Video game union announces first contract with Microsoft

June 1, 2025
Unionized quality assurance testers at video game holding company ZeniMax announced Friday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement with Microsoft, which acquired ZeniMax in 2021. This represents Microsoft’s first union contract in the United States. It’s been a little over two years since approximately 300 QA testers announced that they were unionizing through […]

4 days to go: TechCrunch Sessions: AI is almost in session

June 1, 2025
Artificial intelligence has no shortage of visionaries—but the ones who matter are executing. In 4 days, TechCrunch Sessions: AI brings those builders, researchers, funders, and enthusiasts under one roof at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. This isn’t a parade of AI hype or a string of over-edited keynotes. It’s a single day designed for clarity, candor, […]

Left-leaning influencers embrace Bluesky without abandoning X, Pew says

May 31, 2025
It’s no surprise that many big, left-leaning social media accounts have recently joined Bluesky — but a new analysis from the Pew Research Center attempts to quantify that shift. This comes as an update to Pew’s news influencer report released in November 2024, which did not include Bluesky in its numbers. The report focused on […]

NAACP calls on Memphis officials to halt operations at xAI’s ‘dirty data center’

May 31, 2025
The NAACP is calling on local officials to halt operations at Colossus, the “supercomputer” facility operated by Elon Musk’s xAI in South Memphis. As reported in NBC News, leaders from the civil rights group sent a letter Thursday to the Shelby County Health Department and Memphis Light Gas and Water criticizing the organizations’ “lackadaisical approach […]

Meta plans to automate many of its product risk assessments

May 31, 2025
An AI-powered system could soon take responsibility for evaluating the potential harms and privacy risks of up to 90% of updates made to Meta apps like Instagram and WhatsApp, according to internal documents reportedly viewed by NPR. NPR says a 2012 agreement between Facebook (now Meta) and the Federal Trade Commission requires the company to […]