Blake Montgomery

New York

Tech editor @GuardianUS, science fiction writer, and a tale told by an idiot. Contact: [email protected], DMs, 650.731.5423.

Articles

Tech giants beat quarterly expectations as Trump’s tariffs hit the sector

1 week ago | aol.co.uk | Blake Montgomery |Johana Bhuiyan

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. I’m your host, Blake Montgomery, and this week in tech news: Trump’s tariffs hit tech companies that move physical goods more than their digital-only counterparts. Two stories about AI’s effect on the labor market paint a murky picture. Meta released a standalone AI app, a product it claims already has a billion users through enforced omnipresence. OpenAI dialed back an obsequious version of ChatGPT. And we look back at Elon Musk’s first term.
White House calls Amazon ‘hostile’ for reportedly planning to list tariff costs

2 weeks ago | ca.finance.yahoo.com | Blake Montgomery |Callum Jones

The White House accused Amazon of committing a “hostile and political act” after a report said the e-commerce company was planning to inform customers how much Donald Trump’s tariffs would cost them as they shopped.
White House calls Amazon ‘hostile’ for reportedly planning to list tariff costs

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Blake Montgomery

The White House accused Amazon of committing a “hostile and political act” after a report said the e-commerce company was planning to inform customers how much Donald Trump’s tariffs would cost them as they shopped.
Can US monopoly laws rein in Silicon Valley?

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Blake Montgomery

The European Union fined Apple and Meta hundreds of millions of dollars last week. My colleague Jennifer Rankin reports:The European Commission has fined Apple €500m (£429m) and Meta €200m for breaking rules on fair competition and user choice, in the first penalties issued under one of the EU’s landmark internet laws.
The US government is coming for Google and Meta - but what will happen next?

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Blake Montgomery |Nick Robins-Early

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. This week, Google and Meta take legal beatings while Microsoft faces a “tipping point” over Gaza. Google’s big defeat and uncertain futureGoogle suffered another defeat last week in its clash with the Department of Justice, which has now won two separate cases arguing the company’s rise to power was aided by illegal and anticompetitive practices.
Trump’s tech tariffs are total chaos - and everyone’s paying the price

4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Blake Montgomery

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. Today’s news: Donald Trump’s tariffs spread confusion like a germ, tech takes two kinds of environmental tolls, Meta faces an antitrust trial, and I’ve been watching two excellent pieces of serialized fiction on Instagram and TikTok. Topsy-turvy tech tariffsWhen the president first announced sweeping tariffs on 75 countries’ exports to the US, analysts predicted the next iPhones Americans would buy would cost north of $2,000.
Tech’s Trump ties are starting to burn

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Blake Montgomery

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. It’s been a busy week in tech news: Donald Trump’s tariffs led to an enormous sell-off of tech stocks; Elon Musk and Trump are playing will they, won’t they with the billionaire’s departure from the White House; and TikTok has been temporarily rescued from a ban, yet again. Tech backs Trump, loses out with Trump’s tariffsThe US stock market has lost more value in the days since Trump announced sweeping tariffs than all US equities were worth in total in 1990.
How Tesla became a battleground for political protest

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Blake Montgomery

Over the weekend, protesters gathered at Tesla showrooms in hundreds of cities across the world to demonstrate against Elon Musk laying waste to the US government in alliance with Donald Trump. Their goal: stigmatize Tesla’s cars. One sign in Manhattan read: “Burn a Tesla, save democracy.” Protesters are using the commercial democracy of consumer products to influence US political democracy.
How and why parents and teachers are introducing young children to AI

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Blake Montgomery

Since the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, generative artificial intelligence has trickled down from adults in their offices to university students in campus libraries to teenagers in high school hallways. Now it’s reaching the youngest among us, and parents and teachers are grappling with the most responsible way to introduce their under-13s to a new technology that may fundamentally reshape the future.
From spit to bankruptcy: the rise and fall of 23andMe

1 month ago | theguardian.com | Blake Montgomery

Hello, and welcome to TechScape. In this week’s edition: 23andMe files for bankruptcy, Nvidia forecasts a fusion of AI and robotics, and AI enables the creation of fiction at the pace of social media. Genetic testing firm 23andMe filed for bankruptcy on Monday. The CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki has stepped down after several attempts at a buyout. Once valued as high as $5.8bn in 2021, the company’s financial failure is the finale to a long decline.