The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

• GitHub says it will use Copilot interaction data, including inputs, outputs, and code snippets, to train its AI models starting April 24, unless users opt out (Corbin Davenport/How-To Geek) [19d]
• Google sets a 2029 deadline for its post-quantum cryptography migration, aiming to "secure the quantum era" as "frontiers may be closer than they appear" (Dan Goodin/Ars Technica) [19d]
• Musk's lawyers ask a Delaware judge to step back from cases involving him, after her account "liked" a LinkedIn post celebrating his defeat in a California case (Sujeet Indap/Financial Times) [20d]
• Singapore-based Startale, developer of the Strium blockchain for tokenized securities and JPYSC and USDSC stablecoins, raised a $63M Series A from SBI and Sony (Francisco Rodrigues/CoinDesk) [20d]
• Source: Meta on Wednesday laid off around 700 employees in the Reality Labs unit, as well as some in recruiting, sales, and Facebook (Eli Tan/New York Times) [20d]
• Nintendo says new first-party games exclusive to Switch 2 will have different prices for physical and digital versions in the US, beginning in May (Andy Robinson/Video Games Chronicle) [20d]
• ARC Prize Foundation unveils ARC-AGI-3, an AI benchmark with simple video-game-like scenarios designed to measure on-the-fly reasoning rather than memory recall (Mark Sullivan/Fast Company) [20d]
• Reddit says it will label automated accounts that provide a service to users and will require accounts suspected of being bots to verify they are human (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch) [20d]
• The jury in LA's social media trial finds Meta and YouTube harmed a young user via addictive design features and orders them to pay her $3M; Meta will pay 70% (New York Times) [20d]
• Social media addiction trial: a Los Angeles jury finds Meta and YouTube were negligent and failed to warn users about the dangers of using their platforms (Jonathan Vanian/CNBC) [20d]
• Google launches Lyria 3 Pro music generation model, with better creative control and allowing users to create three-minute tracks, up from Lyria 3's 30 seconds (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch) [20d]
• Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez plan to introduce legislation to pause new data center construction until AI safeguards are in place (Maria Curi/Axios) [20d]
• Sources: cloud provider Vultr is seeking to raise $1B+ to expand its AI computing capacity, after raising $333M at a $3.5B valuation in 2024 (The Information) [20d]
• Epic Microsystems, which designs power delivery architecture for better thermal and efficiency management of AI data centers, raised a $21M Series A (Chris Metinko/Axios) [20d]
• Source: as part of its Google deal, Apple has full access to the Gemini model in its own data centers and can use distillation to produce smaller models (The Information) [20d]
• Charlotte-based Lucid Bots, which manufactures autonomous drones for cleaning windows, raised a $20M Series B co-led by Cubit and Idea Fund (Rebecca Szkutak/TechCrunch) [20d]
• Google Research details TurboQuant, a quantization algorithm to enable massive compression of LLMs and vector search engines without sacrificing accuracy (Google Research) [20d]
• SCOTUS rules unanimously that Cox could not be held liable for the piracy of thousands of songs online, after music labels sued the internet provider in 2018 (Ann E. Marimow/New York Times) [20d]
• Glimpse, which uses AI agents to let 200+ brands automate financial deduction processes, raised a $35M Series A led by a16z, bringing its total raised to $52M (Dominic-Madori Davis/TechCrunch) [20d]
• Notch, which is developing an OS designed for high-compliance sectors, raised a $30M Series A led by Headline, after pivoting from being a specialty insurer (Duncan Riley/SiliconANGLE) [20d]
• Elon Musk says X will "pause" new creator monetization rules that would base payouts on engagement from a user's local audience, after criticism from creators (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch) [20d]
• Meta confirms plans to lay off staff; sources say it impacts a few hundred people across Reality Labs, its social media teams, recruiting, and some sales roles (Jyoti Mann/The Information) [20d]
• Normal Computing, which uses AI to help chip companies design chips more efficiently, raised $50M led by Samsung Catalyst and says it has 5+ top chip clients (Sharon Goldman/Fortune) [20d]
• Legal AI company Harvey raised $200M led by GIC and Sequoia at an $11B valuation, up from $8B in December 2025, and reports 100K+ users at 1,300+ organizations (Ashley Capoot/CNBC) [20d]
• Sources: AI science startup Periodic Labs, founded by ex-OpenAI VP Liam Fedus and DeepMind's Ekin Cubuk, aims to raise hundreds of millions at a ~$7B valuation (Bloomberg) [20d]
• US official: Trump plans to name Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison, and Jensen Huang to the Council of Advisors on Science and Tech, co-chaired by David Sacks (Wall Street Journal) [20d]
• Apple rolls out mandatory UK age verification with iOS 26.4, requiring users to provide a credit card or ID, a first in Europe, after UK government pressure (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times) [20d]
• Temu owner PDD reports Q4 revenue up 12% YoY to ~$18B and net profit down 11% YoY to ~$3.56B, below ~$4B est., as it seeks to retain merchants on its platform (Tracy Qu/Wall Street Journal) [20d]
• AI note taking startup Granola raised $125M led by Index Ventures at a $1.5B valuation, and plans Claude integrations and agentic AI features in the next year (Rebecca Torrence/Bloomberg) [20d]
• Memo: Mark Zuckerberg launches Meta Small Business, a company-wide priority to support entrepreneurship and drive AI use, led by Dina Powell McCormick and more (Axios) [20d]
• Q&A with Arm CEO Rene Haas on changing Arm's culture, working with SoftBank, developing its Arm AGI CPU data center chip fabricated by TSMC, and more (Lauren Goode/Wired) [20d]
• Kansas-based NoTraffic, which uses AI-driven operating systems and sensor data to optimize intersection traffic flow, raised a $90M Series C led by PSG Equity (Chris Metinko/Axios) [20d]
• Chinese AI company Kuaishou reports Q4 revenue up 12% YoY to ~$5.7B, meeting est., adjusted net income up 16% YoY, and Kling text-to-video revenue of ~$49M (Rachel Yeo/Bloomberg) [20d]
• X says it is updating its revenue-sharing incentives to give more weight to engagement from a user's home region, hoping to "disincentivize" gaming US attention (Mariella Moon/Engadget) [20d]
• How internet censorship tech maker Sandvine, a vendor to repressive regimes like Egypt, nearly collapsed before US restrictions forced new ownership and a pivot (Ryan Gallagher/Bloomberg) [20d]
• US digital rights group Holistic Resilience launched Mahsa Alert to provide Iranians with offline mapping and strike notifications, hitting 100K DAUs in days (Wired) [20d]
• OpenAI hires Kiran Mani, the CEO of Indian streaming platform JioStar, for a newly created role leading its Asia-Pacific operations, reporting to CSO Jason Kwon (Newley Purnell/Bloomberg) [20d]
• EQT and McKinsey study: between 2014 and 2025, European tech companies with a current combined value of ~$1.4T listed abroad or were acquired by foreign buyers (Bloomberg) [20d]
• Memo: Sam Altman says OpenAI's next model finished pretraining, and moves Safety to Research and Security to Scaling; Fidji Simo becomes CEO of "AGI Deployment" (Alex Heath/Sources) [20d]
• How AI is helping geologists identify thousands of slopes around the world at high risk of slipping by analyzing data from satellites and ground-based sensors (Chris Baraniuk/BBC) [20d]
• Large US corporations are not ditching core business software for AI yet, instead seeking better vendor deals and "vibe-coding" smaller apps and customizations (Belle Lin/Wall Street Journal) [20d]
• Sources: worsening supply constraints in CPUs made by Intel and AMD add a fresh blow to PC and server makers already hit by a severe memory chip shortage (Nikkei Asia) [20d]
• Sources: China bars Manus co-founders Xiao Hong and Ji Yichao from leaving the country as it reviews whether Meta's $2B acquisition of Manus violates FDI rules (Financial Times) [20d]
• The Trump administration settles the 2022 Murthy v. Missouri case, preventing the Surgeon General, CDC, and CISA from pressuring social media to suppress speech (Mike Scarcella/Reuters) [20d]
• Filing: Meta offers top executives stock options for the first time since its 2012 IPO to retain talent, if it hits stock-price milestones in the coming years (Kurt Wagner/Bloomberg) [20d]
• Amity, a Thailand-based startup that provides generative AI tools to businesses like retail and telecom, raised $100M in a Series D as it plans for a 2027 IPO (Olivia Poh/Bloomberg) [20d]
• Neal Stephenson says he no longer believes head-mounted displays are the future, citing public discomfort with the devices and a general distrust of the users (Neal Stephenson/Graphomane) [20d]
• Sources: some Sora team members were surprised by OpenAI's sudden decision to end Sora support, just a day after OpenAI posted a blog on Sora safety standards (Reuters) [20d]
• Source: Meta's rollout of Meta Ray-Ban Display in the EU has been hampered by regulations on AI features and removable batteries, as well as supply constraints (Bloomberg) [20d]
• Source: SpaceX is aiming to file its IPO prospectus with regulators later this week or next week, and could try to raise more than $75B (The Information) [20d]
• Spotify is beta testing Artist Profile Protection, allowing artists to review releases before they go live to prevent AI tracks from being attributed to them (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch) [20d]
• SK Hynix has submitted a confidential filing to the SEC for a possible listing of American depositary receipts in 2026; it reportedly considers raising ~$10B (Reuters) [20d]