The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

• A pro-Iranian cybercrime group claims responsibility for cyberattacks on Chime and Pinterest that knocked the websites of both companies offline this month (Bloomberg) [22d]
• Mythos Preview system card: the model was able to escape a sandbox after it was instructed to try, and posted details about its exploit without being prompted (Brent D. Griffiths/Business Insider) [22d]
• The US FDIC proposes a rule to establish a regulatory framework for stablecoin issuers, including requirements related to reserve assets, under the GENIUS Act (Sarah Wynn/The Block) [22d]
• Super Micro begins an independent probe into the indictment of three people for export control violations and an internal review of its trade compliance program (Harshita Mary Varghese/Reuters) [22d]
• Anthropic hires Microsoft executive Eric Boyd as head of infrastructure; Boyd oversaw Microsoft's AI platform and worked at the company for 16 years (Brody Ford/Bloomberg) [22d]
• Z.ai releases GLM-5.1, a 754B-parameter model that it says outperforms GPT-5.4 and Claude Opus 4.6 on SWE-bench Pro, available under an MIT license (Carl Franzen/VentureBeat) [22d]
• A group of US agencies including the FBI and the NSA warns that Iran-linked hackers have targeted industrial control devices used in US critical infrastructure (Andy Greenberg/Wired) [22d]
• Google rolls out an AI Enhance button for Photos on Android globally, offering automated lighting and contrast adjustments, and video playback speed controls (Andrew Romero/9to5Google) [22d]
• Elon Musk amends his OpenAI lawsuit to ask that damages he might win be awarded to OpenAI's charity arm and that Altman be removed from OpenAI's nonprofit board (Jessica Toonkel/Wall Street Journal) [22d]
• Anthropic says Mythos Preview achieves 93.9% on SWE-bench Verified, compared with 80.8% for Opus 4.6, and 77.8% on SWE-bench Pro, versus 53.4% for Opus 4.6 (Michael Nuñez/VentureBeat) [22d]
• Q&A with OpenAI President Greg Brockman about OpenAI's research direction, how far it can push Codex, shutting down Sora, text vs. world models, and more (Alex Kantrowitz/Big Technology) [22d]
• Anthropic says Mythos Preview is a general-purpose model and found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major OS and web browser (Anthropic) [22d]
• Google updates Chrome with vertical tabs, a feature that Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge have long offered, and a new full-screen reading mode (Lance Whitney/ZDNET) [22d]
• Interviews with Anthropic executives on why Claude Mythos Preview is a cybersecurity "reckoning", not releasing it publicly over misuse concerns, and more (Kevin Roose/New York Times) [22d]
• Waterloo-based Mappedin, which uses AI and LiDAR to create and maintain 3D digital maps of indoor spaces, raised $24.5M, bringing its total funding to $35M (Chris Metinko/Axios) [22d]
• Anthropic's Project Glasswing includes AWS, Apple, Broadcom, Cisco, CrowdStrike, Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, Palo Alto Networks, and others (David Gewirtz/ZDNET) [22d]
• Anthropic says Mythos Preview is a general-purpose model and found thousands of high-severity vulnerabilities, including some in every major OS and web browser (Anthropic) [22d]
• Anthropic commits up to $100M in usage credits for Project Glasswing, along with $4M in direct donations to open-source security organizations (Greg Otto/CyberScoop) [22d]
• Anthropic says it will make a preview of its Mythos model available to more than 40 organizations, as part of a new Project Glasswing cybersecurity initiative (Lucas Ropek/TechCrunch) [22d]
• Sources say Apple plans to announce its foldable iPhone in September alongside the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, rebutting a report about production delays (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg) [22d]
• The UK says Russia-linked hacking group APT28 is hijacking popular internet routers from MikroTik, TP-Link, and others to steal credentials and redirect traffic (Ryan Gallagher/Bloomberg) [22d]
• Los Angeles-based Hermeus, which aims to build unmanned hypersonic fighter aircraft, raised $200M led by Khosla Ventures and $150M in debt at a $1B valuation (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch) [22d]
• Asus Zenbook A16 review: the $1,599 laptop uses the fast and power hungry Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme with 18 cores, but a plain design and includes bloatware (Andrew E. Freedman/Tom's Hardware) [22d]
• True Footage, which uses AI trained on years of appraisal data to generate property valuations, raised a $40M Series C led by Cox Enterprises' Socium Ventures (Natalie Breymeyer/Axios) [22d]
• Spotify expands Prompted Playlists, its AI feature for creating playlists, to include podcasts, for Premium users in the US, Canada, the UK, and other countries (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch) [22d]
• The Trump administration proposes cutting CISA's budget for 2027 by $707M+ to help the agency refocus on its "core mission", not "weaponization and waste" (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch) [22d]
• Intel says it will join Elon Musk's Terafab AI chip complex project along with SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI (Deborah Sophia/Reuters) [22d]
• Aria Networks, which builds what it calls the world's first AI-native network to work with any AI chip, raised a $125M Series A from Sutter Hill and others (Juby Babu/Reuters) [22d]
• Q&A with Sundar Pichai on the history of Google and AI, speed and Search, Google's AI comeback, bottlenecks, capital allocation, how Google works, and more (John Collison/Cheeky Pint) [22d]
• GoDaddy integrates Cloudflare's AI Crawl Control into its hosting platform, enabling site owners to block, permit, or possibly monetize automated crawler access (Alistair Barr/Business Insider) [22d]
• Natter, an AI platform for large-scale video conversation insights, raised a $23M Series A led by Renegade Partners and says it grew revenue 5x in 2025 (Chris Metinko/Axios) [22d]
• Adobe launches Acrobat Spaces, a free AI study tool to help students generate flashcards, quizzes, and Express presentations without logging in (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch) [22d]
• Silicon Valley investors say annual recurring revenue, a popular metric with AI startups, is unreliable because it lacks SEC definitions and can be inflated (Annie Bang/Bloomberg) [22d]
• Q&A with UpScrolled founder Issam Hijazi, who says the non-algorithmic social app hit 5M users, mainstream apps were censoring pro-Palestinian content, and more (Katie Drummond/Wired) [22d]
• Kalshi signs a deal with Fox Corp. to integrate its forecasts into Fox News, Fox Business Network, Fox One, and Fox Weather, following deals with CNN and CNBC (Alex Weprin/The Hollywood Reporter) [22d]
• Google is updating Gemini to add a UI that triggers support hotline referrals and a "help is available" module when chats indicate potential crises like suicide (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg) [22d]
• The US IRS is yet to issue guidelines on whether prediction market gains should be taxed as derivatives, gambling winnings, or income, worrying accountants (Kate Knibbs/Wired) [22d]
• Analysis: Gemini 3-based AI Overviews are accurate ~90% of the time, meaning across 5T searches per year, tens of millions of answers are erroneous every hour (New York Times) [22d]
• The US Treasury says Robinhood and BNY will work with the federal government to handle tax-sheltered "Trump Accounts" for children when they launch this summer (Stacy Cowley/New York Times) [22d]
• MLB rolls out "robot umps", or an Automated Ball-Strike System, using Sony-made advanced cameras to help officiate games, but it often validates human umpires (Austin Carr/Bloomberg) [22d]
• South Korea is deploying thousands of ChatGPT-enabled social care robots to help elderly people; over-65s now account for ~20% of the country's 51M people (Financial Times) [22d]
• Polymarket plans to launch the CTF Exchange V2 upgrade within the next three weeks, including a rebuilt trading engine and a native, USDC-backed USD stablecoin (Daniel Kuhn/The Block) [22d]
• Sources: Meta has an internal leaderboard dubbed "Claudeonomics" where employees compete on AI-token usage and earn rewards like "Token Legend" status (Jyoti Mann/The Information) [22d]
• Israel-based Q-Factor, which is developing a quantum computer based on neutral atom technology, emerges from stealth with a $24M seed led by NFX and TPY Capital (Sophie Shulman/CTech) [22d]
• A cryptography engineer calls for urgent rollout of post-quantum cryptography schemes, saying the risk of inaction is now unacceptable, after Google's warning (Filippo Valsorda) [22d]
• OpenAI announces a Safety Fellowship program for external researchers, engineers, and practitioners to study the safety and alignment of advanced AI systems (OpenAI) [22d]
• A look at the gold rush for firms claiming to help brands get cited by AI search tools, via tactics like hiding instructions behind "Summarize with AI" buttons (Mia Sato/The Verge) [22d]
• A Taiwan intelligence report to lawmakers says China is targeting Taiwan to obtain its chip manufacturing tech and talent to break through global "containment" (Reuters) [22d]
• Sources: AI music startup Suno's licensing talks with UMG and Sony have stalled; labels argue that AI tools like Suno rely on human-made music and should pay (Anna Nicolaou/Financial Times) [22d]
• Oracle reinstates the CFO role, appointing Hilary Maxson after Safra Catz became principal financial officer in 2014, amid investor scrutiny over AI spending (Jaspreet Singh/Reuters) [22d]
• A look at Tencent-backed Even Realities, which makes $600 G2 smartglasses with no camera; Omdia says AI smartglasses shipments grew 322% YoY to 8.7M in 2025 (William Langley/Financial Times) [22d]
• Sources: Apple is facing issues in the test phase of its foldable iPhone that are taking longer than expected to resolve, potentially delaying mass production (Nikkei Asia) [23d]
• Sources: Jeff Bezos' Project Prometheus has hired xAI co-founder Kyle Kosic from OpenAI and has hundreds of staff across its SF HQ and London and Zurich offices (Financial Times) [23d]
• Q&A with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins on data centers in space, memory shortage, Cisco's networking business, AI bubble, layoffs, AI coding, and more (Nilay Patel/The Verge) [23d]
• A look at Alibaba's Accio, an AI sourcing tool that helps small online sellers connect with manufacturers, including in China; it exceeded 10M MAUs in March (Caiwei Chen/MIT Technology Review) [23d]
• An Indianapolis city councilor says his home was targeted in what appeared to be a politically motivated shooting over a proposed data center in the city (Kiki Intarasuwan/CBS News) [23d]
• Sources: SpaceX plans to earmark a large portion of shares for retail investors and will host 1,500 of them at an event in June after the IPO roadshow launch (Echo Wang/Reuters) [23d]
• Sources: Anthropic plans to invest $200M in a new venture with PE firms to sell AI tools to their portfolio companies; it's in talks to raise $1B for the effort (Wall Street Journal) [23d]
• The US NHTSA ends a 2025 probe into ~2.6M Tesla vehicles over the "Actually Smart Summon" driverless feature after finding it involved only low-speed incidents (Reuters) [23d]
• A look at Catches and other startups that are offering AI tools to let shoppers visualize fit and style before buying clothes, aiming to curb online returns (Elsa Ohlen/CNBC) [23d]