Google can not pass Go, will not collect $200

Top News

• Judge rules Google is a monopoly: For the second time in just a year, a federal judge has ruled that Google acted illegally in order to maintain monopolistic control over a market. This time, Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia found that the company broke the law on its way to dominating online advertising technology, allowing them to set higher prices and demand a outsized share of ad revenue. Judge Brinkema agreed with the DOJ and several states that Google illegally built a monopoly over both ad publishing tools and the software that facilitates ad transactions.

• LMArena becomes a real company: The academic project, an open and neutral platform for testing and comparing LLMs and AI models, will pivot into a corporation named Arena Intelligence Inc. Their platform, which will remain unchanged (for now at least), allows users to test various LLMs and AI models head-to-head, then vote for their favorites, with results impacting a public leaderboard that’s closely watched by industry insiders.

• Goodfire raises $50M Series A: The company, which was founded less than one year ago, includes former OpenAI and Google DeepMind staffers. They’re trying to develop a deeper understanding of how neutral networks and AI models actually function. In the words of Menlo Ventures investor Deedy Das, the startup is “cracking open” the black box in which AI models devise and formulate their outputs. Backers include TWiST 500 favorites Anthropic, making its first-ever startup investment.

TWiST500

As Google faces down a potentially existential threat from various states and the federal government, TWiST 500 icons Discord are squaring up for their own fight against the State of New Jersey.

A lawsuit filed by NJ Attorney General Matthew Platkin accuses the chat and community app of engaging in “deceptive and unconscionable business practices” that put young New Jerseyans “at risk.” (New Jerseyites? New Jersists? Hmm, tough one.)

Specifically, AG Platkin’s office accuses Discord of violating the state’s Consumer Fraud Act by violating their own policies regarding children and teenagers. Discord’s terms of service suggest that kids under age 13 are banned from the platform, as is any sexual interaction with minors or content promoting “self-endangerment.” New Jersey’s filling claims that — while Discord has 3 levels of security it can apply to direct messages, including a level called “Keep Me Safe” that scans all messages in a user’s inbox for inappropriate material — the service defaults to a lower security level, called “My Friends Are Nice.” AG Platkin suggests that this is an intentional move to boost activity on the app, which also makes younger users less safe. The suit also alleges that Discord ignores its own policy against users under 13 by failing to conduct any age verification tactics.

So far, Discord has declined to comment on the suit, but we’ll keep an eye out in this space for further developments. – Lon

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This Week in Startups

E2113: On a brand new TWiST, Jason, Lon, and Alex examine Figma’s surprise IPO filing (sorry, Adobe…) and make some informed guesses about OpenAI’s new social media plans. PLUS a chat with Chris Tung about his comic book art marketplace Nerd Crawler AND Steven Borrelli of Cuts Clothing gives us the lowdown on his viral appeal to President Trump and how tariffs are wrecking havoc on his ecommerce business.

E2112: On a very special TUESDAY EDITION of This Week in Startups, Alex chats with the founders of not one but TWO companies at the forefront of so-called “Vertical AI.” (That is, AI applications tailored for specific industries or use cases!) First up, Abacus founder David Moscatelli tells us about how they help banks and insurers install data-secure LLM systems. Then, Victor Riparbelli walks us through how his company, Synesthesia, is turning internal documents into scalable AI video.

E2111: On Monday’s TWiST, Jason, Lon, and Alex chat about Blue Origin’s all female space crew, including pop star Katy Perry, plus Hugging Face’s push into the robot market and Jack Dorsey’s divisive “delete IP law” tweet. Then they break down the controversy over Figure AI’s valuation, and check out some social media insights from Basecamp’s own David Heinemeier Hansson and Amazon’s Jeffrey Bezos.

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