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February 14, 2025, 5:35 PM
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Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Meta plans major investment in AI-powered humanoid robots, with an initial focus on household chores, and has formed a new team within Reality Labs  —  - Company is aiming to be the engine powering humanoid market  — Ex-Cruise CEO Marc Whitten to run new group in Reality Labs
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
The doge.gov website tracking Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government pulls from a database that anyone can edit, say two sources who found the vulnerability  —  The doge.gov website that was spun up to track Elon Musk's cuts to the federal government is insecure and pulls from a database …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Mastodon is working on a quote posts feature, which it says is a “source of concern” for some and “highly requested” by others  —  Mastodon, the decentralized alternative to X, is going to adopt a controversial feature from the platform formerly known as Twitter: quote posts.
Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:
In an AMA, Steve Huffman says Reddit is planning to roll out paid subreddits in 2025 and is “laying the foundation” to monetize commerce within subreddits  —  Huffman previously showed interest in potentially introducing a new type of subreddit with “exclusive content or private areas” that Reddit users would pay to access.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Instagram is testing a dislike button for comments; Instagram will not show a dislike count and dislikes may eventually count toward ranking comments  —  After users noticed a new button on Instagram to downvote or dislike comments, the company confirmed that it is testing a way for users …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Meta announces Project Waterworth, a subsea cable project that will span over 50,000 km and connect five continents  —  Back in November, we broke the news that Meta — owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with billions of users accounting for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic …
Bloomberg:
Source: TSMC is considering taking a controlling stake in Intel's factories at the request of Trump's team; it is unclear whether Intel is open to a transaction  —  - TSMC would take controlling stake in potential partnership  — Administration aims to boost manufacturing of advanced chips
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
The UK renames its AI Safety Institute to AI Security Institute, in a pivot to cybersecurity, and is exploring ways to use Anthropic's Claude in public services
Lauren Feiner / The Verge:
Sources: around 20 technologists at CFPB were fired on Thursday, gutting a team that specialized in understanding Big Tech's entrance into financial products  —  The terminations leave a gaping hole in the oversight of financial institutions and tech firms venturing into financial technology.
Sophie McEvoy / GamesIndustry.biz:
Ubisoft reports revenue for the nine months ending December 31, 2024, down 31.4% YoY to €990M, net booking down 34.8% to €944M, but remains optimistic about Q4  —  Firm also experienced a 51.8% drop in net bookings during its third quarter  —  Ubisoft has released its financial results …
Reuters:
Sources: the White House plans to renegotiate some Chips Act awards after changing current requirements, and has signaled delays to some upcoming disbursements  —  The White House is seeking to renegotiate U.S. CHIPS and Science Act awards and has signaled delays to some upcoming semiconductor disbursements …
Vittoria Elliott / Wired:
DOGE's Tom Krause, the US Treasury's new Fiscal Assistant Secretary, is still the CEO of Cloud Software Group; critics say it may be a conflict of interest  —  An email sent to workers at the US Treasury Department's Bureau of the Fiscal Service said DOGE's Tom Krause is “currently” the CEO of the Cloud Software Group.
Taylor Kerns / Android Police:
Google deactivates an Android feature that crowdsources device sensor data to provide earthquake warnings in Brazil after mistakenly sending notifications  —  - Android disabled earthquake alerts in Brazil after mistakenly sending notifications.  — Civil Defense of São Paulo confirmed no earthquakes took place.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple and Google restore TikTok to their US app stores after its January 18 removal, following Trump admin assurances that a ban won't immediately be enforced  —  - Companies had removed the app to abide by US legislation  — Trump signed executive order to delay a potential ban
More: TikTok, NPR, TechCrunch, Forbes, The Verge, Breitbart, Baltimore Sun, Android Police, Fast Company, New York Times, How-To Geek, Washington Examiner, KEYE, Corvallis Gazette-Times, RetailWire, HotHardware, Daring Fireball, Associated Press, Reuters, Wired, Washington Post, SammyGuru, Tennessee Star, Wall Street Journal, mjtsai.com, Black Enterprise, Politico, Passionfruit, The Standard, MLive.com, Android Central, NBC News, The Wrap, MEDIANAMA, MakeUseOf, PYMNTS.com, RTTNews, Silicon UK, indy100, Fortune, Ghacks, Hollywood Life, CMU, WinBuzzer, San Diego Reader, Retail TouchPoints, Pocket-lint, Tech.co, PCMag, AzerNews, UPI, Entrepreneur, MSPoweruser, Gizchina.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, Sherwood News, Tom's Guide, PocketGamer.biz, Android Headlines, 9to5Google, Techreport, TechSpot, TipRanks Financial, TechNode, en.ain.ua, Livemint, Social Media Today, BSS, MacRumors, Mashable, Silicon Republic, BGR, Axios, Al Jazeera, MarketWatch, MediaPost, Proactive, Just The News, Newser, Drapers, Fox Business, International Business Times, Neowin, Hypebot, LBC, The National, Sky News, Gulf Times, The News International, CNBC, MacDailyNews, Nairametrics, Cult of Mac, Times of India, and The Wrap
Bluesky: @aricohn.com and @martinsfp.  Mastodon: @fraying@xoxo.zone
X: @danprimack, @timsweeneyepic, @michaelsobolik, @theapplehub, @trungtphan, @alexeheath, @markgurman, and @markgurman.  LinkedIn: Navah Hopkins
Forums: r/inthenews, r/Android, r/google, r/technology, r/apple, Slashdot, and MacRumors Forums
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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:35 PM ET, February 14, 2025.

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From Mediagazer

Barbara Moens / Financial Times:
Sources: the EU is set to approve Paramount's $111B WBD takeover provided the company accepts certain remedies, the details of which are still being worked out

Ethan Millman / The Hollywood Reporter:
Court docs: Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino spoke with President Trump in the weeks before the company settled with the DOJ in its monopoly lawsuit

Thomas Buckley / Bloomberg:
Sony Pictures Entertainment invests $100M in Cosm, a startup specializing in immersive, large-screen theaters, which has partnerships with NBCUniversal and WBD

More News

Cade Metz / New York Times:
OpenAI's board rejects the $97.4B bid by Elon Musk and a consortium of investors, saying they reject “Musk's latest attempt to disrupt his competition”

Earlier Picks

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to launch its AI features in China as early as May 2025, using its own on-device models and Alibaba software to censor or filter the output
Reuters:
Sources: Arm is recruiting executives from its own customers in a push to sell its own chips, and is competing against Qualcomm to sell data center CPUs to Meta
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google's Gemini can now recall and “reference past chats for more tailored help”, rolling out in English for Advanced subscribers on the web and in the app
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Tim Cook teases an announcement of “the newest member of the family” on February 19; Mark Gurman reported Apple would update the iPhone SE
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
YouTube updates Shorts to integrate Google DeepMind's latest video model Veo 2, letting creators generate AI video clips to add to any of their Shorts
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