Netflix to acquire Warner Bros. in a disruptive deal valued at $82.7B
In one of the most groundbreaking deals the streaming world has ever seen, Netflix acquires Warner Bros. for $82.7 billion.
Microbes could extract the metal needed for cleantech
In a pine forest on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, the only active nickel mine in the US is nearing the end of its life. At a time when carmakers want the metal for electric-vehicle batteries, nickel concentration at Eagle Mine is falling and could soon drop too low to warrant digging. But earlier this year, the…
The Download: political chatbot persuasion, and gene editing adverts
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. AI chatbots can sway voters better than political advertisements The news: Chatting with a politically biased AI model is more effective than political ads at nudging both Democrats and Republicans to support presidential candidates…
How AI Helps You Build Smarter, Faster and More Profitable Go-to-Market Plans
They key to making GTM plans more resilient, flexible and positioned for long-term success? AI.
After Neuralink, Max Hodak is building something stranger
“You could really, in a very fundamental sense, talk about redrawing the border around a brain,” Hodak says, “possibly to include four hemispheres, or a device, or a whole group of people.”
Selling the sizzle of trait discrimination
One day this fall, I watched an electronic sign outside the Broadway-Lafayette subway station in Manhattan switch seamlessly between an ad for makeup and one promoting the website Pickyourbaby.com, which promises a way for potential parents to use genetic tests to influence their baby’s traits, including eye color, hair color, and IQ. Inside the station,…
Walmart-backed PhonePe winds down its Pincode app in yet another e-commerce step back
PhonePe has shut down its Pincode app over two years after its debut.
The era of AI persuasion in elections is about to begin
In January 2024, the phone rang in homes all around New Hampshire. On the other end was Joe Biden’s voice, urging Democrats to “save your vote” by skipping the primary. It sounded authentic, but it wasn’t. The call was a fake, generated by artificial intelligence. Today, the technology behind that hoax looks quaint. Tools like…
Chicago Tribune sues Perplexity
The newspaper is alleging copyright infringement and calling out Perplexity’s Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) as a culprit.
Feds ask Waymo about robotaxis repeatedly passing school buses in Austin
The agency already opened an investigation in October over Waymo’s performance around school buses.
Micro1, a Scale AI competitor, touts crossing $100M ARR
Micro1 started the year with roughly $7 million ARR. Now, it claims to have surpassed $100 million in ARR, double what it reported in September.