Notices by Techmeme (techmeme@techhub.social)

A new study of 14 open-source LLMs: larger models use exponentially more energy and produce more greenhouse gas emissions, but do not always give better answers (Sachi Kitajima Mulkey/New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/19/climate/ai-emissions-chatbot-accuracy.html?unlocked_article_code=1.QE8.fGE7.b-SOYjL_XPFS&smid=url-share
http://www.techmeme.com/250619/p18#a250619p18

An MIT study of 54 ChatGPT users: using it for SAT essays led to the lowest brain engagement and poorer neural performance than using Google or writing unaided (Andrew R. Chow/Time)

https://time.com/7295195/ai-chatgpt-google-learning-school/
http://www.techmeme.com/250619/p15#a250619p15

A look at the lack of consensus in the tech industry on what AGI is, whether LLMs are the best path to it, and what AGI might look like if or when it arrives (Melissa Heikkilä/Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/d20e8c22-bc03-4404-ac93-f7886525d8d6?accessToken=zwAGN-Zrs-tYkdPSDowivANEBNOsk_eIZSXY1g.MEQCID1cGjFFh_GcD8vcXcpsxlGX4cW6h8iNpwKjc0RSazV6AiAKuJVFX-e4tZ9NvkiYw8f_d3DXJlGUAml8NIJLU_Eomg&sharetype=gift&token=82d4792f-650f-4281-b894-6f1e10fb3518
http://www.techmeme.com/250619/p9#a250619p9

The Wikimedia Foundation pauses an experiment that showed Wikipedia users AI-generated summaries at the top of some articles, following an editor backlash (Emanuel Maiberg/404 Media)

https://www.404media.co/wikipedia-pauses-ai-generated-summaries-after-editor-backlash/
http://www.techmeme.com/250611/p31#a250611p31

Ofcom launches nine Online Safety Act investigations, including into 4chan over alleged illegal content and into seven file-sharing services over possible CSAM (Sam Tabahriti/Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/uk-regulator-investigates-possible-online-safety-breaches-4chan-other-platforms-2025-06-10/
http://www.techmeme.com/250610/p12#a250610p12

Waymo suspends operations in downtown Los Angeles after at least five vehicles were destroyed during riots; it continues to operate in other parts of the city (Caroline Petrow-Cohen/Los Angeles Times)

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-06-09/waymo-halts-service-in-downtown-los-angeles-amid-ice-protests
http://www.techmeme.com/250609/p44#a250609p44

Apple unveils an updated Spotlight in macOS Tahoe, letting users quickly take actions in apps from playing music to creating notes and files, similar to Raycast (David Pierce/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/apple/682950/apple-spotlight-mac-shortcuts
http://www.techmeme.com/250609/p37#a250609p37

The UK's FCA plans to lift its ban on offering crypto exchange traded notes to retail investors "to support UK growth and competitiveness" (Ian Allison/CoinDesk)

https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2025/06/06/uk-regulator-fca-to-lift-ban-on-crypto-etns-for-retail-investors
http://www.techmeme.com/250606/p7#a250606p7

Anthropic unveils a new set of Claude Gov models tailored for US national security customers and designed to be applied to planning, analysis, and more (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

https://techcrunch.com/2025/06/05/anthropic-unveils-custom-ai-models-for-u-s-national-security-customers/
http://www.techmeme.com/250605/p25#a250605p25

Lime and Uber sign a new multiyear deal to let Uber feature Lime's shared bikes and scooters on its ridehail app; the deal was set to expire in 2025 (Andrew J. Hawkins/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/news/679783/lime-renews-vows-with-uber-ahead-of-its-busy-summer-season
http://www.techmeme.com/250605/p19#a250605p19

Amazon is creating an AI team within its Lab126 hardware R&D unit that will help develop an agentic AI framework for use in its robotics operations (Annie Palmer/CNBC)

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/04/amazons-rd-lab-forms-new-agentic-ai-group.html
http://www.techmeme.com/250604/p40#a250604p40

Source: ~1,000 people have left the CISA during the second Trump administration, including 750+ taking a buyout, cutting CISA's workforce by nearly a third (Sam Sabin/Axios)

https://www.axios.com/2025/06/03/cisa-staff-layoffs-resignations-trump-cuts
http://www.techmeme.com/250603/p41#a250603p41

Sources: Elon Musk is pushing lawmakers to help clear a path for driverless vehicles and has been weighing in on revisions of a bill on autonomous vehicles (Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-30/musk-lobbies-washington-to-clear-way-for-self-driving-cars?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTc0ODYzNTYyNiwiZXhwIjoxNzQ5MjQwNDI2LCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTWDJYTkdUMEFGQjQwMCIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiIyMEVEQzU3OEM0RkE0MzZDOTQzMEUwNTY1NThFOEIxRCJ9.RkuaXw_LPHwzi_9sVURfwLo-e0ngZWaO58aV29d_BWQ
http://www.techmeme.com/250530/p25#a250530p25

Black Forest Labs releases Flux.1 Kontext, a suite of AI models that let users generate and edit images using both text and images as inputs (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/29/black-forest-labs-kontext-ai-models-can-edit-pics-as-well-as-generate-them/
http://www.techmeme.com/250529/p46#a250529p46

X says it's pausing the encrypted DMs feature to "work on making some improvements"; users can view previous encrypted DMs but cannot send new ones (Karissa Bell/Engadget)

https://www.engadget.com/social-media/x-is-pausing-encrypted-dms-215750222.html
http://www.techmeme.com/250528/p42#a250528p42

Elon Musk departs the Trump administration as a "special government employee", defending DOGE's mission to reduce wasteful government spending (Zachary Basu/Axios)

https://www.axios.com/2025/05/29/elon-musk-doge-exit-spacex-tesla
http://www.techmeme.com/250528/p46#a250528p46

The EU has published its April 23 decision to fine Apple €500M for DMA non-compliance; Apple has until end of June to be in compliance or face periodic fines (Marcus Mendes/9to5Mac)

https://9to5mac.com/2025/05/27/apple-dma-30-days-deadline/
http://www.techmeme.com/250527/p40#a250527p40

X appears to be in the midst of a significant outage globally, after a fire reportedly broke out in an Oregon data center owned by X on Thursday (Wes Davis/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/news/674129/x-is-down-after-data-center-fire
http://www.techmeme.com/250524/p9#a250524p9

Sources: DOGE is using a customized Grok to analyze US government data, including at DHS where it has not been approved, raising security and privacy concerns (Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/musks-doge-expanding-his-grok-ai-us-government-raising-conflict-concerns-2025-05-23/
http://www.techmeme.com/250523/p5#a250523p5

Microsoft says it's reducing "politically focused emails" within the company, as workers are unable to send emails mentioning "Palestine", "Gaza", or "genocide" (Tom Warren/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/tech/672312/microsoft-block-palestine-gaza-email
http://www.techmeme.com/250521/p57#a250521p57