Category: Consumer Assistance

Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft unveils a replica of Quake II generated using its Muse AI model and playable in a browser, as part of the company’s Copilot in Gaming push  —  Microsoft’s Muse AI model is now available as an AI-generated Quake II tech demo. … Microsoft unveiled its Xbox AI era earlier…

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Meta updates Meta AI in WhatsApp, Messenger, Instagram Direct, and the Meta.AI website with Llama 4 in 40 countries; multimodal features are US-only in English  —  Meta has released a new collection of AI models, Llama 4, in its Llama family — on a Saturday, no less.

Makena Kelly / Wired: Sources: DOGE is hosting a “hackathon” in Washington DC next week to build a “mega API” for accessing all IRS data, with Palantir as a possible partner  —  DOGE operatives have repeatedly referred to the software company Palantir as a possible partner in creating a “mega API” at the IRS, sources…

Joseph Bambridge / Politico: OpenAI and Google reject the UK’s proposal to allow training AI on copyrighted work without permission unless rights holders opt out to “reserve their rights”  —  The U.K. government’s AI copyright plans can’t seem to please anyone.  —  LONDON — Leading AI companies OpenAI …

Meta: Meta launches Llama 4 models: Behemoth with 2T total parameters, Maverick with 400B parameters, and Scout with 109B parameters and a 10M context window  —  Takeaways  — We’re sharing the first models in the Llama 4 herd, which will enable people to build more personalized multimodal experiences.

Harry Alston / TheGamer: Schedule 1, a drug-dealing simulator made by a single developer, tops Steam charts with an estimated 2M+ copies sold after going viral on streams and TikTok  —  I keep my eyes on new game releases because I have to: it’s a part of my job.  For those who are a bit…

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: Joel Kaplan says Meta’s US fact-checking program will be over by Monday, and Community Notes will start appearing on Facebook, Threads, and Instagram  —  Meta will no longer have any fact-checkers in the U.S. come Monday, according to chief global affairs officer Joel Kaplan.

404 Media: In backing Trump, effective accelerationists like Musk and Andreessen got a “Decel-in-Chief”, who instigated a brain drain and tariffs that hurt tech companies  —  Effective accelerationists didn’t just accidentally shoot themselves in the foot.

Bloomberg: Miami-based Felix Pago, which uses stablecoins for cross-border remittances and handled $1B+ of transfers via WhatsApp in 2024, raised $75M Series B led by QED  —  Remittance startup Felix Pago raised $75 million in a Series B round led by QED Investors as it looks to expand operations …

Effie Webb / Business Insider: Leaked docs show Outlier and Scale AI use freelancers to write prompts about suicide, abuse, and terrorism to stress-test AI, urging creativity but banning CSAM  —  – BI obtained training docs showing how freelancers stress-test AI with “harmful” prompts.  — Outlier and Scale AI use freelancers …