How Google spent 15 years creating a culture of concealment, telling staff to destroy messages, avoid some words, and copy in lawyers, as it faces US lawsuits (David Streitfeld/New York Times)

David Streitfeld / New York Times: How Google spent 15 years creating a culture of concealment, telling staff to destroy messages, avoid some words, and copy in lawyers, as it faces US lawsuits  —  Trying to avoid antitrust suits, Google systematically told employees to destroy messages, avoid certain words and copy the lawyers as often […]

As OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google reportedly see diminishing AI training returns, a break from the market hype could be useful, just as with previous innovations (Parmy Olson/Bloomberg)

Parmy Olson / Bloomberg: As OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google reportedly see diminishing AI training returns, a break from the market hype could be useful, just as with previous innovations  —  Businesses will benefit from some much-needed breathing space to figure out how to deliver that all-important return on investment.

Google tightens its rules against “parasite SEO” content, or articles that have little to do with the website’s focus, after cracking down on “reputation abuse” (Mia Sato/The Verge)

Mia Sato / The Verge: Google tightens its rules against “parasite SEO” content, or articles that have little to do with the website’s focus, after cracking down on “reputation abuse”  —  Google is tightening its rules against “parasite SEO” content, or articles and pages that often have little …

Source: Databricks has told investors it is looking to raise $7B to $9B at a ~$61B valuation, to cash out employees that hold restricted stock units (Cory Weinberg/The Information)

Cory Weinberg / The Information: Source: Databricks has told investors it is looking to raise $7B to $9B at a ~$61B valuation, to cash out employees that hold restricted stock units  —  Good afternoon from Las Vegas, where I’m writing this newsletter from a hotel room with a Strip view of the Encore, the hotel […]

Sony launches cloud streaming on the PlayStation Portal in beta, letting PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers in some countries stream select PS5 games (Jay Peters/The Verge)

Jay Peters / The Verge: Sony launches cloud streaming on the PlayStation Portal in beta, letting PlayStation Plus Premium subscribers in some countries stream select PS5 games  —  Sony is bringing a big new feature to the PlayStation Portal: cloud streaming.  When it first launched, the device was only able to stream games from your […]

Coinbase says it will delist wBTC next month, as Justin Sun gains influence over the wBTC protocol; Coinbase launched its wrapped bitcoin, cbBTC, in September (Daniel Kuhn/The Block)

Daniel Kuhn / The Block: Coinbase says it will delist wBTC next month, as Justin Sun gains influence over the wBTC protocol; Coinbase launched its wrapped bitcoin, cbBTC, in September  —  – The exchange said it will delist the token in December, though users will still be able to move the wBTC off the exchange.

Making a mark in the nation’s capital

Anoushka Bose ’20 spent the summer of 2018 as an MIT Washington program intern, applying her nuclear physics education to arms control research with a D.C. nuclear policy think tank. “It’s crazy how much three months can transform people,” says Bose, now an attorney at the Department of Justice. “Suddenly, I was learning far more […]

A model of virtuosity

A crowd gathered at the MIT Media Lab in September for a concert by musician Jordan Rudess and two collaborators. One of them, violinist and vocalist Camilla Bäckman, has performed with Rudess before. The other — an artificial intelligence model informally dubbed the jam_bot, which Rudess developed with an MIT team over the preceding several […]

Sources: US officials are racing to deliver billions in CHIPS Act funding to Intel and others before Biden leaves office; nearly $30B is tied up in negotiations (Asa Fitch/Wall Street Journal)

Asa Fitch / Wall Street Journal: Sources: US officials are racing to deliver billions in CHIPS Act funding to Intel and others before Biden leaves office; nearly $30B is tied up in negotiations  —  Government officials and chip makers like Intel are in talks over billions of dollars aimed at growing domestic manufacturing

Super Micro hires BDO USA as its new independent auditor and files a plan to come into compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements; SMCI jumps 29%+ pre-market (Carmen Reinicke/Bloomberg)

Carmen Reinicke / Bloomberg: Super Micro hires BDO USA as its new independent auditor and files a plan to come into compliance with Nasdaq listing requirements; SMCI jumps 29%+ pre-market  —  – The company filed a plan to stay listed on the Nasdaq  — Super Micro said it appointed a new auditor in press release

US federal data shows nearly 1.8M human warehouse workers, up 30% since early 2020, despite automation efforts, as robots struggle at crucial, simple tasks (Peter Eavis/New York Times)

Peter Eavis / New York Times: US federal data shows nearly 1.8M human warehouse workers, up 30% since early 2020, despite automation efforts, as robots struggle at crucial, simple tasks  —  The machines can load and unload trucks, move goods and do other repetitive tasks but are stymied by some, like picking items from a […]

Curiosity, images, and scientific exploration

When we gaze at nature’s remarkable phenomena, we might feel a mix of awe, curiosity, and determination to understand what we are looking at. That is certainly a common response for MIT’s Alan Lightman, a trained physicist and prolific author of books about physics, science, and our understanding of the world around us. “One of […]

The US Library of Congress says hackers accessed some email communications between congressional offices and library staff between January and September 2024 (NBC News)

NBC News: The US Library of Congress says hackers accessed some email communications between congressional offices and library staff between January and September 2024  —  The Library of Congress didn’t specify who was behind the hack.  —  The Library of Congress said hackers broke into its communications systems …

Internal document: Amazon has held talks with several partners for handling specific tasks on the AI-powered Alexa, including Uber, Ticketmaster, and Instacart (Eugene Kim/Business Insider)

Eugene Kim / Business Insider: Internal document: Amazon has held talks with several partners for handling specific tasks on the AI-powered Alexa, including Uber, Ticketmaster, and Instacart  —  – Amazon discussed partnerships with other companies for an AI-powered Alexa upgrade.  — Partners under consideration included Uber …

In the Fifth Circuit, Amazon and SpaceX argued the NLRB, which recently ruled against them, is unconstitutional; the judges questioned their arbitrary deadlines (Daniel Wiessner/Reuters)

Daniel Wiessner / Reuters: In the Fifth Circuit, Amazon and SpaceX argued the NLRB, which recently ruled against them, is unconstitutional; the judges questioned their arbitrary deadlines  —  A panel of U.S. judges on Monday seemed likely to rule that Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Elon Musk’s SpaceX were too quick to bring …

A cell protector collaborates with a killer

From early development to old age, cell death is a part of life. Without enough of a critical type of cell death known as apoptosis, animals wind up with too many cells, which can set the stage for cancer or autoimmune disease. But careful control is essential, because when apoptosis eliminates the wrong cells, the […]

Roblox rolls out parental controls and gatekeeping features, like letting parents link accounts with a child and banning text chat for under 13s outside games (Sarah E. Needleman/Wall Street Journal)

Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal: Roblox rolls out parental controls and gatekeeping features, like letting parents link accounts with a child and banning text chat for under 13s outside games  —  Videogame company has denied the allegations and says the new protections were planned before a short seller’s report

Tim Berners-Lee’s Inrupt begins an early trial of its digital wallet in Belgium to help deliver social services to 7M citizens, as he worries over AI’s rise (Parmy Olson/Bloomberg)

Parmy Olson / Bloomberg: Tim Berners-Lee’s Inrupt begins an early trial of its digital wallet in Belgium to help deliver social services to 7M citizens, as he worries over AI’s rise  —  The inventor of the World Wide Web is on a laudable mission to give everyone control of their online data.  He’s fighting an […]

How Substack is betting on politics content and recruiting stars like Nate Silver, as profits remain elusive; sources: Elon Musk sought to buy it in April 2023 (New York Times)

New York Times: How Substack is betting on politics content and recruiting stars like Nate Silver, as profits remain elusive; sources: Elon Musk sought to buy it in April 2023  —  The newsletter start-up, which once drew an overture from Elon Musk, is betting on politics content and recruiting stars.