The Briefing by Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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The Briefing

By Martin Peers, Jessica Lessin and the team at The Information

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Recent Editions

Photos via Getty and Meta. Art by Shane Burke.

Amazon Downplays DEI, Meta Plays Up Free Speech as Tech Tilts Right

By Theo Wayt, Sylvia Varnham O'Regan and Nick Wingfield · Jan 10, 2025 6:00am PST · 4 comments

Like most big technology companies, Amazon began publishing pages and blog posts on its corporate website in recent years declaring its commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion along with other issues. Over the past few weeks, though, some of those webpages have been undergoing curious makeovers—or disappearing altogether. For... Like most big technology companies, Amazon began publishing pages and blog posts on its corporate...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Photo via Amazon.

Amazon’s Dubious Ad Tech Expansion

By Theo Wayt · Jan 9, 2025 5:00pm PST · 2 comments

Amazon’s decision to stuff its search results and product pages with ads over the past several years might annoy some shoppers like me, but it’s paid off handsomely for the company. Those ads are thought to account for the lion’s share of the $50 billion in ad revenue it is expected to have taken in last year. Now Amazon is going to start... Amazon’s decision to stuff its search results and product pages with ads over the past several...

Fazal Merchant. Photo via Wiz.

Wiz Completes Piece of IPO Puzzle

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 9, 2025 3:13pm PST · 1 comment

Five-year-old Wiz, a $16 billion–valuation startup that sells cloud cybersecurity software to large companies, has always had a flair for the dramatic. A few years ago, CEO Assaf Rappaport declared it the fastest-growing software company ever. In 2023, it openly mulled a takeover of larger, publicly held SentinelOne. And last year Wiz told its... Five-year-old Wiz, a $16 billion–valuation startup that sells cloud cybersecurity software to...

Photo via Getty

TikTok’s Vibe as It Heads to Supreme Court

By Kaya Yurieff and Wayne Ma · Jan 9, 2025 2:30pm PST

Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

TikTok’s Vibe as It Heads to Supreme Court

By Kaya Yurieff and Wayne Ma · Jan 9, 2025 2:30pm PST

I’m in Washington D.C. ahead of oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Friday morning, where TikTok will argue against a U.S. law that could ban the app in 10 days if it doesn’t sever ties with its Chinese parent ByteDance. Despite this threat, TikTok is pushing forward as normal—so much so that this week at the major tech conference... I’m in Washington D.C. ahead of oral arguments at the Supreme Court on Friday morning, where...

Deel co-founder and CEO Alex Bouaziz. Photo via Getty.

Deel Accused of Money Laundering, Sanctions Failures in Lawsuit

By Michael Roddan · Jan 9, 2025 1:07pm PST · 1 comment

Fast-growing human resources and payroll startup Deel has been dragged into a dispute involving a Florida Ponzi scheme, in the latest legal action connecting the firm to fraudulent or illegal movement of money. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Florida last week, Deel was accused of transferring money for a Ponzi operation the Securities... Fast-growing human resources and payroll startup Deel has been dragged into a dispute involving a...

Art by Shane Burke

Why Businesses Are Skipping Open-Source Models

By Jon Victor · Jan 9, 2025 10:38am PST · 1 comment

If there’s one thing artificial intelligence sellers learned in 2024, it’s that customers want AI to be a cinch to set up. Businesses are even willing to pay a premium and take their chances with AI models or chatbots like ChatGPT that have fewer built-in security features than they’re used to—as long as they just work out of the box.That... If there’s one thing artificial intelligence sellers learned in 2024, it’s that customers want AI...

The Information Welcomes Ken Brown as Senior Finance Editor

By The Information Staff · Jan 9, 2025 10:35am PST

The Information is pleased to announce that Ken Brown is joining The Information as senior finance editor. Ken’s name is synonymous with in-depth financial reporting about the biggest business stories of our time. As an editor at the Wall Street Journal, he has overseen investigative teams devoted to breaking news... The Information is pleased to announce that Ken Brown is joining...

Photo via Getty

Why Research Talent Still Costs So Much

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 9, 2025 7:20am PST

Photo via Getty

Why Research Talent Still Costs So Much

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 9, 2025 7:20am PST

One of the rarest resources in artificial intelligence—perhaps even more than Nvidia servers or training data—is the people who make it. Founders tell me that the shortage of talent that can develop and improve language and vision models is still extreme, two years into the conversational AI boom.That’s demonstrated by recent developments at... One of the rarest resources in artificial intelligence—perhaps even more than Nvidia servers or...

Photos of Zhang Yiming by Getty. Art by Mike Sullivan

TikTok’s Fate Rests With ByteDance’s Elusive Founder

By Juro Osawa, Jing Yang and Qianer Liu · Jan 9, 2025 6:18am PST · 3 comments

The business world is watching to see whether the Supreme Court—or possibly Donald Trump—saves TikTok. But another man may be more important to the app’s fate: Zhang Yiming, the elusive founder of TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance. Zhang holds supervoting shares that give him effective control over ByteDance and its... The business world is watching to see whether the Supreme Court—or possibly Donald...

Photos: Getty

The Electric: China Wants to Block the West From Catching Up in Batteries

By Steve LeVine · Jan 9, 2025 4:30am PST

Less than two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, the U.S. and China have escalated their tit-for-tat battery war, part of their rivalry to dominate the next generation of strategic technologies. Less than two weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, the U.S. and China...

Jensen Huang at CES this week. Photo via Getty

At CES, Autonomous Cars Are Hot Again

By Martin Peers · Jan 8, 2025 5:00pm PST

If ever there was a moment for Alphabet to spin off Waymo, it would be now. Optimism about self-driving cars is back, driven (sorry for the pun!) by the very real success Waymo is having with its robotaxi service in markets like San Francisco. Elon Musk’s high-profile presentation last fall about Tesla’s robotaxi plans has surely fueled the new... If ever there was a moment for Alphabet to spin off Waymo, it would be now. Optimism about...

IJW co-founders, from left to right: Radu-Sebastian Amarie, Stefan-Gabriel Muscalu and Paul Robert Cary. Photo courtesy of company.

A Startup Uses AI to Find the Perfect Video Clip

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 8, 2025 2:00pm PST

IJW co-founders, from left to right: Radu-Sebastian Amarie, Stefan-Gabriel Muscalu and Paul Robert Cary. Photo courtesy of company.

Creator Economy

A Startup Uses AI to Find the Perfect Video Clip

By Kaya Yurieff · Jan 8, 2025 2:00pm PST

Creators sometimes have trouble sifting through their vast libraries of videos to find a specific clip or sponsorship. A new artificial intelligence startup is developing new products to quickly surface those visual moments.IJW, which stands for It Just Works, plans to unveil its first offering, StarZero, on Sunday at the 1 Billion Followers... Creators sometimes have trouble sifting through their vast libraries of videos to find a specific...

Photo via Getty.

Chinese AI Hardware and Robotics Firms Flock to CES, Despite Tariff Threats

By Wayne Ma · Jan 8, 2025 10:35am PST

LAS VEGAS—Donald Trump takes office in less than two weeks, vowing to impose a new round of tariffs on imports—particularly those coming from China. And yet Chinese electronics makers—including those in cutting-edge industries like clean energy, artificial intelligence, robotics and electric vehicles—are out in full force... LAS VEGAS—Donald Trump takes office in less than two weeks, vowing to impose a new round of...

Daniela Amodei, co-founder and president of Anthropic. Photo by Getty.

Anthropic Makes OpenAI Look Cheap—Again

By Stephanie Palazzolo · Jan 8, 2025 7:00am PST · 1 comment

Well that didn’t take long! We’re barely a week into the new year and already we’ve reported that Anthropic is in talks to raise $2 billion in new funding at a $60 billion post-investment valuation. Lightspeed Venture Partners, a venture capital firm that’s also backed rival AI developers including Mistral, Stability AI and Cartesia, is set... Well that didn’t take long! We’re barely a week into the new year and already we’ve reported...

Art by Mike Sullivan.

Digital Health Companies Brace for Ad-mageddon 2.0

By Catherine Perloff and Ann Gehan · Jan 8, 2025 6:00am PST

Telehealth companies including Hims & Hers, Sesame and Noom have flocked to Facebook and Instagram to promote their booming weight loss drugs. But pressure from regulators concerned about consumers’ health data privacy has prompted Meta Platforms to limit how advertisers target users with health-related ads, starting this month. That... Telehealth companies including Hims & Hers, Sesame and Noom have flocked to Facebook and...

Screenshot via Meta

Meta’s Seismic Shift

By Martin Peers · Jan 7, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

Screenshot via Meta

Meta’s Seismic Shift

By Martin Peers · Jan 7, 2025 5:00pm PST · 1 comment

The year is just a week old and already things are getting shaken up. Meta Platforms’ announcement on Tuesday that it was eliminating its fact-checking program in favor of an X-like community notes feature is a seismic event for social media. No longer will Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, try to pretend it has a monopoly on... The year is just a week old and already things are getting shaken up. Meta Platforms’ ...

Michael Grimes on Tech Markets; A Chart on Megadeals

Michael Grimes on Tech Markets; A Chart on Megadeals

By Cory Weinberg · Jan 7, 2025 3:41pm PST · 1 comment

We’re in a new year, but the major headline in venture capital is the same: It’s all about megadeals for artificial intelligence startups. Lightspeed Venture Partners is expected to lead a $2 billion round of funding for Anthropic at a $60 billion valuation, Stephanie confirmed. The new funding, at a higher valuation than we reported four... We’re in a new year, but the major headline in venture capital is the same: It’s all about...

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. Photo via Getty

Creator Economy

Meta’s Fact-Checking Reversal Ups Ante for YouTube

By Erin Woo · Jan 7, 2025 3:04pm PST

These are not golden days for the individuals working in the trust and safety teams of social apps. Late last year, we reported on the fights within TikTok to make the app more appealing for President-elect Donald Trump and his supporters in which the company’s lobbying arm prevailed over its content moderation staff. Then on Tuesday,... These are not golden days for the individuals working in the trust and safety teams of social...

Art by Clark Miller

The Future of Software Engineers and Industries We’re Watching in 2025

By Jon Victor · Jan 7, 2025 1:15pm PST · 1 comment

Welcome to Applied AI, The Information’s twice-weekly newsletter that will take you inside how businesses are using artificial intelligence.I’m Jon Victor, the lead writer for Applied AI. For seven years I have been reporting on technology and most recently on how businesses are using AI. I recently interviewed Marc Benioff for a profile of... Welcome to Applied AI, The Information’s twice-weekly newsletter that will take you inside how...

Turing CEO Jonathan Siddharth. Collage via Clark Miller

OpenAI’s Latest Model Is a Gift to Coders, Not an Existential Threat, Turing CEO Says

By Jon Victor · Jan 7, 2025 9:00am PST

Turing CEO Jonathan Siddharth. Collage via Clark Miller

Q&A

OpenAI’s Latest Model Is a Gift to Coders, Not an Existential Threat, Turing CEO Says

By Jon Victor · Jan 7, 2025 9:00am PST

Within hours of OpenAI’s demonstration of its latest advanced reasoning model, o3, social media platforms and online forums were filled with posts from software engineers questioning their future: What happens to their jobs when artificial intelligence can write code better than they can? But Turing CEO Jonathan Siddharth, whose firm helps... Within hours of OpenAI’s demonstration of its latest advanced reasoning model, o3, social...