Techmeme
June 26, 2025, 2:45 PM

Top News

Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
Internal emails: ICE is using Mobile Fortify, an app that uses facial recognition and fingerprint scanning via phone cameras to identify people in the field  —  Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is using a new mobile phone app that can identify someone based on their fingerprints …
Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:
Meta has poached three researchers from OpenAI's Zurich office, Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov, and Xiaohua Zhai, for its superintelligence efforts  —  Social-media giant has hired Lucas Beyer, Alexander Kolesnikov and Xiaohua Zhai for its superintelligence effort
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
As AI kills search traffic, Google launches Offerwall, a Google Ad Manager tool to help publishers generate revenue beyond ads, including via micropayments  —  Google's AI search features are killing traffic to publishers, so now the company is proposing a possible solution.
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Source: Meta has hired highly influential OpenAI researcher Trapit Bansal to work on its AI reasoning models under the company's new AI superintelligence unit  —  Meta has hired a highly influential OpenAI researcher, Trapit Bansal, to work on its AI reasoning models under the company's …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Brian Merchant / Blood in the Machine:
Workers at Google, TikTok, Adobe, Dropbox, CrowdStrike, and other tech firms recount how managers used AI to justify firing them, speed up their work, and more  —  “What will AI mean for jobs?” may be the single most-asked question about the technology category that dominates Silicon Valley, pop culture, and our politics.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Creative Commons debuts CC Signals, a framework that lets dataset holders detail how machines can or cannot reuse their content, such as for training AI models  —  Nonprofit Creative Commons, which spearheaded the licensing movement that allows creators to share their works while retaining copyright, is now preparing for the AI era.
Anthony Robledo / USA Today:
Bloomberg:
Marc Benioff says “AI is doing 30% to 50% of the work at Salesforce”, like software engineering and customer service, and its AI product has hit ~93% accuracy  —  Salesforce Inc. Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff said his company has automated a significant chunk of work with AI …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple execs have discussed starting a theatrical distribution unit; Warner Bros. is distributing the F1 movie and getting a share of box office revenue  —  Six years after getting into entertainment, Apple lags behind its rivals in streaming subscribers and mainstream appeal, despite lavish spending on A-list stars
Callan Quinn / Decrypt:
Kraken secures a MiCA license from the Central Bank of Ireland to offer crypto services across the EU, following Coinbase's approval in Luxembourg last week  —  Approval from Ireland's central bank gives Kraken the ability to operate across 27 EU states as it races to catch up to rival Coinbase.
Greg Bensinger / Reuters:
Amazon's VP of Generative AI Vasi Philomin left for another company; VP of Amazon Elastic Block Store Rajesh Sheth assumed some of Philomin's responsibilities  —  Amazon's (AMZN.O) AWS recently lost its vice president overseeing generative artificial intelligence development, as the competition for talent heats up.
More: GeekWire
Chris Dolmetsch / Bloomberg:
US prosecutors charge Kai West, a UK man known as IntelBroker who was arrested in February in France, with conspiring to steal data from dozens of companies  —  A 25-year-old British man known as “IntelBroker” was accused by US authorities of conspiring to steal data from dozens of companies …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Stephen Totilo / Game File:
Sony says its PlayStation Plus three-tier overhaul has “surpassed our expectations” and that the $160/year Premium tier has grown 18% in the past 12 months  —  Sony kicks off PS Plus' 15th anniversary by chatting with Game File about the past, present and future …
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A federal judge rejects a joint motion by Ripple Labs and the US SEC to approve a reduced $50M fine to settle a lawsuit over XRP sales, and chastises both sides  —  A federal judge on Thursday rejected an unusual joint motion by Ripple Labs and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission …
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
FHFA Director William Pulte orders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to consider crypto as an asset in single-family mortgage applications without liquidating to USD  —  In a landmark shift for the U.S. housing finance system, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has issued a directive ordering Fannie Mae …
Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
Kraken launches Krak, a payments app that lets users send funds P2P across 110 countries using 300+ assets, including crypto, stablecoins, and fiat currencies  —  The Krak app allows users to instantly transact across borders for almost no cost, while earning competitive rewards on their account balances.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: CoreWeave is in talks to acquire bitcoin miner Core Scientific, which has a market value of ~$3.7B; Core Scientific rejected CoreWeave's bid in 2024  —  A bid last year was rejected by Core Scientific as too low  —  CoreWeave is in talks to acquire Core Scientific …
Amber Neely / AppleInsider:
US senators reintroduce the bipartisan Open App Markets Act to try to break Apple's and Google's app store dominance; the 2021 version never came up for a vote  —  Big Tech's grip on the app economy is under fire again as lawmakers reintroduce the bipartisan “Open App Markets Act” …
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
YouTube launches an AI Overviews-like carousel for searches related to shopping, places, and things to do in a specific place, for Premium users in the US  —  YouTube is rolling out new AI-powered features to help users find content and information more easily, the company announced on Thursday.

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Earlier Picks

Berber Jin / Wall Street Journal:
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Isaiah Poritz / Bloomberg Law:
Kate Clark / Bloomberg:
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch: