Techmeme Ride Home
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm. From Techmeme.com, Silicon Valley's most-read news source. 15 minutes and you're up to date.
Episodes
More fallout from those EU fines yesterday. A whole slew of self driving car news. The AI Coding Wars have officially begun. The back to the office wars continue. Is Chrome worth $50 billion? And let me tell you about the AI app that wants to help you cheat at everything.
Links:
That delayed action from the European Commission finally came down on Apple and Meta. Would OpenAI be a logical home for the Chrome web browser? Massive layoffs coming to Intel. Anysphere turned down an acquisition offer from OpenAI. And are the tariff wars coming for Elon Musk’s robots?
Sponsors:
Links:
As the US v. Google remedy trial begins, the FTC also sues Uber and makes Airbnb disclose all fees. Looks like tech regulation is still very much a thing. Bluesky begins rolling out verification. Meta is using AI to find if kids are lying about their age on Instagram. And Microsoft is forging ahead with that Recall feature.
Sponsors:
- Udacity.com/ride and code RIDE
Links:
Meta and Apple were about to go to the woodshed in Europe, but it looks like Trump’s tariffs have run interference for them. Everyone wants in on stablecoins, example number 23. Beware of phishing emails from Google.com. And are OpenAI’s latest models good, bad, or just “jagged”?
Sponsors:
- QualiaLife.com/ride and code RIDE
Links:
Google is ruled an illegal monopoly. Again. But for a different reason this time. Switch 2 pre-orders are back on. Americans are flocking to Temu and Shein alternatives. And in the Weekend Longreads Suggestions, what if I told you 25 percent of community college applicants are now AI bots? And not only that, the bots are now “attending classes” in quotes.
Sponsors:
- FactorMeals.com/ride50off and code ride50off
OpenAI has a new reasoning model, and more lower cost models as well. Is OpenAI about to acquire a coding startup? Is Perplexity turning to Samsung for distribution and branding? A Neuralink rival gets FDA approval. And why is Jensen Huang on a code-red mission to China at the moment?
Sponsors:
Links:
Well, it looks like DOGE has finally come for cybersecurity. It sounds like the tariff stuff is already biting Nvidia to the tune of $5 billion. Why is OpenAI building a social network? The government would have settled the antitrust case with Meta to the tune of $30 billion. And why did Mark Zuckerberg consider spinning off Instagram voluntarily?
Sponsors:
Links:
OpenAI releases its latest next gen models but you wouldn’t know it by the nomenclature because the numbers are going backwards. What’s up with that? Apple is tying itself in a pretzel to train on user data but still stick to privacy. And a big rundown of the first day of the big Meta antitrust trial.
Sponsors:
- MackWeldon.com promocode BRIAN
Links:
You know that meme of Ebenezer Scrooge shouting out the window? “Hey boy, what tariff regime is it today?” Sam Altman again implies ChatGPT usage has exploded. If you’re coding with AI, a big new vulnerability you need to know about. And is Apple pivoting the Vision Pro to the type of product I thought they should have done all along?
Sponsor:
Links:
Europe says it could tax social media ads if the tariff wars get really nasty. Why COULDN’T Apple make an iPhone in the US as President Trump wants? Is OpenAI cutting corners on safety in order to stay ahead in the AI race? And as always, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.
Sponsors:
Links:
At the time of this writing, the tariffs are back off, but who know what will happen by the time you hear this. OpenAI sues back. Google wants a framework for AI agents to talk to each other. Oh, and how many iPhones can you pack in a jumbo jet?
Sponsors:
Links:
Google unveils its new TPU’s, this time with inference! Temu and Shein officially get nuked from orbit. More signs of pullback in AI datacenter buildout. Are we actually, for real, about to get an iPad Instagram app? And a cute little home robot from ages ago, looks like it’s finally coming to a house near you this summer.
Sponsors:
Links:
Uh oh, it looks like the tech price hikes are already starting! People are accusing Meta of doing some weird things with those latest AI models. Shopify tells workers that they need to embrace AI for everything. Is AI killing web traffic? And how AI is being used to automatically create sequels for books.
Sponsors:
Links:
TikTok lives! Again. Again. At least for another 75 days. Meta’s big new Llama models are out. AI coding assistant Cursor has become the big breakout hit of the AI moment. And then yes, we get into the tariff situation, including, me polling tech execs who make consumer facing gadgets: do you plan to raise prices? Here’s what they told me.
Sponsors:
- Robinhood.com/gold
- Qualialife.com/ride and code RIDE
Li...
Is what happened with the Studio Ghibli ChatGPT image generation stuff even legal? I spoke with AI lawyer Rob Rosenberg, former general counsel at Showtime Networks and founder and principal of Telluride Legal Strategies about it, and what he told me was very interesting.
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Well we gotta talk about this tariff thing because the early indications are this could impact almost every nook and cranny of the tech industry. Could we get an announcement about TikTok within days? I think I figured out why CoreWeave’s stock popped back up. And how Nintendo plans to fight the scalpers.
Links:
All the details from the big Nintendo Switch 2 reveal this morning. Wikimedia says AI bots are increasing its costs by 50%. North Korean IT workers allegedy continue to go after remote IT jobs worldwide. Meta is reading its more ambitious, more expensive smartglasses for maybe later this year. And maybe the CoreWeave IPO wasn’t a bust?
Sponsors:
- Udacity.com/ride and promocode RIDE
Links:
Masa Son came through for OpenAI, to the tune of a $40 billion dollar round at a $300 billion-dollar post-money valuation. Sam Altman says OpenAI is going back to open weights. A new encryption model for Gmail. A new movie strategy for Amazon. And why the Switch 2 represents a new revenue strategy for Nintendo.
Sponsors:
Links:
Over the weekend Elon said that xAI has acquired X. Elon does love to blend his companies together. Tensions between SpaceX and Apple. Apple is working on a major Health app overhaul. And in this era of crypto ascendency, is Ethereum being left behind?
Links:
Popular Podcasts
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.