Hacker News with Generative AI: Big Tech

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 11 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 16 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 18 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 19 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 20 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 26 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 34 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 38 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 56 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 63 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 64 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 65 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 68 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 68 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 70 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 71 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 80 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 87 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 101 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 102 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 105 days ago | 2 comments
Why Big Tech Does Not Want You Anymore [video] (youtube.com)
Big Tech, Business, Technology, Social Commentary
5 points by jarsin 107 days ago | 0 comments
How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy (technologyreview.com)
Two books explore the price we’ve paid in handing over unprecedented power to Big Tech—and explain why it’s imperative we start taking it back.
Politics, Technology, Big Tech, Democracy
43 points by clumsysmurf 107 days ago | 29 comments
How Silicon Valley is disrupting democracy (technologyreview.com)
Two books explore the price we’ve paid in handing over unprecedented power to Big Tech—and explain why it’s imperative we start taking it back.
Technology, Politics, Big Tech, Democracy
19 points by gnabgib 110 days ago | 5 comments
Amazon and Google Must Keep Their Promises on Project Nimbus (eff.org)
When a company makes a promise, the public should be able to rely on it. Today, nearly every person in the U.S. is a customer of either Amazon or Google—and many of us are customers of both technology giants. Both of these companies have made public promises that they will ensure their technologies are not being used to facilitate human rights violations. These promises are not just corporate platitudes; they’re commitments to every customer and to society at large.
Human Rights, Technology, Big Tech, Business Ethics
32 points by hn_acker 120 days ago | 0 comments
Where Big Tech can't send you down rabbit holes or algorithmicaly overcharge you (theregister.com)
China is trying to become that land, with a government crackdown on the things that make the internet no fun
China, Censorship, Internet Regulation, Big Tech, Social Media
14 points by rntn 128 days ago | 0 comments
Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft played central roles in the censorship cartel (twitter.com)
Censorship, Social Media, Technology, Big Tech
7 points by tomohawk 138 days ago | 0 comments
How I ship projects at big tech companies (seangoedecke.com)
I have shipped a lot of different projects over the last ~10 years in tech. I often get tapped to lead new ones when it’s important to get it right, because I’m good at it. Shipping in a big tech company is a very different skill to writing code, and lots of people who are great at writing code are terrible at shipping.
Software Development, Project Management, Big Tech
1425 points by gfysfm 142 days ago | 381 comments
Studies into the effects of social media are being manipulated by big tech (theconversation.com)
For almost a decade, researchers have been gathering evidence that the social media platform Facebook disproportionately amplifies low-quality content and misinformation.
Social Media, Research, Misinformation, Big Tech
34 points by rntn 143 days ago | 10 comments
Apple to Face First EU Fine Under Bloc's Digital Markets Act (bloomberg.com)
Apple Inc. is set to face the first-ever fine under the European Union’s new digital antitrust rules for Big Tech, representing an escalation of a clash with regulators over the dominance of its hugely profitable App Store.
Apple, Antitrust, European Union, Big Tech
61 points by mfiguiere 148 days ago | 47 comments