Techmeme
April 28, 2025, 8:30 PM

Top News

Reece Rogers / Wired:
OpenAI announces that it will start showing product recommendations in ChatGPT, even for logged-out users, with buy buttons that link to merchants' sites  —  OpenAI is launching a shopping experience inside of ChatGPT, complete with product picks and buy buttons.
Will Oremus / Washington Post:
The US House passes the Take It Down Act to criminalize posting nonconsensual sexual images of others, including deepfakes, and require platforms to remove them  —  Trump is expected to sign into law a bill that would force online platforms to quickly take down nonconsensual intimate images.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Alibaba unveils the Qwen3 family of open-weight “hybrid” AI reasoning models, including Qwen3-235B-A22B, with 235B total parameters and 22B activated parameters  —  Chinese tech company Alibaba on Monday released Qwen 3, a family of AI models the company claims matches …
Joey Roulette / Reuters:
Amazon launches 27 satellites for its Project Kuiper broadband internet program, the first batch of 3,236 satellites it plans to send into low-Earth orbit  —  The first 27 satellites for Amazon's Kuiper broadband internet constellation were launched into space from Florida on Monday …
Zvi Mowshowitz / Don't Worry About the Vase:
A deep dive on GPT-4o's tendency to give sycophantic responses, an issue Sam Altman promised to fix and that may be caused by OpenAI optimizing for engagement  —  GPT-4o tells you what it thinks you want to hear.  —  The results of this were rather ugly.  You get extreme sycophancy.  Absurd praise.
CNBC:
Temu adds “import charges” of between 130% and 150% “due to recent changes in global trade rules and tariffs”; Shein also hikes prices but without explicit fees  —  Chinese e-tailer Temu has started adding “import charges” of about 145% in response to President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Ben Smith / Semafor:
A look at the network of group chats that surged in 2020 as a place where Silicon Valley leaders allied with the new right, revolving around Marc Andreessen  —  THE SCOOP  —  Last Thursday morning, a bit before 10 am in Austin and nearly 11 pm in Singapore, Joe Lonsdale had enough of Balaji Srinivasan's views on China.
More: The Verge, The Information, Inc, Politico, Boing Boing, New Republic, Vanity Fair, Garbage Day, emptywheel, and Raw Story
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
IBM plans to invest $150B in the US over the next five years, including in R&D, to fuel the economy and “accelerate its role as the global leader in computing”  —  Powerbeats Pro 2 Review: Best Workout Earbuds Still Lag on Audio Quality  —  Beats' newest exercise headphones …
Prakhar Khanna / ZDNET:
Nothing announces the $279 CMF Phone 2 Pro, with a 6.77" 120Hz AMOLED display and three rear cameras, including a 50MP telephoto lens, plus three new earbuds  —  Nothing's affordable sub-brand, CMF, has announced a new phone alongside a trio of earbuds.  The CMF Phone 2 Pro …
Emanuel Maiberg / 404 Media:
Kickstarter introduces a “Tariff Manager tool” that lets creators add extra charges for backers on projects that were already fully funded  —  Kickstarter projects have the option of asking backers for more money in order to manage the costs of Trump's tariffs.
More: The Verge, Engadget, and Gizmodo
Bluesky: @josephcox, @jasonkoebler, and @emanuelmaibergMastodon: @carnage4life@mas.toForums: Slashdot
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Researchers say bots on Reddit posing as rape victims and more were effective at changing minds in over 1,000 posts, in an unauthorized AI persuasion experiment  —  A team of researchers who say they are from the University of Zurich ran an “unauthorized,” large-scale experiment …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Palo Alto Networks says it aims to acquire Seattle-based Protect AI, sources say for $500M; Protect AI's $60M Series B in 2024 was at a reported $400M valuation  —  Cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks plans to acquire Protect AI, a Seattle startup founded in 2022 that helps companies monitor …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Zoho Books now enables direct VAT filing with EmaraTax  —  We're excited to announce that Zoho Books is now recognised as a Digital Tax Integrator by the Federal Tax Authority, enabling direct VAT return filing from within your favorite accounting software.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Tim Apple's Very Bad Week
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Jeffrey Katzenberg & Sujay Jaswa (WndrCo) on What Startup Founders Can Steal From Hollywood
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Google DeepMind C.E.O. Demis Hassabis on Living in an A.I. Future
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
BG2 Pod:
AI, Middle East, China, Tariffs, Recon Bill, Invest America
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is okay with reinventing the bus
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
Unconventional product lessons from Binance, N26, Google, more | Mayur Kamat (CPO at N26, ex-Binance Head of Product)
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:30 PM ET, April 28, 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.

More News

The Citizen Lab:

Earlier Picks

Jessica Testa / New York Times:
Financial Times:
David Heinemeier Hansson / HEY: