Sri Muppidi / New York Times: Emerald AI, which uses AI to optimize data center power consumption based on grid demands, raised $150M led by DCVC and Energize Capital at a $1.05B valuation — Emerald AI, now valued at $1.05 billion, uses software to keep power demand at the computing facilities from getting out of control.
John Koblin / New York Times: Sources: Netflix discussed adding streamers like Peacock and Fox One as it seeks to compete with YouTube and Roku in becoming a one-stop shop for TV content — For years, Amazon has persuaded tens of millions of people to use its Prime Video app to subscribe to other services …
Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times: Ukraine says Russia used an Nvidia Jetson Orin computing module in its autonomous AI-guided drones; Nvidia says they are widely available on resale markets — The young woman ran for her life, but it was too late. A small Russian drone resembling a model airplane swooped down from the sky …
New York Times: Ukrainian officials say an AI-guided, fully autonomous Russian drone killed three Ukrainians in a strike on a gas station in the city of Zaporizhzhia — An attack by what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone with an Nvidia chip presages a dystopian future of weaponry untethered to humans.
Emmett Lindner / New York Times: Carrier Pidge hit 75K users and Roost 650K downloads, as slow messaging apps delivering texts at pigeon speeds attract users tired of constant notifications — Apps that let users send digital messages at ultraslow speeds have taken off, with users reveling in a slower pace of life.
Sui-Lee Wee / New York Times: Following abandoned IPO attempts in NYC and London, Shein is struggling to grow as it nears a Hong Kong listing at a fraction of its peak valuation of $100B — Facing pressure in the United States and Europe, Shein is struggling to find new ways to grow ahead of its much-delayed initial public offering.
New York Times: Sources: Anthropic's bankers said the company could raise $100B+ in its IPO, which could value it at $2T, in recent discussions with potential investors — The offering could value the five-year-old A.I. start-up at $2 trillion, its bankers have told potential investors, which would exceed Elon Musk's SpaceX.
Cecilia Kang / New York Times: OpenAI launches ChatGPT for Teens, a new mode that limits high-risk chats around self-harm, eating disorders, and other topics, adds studying tools, and more — The artificial intelligence start-up announced a chatbot mode that will automatically limit some conversations to better protect young users.
Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times: Thrive Capital's Thrive Holdings, which acquires traditional service businesses and adds AI, raised $2B from SoftBank, D1, and others at a $12B valuation — The company, Thrive Holdings, acquires businesses to infuse them with artificial intelligence and drew interest from backers like SoftBank.
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.