Nat Versus the Volcano: Can an AI Investor Solve an Ancient Mystery from the Ashes of Vesuvius?Read more

Art by Sam Lessin.
Modest Proposals
google apple

The Non-Monetizable Product Blind Spot

Photo: Art by Sam Lessin.

Why, in 2016, is there still no good, widely available, digital address book? Why is mobile calendaring still so incredibly broken? Why is there no widely used news reader or personal journal?

It isn’t for lack of trying. These are all well-known consumer problems littered with startup failures and big company misses.

Get access to exclusive coverage
Read deeply reported stories from the largest newsroom in tech.
Latest Articles
 
The Weekend culture policy
What a Brazilian Steakhouse Says About the Tech Economy
By Jon Steinberg · Sept. 23, 2023 6:00 AM PDT
What a Brazilian Steakhouse Says About the Tech Economy
Hi, welcome to your Weekend.One of my favorite tech memes is the “We’re so back” post, the kind that pokes fun at the industry returning to the good old days of expensive perks and wine-soaked dinners.I had a real-life “We’re so back” moment this week when I attended a bacchanalian feast thrown by Bain Capital Ventures at Fogo de Chão in San Francisco. Bain Capital’s private equity arm...
Latest Briefs
 
Amazon Agrees to Invest up to $4 Billion in AI Startup Anthropic
By Jing Yang · Sept. 25, 2023
Writers Guild Reaches Tentative Deal With Studios to End Strike
By Juro Osawa · Sept. 24, 2023
Cybersecurity Venture Firm Cyberstarts Closes $480 Million Fund
By Maria Heeter · Sept. 23, 2023
Stay in the know
Receive a summary of the day's top tech news—distilled into one email.
Access on the go
View stories on our mobile app and tune into our weekly podcast.
Join live video Q&A’s
Deep-dive into topics like startups and autonomous vehicles with our top reporters and other executives.
Enjoy a clutter-free experience
Read without any banner ads.
OpenAI's Greg Brockman (left) and Google's Demis Hassabis (right). Photos by Getty.
AI Agenda google ai
OpenAI Hustles to Beat Google to Launch ‘Multimodal’ LLM
By Jon Victor
As fall approaches, Google and OpenAI are locked in a good ol’ fashioned software race, aiming to launch the next generation of large-language models: multimodal.
From left, a Google TPU, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan and Google Cloud chief Thomas Kurian. Photos via Getty, Google and YouTube.
Exclusive google semiconductors
To Reduce AI Costs, Google Wants to Ditch Broadcom as Its TPU Server Chip Supplier
By Wayne Ma, Anissa Gardizy and Jon Victor
Google executives have extensively discussed dropping Broadcom as a supplier of artificial intelligence chips as early as 2027, according to a person with direct knowledge of the effort.
Photo via Midjourney.
AI Agenda startups ai
The Rise of Startups That Help Other Startups Evaluate LLMs
By Stephanie Palazzolo
All but a handful of artificial intelligence startups typically fall into one of two camps. The first group uses a single large-language model, typically OpenAI’s GPT-4, to power their applications.
Photos via Eiso Kant (left) and YouTube/VMWare Tanzu (right)
AI Agenda startups ai
How GitHub Copilot’s Co-Creator Raised $126 Million to Compete with His Former Employer
By Stephanie Palazzolo
Recent interest in artificial intelligence has focused on large-language models that aim to do everything from writing Shakespearean poetry to solving math riddles.
Art by Clark Miller
The Big Read policy
Europe Has Figured Out How to Tame Big Tech. Can the U.S. Learn Its Tricks?
By Chris Stokel-Walker
Late last month in Belgium, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) had a pressing question for Paul Tang, a Dutch politician and member of the European Parliament.
Art by Mike Sullivan
entertainment media/telecom
Disney-Charter Deal Could Prompt More Cable TV-Streaming Bundles
By Sahil Patel
Last week, Charter Communications, the No. 2 cable provider, and Walt Disney Co. cut a deal to include Disney streaming services, such as Disney+ and a new ESPN service still in the works, with Charter’s cable television packages.