OpenAI officially closes its ~$6.5B acquisition of Jony Ive's startup, which it refers to as io Products, after a trademark suit from hearing device startup Iyo

Perplexity launches Comet, its first AI web browser, initially available on its $200 per month Max plan and via a waitlist, in a bid to compete with Chrome

Elon Musk addresses Grok's antisemitic posts, says it was “too compliant to user prompts” and “too eager to please and be manipulated, essentially”

X CEO Linda Yaccarino says that “after two incredible years, I've decided to step down”; X hired Yaccarino in 2023 after running NBCUniversal's ad business

Ruoming Pang, head of the foundation models team at Apple, is leaving to join Meta, which offered a package worth tens of millions of dollars per year

After Elon Musk unveiled the America Party, a new US political party, President Trump called Musk a “TRAIN WRECK” fueled by discontent over EV subsidies ending

The F1 movie gives Apple its first box office hit, opening to $144M worldwide and $55.6M in the US; it was pushed on Apple Music, Podcasts, Fitness+, and Wallet

Elon Musk calls the Senate tax bill “utterly insane” as it raises taxes on nuclear and geothermal energy and battery storage, which are crucial for AI training

UK retailers are building an arsenal of anti-theft tech powered by AI, computer vision, and facial recognition, as organized crime fuels a shoplifting epidemic

Trump says the US is “terminating all discussions on trade with Canada” in response to Canada's decision to impose a digital services tax on US tech firms

SCOTUS upholds a Texas law that requires porn websites to verify that their visitors are 18 or older, rejecting a First Amendment challenge to the law

At an all-hands, Andrew Bosworth says Sam Altman is not happy about Meta getting OpenAI talent and is “being dishonest” about Meta offering $100M bonuses

Meta is in advanced talks to buy PlayAI, which uses AI to replicate voices for interfaces that are as “responsive as a conversation between two people”

The Trump Organization replaces T1 Phone's “made in America” language on Trump Mobile's site with “brought to life right here in the USA” and “proudly American”

Dollar falls to three-year low after report Trump may name next Fed chair early

These are the celebs who are attending Jeff Bezos’ Venice wedding

A US judge rules that Meta's use of books to train Llama is protected by fair use but says his opinion is more a reflection of the plaintiffs' poor arguments

A group of authors sue Microsoft in a NY federal court, claiming the company used nearly 200,000 pirated books without permission to train its Megatron AI model

Bumble plans to lay off 30% of its workforce, or ~240 roles, and invest the up to $40M saved annually into new product and tech development; BMBL jumps 15%+

Coinbase says it played a “key role” in the US Secret Service's seizure of $225M linked to crypto investment scams, and Tether burned the $225M in frozen USDT