The Brutalist Report

Techmeme

• YouTube rolls out changes to Shorts, including adding a setting to double playback speed, eliminating the "dislike" button, and more (Lucas Ropek/TechCrunch) [16d]
• Doc: the DOD has quietly revised its doctrine on how the US military picks its targets, envisioning "systems where AI initiates actions with human monitoring" (Katrina Manson/Bloomberg) [16d]
• NHTSA proposes eliminating the mandate for manual brake pedals in "vehicles designed to be driven exclusively by automated driving systems" (Sean O'Kane/TechCrunch) [16d]
• Apple says it removed VK's apps from the App Store to comply with sanctions; VK says they were removed without warning and it has never been under US sanctions (Reuters) [16d]
• Patronus AI, which builds simulated digital environments for evaluating AI agents, raised a $50M Series B led by Greenfield, bringing its total funding to $70M (Marina Temkin/TechCrunch) [16d]
• Om Malik, a longtime technology writer, founder of Gigaom, and a partner at True Ventures, died on Wednesday at 59 (Om Malik/On my Om) [17d]
• Source: Google is asking publishers that test new AI features in Google News to grant it broad rights to their content, including to potentially train AI models (Ann Gehan/The Information) [17d]
• Chipmaker Onsemi agrees to buy Synaptics in a nearly $7B all-stock deal expected to close in the middle of 2027; ON drops 9%+ and SYNA jumps 11%+ after hours (Samantha Subin/CNBC) [17d]
• Source: Muon Space, which operates satellite networks for climate and national security monitoring, is raising $250M; it has raised ~$181M since its 2021 launch (Alan Neuhauser/Axios) [17d]