Note: Techmeme is hiring part-time editors. Go here to apply, or tell a friend!
Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise
Techmeme
March 16, 2025, 11:05 AM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Get our daily newsletter and never miss a story!   ⓧ Newsletter

Top News

Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Garry Tan says ~80% of YC's W25 batch is AI focused, and the cohort is growing significantly faster than past ones, with actual revenue, thanks to “vibe coding”  —  Silicon Valley's earliest stage companies are getting a major boost from artificial intelligence.
More: TechCrunch.  X: @tmrohan, @ashrust, and @garrytan.  LinkedIn: Priyankka Mani.  Forums: r/artificial
Catherine Thorbecke / Bloomberg:
The hype around AI agent Manus doesn't represent a second DeepSeek moment, but reveals that Chinese startups can compete with US companies building AI products  —  The viral AI agent from a Chinese startup isn't about research breakthroughs, it's about creating competitive consumer products.
Bloomberg:
Baidu releases Ernie X1, an AI model that articulates its reasoning similarly to DeepSeek R1, and upgrades its flagship foundation model to Ernie 4.5, both free  —  The Ernie X1 model by China's internet search leader works similarly to DeepSeek R1 — which shocked Silicon Valley …
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Google's Gemma 3 and Cohere's Command A, which require just one or two Nvidia H100 chips to run, hint at an industry-wide push for more efficient AI software  —  Nearly two months after the viral success of China's DeepSeek prompted a reckoning over how much tech companies spend …
Financial Times:
Spotify slashed nearly €500M in marketing, R&D spending, and general administrative expenses in 2024, which helped the company swing to a net income of €1.1B  —  The Swedish music streaming service's size now gives it a durable advantage over rivals  —  Spotify has found its groove.
Scroll.in:
Jio and Airtel, which initially opposed Starlink, partnered with the company following Modi's meeting with Musk and Trump's decision to impose tariffs on India  —  The announcements about Starlink's tie-ups with the Indian telecommunication giants follow Trump's decision to impose reciprocal tariffs on India from April 2.
Financial Times:
Current and former Meta employees describe how Joel Kaplan has risen over the past decade to become Mark Zuckerberg's most trusted political fixer  —  Meta's newly promoted head of global affairs has masterminded social media giant's pivot towards Donald Trump
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Bluesky proposes letting users indicate if their data can be used for AI training, web archiving, and more; critics see it as a reversal of its prior statements  —  Social network Bluesky recently published a proposal on GitHub outlining new options it could give users to indicate whether …
Francisco Rodrigues / CoinDesk:
21Shares plans to liquidate actively managed bitcoin and ether futures ETFs ARKC and ARKY, after $1.66B+ in outflows from US-listed spot bitcoin ETFs in March  —  The firm is liquidating its ARK 21Shares Active On-Chain Bitcoin Strategy ETF and ARK 21Shares Active Bitcoin Ethereum Strategy ETF amid the downturn.
More: 21Shares and CoinGape
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google and other companies are considering bringing back in-person job interviews, as some startups sell AI tools that let engineers cheat in virtual interviews  —  After landing internship offers from Amazon, Meta and TikTok, computer science student Chungin “Roy” Lee has decided to move to San Francisco.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
WhatsApp-CRM: Drive business growth with efficient customer communication  —  This is a guest post by WAPlus.For many businesses, WhatsApp has become an indispensable channel for customer communication.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Decoder with Nilay Patel:
 Runway CEO Cris Valenzuela wants Hollywood to embrace AI video
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
 Anthropic's CPO on what comes next | Mike Krieger (co-founder of Instagram)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Techmeme Ride Home:
 State Of The AI Coding Landgrab
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Sponsor this podcast
Azeem Azhar's Exponential View:
 Tyler Cowen on how AI will reorder economies, schools, and spirituality
Azeem Azhar explores how AI and exponential technologies are shaping our future.
Subscribe to Azeem Azhar's Exponential View.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
 Bluesky Wasn't Supposed to be a Twitter Rival. Now It Is.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Invest Like the Best:
 John Zito - Inside Apollo
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:05 AM ET, March 16, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Minho Kim / New York Times:
A Trump administration letter to Congress outlines a plan to restructure VOA that would shrink the agency to 18 employees, down from roughly 1,400 in March

Liam Scott / Columbia Journalism Review:
Q&A with Tamara Bralo, the head of journalist safety at Radio Free Asia, on Trump's cuts, the future of at-risk visa holders, jailed staffers abroad, and more

Peter White / Deadline:
Sources: WBD initiates a round of layoffs in its cable TV divisions, affecting well under 100 employees and largely impacting the Discovery side of the company

More News

Molly White / Citation Needed:
The real threat of AI models training on open-access material is that they may bleed free repositories dry by draining resources and not providing attribution

Earlier Picks

TechCrunch:
No unified definition for an AI “agent” is leading to customer frustration, as Microsoft, OpenAI, Salesforce, Amazon, Google, and others market it differently
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google says Gemini will replace Google Assistant on Android phones in 2025, except on phones with Android 9 or earlier and that don't have at least 2GB of RAM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter