Cade Metz / New York Times: xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin's River AI raised $1B led by General Catalyst to build home or small business computer servers capable of running AI locally — Igor Babuschkin built a new start-up, River AI, and hopes to provide ways for people to “retrain,” or modify, artificial intelligence …
New York Times: How a wave of disinformation on Facebook, WhatsApp, TikTok, Instagram, and Telegram contributed to a surge of migrants from Morocco to Spain's Ceuta enclave — A wave of disinformation online contributed to a surge of migrants in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta who were trying to reach Europe, resulting in about 90 deaths.
Emmy Martin / New York Times: As Waymo expands its fleet from 700 in 2025 to nearly 4,000 now, recalls and edge-case failures like flooded roadways and a San Francisco power outage mount — Waymo driverless cars are in San Francisco and 14 other metropolitan areas, including Denver, Las Vegas, San Diego and Tampa.Jason Henry for The New York Times
New York Times: Online course cheating has accelerated from chatbot-written essays to agents executing commands like “log in and complete my quiz”; major AI tools didn't refuse — As colleges and students embrace virtual classes, the ease of A.I. cheating is raising questions about the value of an online degree.
New York Times: Sources: the AI-driven memory chip shortage has kicked off a rush of DC lobbying; many US officials appear unsympathetic to Apple's desire to buy Chinese chips — The artificial intelligence boom has created a shortage of a critical commodity called memory chips, and a new front for corporate lobbying in Washington.
Jordyn Holman / New York Times: Q&A with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour on his vision to “financialize everything”, sports betting, Kalshi's “philosophical misalignment” with Polymarket, and more — Tarek Mansour co-founded the fast-growing prediction market company shortly after graduating from M.I.T. …
Hiroko Tabuchi / New York Times: Amazon is backing a 7.65 GW gas plant for an off-grid TX AI data center, potentially the largest single US emissions source, at odds with its 2040 net-zero goal — The tech giant is investing in the natural-gas-burning power plant as part of a huge data center in Texas, even as it pledges to honor climate commitments.
New York Times: A profile of Tatyana Kim, founder of Russia's largest online retailer Wildberries, which has lost an estimated third of its warehouse space to Ukrainian attacks — As Ukraine repeatedly strikes warehouses of the e-commerce site Wildberries, Tatyana Kim, its billionaire co-founder, faces her biggest test yet.
Brooks Barnes / New York Times: Disney announces a global deal with TikTok to bring “thoughtfully curated” fan-created short-form videos based on Disney's IP to Disney+'s vertical Verts feed — Disney said it would allow “thoughtfully curated” fan-created videos, using clips from its library, to appear on the streaming service.
Emily Steel / New York Times: Uber is defending 4,000+ rider sexual-violence lawsuits by aggressively examining plaintiffs' drinking, clothing, and more, after promising to protect survivors — A 24-year-old woman logged onto a videoconference from her bedroom in Florida on a Friday morning in April 2025 to face a deposition in her lawsuit against Uber.
New York Times: Sources: the US is focused on promoting US AI models to be more competitive, after officials considered taking a more interventionist approach to open-source AI — The Trump administration has struggled over how to approach to “open source” models, which are freely available to download and favored by Chinese companies.
Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times: A profile of Nanit, a maker of AI-equipped baby cameras for hyper-detailed tracking, which says it has 1M daily users and $100M+ in annual revenue — Young parents are increasingly willing to embrace tracking and analytics for their children — part of a broader cultural obsession …
New York Times: Officials: the scope of cyberattacks on US water systems now includes at least seven states and may be far wider; MN was just the first to publicly report them — Michigan and Minnesota are among at least seven states coping with cyberattacks aimed at disrupting water systems nationwide.
New York Times: A look at the deluge of AI computing power set to come online in the coming years; Epoch AI expects the number of AI chips in use to double every nine months — The milestones for artificial intelligence keep getting grander. — In 2023, an A.I. system passed the bar exam.
New York Times: Inside Larry Ellison's debt-fueled push to turn Oracle into an AI juggernaut by aligning with Trump, backing Project Stargate, and partnering with OpenAI — the first full day of the second Trump administration — Larry Ellison woke up in his 33-bedroom, 34-bathroom oceanfront mansion in Florida …
Sri Muppidi / New York Times: Simile, which offers “agentic twins” of real people to assess companies' products, brands, and services, raised $200M led by Greenoaks at a $2B valuation — Simile, a fast-growing start-up, says it can provide companies with accurate insights by surveying millions of A.I.-generated consumers.
Niko Gallogly / New York Times: New York-based AI detection startup Pangram raised $9M led by Menlo, and releases Pangram 4.0 and its first AI image detection model, claiming 99.5% accuracy — Pangram, an A.I. detection start-up, promises near-perfect accuracy in sniffing out writing and imagery that wasn't made by humans.
Lydia DePillis / New York Times: OpenAI, Google, Meta, BlackRock, and others are recruiting electricians and carpenters by the thousands, with some of the highest pay the industry has ever seen — The future of artificial intelligence depends on finding more skilled humans for some very physical jobs.
New York Times: European police say Binance's April 2025 policy asking law enforcement to route certain requests to foreign government agencies hinders criminal investigations — Investigators in Europe said that the cryptocurrency giant Binance had made it more difficult to track down scammers and solve other crimes.
New York Times: A look at the secretive process Meta used to get an advantageous deal for its Hyperion data center in Louisiana, including tax breaks and lack of public input — A Times examination details how the Silicon Valley giant used private talks with local officials to start a project big enough to cover nearly six square miles.
New York Times: Sources: OpenAI and Anthropic quietly lobby Washington regulators to restrict open-source AI models, even as Sam Altman publicly says he supports open source AI — Anthropic and OpenAI are clashing with the rest of the tech industry over whether “open-source” models from China should be freely available or restricted.
Eli Tan / New York Times: Meta launches Seller, a free standalone app version of Facebook Marketplace; Seller includes AI features that scan photos to fill out listings automatically — Seller is part of the Silicon Valley company's strategy to innovate on its original social network.
Jack Ewing / New York Times: Ford says Apple's software will be available in its new EVs, helping determine autonomous driving via Apple Maps, and they are working to improve self-driving — In a first, Apple Maps will influence the way a new line of electric vehicles made by Ford Motor operates, and other automakers may follow.
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times: The Senate's Clarity Act, a crypto industry-backed bill set for a vote this summer, is mired in debate over rules to stop Trump from selling digital currencies — Democrats and Republicans are haggling about the Clarity Act, a major bill pushed by the crypto industry, as it moves closer to a Senate vote.
New York Times: The European Commission fines Google €890M under the DMA for illegally undercutting competition through its search dominance and Google Play developer rules — At a tense moment for trans-Atlantic trade, the European Union accused Google of anti-competitive business practices.
Siobhan Roberts / New York Times: Sixteen mathematicians publish the Leiden Declaration on AI and Mathematics to warn of potential threats to the field, such as around accuracy and reliability — A week after OpenAI made headlines with an A.I.-generated proof, a new “declaration” by 16 experts raises concerns that the technology threatens math as a discipline.
Eli Tan / New York Times: Meta expands Teen Accounts safety features to limit harmful content on Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, including about nutrition, weightlifting, and anxiety — The changes, after Meta's legal losses in two child safety cases, are aimed at limiting harmful content shown to teenagers on Instagram, Facebook and Messenger.
Julian E. Barnes / New York Times: Internal documents: Chinese company Geedge is working to build AI tools to predict those who could pose a political risk, but US chip controls hampered its work — New research examines how a Chinese company struggled to develop its predictive surveillance technology while U.S. restrictions were in place.
New York Times: Wirescreen analysis of 3,800 Chinese military procurement records finds 500+ instances since 2019 where the PLA sought Nvidia chips, including the A100 and A800 — An analysis of six years of procurement records suggests that the People's Liberation Army has openly tried to acquire restricted U.S. technology.
New York Times: A look at the Seckinger school cluster in Georgia, including the US' “first AI-themed educational institution”, as parents say AI integration is often sparse — It was 9 a.m. on a Thursday at Harmony Elementary School in Buford, Ga., about 45 minutes outside Atlanta.
John Koblin / New York Times: Antenna: bundles make up 33% of new major streaming service subscriptions in the US, and 28% of all subscriptions, up from just 10% of new subscriptions in 2024 — Warner Bros. and Disney have been fierce rivals for decades. But like other entertainment companies, they both struggled …
Theodore Schleifer / New York Times: A look at the nasty fight between Anthropic-backed super PAC Public First and OpenAI-backed Leading the Future to sway midterms, especially Democratic primaries — One super PAC is allied with Anthropic. The other is tied to OpenAI. They're both spending millions to influence this year's elections.
Patricia Cohen / New York Times: How Schneider Electric is using AI in call centers and manufacturing to complement employees' work and boost productivity, rather than to replace them — For many chief executives, success in adopting artificial intelligence is measured by the number of jobs they can eliminate.
New York Times: Pope Leo XIV presents Magnifica humanitas, his encyclical on AI, calling for AI regulation, protection for children against hypersexualized AI images, and more — The document marks a powerful foray by the leader of the Roman Catholic church into the debate about the misuse or overuse of artificial intelligence.
Alexandra Alter / New York Times: For publishers, pirated audiobooks made with AI on YouTube are a growing issue: removal is cumbersome, and some are hiring tech companies to take them down — Illegal, synthetically narrated copies of “The Hunger Games,” hit self-help books and everything in between are increasingly common on the platform.
New York Times: Q&A with Sundar Pichai on the future of Google Search, Google's place in the AI race, public skepticism toward AI, AI agents, AI safety, TPUs, and more — After a busy Google I/O, the company's chief executive sits down with the hosts of “Hard Fork” to discuss the future of Google Search …
Steven Lee Myers / New York Times: Bluesky and Clemson University researchers detail a novel Russian influence campaign that hijacked influential Bluesky accounts to spread pro-Kremlin propaganda — The company said it was fighting Russian efforts to hijack real users' accounts to post fake content, an apparently novel tactic.
New York Times: OpenAI's win against Elon Musk leaves it free to continue its IPO plans, but it still faces many issues, like rising competition and dozens of other lawsuits — A jury's rejection of Elon Musk's $150 billion lawsuit against OpenAI was a major hurdle crossed. But the maker of ChatGPT faces a list of other problems.
New York Times: Elon Musk's OpenAI loss is set to speed up the AI juggernaut amid rising opposition; the case offered a rare glimpse into tech's workings, ending with a whimper — Even as protests increase, the collapse of Mr. Musk's suit against OpenAI and Sam Altman will speed up the artificial intelligence juggernaut.
Theo Baker / New York Times: A college senior at Stanford describes how AI has changed classes: cheating using AI “has become omnipresent” with students “fudging just about everything” — At Stanford University, where I am a senior, tech chief executives are something like rock stars.
Mike Isaac / New York Times: Sources: OpenAI acquired Weights.gg, which offered AI tools to create clones of people's voices, earlier this year; PitchBook: Weights.gg had raised roughly $4M — The acquisition, Weights.gg, was a sort of social network for creating and sharing artificial intelligence algorithms.
Meaghan Tobin / New York Times: Nvidia's future in China remains unclear after the Trump-Xi Summit; Trump says China “chose not to” buy Nvidia chips as “they want to try to develop their own” — The standoff comes as Chinese firms increasingly turn to domestic chipmakers like Huawei …
Cecilia Kang / New York Times: Analysis: 25% of the 13,000 US federal lobbyists are involved in AI issues, up from 11% in 2023; OpenAI plans to host the opening of its DC office on Wednesday — OpenAI and Anthropic are opening offices in Washington, hiring lobbyists and spending more than ever to win over federal lawmakers.
New York Times: Analysis: a16z is the largest known donor in the current US midterm election cycle, spending $115M+ so far on pro-crypto, pro-AI, or Republican Super PACs — The biggest donor in the midterm elections is not Elon Musk, or George Soros, or any of the other billionaires who are often thought to wield the fattest wallets in politics.
Kim Bhasin / New York Times: How eBay CEO Jamie Iannone transformed the company, refocusing on power buyers in categories with especially high resale demand like trading cards and sneakers — The online marketplace has remade itself by focusing on collectibles and other high-end goods — and attracted an unwelcome takeover bid from GameStop.
John Koblin / New York Times: YouTube is shifting its creator monetization strategy by acting as a matchmaker between creators and sponsors, as Netflix and TikTok increasingly woo creators — The company is trying to help streaming influencers, who are increasingly being wooed by competitors like Netflix and TikTok.
New York Times: 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 — The latest artificial intelligence models from Anthropic and OpenAI are extending the United States' lead over China and intensifying the rivalry between the countries.
Dustin Volz / New York Times: 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.
Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times: Kalshi raised $1B led by Coatue at a $22B valuation, its third round in seven months after raising $1B and $300M+, and hits $178B in annualized trading volume — The platform for betting on sports, politics, the weather and more has raised $1 billion and sees big financial firms as a key source of growth.
John R. Quain / New York Times: How lidar and other tech developed for autonomous vehicles is now used in smart city systems, in-home elder care services, and major shipyards like Rotterdam — After a crush of promises in 2016 that autonomous cars would soon rule the road, companies whose tech underpinned them have shifted …