The Download: our relationships with robots, and DOGE’s AI plans

February 25, 2025
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. Are friends electric? Thankfully, the difference between humans and machines in the real world is easy to discern, at least for now. While machines tend to excel at things adults find difficult—playing world-champion-level…

Apple Watch shipments surge in India

February 25, 2025

Apple Watch shipments in India grew 141% in 2024, while the country’s overall smartwatch market dipped 30% year-on-year.

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Perfect taps $23M to fix the flaws in recruitment with AI

February 25, 2025

“Agentic AI” is the concept of the moment. Developers big and small are rushing to build apps to leapfrog the heavy lifting needed to employ generative AI in specific contexts… and investors are rushing to fund the most interesting of these.  In one of the latest examples, a startup out of Israel called Perfect — […]

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Google launches a free AI coding assistant with very high usage caps

February 25, 2025

On Tuesday, Google introduced a new, free consumer version of its AI code completion and assistance tool, Gemini Code Assist, and which the company calls Gemini Code Assist for Individuals. The company also rolled out Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, a code review “agent” designed to automatically look for bugs in code and offer suggestions […]

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EU’s top court ruling on Android Auto antitrust referral could put interoperability requests in the fast lane

February 25, 2025

Europe’s top court has weighed in to clarify the rules around interoperability requirements on Big Tech in a referral on a case related to Google’s Android Auto platform. Back in 2021, the tech giant was hit with an €100 million antitrust fine by Italy’s competition authority for refusing to let a third-party electric car charging […]

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Are friends electric?

February 25, 2025
To the best of my knowledge, I am not a robot. And yet, like other humans who spend too much time on the internet, I’m routinely asked to prove this fact by clicking on crosswalks and motorcycles in photos, deciphering distorted numbers and letters, and checking little white boxes that affirm my non-robot status. These…

How AI is used to surveil workers

February 25, 2025
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. Opaque algorithms meant to analyze worker productivity have been rapidly spreading through our workplaces, as detailed in a new must-read piece by Rebecca Ackermann, published Monday in MIT Technology Review.  Since the…

Thoma Bravo raises €1.8B for its first European fund

February 25, 2025

Private equity firm Thoma Bravo has closed its inaugural European fund at €1.8 billion ($1.9 billion), through which it plans to take equity stakes in mid-sized software companies across the continent. Europe has no shortage of homegrown venture capital (VC) funds — the likes of Atomico and Cherry Ventures have closed early and growth-stage funds […]

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Fyre Festival 2 is coming, and it already sounds bananas (and not in a good way)

February 25, 2025

Billy McFarland is back, with Fyre Festival 2. Scheduled to take place in Isla Mujeres, Mexico from May 30 to June 2, tickets just went on sale, ranging from $1,400 to a truly brazen $1.1 million — even though no artists have been confirmed, and McFarland himself isn’t sure if he can legally leave the […]

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