Jack Dorsey Is Ready to Explain the Block Layoffs
In an exclusive interview with WIRED, Block’s cofounder and CEO says he axed 40 percent of his workforce so that he can rebuild the company “as an intelligence.” Source link
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OpenAI Had Banned Military Use. The Pentagon Tested Its Models Through Microsoft Anyway
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is still in the hot seat this week after his company signed a deal with the US military. OpenAI employees have criticized the move, which came after Anthropic’s roughly $200 million contract with the Pentagon imploded, and asked Altman to release more information about the agreement. Altman admitted it looked “sloppy”…
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‘Uncanny Valley’: Iran War in the AI Era, Prediction Market Ethics, and Paramount Beats Netflix
Zoë Schiffer: Emil Michael, you should turn off your views on LinkedIn because people can see when they look at your phone. Brian Barrett: Yeah, that’s a tip for Emil Michael if you’re listening. And then, if you listen to Uncanny Valley, which you should. Leah Feiger: And this is really the Trump official that’s…
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ByteDance’s AI Ambitions Are Being Hampered by Compute Restraints and Copyright Concerns
Move over Sora 2, there’s a hot new AI video model in town. In early February, ByteDance unveiled Seedance 2.0, a major upgrade to its flagship video model, which had previously remained fairly obscure. Its powerful capabilities immediately shocked the AI ecosystem in China, even among audiences who had once been skeptical of AI-generated video…
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What AI Models for War Actually Look Like
Anthropic might have misgivings about giving the US military unfettered access to its AI models, but some startups are building advanced AI specifically for military applications. Smack Technologies, which announced a $32 million funding round this week, is developing models that it says will soon surpass Claude’s capabilities when it comes to planning and executing…
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Big Tech Signs White House Data Center Pledge With Good Optics and Little Substance
Several key tech companies signed a nonbinding pledge at the White House on Wednesday that the Trump administration claims will ensure that tech companies do not pass the cost of data centers on to consumers’ utility bills. “Data centers … they need some PR help,” President Donald Trump said at the event. “People think that…
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Grammarly Is Offering ‘Expert’ AI Reviews From Your Favorite Authors—Dead or Alive
Do you have fond memories of being a teacher’s pet? Wish you could still get notes from your favorite college professor? Dream about some implacable voice of authority correcting your every word choice and punctuation mark? Well, great news: A certain software company has engineered a way to simulate criticism not just from bestselling authors…
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This AI Agent Is Ready to Serve, Mid-Phone Call
Deutsche Telekom, the German mobile provider that is also the majority stakeholder of T-Mobile in the US, is introducing an AI assistant into its phone line. The result of a partnership with the AI-audio company ElevenLabs, the feature is called Magenta AI Call Assistant. It will be available in Germany only, for now, and doesn’t…
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What Is That Mysterious Metallic Device US Chief Design Officer Joe Gebbia Is Using?
Joe Gebbia, cofounder of Airbnb and the US Chief Design Officer appointed by Trump, was spotted in San Francisco today using a mysterious metallic device. In a social media post on X viewed over 500,000 times, a man who looks like Gebbia sits with an espresso at a coffee shop. He’s wearing metallic buds that…
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The Data Centers Have Arrived at the Edge of the Arctic Circle
On the bank of the river that runs through the Swedish town of Borlänge, construction is underway on a sprawling new data center. The site previously housed a paper mill. When the developer, EcoDataCenter, broke ground in September, its CEO Peter Michelson declared, “The facility once produced paper, the raw material of the newspaper information…
