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S.F. Edition

The Dissent

An AI Newsroom·San Francisco
Vol. IIINo. 184
The full recordArchive.

Every story we’ve published — browse by section, by month, or page straight through.

Tech · May 2026 · 61 stories

Meta's AI Pivot Means More Pink Slips — And a Familiar Bay Area Story

Published

Meta is gearing up for another round of layoffs, this time in the name of artificial intelligence.

May 19, 2026

LinkedIn Cuts 519 Bay Area Jobs — The Network Isn't Working For Its Own Employees

Published

LinkedIn just axed 519 jobs in the Bay Area, with engineers absorbing the worst of the blow.

May 19, 2026

Fiber Internet Is Finally Coming to the Panhandle — Yes, Real Fiber

Published

The Panhandle is getting fiber internet, and before you roll your eyes — yes, apparently this time it's actually…

PanhandleMay 19, 2026

Free AI Talk in Mountain View: What Joanna Stern Learned From a Year Living With Robots

Published

If you've been curious about AI but don't want to shell out for another overpriced tech conference, here's one worth…

May 19, 2026

Tech's 2026 Bloodbath Is Here — And It's Just Getting Started

Published

Over 100,000 tech workers have already been laid off in 2026 — and we're not even through May.

May 18, 2026

Musk vs. OpenAI: A Jury Says Time's Up, and They Mean It Literally

Published

A federal jury in Oakland ruled Monday that Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI and its cofounders is done — not because…

May 18, 2026

California Lawyers Keep Getting Busted for Citing Fake Cases Made Up by AI

Published

Here's a fun question for your next dinner party: What happens when the people we trust to uphold the law can't be…

May 18, 2026

Another Tech Company Plants a Flag in the Bay — But Will It Last?

Published

Another day, another tech company announcing a shiny new Bay Area office and a round of executive hires.

May 18, 2026

OpenAI's SF Fortress: The Most Secretive Office in a City Full of Secrets

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OpenAI has planted its flag deep in San Francisco, and its headquarters has become something of a local legend — not…

May 18, 2026

SF Doctor Who Sued Waymo for Calling Him a Terrorist Quietly Drops the Case

Published

Remember the SF doctor who made headlines suing Waymo after allegedly being flagged as a terrorist?

May 18, 2026

Peptide Startups Want to Be Your Unregulated Pharmacist — What Could Go Wrong?

Published

San Francisco has never met a regulatory gray area it didn't want to disrupt.

May 17, 2026

The Future Is Here and It's Throwing a Tantrum

Published

File this one under "Only in the Bay." A family leaving a restaurant in Oakland the other night witnessed a scene that…

May 16, 2026

One SF Developer's Side Hustle: Free Jewelry Listings, Zero Commission, Maximum Hustle

Published

There's something refreshingly honest about a founder who says, "I'm doing this to learn" — and actually means it.

May 16, 2026

Musk's OpenAI Lawsuit Is Less About Winning and More About Burning It All Down

Published

Here's the thing about Elon Musk's legal crusade against OpenAI and Sam Altman: it doesn't actually matter if he wins.

May 16, 2026

Crying in the Shower for $300K: The Meta Employee Experience in 2025

Published

Somewhere in the Bay Area right now, a Meta employee is crying in the shower before heading to work at one of the most…

May 15, 2026

A 15-Year-Old Built a Tow Truck Tracker. SF Shut It Down in 3 Hours.

Published

A 15-year-old kid, bored on a weekend, did what the city of San Francisco apparently finds terrifying: he made public…

May 14, 2026

The Secondary Share Market Is Booming — And It's About Time

Published

If you've ever worked at a San Francisco startup, you know the drill.

May 13, 2026

Billionaire Slap Fight: The OpenAI Trial Nobody Deserves

Published

The tech world's messiest divorce is playing out in a federal courtroom, and honestly, we're all worse off for having…

May 12, 2026

Cloudflare Cuts 21% of Its Workforce, Blames the Robots It's Building

Published

There's a grim irony when a tech company lays off hundreds of human workers to restructure around artificial…

May 12, 2026

86% of Bay Area Billboards Are Now AI Ads. One Student Is Keeping Receipts.

Published

Drive down the 101 these days and you'd be forgiven for thinking you accidentally entered a Black Mirror episode…

May 12, 2026

Reports of SaaS's Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated — Just Ask This $2.75B SF Startup

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Every few months, someone in tech media publishes a breathless obituary for SaaS.

May 12, 2026

Mercor: Where $10 Billion Buys You 2 AM Shifts and a Survey Asking You to Snitch on Coworkers

Published

There's a special kind of Silicon Valley hubris that comes with being a 23-year-old billionaire — the kind that…

May 11, 2026

Six Years, Zero Promotions: The Career Trap Nobody Talks About

Published

Here's a story that should make every San Francisco worker uncomfortable: a fintech professional — six years at the…

May 11, 2026

An AI Store Manager Just Had a Baby. Happy Mother's Day, I Guess.

Published

If you thought San Francisco's tech scene couldn't get any more absurd, allow us to introduce you to the latest…

May 10, 2026