~techmeme | Bookmarks (1039)

Sigal Samuel / Vox: A look at the debate about whether AI models can truly reason, as some researchers describe the current pattern of reasoning as “jagged intelligence”  —  The AI world is moving so fast that it's easy to get lost amid the flurry of shiny new products.

Erin Griffith / New York Times: Many SV startups are using AI to boost productivity in research, coding, and more, reducing reliance on VC money for hiring, fueling “tiny team” success stories  —  Tech start-ups typically raised huge sums to hire armies of workers and grow fast.

Davide Castelvecchi / Scientific American: Some physicists are skeptical about Microsoft's claims of achieving a quantum computing breakthrough with Majorana 1, citing the lack of detailed evidence  —  With its ‘topological’ quantum computers, Microsoft aims to reach useful scales faster than competing technologies

Daniel Cancel / Bloomberg: Latin American e-commerce giant MercadoLibre's stock reached a record high on February 21 after it reported a record $639M net income on $6.1B in revenue in Q4  —  - Latin America e-commerce, fintech giant blows away estimates  — MercadoLibre extends lead as most valuable Latin American firm

Lucinda Shen / Axios: Renaissance Capital: 12 of 40 fintech firms that went public in the US since 2020 have given positive investor returns; only Shift4 and AppLovin are profitable  —  All topics  —  Situational awareness: OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever is raising over $1 billion for his startup Safe Superintelligence …

Harry Dempsey / Financial Times: Japanese officials and executives warn that China's export curbs on gallium, germanium, and other chip raw materials threaten global electronics supply chains  —  Officials and executives say gallium rules will upset supply chains for chips and vehicle batteries

Bloomberg: Alibaba CEO Eddie Wu calls the pursuit of AGI the company's “primary objective”, saying “our first and foremost goal is to pursue AGI”  —  “Our first and foremost goal is to pursue AGI,” Eddie Wu told investors on a call after the company reported results that surpassed analyst estimates.

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times: Sources: Meta's oversight board got little notice of Zuckerberg's “free speech” overhaul, fueling tensions as it rushes to hold Meta accountable for the changes  —  Independent body searches for ways to hold social media group to account over content moderation and hate speech changes

Brenda Goh / Reuters: Chinese state media: Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei told Xi Jinping at a meeting that concerns about China lacking homegrown chips or operating systems had eased  —  Huawei's founder told Xi Jinping at a meeting the Chinese president held with private sector entrepreneurs that concerns China …

Benj Edwards / Ars Technica: Microsoft researchers introduce Magma, an AI foundation model that combines visual and language processing to control software interfaces and robotic systems  —  On Wednesday, Microsoft Research introduced Magma, an integrated AI foundation model that combines visual and language processing …

Gergely Orosz / The Pragmatic Engineer: A look at the potential reasons why software developer job listings on Indeed hit a five-year low in January, down 35% from 2020, including the impact of AI  —  Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter.  In every issue, I cover topics related to Big Tech …

Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: Filing: Meta approves raising executives' annual bonuses to 200% of base salary, up from 75%, as most employees' annual stock options are reportedly cut by ~10%  —  Executives at Meta stand to get bigger bonuses this year.  —  The company said in a corporate filing Thursday that it had approved …

Wall Street Journal: Sources: GameStop CEO and activist investor Ryan Cohen has grown his personal stake in Alibaba to about 7M shares, worth roughly $1B, in recent months  —  The meme-stock king and investor still has his sights set on the Chinese e-commerce behemoth  —  Ryan Cohen still has his sights set …

Mobile EDR Security: iVerify's iOS app detected a Pegasus infection in 11 new cases in December 2024, and about half of them did not receive Threat Notifications from Apple  —  In December, we published our groundbreaking investigation into mobile device threats.  The public didn't just read the report …

Ben Lang / Road to VR: Meta announces a $50M creator fund for Horizon Worlds; CTO Andrew Bosworth reportedly told staff that 2025 is a make-or-break year for Meta's XR ambitions  —  Meta today announced a $50 million fund to incentivize the creation of new and improved content in Horizon Worlds, the company's first-party social gaming platform.

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC: Block reports Q4 revenue up 4.5% YoY to $6.03B vs. $6.29B est., gross profit up 14% to $2.31B, Cash App gross profit up 16% to $1.38B; XYZ drops 6%+ after hours  —  Block reported fourth-quarter results on Thursday that fell short of Wall Street expectations.  The stock dropped more than 7% in extended trading.

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Substack adds the ability to post videos from its app and lets creators monetize videos, and plans to add more video tools like trimming and enhanced analytics  —  As TikTok's future in the U.S. remains uncertain, Substack tries to lure creators to its platform by doubling down on video.

Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget: Meta says US users over 18 can now sign up to be a Community Notes contributor on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads; notes will have a 500-character limit  —  The company is replacing third-party fact-checking with Community Notes on Threads, Instagram and Facebook.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Amazon plans to end support for its videoconferencing tool Chime on February 20, 2026; report: Amazon is adopting Zoom as its standard app for internal meetings  —  Amazon Chime, the tech giant's underwhelming alternative to Zoom and Google Meet, is shutting down for good.

Emily Birnbaum / Bloomberg: FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson announces an inquiry into “Big Tech censorship”, which he says is “un-American” and “potentially illegal”  —  - FTC Chair Ferguson invites public comment about tech platforms  — Conservatives claim ideas, affiliations have been censored

Financial Times: Sources: Meta has led the charge against the EU's AI Act this year, as Big Tech, with backing from President Trump, grows bolder in challenging EU regulations  —  US groups such as Meta emboldened in effort to water down regulations on AI and market dominance

Katie Roof / Bloomberg: Sources: X is in talks to raise funds at a $44B valuation, matching the price Elon Musk paid for Twitter in 2022, as his proximity to Trump alters X's prospects  —  - Valuation is the same as Musk's 2022 Twitter acquisition  — Billionaire has recently tapped private markets for big sums

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia: Taiwan's ASE Technology, the world's largest chip packaging and testing firm, opens a new plant in Penang, Malaysia, as part of its biggest overseas expansion  —  PENANG, Malaysia — ASE Technology Holding on Tuesday opened what is set to become its largest overseas operations in Penang …

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: Solana has lost ~25% of its market value, or ~$20B, since February 14 after Argentine President Javier Milei faced scrutiny for promoting Solana memecoin Libra  —  - Around $20 billion in Solana market value has been erased  — Solana has been a popular blockchain for issuing memecoins