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February 12, 2025, 12:15 PM
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Foreign Policy:
DOGE accessing Treasury systems and classified data breaks a fundamental security principle and could help the US' adversaries steal data and install backdoors  —  The U.S. government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history.
Wired:
A letter to Sen. Ron Wyden claimed Datastream, which sold US military location data, got the data from Lithuanian ad tech company Eskimi, but Eskimi denies this  —  In a letter to a US senator, a Florida-based data broker says it obtained sensitive data on US military members in Germany …
Caroline Igo / CNET:
Apple partners with Brigham and Women's Hospital to launch a voluntary, virtual five-year Apple Health Study in its Research app, open to iPhone users in the US  —  I got the inside scoop on Apple Health's new five-year research study.  All Apple users can participate starting today.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple now lets users migrate apps, music, books, shows, and movies between Apple accounts, but the feature isn't available to users in the EU, the UK, or India  —  If you have two Apple Accounts with multiple digital purchases between them, Apple now has a way for you to consolidate the accounts …
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Thomson Reuters wins the first major US AI copyright ruling against fair use, in a case filed in May 2020 against legal research AI startup Ross Intelligence  —  The Thomson Reuters decision has big implications for the battle between generative AI companies and rights holders.
Euractiv:
After the AI Action Summit, the EU Commission says it will withdraw the AI Liability Directive, a strategic move to show goodwill to the Trump administration  —  The Commission justified its removal by saying it could see “no foreseeable agreement” on the directive.  —  This article is exceptionally available for free!
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researcher Johann Rehberger shows a hack to override Gemini's prompt injection defenses, letting an attacker plant long-term memories for all future sessions  —  In the nascent field of AI hacking, indirect prompt injection has become a basic building block for inducing chatbots …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe launches Generate Video in public beta via its redesigned Firefly web app, alongside new image generation, translation, and AI credit subscription tiers  —  Generate Video is now in public beta, allowing anyone to generate five-second video clips at 1080p.
The Logic:
Internal message: Shopify's general council said the company closed Ye's store since the swastika shirt listed for sale “brought with it the real risk of fraud”  —  TORONTO — Shopify's general counsel said the company took down musician Kanye West's online store because of the potential …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google schedules I/O 2025 for May 20 to 21 in Mountain View, with the main keynote on May 20 at 10am PT; Gemini, Android 16, and more announcements are expected  —  Following the “Prism Shift” puzzle this morning, Google has announced that I/O 2025 is taking place Tuesday, May 20
Bloomberg:
White House document: President Trump plans to nominate Brian Quintenz, a16z Crypto's head of policy and a former GOP commissioner at the CFTC, to lead the CFTC  —  - Trump to tap Jonathan Gould as Comptroller of the Currency  — Trump also set to nominate Jonathan McKernan as CFPB director
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out AI image remixing tool Whisk to 100+ countries, letting users upload three images for subject, scene, and style to remix, powered by Imagen 3  —  Google keeps releasing experimental products built with its AI models to give users a taste of its capabilities.
More: Neowin
Katarina Hoije / Bloomberg:
Central African Republic, the first African country to adopt BTC as legal tender, launches CAR MEME on Solana, trading at $0.03 on February 11, down nearly 90%  —  - CAR Meme is second cryptocurrency launched by the country  — Nation first in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as tender in 2022
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Groq says Saudi Arabia has committed $1.5B over the course of 2025, to expand the delivery of the US startup's AI inference chips for LLMs to the country  —  U.S. semiconductor startup Groq said on Monday it has secured a $1.5 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to expand the delivery of its advanced AI chips to the country.
Dylan Butts / CNBC:
SoftBank posts a surprise Q3 net loss of ~$2.4B on ~$12.04B revenue, vs. $12.1B est., as the Vision Fund, after two profitable quarters, reports a ~$2.04B loss  —  SoftBank Group posted a surprise quarterly loss Wednesday as investments under its Vision Funds fell into red.
Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
Elon Musk's bid for OpenAI's nonprofit is top-tier M&A trolling as it complicates OpenAI's fundraising by likely altering the cost of equity for new investors  —  Also passthrough fees, memecoins and financial advisers who tell you how to give away all your money.  —  OpenAI hostile takeover
Zoë Schiffer / Wired:
Sources: Sam Altman told staff that OpenAI's board has not received an offer from Elon Musk and other investors, but if it happens the board plans to reject it

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Featured Podcasts

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:15 PM ET, February 12, 2025.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Alyssa Ray / The Wrap:
A CBS News producer quits, saying stories may now be evaluated “on whether they conform to a shifting set of ideological expectations”, causing self-censorship

Pew Research Center:
Survey: 80% of Americans say being informed about the news is essential to voting, but only 8% say people in the US have a responsibility to pay for news

Gene Weingarten / The Gene Pool:
An H1B visa filing list indicates Will Lewis' base salary as WaPo CEO was $3M per year in 2025, or enough to pay ~27 of the 300+ reporters who were laid off

More News

Earlier Picks

Emma Goldberg / New York Times:
A look at ACTS 17 Collective, a nonprofit devoted to introducing Christianity to technologists by asking Peter Thiel and other executives to discuss their faith
The Information:
Source: Apple and Alibaba submitted their co-developed AI features for approval by China's cyberspace regulator; Apple considered but rejected DeepSeek's models
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