Thomas Ricker

Deputy Editor

Thomas RickerMar 5

Anthropic CEO says refusal to pander to Trump caused Pentagon blowup.

In a scathing 1,600 word memo to employees sent on Friday, CEO Dario Amodei suggested Anthropic’s relationship with the government soured because, unlike OpenAI or its executives, “we haven’t donated to Trump” and “we haven’t given dictator-style praise to Trump.”

The leaked remarks could complicate Amodei’s last-ditch efforts to salvage the company’s relationship with the US military and prevent it from being iced out of defense work.

Read Anthropic CEO’s Memo Attacking OpenAI’s ‘Mendacious’ Pentagon Announcement

[The Information]

Thomas RickerMar 4

Tecno’s impressive modular phone.

It’s just a concept, but it’s fully functional at the big MWC show. Even the mix-and-match magnetic accessories seem to all work on the prototype we tested.

Thomas RickerMar 4

OpenAI is developing a GitHub rival.

Prompted by recent GitHub outages, OpenAI is in the early stages of developing its own code repository, with completion still months away. The company is considering making it available to OpenAI customers, putting the ChatGPT creator in direct competition with Microsoft, a company holding a significant stake in OpenAI.

OpenAI Is Developing an Internal Alternative to Microsoft’s GitHub

[The Information]

Google accelerates Chrome’s release cycle from every four weeks to two

Thomas RickerMar 3

Adidas’ 3D-printed sneakers grow laces.

The Climacool sneakers I reviewed last year are now available in an all-white colorway, complete with ghost stripes and white laces. The $160 Climacool Laced kicks are 15 percent lighter, thankfully, and available to buy worldwide from adidas.com and via the Adidas app. The $140 slip-ons are back in stock too.

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1/6Image: Adidas

Big Google Home update lets Gemini describe live camera feeds

Thomas RickerMar 3

Meta’s also got an AI shopping tool.

It’s being rolled out to testers in the US to rival similar offerings found in ChatGPT and Gemini, according to Bloomberg.

Meta’s new AI shopping tool.

Image: Bloomberg

Thomas RickerMar 2

The Paramount x Warner Bros. deal ain’t done yet.

While Trump’s federal regulators are seemingly in the bag for Larry Ellison’s big dumb gift to his large adult son, The New York Times notes that state attorneys general can sue to block mergers in the US, and EU regulators will have a say since properties like HBO Max and CNN are offered globally.

Thomas RickerMar 2

Qualcomm joins the Wi-Fi 8 silliness era.

The company just revealed its “AI-native” Wi-Fi 8 portfolio at MWC, led by the FastConnect 8800 mobile chip. It promises 10+ Gbps speeds while packing Bluetooth 7.0, UWB, and Thread onto a single chip.

Alongside it, five new Dragonwing platforms will power your next ultra-fast router. The company expects commercial products by late 2026, before most of us have switched to Wi-Fi 7, and two years before the Wi-Fi 8 standard is officially ratified.