Kevin Weil and Bill Peebles withdraw from OpenAI, the company continues to publish ‘side quests’
OpenAI is losing two of its most ambitious moonshot architects. Kevin Weil, who led the company’s scientific research initiatives, and Bill Peebles, a researcher behind the AI video tool Sora, both announced their retirements on Friday. The exit comes as OpenAI consolidates around enterprise AI and its upcoming “super apps.” The exit follows OpenAI’s decision […]
Source: Cursor in talks to raise more than $2 billion at $50 billion valuation as company grows rapidly
AI coding startup Cursor is close to raising new funding, with the four-year-old company on track to raise at least $2 billion in new capital, according to four people familiar with the matter. Returning investors Thrive and Andreessen Horowitz are expected to lead the financing at a valuation of $50 billion ahead of the new […]
Developer productivity is lower than expected due to “Tokenmaxxing”
There is an old idea in management that “what is important is what you measure.” And you usually get more results for whatever you’re measuring. Software engineers have been discussing productivity metrics for decades, starting with the line of code. But as a new generation of AI coding agents delivers more code than ever before, […]
Zoom partners with World to authenticate people in meetings
Meetings platform Zoom has announced a partnership with Sam Altman’s human ID verification company World to ensure that people attending meetings are actually humans and not AI-generated impostors. This threat is real and growing rapidly. The most dramatic example occurred in early 2024, when engineering company Arup suffered a $25 million loss after an employee […]
Gigs turns your concert history into a personal live music archive
People always have their phones at the ready to record special moments at concerts, but they rarely revisit those videos. Gigs, a new concert tracking app released this week, hopes to change that. The iOS app helps live music fans turn years of concert, ticket, photo and video memories into a personal archive with the […]
Uber will now pick up returns at your doorstep
Uber on Friday launched a new feature that lets customers return purchased items without leaving their homes. The new returns feature, accessible through the Uber Eats app, is Uber’s latest effort to add flair to its app by offering services beyond its core ride-hailing and delivery business. The new service has limitations and, of course, […]
Anthropic launches Claude Design, a new product for creating rapid visuals
Anthropic on Friday announced the launch of Claude Design, a new experimental product that allows users to use Claude to create visuals such as prototypes, slides, and one-sheet materials. The company says Claude Design aims to make it easier for founders, product managers, and other people without design experience to share ideas. With Claude Design, […]
The US Espionage Act is about to expire, and lawmakers are divided over protecting Americans from warrantless surveillance.
A long-standing law that allows U.S. intelligence agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of foreign communications without the need for search warrants is set to expire next week, but lawmakers are at an impasse over whether to allow the Trump administration to extend it without changes. The law, known as Section 702 of the […]
Bluesky confirms DDoS attack is causing persistent app outages
BlueSky’s website and app remained out of service on Friday, with Chief Operating Officer Rose Wang blaming it on an ongoing cyberattack. On Thursday night, the social media company acknowledged that the issue was caused by an “advanced distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack.” The attack originally began on April 15 at approximately 8:40 p.m. […]
Netflix plans to add vertical video feed and use AI for recommendations
Netflix will launch a TikTok-like vertical video feed within its app this month, and plans to use AI extensively to create and recommend content, the company announced Thursday. Netflix has been testing vertical video feeds since last year. The short video feature could help users find video podcasts along with current shows and movies. The […]