Davey Alba
LightNews LightNews
banner
davey.bsky.social
Davey Alba
@davey.bsky.social
14K followers 1.2K following 230 posts
Bloomberg tech reporter / Google, Big Tech, misinfo / https://daveyalba.com / ask for my Signal
Posts Replies Media Videos
Pinned
davey.bsky.social
Davey Alba @davey.bsky.social · Jan 22
NEW: My colleagues & I analyzed nearly 1.3k hours of footage (>2k videos) from nine wildly popular podcasters and streamers on YouTube to understand how they helped lift Trump to power. Now that he's back in office, the broadcasters are well-positioned to help build support for his political agenda.
How Popular YouTubers Pushed Young Male Voters Toward Trump
How podcasters like Joe Rogan and Logan Paul turned young men, a once apolitical demographic, into a massively powerful voting bloc
www.bloomberg.com
Reposted by Davey Alba
techmeme.com
In its Q3 earnings, Alphabet said the profit included "net gains on equity securities of $10.7B," in part from a private company, which sources say is Anthropic (Bloomberg)

Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
October 31, 2025 at 9:36 PM
davey.bsky.social
Here's confirmationnnn

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
October 23, 2025 at 8:54 PM
davey.bsky.social
Kind of a crazy scoop (given the amount money involved here) with colleagues @rachelmetz.bsky.social & Ed Ludlow: Anthropic is in discussions with Google for a massive cloud deal — computing power valued in the high tens of billions

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Anthropic, Google in Talks on Cloud Deal Worth Tens of Billions
Anthropic PBC is in discussions with Alphabet Inc.’s Google about a deal that would provide the artificial intelligence company with additional computing power valued in the high tens of billions of d...
www.bloomberg.com
October 21, 2025 at 9:55 PM
davey.bsky.social
this story is fun lol @zoeschiffer.bsky.social

www.wired.com/story/owning...
Spit On, Sworn At, and Undeterred: What It’s Like to Own a Cybertruck
“We were the targets.” WIRED spoke to seven Tesla Cybertruck owners about their most controversial purchase and why they're proud to drive it.
www.wired.com
October 16, 2025 at 4:45 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
agordon.me
The amazing thing about the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on AI development is it doesn't even include all the externalized costs like higher electricity prices for hundreds of millions of people.
AI Data Centers Are Sending Power Bills Soaring
Wholesale electricity costs as much as 267% more than it did five years ago in areas near data centers. That’s being passed on to customers.
www.bloomberg.com
September 30, 2025 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
karenattiah.bsky.social
Some news.
nytimes.com The New York Times @nytimes.com · Sep 24
Karen Attiah, a Washington Post opinion writer fired this month for her social media posts about the assassination of Charlie Kirk, has filed a grievance arguing that she should have been allowed to share her views on news events under the company’s labor agreement and social media policy.
Karen Attiah Says Firing by Washington Post Violated Labor Agreement
The company fired Karen Attiah this month for her social media posts related to Charlie Kirk’s assassination.
nyti.ms
September 24, 2025 at 1:32 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
npr.org
Duterte was arrested in March by Philippine authorities on a warrant issued by the ICC. He is now being held at an ICC facility in the Netherlands.
ICC charges former Philippine President Duterte crimes against humanity
Duterte was arrested in March by Philippine authorities on a warrant issued by the ICC. He is now being held at an ICC facility in the Netherlands.
n.pr
September 23, 2025 at 11:40 AM
Reposted by Davey Alba
kwameopam.bsky.social
Speaking over a radio, the federal agent who told police that Villegas González tried to use his car as a weapon said his partner had suffered “a left knee injury and some lacerations to his hands.”

“Nothing major,” the injured agent said.
chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdog...
ICE officer said his injuries were 'nothing major' after deadly shooting near Chicago, video shows
The immigration agent’s partner said he suffered a “knee injury" and "some lacerations to his hands,” according to police body camera footage obtained by the Chicago Sun-Times. But the feds reported h...
chicago.suntimes.com
September 23, 2025 at 1:49 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
zhirji.bsky.social
This story isn't just a look back at what happened last hurricane season. It also looks forward at the threat today.

bsky.app/profile/zhir...
September 18, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
zhirji.bsky.social
Oh, did I mention: We published all of the hundreds of FOIA docs with this story. Now you can look through them yourself:
assets.bwbx.io/documents/us...

bsky.app/profile/did:...
September 18, 2025 at 4:53 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
jasonleopold.bsky.social
NEW: More than 500 pages of #FOIA docs @zhirji.bsky.social @davey.bsky.social & I obtained from FEMA detail previously unreported threats against personnel in the aftermath of Hurricanes Helene & Milton, including the swatting of then-FEMA Director Deanne Criswell
🎁 www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
This document details extraordinary steps taken to protect Deanne Criswell, the head of FEMA during hurricanes Helene and Milton. Criswell was a subject of a swatting incident The document says: Secretary Mayorkas determined that there was a clear and present danger to Deanne Criswell, the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and that home-to-work transportation was essential for the performance of the duties of the FEMA Administrator. Because of recent serious threats to Administrator Criswell, he authorized her use of a government vehicle for home-to-work transportation ineluding use of an appropriate security detail provided FEMA and the Transportation Security Administration at FEMA's request."
September 18, 2025 at 3:36 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
zhirji.bsky.social
New docs obtained via FOIA reveal how the personal attacks to FEMA staff last hurricane season were much worse than previously known, including swatting & doxxing of officials.

Story @bloomberg.com, w/ @davey.bsky.social @jasonleopold.bsky.social (gift link): www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Chaos Inside FEMA as Death Threats Distract From Hurricane Response
Internal documents show how online conspiracies and personal attacks disrupted FEMA during back-to-back hurricanes last year.
www.bloomberg.com
September 18, 2025 at 1:56 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
ebwell.bsky.social
“‘The profit-driven platform model, where sensational falsehoods outperform factual updates in emergencies, ensures this problem persists across political cycles and it can put lives at risk,’ said Callum Hood, head of research at the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate.”
davey.bsky.social Davey Alba @davey.bsky.social · Sep 18
The new docs on hurricanes Helene and Milton reveal unreported details, including the doxxing of at least 7 senior FEMA staffers. The records also highlight how misinformation remains a major threat to the agency amid recent cuts to its staff and funding

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Chaos Inside FEMA as Death Threats Distract From Hurricane Response
Internal documents show how online conspiracies and personal attacks disrupted FEMA during back-to-back hurricanes last year.
www.bloomberg.com
September 18, 2025 at 1:48 PM
davey.bsky.social
NEW: Bloomberg obtained 100s of pages of agency emails & other docs via FOIA, shedding new light on how disaster-related misinfo affects the govt's emergency response, sucks up resources & puts staff at risk.

with @zhirji.bsky.social @jasonleopold.bsky.social

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Headline: Chaos Inside FEMA as Death Threats Distract from Hurricane Response
September 18, 2025 at 1:08 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
davelee.me
Important detail here as we think about AI deals for the long haul -- Reddit looking for dynamic payment based on use in answers (in addition to payments for training)
davey.bsky.social Davey Alba @davey.bsky.social · Sep 17
Scoop: Reddit is in talks with Google to strike a new AI content deal—one that would get the platform paid more for its data, which has become crucial for training Google's AI & powering search results

w/ @rileyraygriffin.bsky.social & @shiringhaffary.bsky.social

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Headline: Reddit seeks to strike next AI content pact with Google, OpenAI - Moving past a dollars-for-data model, Reddit seeks new deals - The social platform looks to bring new users into its forums Reddit Inc. is in early talks to strike its next content-sharing agreement with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, aiming to extract more value from future deals now that its data plays a prominent role in search results and generative AI training. Reddit, more than a year and a half after its first data-sharing deal with Google for a reported $60 million, is in talks for deeper integration with Google’s AI products, according to executives familiar with the discussions. It’s proposing a new kind of partnership that would encourage users to become active contributors to Reddit’s popular online forums, so Google traffic could help the company grow and generate content for future training.
September 17, 2025 at 4:23 PM
davey.bsky.social
Scoop: Reddit is in talks with Google to strike a new AI content deal—one that would get the platform paid more for its data, which has become crucial for training Google's AI & powering search results

w/ @rileyraygriffin.bsky.social & @shiringhaffary.bsky.social

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Headline: Reddit seeks to strike next AI content pact with Google, OpenAI - Moving past a dollars-for-data model, Reddit seeks new deals - The social platform looks to bring new users into its forums Reddit Inc. is in early talks to strike its next content-sharing agreement with Alphabet Inc.’s Google, aiming to extract more value from future deals now that its data plays a prominent role in search results and generative AI training. Reddit, more than a year and a half after its first data-sharing deal with Google for a reported $60 million, is in talks for deeper integration with Google’s AI products, according to executives familiar with the discussions. It’s proposing a new kind of partnership that would encourage users to become active contributors to Reddit’s popular online forums, so Google traffic could help the company grow and generate content for future training.
September 17, 2025 at 3:58 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
zhirji.bsky.social
The Trump administration, from the CDC to EPA to NOAA, is going to war with established climate science.

I, along w/@blkahn.bsky.social @eroston.bsky.social, try to capture the big picture of what's already happened & what's at stake.

Gift link @bloomberg.com: www.bloomberg.com/features/202...
Trump Is Dismantling Climate Science at a Dangerous Pace
The White House has blocked efforts to measure, respond to and fight global warming. That puts all Americans at risk.
www.bloomberg.com
September 9, 2025 at 12:46 AM
davey.bsky.social
New analysis: Google avoided the most severe outcomes in its search antitrust case because of the growing threat from generative AI. The result is a letdown for many who hoped for accountability for Big Tech in a landmark legal battle.

From me, @sisco.bsky.social & @leahnylen.bsky.social
Google Saved From Breakup in Antitrust Case by AI Threat
Alphabet Inc.’s Google, found by the US last year to have a monopoly in online search, avoided the most severe outcomes because the judge in the case concluded that its business was already under a gr...
www.bloomberg.com
September 3, 2025 at 9:36 PM
davey.bsky.social
Google's lobbyists are a major force in D.C., yet they're not at the top of the spending charts. A colleague has a great story explaining the workaround

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
A new analysis of federal lobbying data by the nonprofit Tech Transparency Project shows that Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc. used an internal reorganization to exclude the value of lobbying by its senior executives from disclosures. The move helped keep Google off the top of the lobbying charts even as it maintained a robust network of advocates pushing its interests in the capital, during federal challenges to its dominance in search and advertising and the beginnings of artificial intelligence regulation. The findings, which were confirmed by a Bloomberg analysis of lobbying records, show that the effect of the accounting change was to lower the amount that Google reported spending to influence the federal government, likely by millions of dollars.
August 13, 2025 at 10:29 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
smw.bsky.social
The study finds that in 2022 over 26% of systems reviewed gave a disclaimed that they aren’t providing medical advice. Now? Less than 1%.
hypervisible.blacksky.app Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Jul 21
“There are a lot of headlines claiming AI is better than physicians…Patients may be confused by the messaging they are seeing in the media, and disclaimers are a reminder that these models are not meant for medical care.”
AI companies have stopped warning you that their chatbots aren’t doctors
Once cautious, OpenAI, Grok, and others will now dive into giving unverified medical advice with virtually no disclaimers.
www.technologyreview.com
July 21, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
zunguzungu.bsky.social
A thing that makes that Times story especially odious is that Zohran Mamdani's father was LITERALLY expelled from Uganda during Idi Amin's fascist effort to scapegoat Asian Ugandans as not really African www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Mahmood Mamdani · The Asian Question: On Leaving Uganda
President Yoweri Museveni was careful not to refer to Asians as citizens; he explained that they were ‘investors’,...
www.lrb.co.uk
July 4, 2025 at 3:05 AM
davey.bsky.social
A little bit of news from me and @julialove.bsky.social: Google isn’t pushing through with its Quick View Recipe feature, which food bloggers had feared could erode their search traffic

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Soon after news of the test program surfaced, creators made their concerns known, said Tomiko Harvey, a travel and food blogger at Passports and Grub, who attended a Google creator summit in May. “I’m actually feeling hopeful about this decision from Google,” Harvey wrote in an email. “Canceling the Quick View Recipe feature feels like a rare but welcome acknowledgment that creator feedback matters.” Although Google’s decision has some creators feeling relief, they likely haven’t seen the last of the search giant’s experimentation in a vibrant corner of the web. In recent years, many food bloggers have padded their recipes with lengthy preambles to ensure their content ranks well in Google Search, irritating readers in the process. As it crawls the web, Google will glean information about recipes’ core principles — say, the basic proportions of broth and meat in a recipe for chicken noodle soup — which it can then use to inform its own answers, Slater said. “Recipes are, by definition, facts, and facts are not copyrightable,” Slater said. For Google, “there’s always going to be a tension between giving the user exactly what they want,” he added, “and directing the user to another site.”
July 1, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
sisco.bsky.social
And its a wrap on the DOJ's Google search antitrust case, as closing arguments end. Next stop likely August with a ruling that could force the company to sell Chrome, license critical data, and bar $20b + in annual payments to Apple w @davey.bsky.social
www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
Google Search Judge Zeroes In on AI Power in Trial Resolution
The federal judge who will decide how to limit Google’s monopoly in search is considering its advantage in artificial intelligence, and aiming to minimize harm to the other players in the market with ...
www.bloomberg.com
May 30, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
zhirji.bsky.social
Trump stopped mentioning the hazard mitigation grant program in major disaster declarations, so I started looking into what was happening. Here's what I found by asking each state asking about the status of their recent hazard mitigation requests. Full story here: www.bloomberg.com/news/article...
May 29, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Reposted by Davey Alba
kurtwagner.bsky.social
🚨 New Businessweek Feature 🚨

What is behind Mark Zuckerberg's rightward swing toward President Trump?

I'd wager it's less about personal politics, and more about a finely tuned sense of self-preservation... w/ @rileyraygriffin.bsky.social

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...
Mark Zuckerberg Loves MAGA Now. Will MAGA Ever Love Him Back?
Meta’s CEO has done everything he can to win over Trump, and it’s not clear how much he has to show for it.
www.bloomberg.com
May 27, 2025 at 6:28 PM