Hacker News with Generative AI: Big Tech

Apple and Meta fined millions for breaching EU law (yahoo.com)
Apple was fined 500 million euros ($570 million) on Wednesday and Meta 200 million euros, as European Union antitrust regulators handed out the first sanctions under landmark legislation aimed at curbing the power of Big Tech.
Antitrust, EU Regulation, Big Tech, Apple, Meta
447 points by Aldipower 14 days ago | 595 comments
Infantilization at Big Tech (nmn.gl)
The first time I encountered Big Tech was at age 15 when I won Google Code In. They flew me and my family to San Francisco and showed us around the Googleplex. I arrived with wide eyes, eager to see where the “smartest people in the world” worked.
Big Tech, Personal Experiences, Technology
8 points by namanyayg 18 days ago | 0 comments
Against Transparency (pluralistic.net)
It's bad enough when companies do this to us, be they Big Tech, health insurers or airlines. But when the government takes these grifters' side over yours – when grifters take over the government – hold onto your wallets:
Government, Transparency, Privacy, Big Tech
83 points by NotInOurNames 18 days ago | 20 comments
The "De" in "Decentralization" Stands for "Democracy" (techdirt.com)
There’s a certain dark irony in watching tech billionaires who built their empires on the “democratizing power of technology” now actively working to dismantle democratic institutions.
Decentralization, Democracy, Technology, Big Tech, Politics
12 points by NotInOurNames 20 days ago | 2 comments
Adult Daycare Where Developer Dreams Go to Die (nmn.gl)
The first time I encountered Big Tech was at age 15 when I won Google Code In. They flew me and my family to San Francisco and showed us around the Googleplex. I arrived with wide eyes, eager to see where the “smartest people in the world” worked.
Software Development, Humor, Big Tech
4 points by namanyayg 20 days ago | 0 comments
'Silicon Six' accused of avoiding ~$278B in US corporation taxes over 10 years (theguardian.com)
The big American tech firms known as the “Silicon Six” have been accused of paying almost $278bn (£211bn) less corporate income tax in the past decade compared with the statutory rate for US companies making the same profits.
Tax Avoidance, Big Tech, Silicon Valley, United States, Corporate Tax
32 points by miles 23 days ago | 4 comments
Big tech's new datacentres will take water from the driest areas (theguardian.com)
Amazon, Microsoft and Google are operating datacentres that use vast amounts of water in some of the world’s driest areas and are building many more, an investigation by SourceMaterial and the Guardian has found.
Data Centers, Water Resources, Environmental Impact, Technology, Big Tech
11 points by n1b0m 28 days ago | 2 comments
France suggests targeting Big Tech's data use in response to US tariffs (politico.eu)
French Economy and Finance Minister Eric Lombard has suggested striking back against U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs broadside by more strictly regulating U.S. Big Tech's use of data.
France, Big Tech, Data Privacy, Trade Policy, US Economy
18 points by giuliomagnifico 31 days ago | 3 comments
Wary of US Surveillance? Try These European Alternatives to Big Tech (proton.me)
How we use the internet is largely shaped by a handful of US-based tech giants — Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta in particular. While they may make life more convenient, that convenience comes at a cost: your privacy. Their apps collect vast amounts of personal data, using it to refine algorithms, target ads, and — when required — even share that data with governments and law enforcement.
Privacy, Surveillance, Big Tech, Europe, Alternatives
36 points by dxs 33 days ago | 14 comments
Big Tech is striking secret deals to make you foot its electricity bill (archive.org)
Tech companies racing to secure power for their data centers have struck dozens of secretive electricity deals with utilities that could cost average Americans a "staggering" amount, Harvard research found.
Big Tech, Energy, Utilities, Data Centers, Costs
38 points by zekrioca 46 days ago | 3 comments
California's AB 412: A Bill That Could Crush Startups, Cement Big Tech Monopoly (eff.org)
California legislators have begun debating a bill (A.B. 412) that would require AI developers to track and disclose every registered copyrighted work used in AI training.
California Law, Artificial Intelligence, Regulation, Startups, Big Tech
12 points by jedwhite 51 days ago | 0 comments
Breaking Up with On-Call (reflector.dev)
This article is about why on-call in its current state in big-tech is flawed, or how to properly develop software. Surprisingly, from my experience, smaller companies get this right, whereas big corporations tend to converge to a hand holding solution.
Software Development, On-Call, Culture, Big Tech
152 points by 0xlosh 52 days ago | 197 comments
House GOP subpoenas Big Tech for evidence that Biden made AI woke (theverge.com)
On Friday, Rep. Jim Jordan, the Republican Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, upped his investigations into Big Tech by sending subpoenas to 16 major tech companies, asking whether the federal government had pressured them into using artificial intelligence to “censor lawful speech” – a new front in his long-running quest to prove the tech industry is out to silence conservatives.
Politics, Artificial Intelligence, Censorship, Big Tech
19 points by speckx 54 days ago | 7 comments
Y Combinator urges the White House to support Europe's Digital Markets Act (techcrunch.com)
Y Combinator, one of the world’s most prolific startup accelerators, sent a letter on Wednesday urging the Trump administration to openly support Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), a wide-ranging piece of legislation that aims to crack open Big Tech’s market power.
Startup Accelerators, Regulations, Big Tech, Europe
504 points by mrkramer 55 days ago | 379 comments
Two weak spots in Big Tech economics (pluralistic.net)
Big Tech's astonishing scale is matched only by its farcical valuations – price-to-earnings ratios that consistently dwarf the capitalization of traditional hard-goods businesses. For example, Amazon's profit-to-earnings ratio is 37.65; Target's is only 13.34. That means that investors value every dollar Amazon brings in at three times the value they place on a dollar spent at Target.
Big Tech, Economics, Valuation, Business
18 points by hn_acker 61 days ago | 4 comments
US authorities can see more than ever, with Big Tech as their eyes (proton.me)
Imagine a government that knows what you do each day — the people you talk to, the news you read, the places you go. You might think of North Korea or a similar totalitarian regime.
Privacy, Government Surveillance, Big Tech, Technology
224 points by jethronethro 69 days ago | 121 comments
Pollution from Big Tech's data centre boom costs US public health $5.4bn (ft.com)
Pollution from Big Tech’s data centre boom costs US public health $5.4bn
Big Tech, Data Centers, Environmental Impact, Public Health, Cost
201 points by 1vuio0pswjnm7 73 days ago | 160 comments
The New York Times Has Spent $10.8M in Its Legal Battle with OpenAI So Far (hollywoodreporter.com)
The paper, buoyed by its 11 million-plus paid subscribers, is one of the few news outlets that can afford to engage in yearslong litigation with Big Tech.
Legal Battles, OpenAI, Big Tech, Media
84 points by marban 91 days ago | 98 comments
Majority of US teens have lost trust in Big Tech (techcrunch.com)
American teens have lost their faith in Big Tech, according to a new report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit offering reviews and ratings for media and technology, which more recently includes AI products.
Trust, Social Media, Teens, Big Tech, United States
207 points by Tomte 98 days ago | 370 comments
Who is using Java (JVM) in startups? (ycombinator.com)
Java and JVM languages (Kotlin, Scala, Clojure...) are widely used in Big tech companies and traditional companies.
Java, Programming Languages, Startups, Big Tech
13 points by john_scotland 98 days ago | 18 comments
JD Vance says Big Tech has "too much power" (cbsnews.com)
Washington — Vice President JD Vance said Saturday that "we believe fundamentally that big tech does have too much power," despite the prominent positioning of tech CEOs at President Trump's inauguration last week.
Politics, Big Tech, Regulation
8 points by belter 100 days ago | 4 comments
Ask HN: How to ditch Big Tech for secure, privacy-focused alternatives? (ycombinator.com)
I’m trying to move away from Big Tech in my personal life (i.e. Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft, X, etc). However, finding a user-friendly, privacy-conscious ecosystem that covers essentials like email, messaging, documents, cloud storage, messaging, etc. hasn’t been straightforward.
Privacy, Technology, Alternatives, Big Tech, User Experience
15 points by dori23 103 days ago | 6 comments
Why are big tech companies so slow? (seangoedecke.com)
Big tech companies spend a lot of time and money building things that a single, motivated engineer could build in a weekend.
Software Development, Big Tech, Business
9 points by rbanffy 103 days ago | 4 comments
Big Tech earns enough in less than 3 weeks to pay all 2024 fines (proton.me)
In 2024, governments worldwide fined some of the world’s largest tech companies — Apple, Google, Meta, Amazon, and Microsoft — a combined $8.2 billion.
Big Tech, Fines, Regulation, Revenue, Economics
13 points by jethronethro 105 days ago | 1 comments
FAANG Employees: Are You Bullish on Jobs That Monetize User Data? (ycombinator.com)
Not FAANG but pitting in the same arena.<p>I'm very bullish on jobs that track users but only moderately bullish on jobs that monetize that piece of data.<p>BTW would love to switch to a low level programming job ASAP. I'm having enough.
Big Tech, Employment, User Data, Monetization
5 points by jerawaj740 106 days ago | 1 comments
Stop Speedrunning to a Dystopia (theintrinsicperspective.com)
There’s been a string of recent news of big tech corporations doing—or at least testing—things that can be described as “pretty evil” without hyperbole. What’s weird is how open all the proposed evil is. Like bragging-about-it-in-press-releases levels of open.
Ethics, Technology, Dystopia, Big Tech
44 points by outrun86 115 days ago | 0 comments
AI-assisted coding will change software engineering: hard truths (pragmaticengineer.com)
Hi, this is Gergely with a bonus issue of the Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter. In every issue, we cover topics related to Big Tech and startups through the lens of software engineers and engineering leaders. To get articles like this in your inbox, every week, subscribe:
AI, Software Engineering, Programming, Big Tech, Startups
91 points by pseudolus 122 days ago | 109 comments
Fining Big Tech isn't working. Make illegally trained LLMs open in public domain (theregister.com)
Fining Big Tech isn't working. Make them give away illegally trained LLMs as public domain
Artificial Intelligence, Law, Open Source, Big Tech
7 points by rntn 136 days ago | 0 comments
Where Will All of Big Tech's Nuclear Waste Go? (gizmodo.com)
Nuclear waste is spread across 94 different nuclear sites in the U.S. and has no permanent home. Big Tech is going to add more to the pile.
Nuclear Waste, Technology, Environmental Issues, Big Tech
18 points by rntn 137 days ago | 0 comments
This is Where the data to build AI comes from (technologyreview.com)
New findings show how the sources of data are concentrating power in the hands of the most powerful tech companies.
Artificial Intelligence, Data, Technology, Big Tech, Power
14 points by marban 139 days ago | 2 comments