Sunday, October 5, 2025

Another look at Apple's executive succession, as it increases the spotlight on hardware chief John Ternus; sources: Apple weighed hiring a senior Meta AI exec (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Another look at Apple's executive succession, as it increases the spotlight on hardware chief John Ternus; sources: Apple weighed hiring a senior Meta AI exec  —  Apple is intensifying the spotlight on hardware chief John Ternus as executive succession looms.



How video games are shaping a generation of boys, as a survey says US males aged 15 to 24 now spend ~10 hrs/week on average on games, over 2x the time from 2010 (New York Times)

New York Times:
How video games are shaping a generation of boys, as a survey says US males aged 15 to 24 now spend ~10 hrs/week on average on games, over 2x the time from 2010  —  They've become an important way to spend time with peers.  But they've also become more addictive.



The AI boom is driving memory and storage shortages that may last a decade; OpenAI's Stargate has deals for 900K DRAM wafers per month, or ~40% of global output (Luke James/Tom's Hardware)

Luke James / Tom's Hardware:
The AI boom is driving memory and storage shortages that may last a decade; OpenAI's Stargate has deals for 900K DRAM wafers per month, or ~40% of global output  —  Once-cheap SSDs, DRAM, and HDD prices are climbing fast as AI demand and constrained supply converge to create the tightest market in years.



PitchBook: VC investment in Asia slowed to $48.9B in the first nine months of 2025, just over half of 2024's total, amid uncertainty due to US tariff policies (Pak Yiu/Nikkei Asia)

Pak Yiu / Nikkei Asia:
PitchBook: VC investment in Asia slowed to $48.9B in the first nine months of 2025, just over half of 2024's total, amid uncertainty due to US tariff policies  —  NEW YORK — Asian venture capital dealmaking has slowed down so far this year, as the region faces liquidity shortages …



Saturday, October 4, 2025

How researchers at Microsoft, IBM, and other organizations are using AI to speed up the search for new materials and chemicals for batteries (Andrew Moseman/IEEE Spectrum)

Andrew Moseman / IEEE Spectrum:
How researchers at Microsoft, IBM, and other organizations are using AI to speed up the search for new materials and chemicals for batteries  —  Microsoft and IBM pinpoint candidates from millions of options  —  Andrew Moseman is the online communications editor at Caltech and a freelance contributor to IEEE Spectrum.



Q&A with iRobot founder Rodney Brooks on his startup Robust.AI, which builds warehouse robots, unrealistic expectations around humanoid robots and AI, and more (Om Malik/Crazy Stupid Tech)

Om Malik / Crazy Stupid Tech:
Q&A with iRobot founder Rodney Brooks on his startup Robust.AI, which builds warehouse robots, unrealistic expectations around humanoid robots and AI, and more  —  Every so often, we find ourselves in the middle of a massive technological wave that starts to upend our presumptions and our ideas about the past, present, and future.



An investigation finds rampant caste bias in ChatGPT and Sora; a researcher also finds caste bias in Sarvam AI, which touts itself as a sovereign AI for India (Nilesh Christopher/MIT Technology Review)

Nilesh Christopher / MIT Technology Review:
An investigation finds rampant caste bias in ChatGPT and Sora; a researcher also finds caste bias in Sarvam AI, which touts itself as a sovereign AI for India  —  When Dhiraj Singha began applying for postdoctoral sociology fellowships in Bengaluru, India, in March, he wanted to make sure …



Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O'Neill says the Trump administration doesn't support CHAI, an effort by OpenAI, Mayo Clinic, and others to vet AI tools for healthcare (Ruth Reader/Politico)

Ruth Reader / Politico:
Deputy HHS Secretary Jim O'Neill says the Trump administration doesn't support CHAI, an effort by OpenAI, Mayo Clinic, and others to vet AI tools for healthcare  —  AI is transforming care.  Hospitals are adopting high-tech systems to improve diagnoses and recommend treatments, but there's little formal regulation.



Friday, October 3, 2025

AI chip startup Groq, last valued at $6.9B, says it plans to break ground on 12+ new data centers in 2026; Groq has set up 12 data centers in 2025 so far (Kimberley Kao/Wall Street Journal)

Kimberley Kao / Wall Street Journal:
AI chip startup Groq, last valued at $6.9B, says it plans to break ground on 12+ new data centers in 2026; Groq has set up 12 data centers in 2025 so far  —  The company, which makes chips and software to run artificial-intelligence models, was last valued at $6.9 billion



TechInsights: Huawei used components from TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix in some of its Ascend 910C chips; TSMC says the analyzed dies were made before Oct. 2024 (Mackenzie Hawkins/Bloomberg)

Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg:
TechInsights: Huawei used components from TSMC, Samsung, and SK Hynix in some of its Ascend 910C chips; TSMC says the analyzed dies were made before Oct. 2024  —  Huawei Technologies Co. used advanced components from Asia's largest technology firms in at least some of its leading Ascend AI processors …



Indonesia suspends TikTok's local operating license, saying it failed to share complete livestream activity data during protests following a government request (Chandra Asmara/Bloomberg)

Chandra Asmara / Bloomberg:
Indonesia suspends TikTok's local operating license, saying it failed to share complete livestream activity data during protests following a government request  —  Indonesia suspended TikTok's local operating license after the company refused to fully share data on its live streaming activity during nationwide protests in August.



Sources: after five Thinking Machines staff left, investors are rattled, potentially impacting fundraising; two researchers quit via Slack during an all-hands (The Information)

The Information : Sources: after five Thinking Machines staff left, investors are rattled, potentially impacting fundraising; two researc...