Baidu CEO Robin Li says demand for text-based models like DeepSeek's is "shrinking" and claims its model had a higher propensity for "hallucinations" (Eleanor Olcott/Financial Times)

Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times:
Baidu CEO Robin Li says demand for text-based models like DeepSeek's is “shrinking” and claims its model had a higher propensity for “hallucinations”  —  Search group's chief makes rare criticism of China's generative artificial intelligence darling

Toshiba Europe researchers say they used quantum key distribution cryptography to send messages over a 250km German commercial telecommunications network (Michael Peel/Financial Times)

Michael Peel / Financial Times:
Toshiba Europe researchers say they used quantum key distribution cryptography to send messages over a 250km German commercial telecommunications network  —  Researchers harness quantum mechanics to create communications system that can avoid being hacked  —  Scientists have sent messages …

Adobe unveils its Firefly Image Model 4 and Model 4 Ultra, launches a redesigned Firefly web app, is testing a new Adobe Content Authenticity web app, and more (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Adobe unveils its Firefly Image Model 4 and Model 4 Ultra, launches a redesigned Firefly web app, is testing a new Adobe Content Authenticity web app, and more  —  Adobe on Thursday launched the latest iteration of its Firefly family of image generation AI models, a model for generating vectors …

Trump Media partners with Crypto.com and Florida-based Yorkville America Digital to launch ETFs by the end of 2025, as it moves into financial services (Matthew Goldstein/New York Times)

Matthew Goldstein / New York Times:
Trump Media partners with Crypto.com and Florida-based Yorkville America Digital to launch ETFs by the end of 2025, as it moves into financial services  —  The agreement will allow the president's social media company to market investment products, including crypto, to retail investors through a series of exchange-traded funds.

Duolingo plans to add a chess course, which uses short puzzles to help learn the game, in beta on iOS in English in the coming weeks before an Android launch (Jay Peters/The Verge)

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Duolingo plans to add a chess course, which uses short puzzles to help learn the game, in beta on iOS in English in the coming weeks before an Android launch  —  Practice the classic game with help from Duolingo. … Duolingo will soon be able to help you learn another new skill: chess.

DOJ v. Google: a Google VP says the company pays Samsung an "enormous sum of money" every month to preinstall Gemini on its devices as part of a two-year deal (Leah Nylen/Bloomberg)

Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
DOJ v. Google: a Google VP says the company pays Samsung an “enormous sum of money” every month to preinstall Gemini on its devices as part of a two-year deal  —  The company began paying Samsung for Gemini in January, according to Peter Fitzgerald, Google's vice president …

Brand aggregator Upexi says it is raising $100M to accumulate Solana, causing its shares to surge over 400%, part of a trend of companies investing in crypto (Ryan Weeks/Bloomberg)

Ryan Weeks / Bloomberg:
Brand aggregator Upexi says it is raising $100M to accumulate Solana, causing its shares to surge over 400%, part of a trend of companies investing in crypto  —  Upexi Inc. is raising $100 million as part of a pivot that will see the company start to accumulate the cryptocurrency Solana, according to a Monday statement.

Sources: Circle, BitGo, and other firms plan to apply for bank charters or licenses, as the Trump administration pushes to bring crypto into mainstream finance (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Circle, BitGo, and other firms plan to apply for bank charters or licenses, as the Trump administration pushes to bring crypto into mainstream finance  —  Circle, BitGo and other crypto firms plan to apply for bank charters or licenses  —  Crypto is pushing deeper into the banking system.

TSMC says its role in the semiconductor supply chain limits its ability to comply with export rules, after reports its tech was used in Huawei's Ascend 910B (Jane Lanhee Lee/Bloomberg)

Jane Lanhee Lee / Bloomberg:
TSMC says its role in the semiconductor supply chain limits its ability to comply with export rules, after reports its tech was used in Huawei's Ascend 910B  —  “TSMC's role in the semiconductor supply chain inherently limits its visibility and information available to it regarding …

After lobbying US Congress to shelve the Senate-passed KOSA bill in 2024, Meta has now made headway in lobbying for an app store age-verification bill (Ruth Reader/Politico)

Ruth Reader / Politico:
After lobbying US Congress to shelve the Senate-passed KOSA bill in 2024, Meta has now made headway in lobbying for an app store age-verification bill  —  The Facebook founder is lobbying Congress to leave his firm alone — and making headway.  —  To protect kids online …

A look at the race to turn brainwaves into fluent speech, as researchers at universities in California and companies use brain implants and AI to make advances (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
A look at the race to turn brainwaves into fluent speech, as researchers at universities in California and companies use brain implants and AI to make advances  —  Californian researchers and groups such as Precision Neuroscience use implants and AI to make advances in ‘voice prosthesis’

The success of A Minecraft Movie, set to hit $700M in ticket sales globally this weekend, signals Hollywood's breakthrough in adapting video games into films (Christopher Grimes/Financial Times)

Christopher Grimes / Financial Times:
The success of A Minecraft Movie, set to hit $700M in ticket sales globally this weekend, signals Hollywood's breakthrough in adapting video games into films  —  While superhero franchises flag, ‘A Minecraft Movie’ shows the industry has finally cracked the formula for translating popular games into films

India's Open Network for Digital Commerce has struggled to break the near-duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy in online food delivery after cutting back on discounts (Krishnapriya V.S./The India Forum)

Krishnapriya V.S. / The India Forum:
India's Open Network for Digital Commerce has struggled to break the near-duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy in online food delivery after cutting back on discounts  —  A near-duopoly of Zomato and Swiggy controls almost 95% of India's digital platform-based food delivery market …

A comparison of OpenAI's o3, o4-mini, and GPT-4.1; Aaron Levie says o3 nailed a multi-step financial modeling task; Scale AI CEO says o3 is "a big breakthrough" (Every)

Every:
A comparison of OpenAI's o3, o4-mini, and GPT-4.1; Aaron Levie says o3 nailed a multi-step financial modeling task; Scale AI CEO says o3 is “a big breakthrough”  —  Our take on what's powerful, what's practical, and what's still TBD … If you've been following AI news this week …

A half-marathon in Beijing featured a road race with human runners and 21 Chinese humanoid robots, highlighting both the progress and limitations of such robots (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
A half-marathon in Beijing featured a road race with human runners and 21 Chinese humanoid robots, highlighting both the progress and limitations of such robots  —  A half-marathon in Beijing featured a road race between human runners and 21 robot models—and showed how far robots still are from mimicking people.