voice vendors …
Exaforce, which uses AI agents to detect and thwart cyberattacks, raised a $125M Series B at a $725M valuation, bringing its total funding to $200M
As bad actors weaponize AI to exploit software vulnerabilities at unprecedented speed, companies are increasingly recognizing the need to bolster their cybersecurity defenses.
SAP launches its Autonomous Enterprise software suite to help clients process and contextualize their data and deploy AI agents to automate business processes
German group seeks to stay on top of a technology that cast doubt on the sustainability of the software industry
London-based blockchain analytics company Elliptic raised $120M led by One Peak Partners at a $670M valuation; the platform screens 1B+ transactions per week
Blockchain analytics firm Elliptic Enterprises Ltd. has raised $120 million in a new funding round backed by Deutsche Bank AG …
Sources: Google is in talks with SpaceX and other companies for a rocket launch deal, as Google expands its own efforts to put data centers in space
A deal between the two tech titans would give a boost to SpaceX's business ahead of a historic public listing.
OpenAI stands to hold ~$2.6B in combined CoreWeave and Cerebras stock that it acquired by committing to buy cloud services and chips, and to lend Cerebras money
Chipmaker Cerebras brought in one of the greatest pitchmen in tech, Sam Altman, to appear in a video to promote its $5.5 billion initial public offering.
Musk v. Altman: Ilya Sutskever testifies that his OpenAI stake is worth ~$7B, and he had concerns about Altman for a year before the board ousted Altman as CEO
Rachel Metz /Bloomberg:
Google says it is hiring a team of “forward deployed engineers”, a source says in the hundreds, to help customers use its business-focused AI products
Google plans to hire hundreds of engineers to help customers start using its business-focused AI products, according to a person familiar with the situation.LinkedIn:Thomas KurianLinkedIn:Thomas Kuria...
SEC filing: Cerebras upsizes its IPO to 30M shares at $150-$160 each, up from 28M shares at $115-$125, aiming to raise up to $4.8B at an up to $34.4B valuation
eBay rejects GameStop's $56B takeover offer, saying the unsolicited bid is “neither credible nor attractive”, in a letter from eBay Chairman Paul Pressler
The US DOD says it is deploying Mythos to find and patch software vulnerabilities across the US government, even as it works on a transition away from Anthropic
WASHINGTON, May 12 (Reuters) - The Pentagon is deploying Anthropic's Mythos cybersecurity model to find and patch software vulnerabilities across …
Delivery Hero says founder Niklas Östberg will step down as CEO by March 2027, as the German food delivery group faces mounting pressure from activist investors
Founder Niklas Östberg will leave German food delivery group by next March — Delivery Hero founder Niklas Östberg …
Anthropic announces 12 Claude plugins for the legal sector, including a “commercial counsel” tool for reviewing vendor agreements and a bar exam study tool
Sources: German defense tech startup Helsing is set to raise $1.2B led by Dragoneer and Lightspeed at an ~$18B valuation, up from $14B in June 2025
Samsung and its South Korean labor union fail to reach a pay deal; the union has said workers will strike for 18 days from May 21 if its demands are not met
The US FCC approves EchoStar's sale of approximately 65MHz of spectrum to SpaceX and 50MHz to AT&T
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission's Wireless Telecommunications Bureau and Space Bureau approved EchoStar's sale of approximately 65 megahertz of spectrum to SpaceX and 50 megahertz to AT&T …
Sea reports Q1 revenue up 47% YoY to $7.1B and net income up 6% YoY to $428M, both above est., after warding off rivals in Southeast Asia's e-commerce market
Sea Ltd. reported quarterly earnings that topped analysts' estimates after warding off rivals in Southeast Asia's competitive e …
JD.com reports Q1 revenue up 4.9% YoY to ~$46.5B, above ~$45.8B est., and adjusted net profit down 42% YoY to ~$1B, amid a fierce food delivery battle in China
Meta schedules its annual Connect event for September 23-24 and says the event will focus on “the latest in VR, wearables, metaverse, and AI”
Threads is testing a Meta AI integration similar to X's Grok, letting users mention Meta AI in a post or a reply to get more context, in five countries
Threads is testing a Meta AI integration that works similarly to X's Grok. Users with a public account will be able to mention Meta AI in a post or a reply to get more context.
Discord launches Nitro Rewards, giving Nitro subscribers access to offers from gaming services like Xbox Game Pass and hardware like Logitech G at no extra cost
In a two-week UK High Court trial, Shein accuses Temu of “industrial scale” copyright infringement of its photos; Temu says Shein is suing to stifle competition
Google unveils Gemini Intelligence, bundling existing and new Gemini features, including task automation across apps and letting users vibe-code Android widgets
it's a digital assistant that controls your phoneAndy Boxall /Android Police:All the coolest Android 17, Gemini, and Android Auto announcements from The Android ShowNickolas Diaz /Android Central:Not ...
Cowboy Space, led by Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt to build data centers in orbit, raised a $275M Series B led by Index Ventures at a $2B valuation
Microsoft says it is investigating a Mistral AI PyPI package v2.4.6 compromise; researchers say it is likely part of the Mini Shai-Hulud supply chain attack
The malware reportedly refused to run on Russian-language systems but could execute a destructive payload under certain geographic conditions.
PayPal agrees to forgo ~$30M in transaction fees to end a DOJ probe into allegations that the company adopted unlawful preferences for minority-owned businesses
Case is part of Trump administration campaign against corporate DEI initiatives — PayPal agreed to forgo approximately $30 million …
Venmo implements a major privacy measure, setting new users' posts to “friends only” by default during onboarding; in 2021, a reporter found Joe Biden's Venmo
Source: Anthropic is in advanced talks to acquire New York-based Stainless, which helps developers generate SDKs from APIs, for at least $300M
Anthropic is in advanced talks to acquire developer tools startup Stainless for at least $300 million, according to a person with knowledge of the deal.
Human Rights Watch: at least six EU member states, including Poland and Denmark, have sold surveillance tech to 24+ countries known for violating human rights
Sources: Wispr Flow developer Wispr AI is in talks to raise a round that could more than double its valuation to $2B; source: the round is set to total ~$260M
Wispr AI Inc., the developer behind the popular voice dictation tool Wispr Flow, is in talks to raise a new round of funding …
Agentic inference is set to be different than today's inference, and will change compute infrastructure because speed won't matter when humans aren't involved
Google unveils a “full bleed” Android Auto design that fills unconventionally shaped screens like in the BMW Neue Klasse, plans to add YouTube video streaming
Andrew J. Hawkins /The Verge:NEW
YouTube is shifting its creator monetization strategy by acting as a matchmaker between creators and sponsors, as Netflix and TikTok increasingly woo creators
Google has worked with Meta to improve Instagram on Android, adding Ultra HDR support and more, and with Apple to overhaul the iOS-to-Android transfer process
ZDNET key takeaways — Google partnered with Meta and Apple to improve Android. — Adobe Premiere is launching on Android soon.
Sources: the Trump administration is quietly debating whether to ban Chinese cellular modules, as the US FCC takes measures to reduce Beijing's security threats
Nonprofit RSL Media announces the Human Consent Standard, an AI licensing framework for use of people's work or likeness, backed by George Clooney and others
This new standard will allow people to set terms for how AI systems can use their likenesses and creative works.
Israeli startup Frame Security, which protects organizations from AI-powered social engineering attacks, emerges from stealth with $50M led by Index and others
Google announces Pause Point, an Android 17 feature that forces a mandatory 10-second pause before opening any app a user has labeled as a distraction
An anti-doomscrolling feature is now built into Android. (Yes, things have gotten that bad.) — On Tuesday, Google announced Pause Point …
Sources: the White House's Office of the National Cyber Director and Commerce Department's CAISI are fighting over which agency should lead AI model evaluations
Washington Post:
The European Commission says it is in ongoing discussions with OpenAI and Anthropic to access their latest AI models; OpenAI is “proactively offering” access
Musk v. Altman: Altman faced an intense cross-examination from Musk's attorney, who asked “are you completely trustworthy?”; Altman replied “I believe so”
Business Insider:NEW
Sources: Kuaishou plans to spin off its Kling AI video unit for an IPO in 2027 and is seeking a $20B valuation in pre-IPO funding talks with potential investors
Google unveils Android security features, including protection from spoofed banking calls, default theft protection, and biometric protection for Mark as lost
The Android Show reveals allAamir Siddiqui /Android Authority:Android 17's latest anti-theft feature stops thieves who already have your PINScott Webster /AndroidGuys:Android Announces 2026 Security U...
Amp, which aims to buy excess computing capacity from data center operators to sell to startups, universities, and more, raised $1.3B from a16z and others
Google's TIG says it likely thwarted the use of an AI-generated zero-day in a “mass exploitation event” and tools like OpenClaw are being used to find exploits
it's already here. — Today, the Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) released our latest AI Threat Tracker …
Sources: Masayoshi Son has held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron about unveiling a multibillion-dollar AI data center project in the coming weeks
Google launches Intrusion Logging, an Android feature developed in partnership with Amnesty International and others, on Android 16 Pixel devices for now
Tim Starks /CyberScoop:NEW
Sources: Anthropic officials refused a Chinese think tank's request to change its stance and give Beijing access to Mythos at a meeting in Singapore in April
New York Times: