OpenAI CEO Sam Altman calls Musk’s bid an attempt to ‘slow us down’

February 11, 2025

In an interview at the AI Action Summit in Paris on Tuesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman dismissed Elon Musk’s unsolicited $97.4 billion bid for OpenAI’s nonprofit as “an attempt to slow [OpenAI] down.” “[Musk] obviously is a competitor,” Altman said. “He’s raised a lot of money for [his AI company] xAI, and they’re trying to […]

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Stripe mulls employee shareholder sale at $85B-plus valuation

February 11, 2025

Stripe is in talks for another shareholder sale that could value the company at “at least” $85 billion, according to multiple reports and a source familiar with the matter. The Information first reported the news that the payments infrastructure giant is working to sell employee-owned stocks. The move would help workers gain some liquidity as […]

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Built on Bluesky, Pinksky brings its Instagram-like app to Android

February 11, 2025

Bluesky users on Android now have access to a new app that works more like Instagram than X. On Tuesday, an app called Pinksky launched an Android version of its photo-centric social networking experience built on top of Bluesky. The app is now one of many attempting to court former Instagram users by offering a […]

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Another person targeted by Paragon spyware comes forward

February 11, 2025

Four people have so far come forward as victims of the Paragon spyware campaign targeting WhatsApp users, including one journalist and three activists.

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Apple reportedly partners with Alibaba after rejecting DeepSeek for China AI launch

February 11, 2025

According to a report published Tuesday by The Information, Apple is partnering Alibaba to bring its Apple Intelligence platform to China. The deal is said to arrive after the iPhone maker reportedly explored – but ultimately rejected – a potential partnership with uber-buzzy AI startup, DeepSeek, as well as with Bytedance. Apple initially selected Baidu […]

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BuzzFeed is taking on Instagram, TikTok, X with a new social platform designed to spread ‘joy’ 

February 11, 2025

BuzzFeed, the media site known for its celebrity news and quizzes, announced on Tuesday that it’s developing its own social media platform, in a move to counter the current negativity on the internet. Semafor first reported BuzzFeed’s plan for the platform this past week. Details on the new platform are not yet public. However, the […]

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AI crawler wars threaten to make the web more closed for everyone

February 11, 2025
We often take the internet for granted. It’s an ocean of information at our fingertips—and it simply works. But this system relies on swarms of “crawlers”—bots that roam the web, visit millions of websites every day, and report what they see. This is how Google powers its search engines, how Amazon sets competitive prices, and…