Techmeme
April 27, 2025, 12:10 PM

Top News

Jeff Horwitz / Wall Street Journal:
Test conversations with some Meta AI digital companions, including celebrity-voiced ones, show them engaging in sexual chats even when users identify as minors  —  Chatbots on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are empowered to engage in ‘romantic role-play’ that can turn explicit.
Furquan Ameen / Rest of World:
Experts say that India is behind China in deep tech innovation due to its historical focus on services, lower R&D investment, and a brain drain of AI talent  —  India's government urges the private sector to take the lead in tech innovation, while industry experts say it's complicated.
Financial Times:
Sources: ~300 London-based DeepMind staff have sought to unionize with the CWU in recent weeks, to challenge AI sales to defense groups and Google's Israel ties  —  Move by employees at Google's AI arm follows discontent after weapons and surveillance pledge is dropped
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
US v. Google: Chrome's GM testified that other companies cannot develop Chrome effectively, given the browser's “interdependencies” on other parts of Google  —  Google is the only company that can offer the level of features and functionality that its popular Chrome web browser has today …
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
Filing: China's leading flash memory chipmaker YMTC raised ~$219M from Hebei Yangyuan Zhihui Beverage Co. at a ~$22.1B valuation in December 2023  —  The deal was signed in December 2023 but was only announced on Friday as it ‘involved commercial secrets’, Yangyuan said

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Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:
Gabe Kaminsky / The Free Press: