49 – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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Tech Archive

Archives for May 2026

Victoria Song
Victoria Song
Snap says its relationship with Perplexity ended ‘amicably.’

In its Q1 2026 investor letter, it advised analysts not to expect any contribution from Perplexity in its revenue guidance. The latter was supposed to have powered Snap’s AI search, but alas. The letter also hinted at more Specs news in June, because “intelligent eyewear” is still very much on the company’s agenda.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
We are going through the removal of Sam Altman from OpenAI in detail.

It was primarily because Altman was not entirely candid with the board about his interests in an OpenAI startup fund. There was also some drama about Toner’s paper, which Altman told Sutskever that another board member suggested Toner resign from the board. That board member said she’d never said it. Further, Mira Murati and Sutskever also mentioned problems. And, of course, the lack of disclosure of ChatGPT...

Adi Robertson
Adi Robertson
Toner is relating how Sam Altman’s firing happened.

She says the starting point was Sutskever reaching out to have a conversation where he expressed serious concerns about Altman. It was a “pattern of behavior” that included issues with “honesty and candor” that led to the firing, not any one action. Toner has already laid out some of this in a 2024 podcast, and it’s similar to Murati’s testimony.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
Toner says she found out about ChatGPT by seeing screenshots on Twitter.

She wasn’t surprised she hadn’t been told, though, because “I was used to the board not being very informed about things.” She says that “caused me to believe that [Altman] was not motivated to help the board perform the oversight role.”

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
Making AI models is “more like alchemy than chemistry,” Toner says.

That means there’s no clear-cut way to test for safety. People are just throwing things together to see what happens. She refers to OpenAI’s safety board’s methods as becoming “somewhat less slapdash” over time.

Emma Roth
Emma Roth
TikTok is scaling back its AI-powered video summaries.

A TikTok spokesperson tells Business Insider that the feature will now identify products in a video, instead of attempting to summarize what happens in it.

Users have reported some wildly inaccurate AI video descriptions, like one that described Charli D’Amelio as a “collection of various blueberries with different toppings,” according to Business Insider.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
xAI is becoming SpaceXAI.

In Wednesday’s annoucement of its compute partnership with Anthropic, the company formerly known as xAI referred to itself as “SpaceXAI.” It was the first time I had seen that name, and while I don’t think it’s a good one, it made some sense following SpaceX’s acquisition of xAI.

According to Elon Musk, “xAI will be dissolved as a separate company, so it will just be SpaceXAI, the AI products from SpaceX.”

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
We are now looking at Helen Toner’s deposition.

This should be about an hour. YGR has told the jury that if she sees them falling asleep, she’s going stop the video and have them stand and stretch.

Jay Peters
Jay Peters
The Supreme Court denies Apple’s latest request.

Apple had asked the court for a stay in a mandate from the Ninth Circuit appeals court sending the case to back to district court to figure out how much of a fee Apple can charge on purchases out of the App Store. But Reuters reports that Justice Elena Kagan declined to pause the ruling. Epic, perhaps unsurprisingly, seems happy.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
Microsoft would like to be excluded from this narrative.

Every time a MSFT lawyer gets up to question a witness in Musk v. Altman, it’s “And Microsoft wasn’t there?” with an occasional addition of “And Satya Nadella wasn’t there either?” This gets funnier every time it happens.

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
”It’s not in my neurons,” Zilis says, instead of “I don’t remember.”

She is asked about texting Musk about the Microsoft deal with OpenAI — that the structure was not maximum profit and Microsoft was not in control. She looks at the evidence, and says she sees it there but... “it’s not in my neurons, it’s not in my brain, but I see it.” Okay.

Andrew Liszewski
Andrew Liszewski
You’ll be able to sync your Hue smart lights to World Cup matches.

A new feature called Sports Live is being rolled out to the Philips Hue app that will trigger lighting effects in response to goals being scored or referees issuing cards during the World Cup in June and July. Your lights can also match the color of your favorite team or the team that’s currently in the lead during a match.

<em>Your Hue lights will react to goals, referee calls, and can change color depending on which team is currently in the lead during a match.</em>
<em>Through the Hue app you can select your favorite teams playing in the World Cup.</em>
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Your Hue lights will react to goals, referee calls, and can change color depending on which team is currently in the lead during a match.
Image: Philips Hue
Hayden Field
Hayden Field
Sarah Eddy, an attorney representing OpenAI, got sarcastic with Zilis.

Zilis said she now recalled certain messages that she had said she didn’t recall in her deposition, saying that at this point she’d reviewed documents numerous times. Eddy said, “Your long-lost memories have since been recovered.”

Elizabeth Lopatto
Elizabeth Lopatto
Shivon Zilis brainstormed possible scenarios for AI.

Three were Tesla AI. One was OpenAI as a B-corp subsidiary of Tesla. One was Altman as anchor for TeslaAI. But my favorite? “Find a way to get Demis. Seriously…. Demis really does fanboy hard and I don’t think he’s immoral… just amoral. If he hung around E perhaps it would force him to think about humanity more.” Hassabis is really haunting these guys.