The Brutalist Report - tech
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- Former Mercor staffers describe "operational mishaps" at the $10B startup, including employee fraud, a security breach, and suspected North Korean infiltration (Rashi Shrivastava/Forbes) [2d]
- Filings: Caterpillar acquires self-driving electric tractor startup Monarch Tractor's assets, after it raised $200M+ and struggled to pivot to software services (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch) [2d]
- Sources: Apple plans to send a significant part of its Siri team, known as a laggard, to an AI coding bootcamp; the group is expected to be fewer than 200 (The Information) [2d]
- X users complain that the latest crackdown on bots purged secret accounts they had used for years to watch and curate their favorite porn (Jason Parham/Wired) [2d]
- Objection, which aims to use AI and experts to evaluate claims in news stories, debuts with funding from Peter Thiel, Balaji Srinivasan; evaluations cost $2,000 (Rebecca Bellan/TechCrunch) [2d]
- NY-based Auctor, which uses AI to curate resource plans and process flows to help companies adopt new software, raised $20M in a combined seed and Series A (Chris Metinko/Axios) [2d]
- A jury finds that Live Nation and Ticketmaster illegally maintained monopoly power in the ticketing market, in a case brought by state AGs after the DOJ settled (NBC News) [2d]
- Google rolls out Gemini 3.1 Flash TTS, a text-to-speech model with support for over 70 languages and audio tags that give developers granular speech control (Matthias Bastian/The Decoder) [2d]
- Q&A with Jensen Huang on Nvidia's supply chain moat, competition from ASICs like Google's TPU, investing in AI labs and neoclouds, selling to China, and more (Dwarkesh Patel/Dwarkesh Podcast) [2d]
- WPP, Dentsu, and Publicis settle with the FTC over claims they colluded on misinformation policies that denied ad revenue to conservative publishers (David McCabe/New York Times) [2d]
- Adobe unveils Firefly AI Assistant, which can orchestrate and execute multistep tasks across Creative Cloud apps, available in public beta in the coming weeks (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch) [2d]
- Google launches a Gemini Mac app, featuring a keyboard shortcut, screen sharing for better context, image generation with Nano Banana, and more (Abner Li/9to5Google) [2d]
- The US Energy Information Administration plans to implement a mandatory nationwide survey of data centers focused on their energy use (Molly Taft/Wired) [2d]
- Cal.com, which provides scheduling software, is moving its core open-source codebase to a closed repository, citing the dangers of AI hacking its open code (Steven Vaughan-Nichols/ZDNET) [2d]
- AI cloud infrastructure company Parasail raised a $32M Series A led by Touring Capital and Kindred Ventures, bringing its total funding to $42M (Tim Fernholz/TechCrunch) [2d]
- Filings: Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz donated $25M to pro-AI super PAC Leading the Future, bringing the group's total cash on hand to over $51M (Bloomberg) [2d]
- Hilbert, whose AI software connects data across teams to help companies make decisions from a single system, raised a $28M Series A led by a16z (Madison Mills/Axios) [2d]
- A survey of US teens: ~90% say entertainment is a reason they use TikTok, Instagram, or Snapchat, 57% Snapchat message daily, and 37% say TikTok impacts sleep (Pew Research Center) [2d]
- Artemis, which aims to replace rule-based cybersecurity systems with an AI-driven centralized "brain", emerges from stealth with a $70M Series A led by Felicis (Sharon Goldman/Fortune) [2d]
- London-based Gizmo, which uses AI to turn young students' notes into gamified study materials, raised a $22M Series A led by Shine Capital and reports 13M users (Natalie Breymeyer/Axios) [2d]
- AMD, Arm, and Qualcomm invest $60M in London-based self-driving tech startup Wayve as part of an extension to its $1.2B Series D, announced in February (Kirsten Korosec/TechCrunch) [2d]
- Trainer maker Allbirds, which sold last week for $39M after its valuation fell from $4B in 2021, says it aims to become an AI compute provider; BIRD jumps 150%+ (Bryce Elder/Financial Times) [2d]
- The European Commission issues a supplementary statement of objections threatening Meta with an interim ban on WhatsApp policies that allegedly block rivals (Samuel Stolton/Bloomberg) [2d]
- Accel raised $5B, including a $4B Leaders fund, focused on writing large checks to late-stage startups globally, and a $650M sidecar fund, taking AUM to $36B (Rebecca Torrence/Bloomberg) [2d]
- Survey: only 35% of Virginia voters are comfortable with new data center construction, down from 69% in 2023, and just 37% support data center tax breaks (Washington Post) [2d]
- ASML says South Korea surpassed China as its largest market in Q1 2026, with shipments hitting 45% of net system sales, or €2.84B, up from 22% in Q4 2025 (Sarah Jacob/Bloomberg) [2d]
- Trading firm Jane Street takes an additional $1B stake in CoreWeave, and plans to spend ~$6B to access CoreWeave's Vera Rubin chips to build and deploy AI (Bloomberg) [2d]
- NYT Connections hints and answers for Thursday, April 16 (game #1040) [2d]
- Quordle hints and answers for Thursday, April 16 (game #1543) [2d]
- NYT Strands hints and answers for Thursday, April 16 (game #774) [2d]
- Is this the tipping point for AI at work? New Gallup survey finds half of all US employees now use it in some way [2d]
- I have an Allbirds collection that I love, and its AI pivot feels worse than poorly-fitting shoes [2d]
- I used ChatGPT to envision my kid’s doodles as real animals, and they looked surprisingly lifelike [2d]
- 'Every Apple user needs to know about this nasty scam': Fake warnings tell users their iCloud data will be deleted — but don't fall for this devious phishing trick [2d]
- 'Makes it even more disappointing': Microsoft backs fossil fuel big time with $7 billion deal in race for AI supremacy [2d]
- 'Maybe it’s not science fiction': Solar panels are causing rainwater to fall in one of the driest places on Earth [2d]
- How to watch Love Island: Beyond the Villa season 2 online from anywhere [2d]
- 'If these centers aren’t thoughtfully planned and coordinated, they can place extraordinary demands on electric infrastructure, the surrounding environment and host communities': Maine becomes first US state to pass data centre construction ban [2d]
- The Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 7 FE is a well-designed foldable that still feels too expensive for what it is [2d]
- Here are 11 TVs that I recommend watching the NBA Playoffs on — up to $1,700 off 4K, QLED and OLED TVs [2d]
- 'There's some inevitability to combining digital and physical worlds': Apple's Greg Joswiak drops fresh hint about its rumored Meta Ray-Bans rival [2d]
- Snap up this powerful Asus TUF F16 Gaming Laptop with an RTX 4050 for under $1,000 at Amazon [2d]
- Margo's Got Money Troubles review — Apple TV's new comedy series is addictive and surprisingly heartfelt [2d]
- WordPress websites under attack — expert report says dozens of plugins hijacked to target thousands of sites [2d]
- Amazon’s Google Pixel sale significantly undercuts Apple and Samsung on price — now's the time to buy [2d]
- 5 nail-biting crime dramas on cable TV that you've definitely missed — but there's still a way to stream them [2d]
- Claude is having some problems, as Anthropic confirms an active issue — here's everything we know [2d]
- Arsenal vs Sporting CP Free Streams: TV Channels, Kick-Off time for Champions League quarter-final 2nd leg [2d]
- Lowe's spring sale is like a Memorial Day preview — 40% off patio furniture, grills, appliances, and more [2d]
- The end of encrypted DMs? Why Instagram is rolling back its biggest security feature [2d]
- Drone-killing laser weapons greenlit for use in US airspace – FAA and Defense Department say high-energy weapons are ‘ready to protect all air travelers from illicit drone use’ despite airspace restrictions and friendly-fire incidents [2d]
- Microsoft's Recall tool is back and still has major security concerns — but the company denies any data risk [2d]
- The Boys season 5 episode 3 sees Homelander nearly kill another Supe — and some Prime Video viewers argue that he 'should've gone through with it' [2d]
- Gemini is now a native macOS app, making it faster and better integrated than ever before [2d]
- Amazon has been accused of ‘bricking’ older Fire TV Stick devices to get users to upgrade — and it’s sparked a class action lawsuit [2d]
- Avoid paying full price — a certified refurbished Kindle is a much cheaper option after this Amazon price cut [2d]
- 'We are currently being extorted' — crypto giant Kraken says it is facing extortion attack, here's what we know [2d]
- VPN deal of the week: Our exclusive Surfshark deal gives you year-low prices and 4 months extra protection — here's how to claim [2d]
- Free Making Tax Digital (MTD) software [2d]
- This Jackery portable power station gets a massive $700 discount — and it's not the only one in the Earth Day Sale if you want off-grid, RV, and home back-up power from some of my favorite systems [2d]
- Amazon's 3 for $33 4K Blu-ray sale is back — here are my top 9 picks to add to your collection [2d]
- How to watch Bayern Munich vs Real Madrid: live stream Champions League quarter-final 2nd leg from anywhere [2d]
- Black Sails is leaving Netflix this week — but you can stream the greatest pirate TV show of all time somewhere else for free [2d]
- 'This activity appears to be part of a broader issue': education company McGraw Hill becomes latest to see its Salesforce data hacked [2d]
- NordVPN promises urgent Mac app update after users dub latest release a "dumpster fire" [2d]
- KitchenAid puts iced coffee lovers first with its new lineup of automatic espresso machines — here’s when you’ll be able snag one [2d]
- Looking for a new PC? Now might be great time to upgrade, as Gartner figures claim shipments are rising — while demand is falling [2d]
- ‘A penny-pinching brand’: Sony is removing key features from its Bravia smart TVs, and users are seriously unhappy [2d]
- Kindle owners are struck another blow as Send to Kindle is set to stop working on old devices [2d]
- The new engineering playbook: how AI design copilots are reshaping product development [2d]
- AI could mean the end of the Wayback Machine, as news websites are increasingly blocking it to prevent content scraping [2d]
- The legendary RPG series that inspired The Witcher is finally coming to Xbox and PlayStation [2d]
- Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream took roughly nine years to develop and focuses on user-generated content for 'infinite ways to enjoy the game', developer reveals [2d]
- Farewell Surface Hub — Microsoft kills off its super-sized touchscreen displays, but you might still be able to get one if you act fast [2d]
- Amazon just changed the name of its Fire TV line-up to make things less confusing — and its new Samsung The Frame rival is coming soon [2d]
- What is the release date for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters season 2 episode 8 on Apple TV? [2d]
- Own a Fire TV device? You're getting a free update soon, with refreshed layout and new streaming channels — and Amazon's also launching a slimmer Fire TV Stick [2d]
- 'Better than AirPods': these rival earbuds boast better stamina, more reliable Bluetooth — and cost a third of the price [2d]
- ‘A hardware failure in our production truck’ — Amazon Prime Video’s Heat vs Hornets live stream has major outage in overtime [2d]
- 'We have no interest in patient data in the UK': Palantir UK head defends record as criticisms rise [2d]
- By the way, you can get a new MacBook Air M5 for just $349 by bundling together these deals at Best Buy [2d]
- 'A total disappointment': Some Galaxy Watch owners are seeing major battery drains after the latest software update [2d]
- 'There is a romance to platonic love': Big Mood season 2 star Nicola Coughlan on why female friendship in new Channel 4 series needs Bridgerton fan treatment [2d]
- Amazon’s new AI Bio Discovery tool can provide ‘every researcher’ with ‘lab-in-the-loop drug discovery’ – 40+ AI biology models can filter 300,000 novel antibody candidates down to the top results for testing in just weeks [2d]
- Windows 11 tool brings a macOS feature to the desktop — and I can't believe this useful trick isn't in Microsoft's OS already [2d]
- 'The ultimate funny clip generator' — Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is the perfect Nintendo Switch game for the social media age [2d]
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