What Changed in the April 2026 MRM GuidanceOn April 17, 2026, the Federal Reserve,...

Denso Corp. is set to withdraw its proposal to take over semiconductor maker Rohm Co., as the two sides were unable to see eye to eye on an offer, Nikkei reported.

The Economist: Europe's dependence on US companies in tech and finance is in no small part its own fault after overregulation left European businesses too weak to compete  —  It wasn't long after blue jeans, Hollywood blockbusters and Big Macs crossed the Atlantic last century that some worrywarts started fretting …

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Jonathan Stempel / Reuters: A US judge dismisses Elon Musk's fraud claims in his lawsuit against OpenAI at his request, and plans to proceed to trial on other claims  —  A U.S. judge on Friday dismissed Elon Musk's fraud claims in his lawsuit accusing OpenAI and co-founder Sam Altman of betraying OpenAI's original mission …

<p><strong>Release:</strong> <a href="https://github.com/simonw/llm/releases/tag/0.31">llm 0.31</a></p> <blockquote> <ul> <li>New GPT-5.5 OpenAI model: <code>llm -m gpt-5.5</code>. <a href="https://github.com/simonw/llm/issues/1418">#1418</a></li> <li>New option to set the <a href="https://developers.openai.com/cookbook/examples/gpt-5/gpt-5_new_params_and_tools#1-verbosity-parameter">text verbosity level</a> for GPT-5+ OpenAI models: <code>-o verbosity low</code>. Values are <code>low</code>, <code>medium</code>, <code>high</code>.</li> <li>New option for setting the <a href="https://developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/images-vision#choose-an-image-detail-level">image detail level</a> used for image attachments to OpenAI models: <code>-o image_detail low</code> - values are <code>low</code>, <code>high</code> and <code>auto</code>, and GPT-5.4 and 5.5 also accept <code>original</code>.</li> <li>Models listed in <code>extra-openai-models.yaml</code> are now also registered as asynchronous. <a href="https://github.com/simonw/llm/issues/1395">#1395</a></li> </ul> </blockquote> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/gpt">gpt</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/openai">openai</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/llm">llm</a></p>

Steve Ballmer wrote a fiery letter in the sentencing of disgraced founder Joseph Sanberg documenting all the harm that's befalling him as an investor.

DeepSeek just launched its fourth generation of flagship models with DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash, both targeted at enabling highly efficient... DeepSeek just launched its fourth generation of flagship models with DeepSeek-V4-Pro and DeepSeek-V4-Flash, both targeted at enabling highly efficient million-token context inference. DeepSeek-V4-Pro is the largest model in the family, with 1.6T total parameters and 49B active parameters. DeepSeek-V4-Flash is a smaller 284B-parameter model with 13B active parameters, designed for higher-speed… Source

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters: The US CFTC sues New York, accusing the state of invading its authority to regulate prediction markets by filing lawsuits against Coinbase and Gemini  —  The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission sued New York on Friday, accusing the state of invading its authority to regulate prediction markets …

Raphael Satter / Reuters: Diplomatic cable: US State Department has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it says are efforts by Chinese companies to steal IP from US AI labs  —  The U.S. State Department has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it says are widespread efforts by Chinese companies …

<p><strong><a href="https://www.theverge.com/podcast/917029/software-brain-ai-backlash-databases-automation">The people do not yearn for automation</a></strong></p> This written and video essay by Nilay Patel explores why AI is unpopular with the general public even as usage numbers for ChatGPT continue to skyrocket.</p> <p>It’s a superb piece of commentary, and something I expect I’ll be thinking about for a long time to come.</p> <p>Nilay’s core idea is that people afflicted with “software brain” - who see the world as something to be automated as much as possible, and attempt to model everything in terms of information flows and data - are becoming detached from everyone else.</p> <blockquote> <p>[…] software brain has ruled the business world for a long time. AI has just made it easier than ever for more people to make more software than ever before — for every kind of business to automate big chunks of itself with software. It’s everywhere: the absolute cutting edge of advertising and marketing is automation with AI. It’s not being a creative.</p> <p>But: not everything is a business. Not everything is a loop! The entire human experience cannot be captured in a database. <em>That’s</em> the limit of software brain. That’s why people hate AI. It <em>flattens</em> them.</p> <p>Regular people don’t see the opportunity to write code as an opportunity at <em>all</em>. The people do not yearn for automation. I’m a full-on smart home sicko; the lights and shades and climate controls of my house are automated in dozens of ways. But huge companies like Apple, Google and Amazon have struggled for over a decade now to make regular people care about smart home automation at all. And they just don’t.</p> </blockquote> <p><small></small>Via <a href="https://daringfireball.net/linked/2026/04/23/patel-software-brain">John Gruber</a></small></p> <p>Tags: <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/ai">ai</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/generative-ai">generative-ai</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/llms">llms</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/nilay-patel">nilay-patel</a>, <a href="https://simonwillison.net/tags/ai-ethics">ai-ethics</a></p>

People targeted by confidence schemes find getting help is a lonely road. Experts want law enforcement, financial, and government institutions to work together and protect them.

Kate Clark / Wall Street Journal: Thrive is taking a stake in the San Francisco Giants via a new venture that will invest in franchises and cultural institutions that can't be replicated by AI  —  It's the first investment from the firm's new strategy focused on long-term investments in franchises and cultural institutions that can't be replicated by AI

Reuters: Brazil's Finance Minister Dario Durigan says the country has blocked prediction market platforms and tightened derivatives rules to curb “bet-like” products  —  Brazil has blocked prediction market platforms and tightened derivatives rules to curb “bet-like” products …

Ian Duncan / Washington Post: Sources: the WH pushed out the head of the Center for AI Standards and Innovation, Collin Burns, a former Anthropic researcher, after just four days on the job  —  The Department of Commerce had picked Anthropic researcher Collin Burns to lead the Center for AI Standards and Innovation.  —  Summary

Target is calling some workers back to its Minneapolis headquarters. Renee Jones Schneider/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images Target is calling about 150 remote workers back to its Minneapolis headquarters. The relocation mandate impacts workers within its merchandising division. The retailer, which brought on a new CEO earlier this year, has been working to turn the business around. Target is calling more remote workers back to its headquarters. The retailer is requiring about 150 remote workers within two teams in its merchandising group to relocate to Minneapolis, a spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider. Bloomberg earlier reported the news. The company is offering relocation assistance to those who decide to move and severance to those who choose not to. A company spokesperson said in a statement that "increased in-person collaboration across a core part of our merchandising team will help us reinforce our merchandising authority, unlocking greater creativity and enabling us to move faster to deliver on our strategy." The retailer, which brought on a new CEO earlier this year, is in the midst of a turnaround strategy to revive growth, and improving its merchandise is a pillar of that effort. The relocation mandate comes as more companies, such as Amazon and AT&T, have been calling workers back into the office in recent years. Target last year ramped up in-office days for employees already based in Minneapolis. Target does not have a companywide mandate and has left in-office requirements to team leaders. Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at dreuter@businessinsider.com or text/call/Signal at 646-768-4750. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely. Read the original article on Business Insider

This follows a similar, but smaller, investment by Amazon just days ago.

GPT-5.5 is OpenAI's strongest frontier model for agentic enterprise work, complex...

Maine Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would've paused data center development. Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group/Getty Images Maine Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a bill that would have paused new data center projects until late 2027. Mills cited her support for an existing project and said she wanted to study data center impacts. Lawmakers in at least 12 states have tried and failed to ban data centers as local resistance grows. Another state-level effort to ban new data center development just failed, this time in Maine. Maine Gov. Janet Mills on Friday vetoed a bill that would have put a pause on data centers in the state until late 2027. Mills said she supports a moratorium on data center projects but that the bill, which passed the state House and Senate his month, did not include an exemption for a project already underway. "A moratorium is appropriate given the impacts of massive data centers in other states on the environment and on electricity rates," Mills said in a letter to the state legislature. "But the final version of this bill fails to allow for a specific project in the Town of Jay that enjoys strong local support from its host community and region." A statement shared by her office said the $550 million data center redevelopment project was needed in Jay, where a paper mill closure in 2023 "eliminated hundreds of good-paying jobs and dealt a significant blow to the local economy." Maine Gov. Janet Mills wants more study on data centers Kevin Lamarque/Reuters The governor said she would have signed the bill had there been a carve-out for the project, which she said is expected to create over 800 construction jobs and at least 100 high-paying permanent jobs in addition to generating property tax revenue. Mills, a Democrat who is running for US Senate in 2026, said she plans to issue an executive order to create a council to look at the impact of data centers in Maine. "I believe it necessary and important to examine and plan for the potential impacts of large-scale data centers in Maine, as the use of artificial intelligence becomes more widespread," she said. Lawmakers in at least 11 other states have also tried and failed to pass legislation that would temporarily ban new data center development, Business Insider previously reported. The data center boom, fueled by Big Tech's AI ambitions, has sparked pockets of local resistance across the US amid concerns about energy consumption and impact on energy costs as well as the environment. A Business Insider investigation found Maine had two data centers in the state as of last year. Read the original article on Business Insider

The Zillow listing for tech banker Storm Duncan's Mill Valley home. Zillow The banker says he has received multiple offers from employees since posting the deal this week. The 13-acre Mill Valley estate features sweeping views of San Francisco, an infinity-edge pool, and a spa. The offer comes as Anthropic's valuation on secondary markets reached $1 trillion, and shares are scarce. A tech banker really, really wants Anthropic shares. The hunt for shares in Anthropic has become so frenzied in recent weeks that Storm Duncan is offering up his $4.8 million Marin County estate in exchange for stock. "If you're going fishing, you've got to put a worm on the hook," said Storm Duncan, the founder and managing partner of Ignatious, a tech boutique investment bank, in an interview with Business Insider. "What's my other option? Not being in it?" The offer comes as Anthropic's valuation on secondary markets soared to $1 trillion, driven by investors who have been wowed by its torrid revenue growth and momentum around its AI-powered coding assistant, Claude Code, Business Insider reported this week. Duncan, who lives primarily in Jackson Hole, Wyo., also owns other properties, but he decided to list this one because he thought it would be especially attractive to Anthropic employees. Duncan's 13-acre, fully furnished Mill Valley estate features sweeping views of San Francisco, an infinity-edge pool, and a spa. "It's a 20-minute commute to the Anthropic offices in the city," he said. "No one from Anthropic probably wants my Miami or Jackson Hole place." By offering the property, Duncan hopes to get on the radar of employees who have legitimate shares to sell and own a goldmine of Anthropic stock they can't sell until after the company goes public. Duncan says he has received multiple offers since posting the deal this week. "Some of them are [Anthropic] employees, and some of them just happen to have invested early," he said. "I believe they're serious, but it's a complex transaction." "There's probably a decent number of people who are sitting in a one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco even though they're earning $400,000 a year and are worth a $100 million," he said. "But they can't access that because their stock is so illiquid, so this gives them an opportunity to diversify." It's not the first time there's been an unconventional way to secure shares in pre-IPO tech companies. In 2005, artist David Choe chose Facebook stock over $60,000 in cash to paint murals at Facebook's first office. That choice led to an estimated windfall of about $200 million once Facebook went public in 2012. In the dot-com era, some real estate owners asked startups for company stock in exchange for leasing space in San Francisco. Storm Duncan is the founder and managing partner of Ignatious. Storm Duncan Some on X have dismissed Duncan's offer as a publicity stunt or a sure sign of the top of a bubble. Others have made cracks about the only thing being more precious than Anthropic shares is Bay Area real estate. Duncan insists the offer is real and he is not seeking attention. As for why he does not simply buy shares in the company, he says a small investor like him would never be able to secure stock directly. "Anthropic can't spend time with people like me," Duncan said. "They're looking for people who can write $100 million in a single check." (The company did not respond to a request for comment.) The alternative is to buy shares from early employees or investors on secondary markets, but Duncan says those deals are often increasingly dubious. He said the scarcity of shares on the secondary market has made sellers offer deals that can be rife with high fees and opaque ownership structures. Duncan already owns shares in Anthropic that he acquired in its 2024 funding round, when it was much easier to obtain shares. He says he was recently convinced he wanted to double down after being wowed by the results of his firm's implementation of Claude Code. "It's probably going to triple our throughput and reduce our costs by 50%," he said. "As I started to implement the platform at my own firm, I said I would like to have more exposure to this." Read the original article on Business Insider