President Trump’s top economic adviser, Gary Cohn, is leaving, becoming the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the White House. Cohn, a free-trade-oriented Democrat and Goldman Sachs vet, heads the National Economic Council and opposed the president’s plan to impose across-the-board tariffs on steel and aluminum; watch the market today to see how investors react. [The New York Times]
Recode Daily: Trump’s top economic adviser is the latest high-profile exit from the White House
Plus, Google is helping the Pentagon build AI for drones, Amazon is elbowing out Instacart for Whole Foods delivery, and Google Street View goes to Disneyland.
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Google is helping the Pentagon build artificial intelligence for detecting and identifying objects out of drone video footage. The pilot project with the Defense Department’s Project Maven set off an internal firestorm when Google employees learned of the company’s involvement. Some were outraged that Google would offer resources to the military for surveillance technology; others said the project raised important ethical questions about the development and use of machine learning. [Kate Conger and Dell Cameron / Gizmodo]
Amazon is squeezing out Instacart in its Whole Foods delivery push. San Francisco-based Instacart became Whole Foods’ first national delivery partner in 2014; in 2016, Whole Foods signed a five-year contract making the startup the exclusive delivery provider for most of its merchandise. Instacart declined to comment on whether Whole Foods is violating the deal by allowing Amazon to deliver its goods. [Olivia Zaleski and Ellen Huet / Bloomberg]
BlackBerry is suing Facebook, claiming that many of Facebook’s messaging features infringe on BlackBerry’s patents. The former messaging powerhouse also says that Facebook is using its IP in a number of its products, including Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram. [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
Rival chipmakers Qualcomm and Broadcom are in a back-and-forth that can only be described as a soap opera. Yesterday, the U.S. government said Singapore-based Broadcom’s proposed acquisition of Qualcomm could pose a national security risk, and called for a full investigation into the hostile bid. Here’s a refresher on the timeline of this saga, and some thoughts on Qualcomm’s defensive maneuvers. [Ben Bajarin / Recode]
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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