Tootfinder

Q&A with labor researcher Molly Kinder on her recent, widely discussed "Messy Middle" essay on AI-driven disruption of knowledge jobs and how to address it (Casey Newton/Platformer)
https://www.platformer.news/how-to-help-knowledge-workers-w…

How to help knowledge workers who lose their jobs to AI
Brookings Institution researcher Molly Kinder on why she's leaving her job to create solution for AI's "messy middle." PLUS: Claude Fable arrives

Institutional Data. Open Knowledge. AI. How can we create better bridges between them and work together to solve some of our big issues around data and access to knowledge in the age of AI?
The coming AI-BRIDGES Symposium in London (May 28-29) looks at these questions.
If you care about Open Knowledge, Institutional Data and AI, join us!
Registration open till May 21st. It's free, but seats are limited. Link to full program and registration here:

Since it was relevant to a discussion I just had on here and is something most people probably haven't thought about much (unless you've taken one of a handful of philosophy classes), I thought I'd try to lay out a key piece of Descartes' Meditations (#philosophy

Agonising listening to this particle physicist David Krofcheck on RNZ right now. He knows so much he can't possibly dumb it down enough to answer Kathryn Ryan's questions in the way she's fishing for. He has such a volume of knowledge dammed up he can't figure out how to let it out in a sufficiently mundane way. Everything he says assumes that the average person knows ('you remember "conservation of energy" that you learned about in highschool'... er, yeah) …

Moonshot AI releases Kimi K3, a 2.8T-parameter AI model that it says rivals Opus 4.8 and GPT 5.5, and plans to release model weights by July 27 (Kimi)
https://www.kimi.com/blog/kimi-k3

Source: Qualcomm is in talks to buy AI chip designer Tenstorrent for $8B to $10B; Tenstorrent discussed raising $800M at a ~$3.2B valuation last year (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/qualcomm-talks-buy-tenstorrent-ex…

Qualcomm in Talks to Buy Tenstorrent to Expand AI Chip Capabilities
Qualcomm has been in talks to buy Tenstorrent, a startup that designs chips for AI, according to a person with direct knowledge of the deal. The two companies have discussed a price between at least $8 billion and $10 billion, the person said, which would be a significant premium to Tenstorrent’ ...

Sources: ASML has discussed raising prices for its EUV systems with TSMC and plans to charge 10% more for its DUV systems; TSMC is resisting ASML's plans (Qianer Liu/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/as

ASML Plans Price Increases for Chipmaking Equipment, Despite TSMC Resistance
Chip toolmaker ASML, which makes equipment that plays a central role in chip production around the world, plans to raise prices, according to four people with knowledge of the discussions. That’s likely to bring ASML into conflict with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s biggest ...

Sources: Google is negotiating a deal with the US DOD that would let the Pentagon deploy Gemini AI models in classified settings, reversing its previous stance (Erin Woo/The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/go

Google and Pentagon Discuss Classified AI Deal as Company Rebuilds Military Ties
Google is negotiating an agreement with the Department of Defense that would allow the Pentagon to deploy Google’s Gemini AI models in classified settings, according to two people with direct knowledge of the discussions. If the two parties come to an agreement, it would expand Google’s ...

Sources: DeepSeek closed a $7.4B round at a $50B valuation under an unusual structure requiring investors to put capital into an LP run by CEO Liang Wenfeng (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/deepseek-closes-…

DeepSeek Closes Record $7 Billion-Plus Funding with Unusual Deal Structure
Chinese AI lab DeepSeek has closed its first funding round that raised more than 50 billion yuan ($7.4billion) under an unusual deal structure, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter. The funding round, which values the large-language model developer at more than $50 ...

Sources: DeepSeek's annualized revenue recently reached $400M to $500M as it seeks to raise ~$7.4B at a ~$74B valuation, up from ~$50B after raising ~$7B in May (The Information)
https://www.theinformation.com/articles/de

DeepSeek’s Annualized Revenue Nears $500 Million, Boosting Fundraise and IPO Plans
Strong revenue growth at DeepSeek is empowering the Chinese open-source AI star to raise its second-funding round of 50 billion yuan ($7.4 billion) and plot a potential public offering in Shanghai next year, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The three-year-old startup’s ...