Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise Site News
Techmeme
July 30, 2025, 1:10 AM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter

Top News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube is rolling out age estimation tech in the US to identify teen users and serve more age-appropriate content, regardless of the birthday given at signup  —  YouTube on Tuesday announced it's beginning to roll out age-estimation technology in the U.S. to identify teen users in order to provide a more age-appropriate experience.
Renju Jose / Reuters:
Australia says it will include YouTube in its ban on social media for children under 16 years of age, reversing an earlier decision to exempt the platform
Reece Rogers / Wired:
OpenAI debuts a ChatGPT study mode, designed to guide students through learning material at their level, available to logged-in Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users  —  OpenAI's new study mode for ChatGPT throws questions back at students, but the learning feature doesn't address generative AI's underlying disruption of education.
Financial Times:
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg's aim with the Superintelligence Labs is to create a start-up-like unit within Meta that is unencumbered by the company's bureaucracy  —  Meta has splashed out on star hires and infrastructure as it tries to make up ground in the artificial intelligence race
Kylie Robison / Wired:
Source: Meta approached over a dozen people at Thinking Machines Lab and one offer was for $1B+ over a multiyear span; not a single person has left for Meta
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple loses its fourth AI researcher in a month to Meta's superintelligence team; the AFM team is in flux and Apple marginally increased AFM staff pay
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg mulls more shake-ups to Meta's AI strategy; he lost faith in the team in part due to a controversy over whether it gamed AI benchmarks
Katherine Sayre / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify reports Q2 revenue up 10% YoY to €4.2B, MAUs up 11% to 696M, subscribers up 12% to 276M, and an €86M net loss; SPOT closes down 11.6% after missed est.  —  The audio streaming service added more listeners than it had forecast, but reported a net loss for the second quarter
Catherine Perloff / The Information:
Daniel Ek says Spotify's ad business has “been moving too slowly”; Spotify ad chief Lee Brown left on July 28 to join DoorDash as its chief revenue officer
Lauren Thomas / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Palo Alto Networks is in talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity company CyberArk Software as soon as this week; a premium would put the deal above $20B  —  Deal for Israeli firm would be latest in big tech's cybersecurity consolidation  —  Palo Alto Networks is in talks to acquire …
Associated Press:
A survey of US adults: only 37% report using AI for work tasks and 60% say they use AI to find info at least some of the time, rising to 74% for those under 30
More: Implicator.ai.  Bluesky: @childlesscatperson and @karlbode.com.  Mastodon: @koen_hufkens@mastodon.social.  LinkedIn: Brian Betkowski.  Forums: Slashdot
Financial Times:
Sources: Anthropic is nearing a deal to raise $5B in a funding round led by Iconiq at a $170B valuation, after being valued at $61.5B in a $3.5B round in March  —  Deal would almost triple valuation of OpenAI's rival to $170bn  —  Iconiq Capital is set to lead a $5bn funding round …
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
An interview with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and how his father's passing from an illness, four years before a breakthrough made it 95% curable, shaped his path
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Tea, which claims to make dating safer for women, is the #2 app in the US App Store, despite multiple security flaws exposing private chats, photo IDs, and more  —  Two major security vulnerabilities in the Tea app - which claims to make dating safer for women - have exposed the private chats …
André Beganski / Decrypt:
The US SEC approves in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETFs, allowing institutional investors to exchange ETF shares for the underlying BTC or ETH  —  The SEC has approved in-kind redemptions for crypto ETFs, enabling a feature sought by Bitcoin and Ethereum fund issuers.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out new AI Mode features: Search Live with video input, Canvas for planning, image and PDF uploading, and AI Mode in Google Lens in desktop Chrome  —  After adding Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google is updating AI Mode with four big features across Search Live (video with Google Lens access), Canvas, and more.
Ernesto Londoño / New York Times:
Gov. Tim Walz activates the Minnesota National Guard to help St. Paul address a cyberattack detected Friday that led the city to shut down many of its systems  —  Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota activated the National Guard to help the city of St. Paul address a cyberattack that was detected last Friday.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple responds to the DOJ's antitrust lawsuit from March 2024, saying it sets “a dangerous precedent” and “threatens the very principles that set iPhone apart”  —  The US Department of Justice formally sued Apple in March 2024, accusing the company of having a “smartphone monopoly.”
Dave Michaels / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the US DOJ fired two of its most senior antitrust enforcers after disagreements related to defusing its lawsuit against HPE over its $14B Juniper deal
AnnaMaria Andriotis / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: JPMorgan Chase is in advanced talks to take over Apple's credit-card program from Goldman Sachs, with Apple telling JPMorgan it is its preferred choice  —  Discussions between the country's biggest bank and Apple accelerated in recent months  —  JPMorgan Chase is in advanced talks …
Bloomberg:
A profile of Luke Farritor, a 23-year-old Thiel Fellow who gained recognition for using AI to help decipher the Herculaneum papyri and later joined DOGE  —  Luke Farritor could have been an artist, or a builder, or someone dedicated to seeing a great historical mystery through.
Sam Tobin / Reuters:
The UK Supreme Court denied Uber's appeal in a case over VAT, forcing Uber to pay a 20% VAT on fares outside London while rival private taxi operators pay none  —  Uber's (UBER.N) rival taxi operators in England and Wales will not face a 20% VAT charge on their profit margins outside of London …
Stephen Council / SFGATE:
Wag, the pet care tech company reportedly valued at ~$650M after a $300M investment from SoftBank Vision Fund in January 2018, filed for bankruptcy on July 21  —  The pet care company Wag, as of Monday, was valued at less than $6 million  —  During the 2010s' boom in on-demand services …
Bluesky: @carnage4life.  Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to.  X: @armchairatty.  Forums: r/technology, r/bayarea, and Slashdot
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft is in advanced talks to land a deal that could give it ongoing access to critical OpenAI tech even if OpenAI reaches its goal of building AGI  —  Microsoft Corp. is in advanced talks to land a deal that could give it ongoing access to critical OpenAI technology …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
 AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
 "Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Hard Fork:
 OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
 Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
 Anthropic's quest to study the negative effects of AI is under pressure
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
 Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Add your podcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:10 AM ET, July 30, 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

Isabella Simonetti / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Vanity Fair and Olivia Nuzzi have agreed to part ways following new allegations about her affair with RFK Jr. and her behavior while reporting on him

Alexandra Steigrad / New York Post:
Sources: Forbes has cut ties with dozens of contributing writers; one exec said Forbes needs to ensure the contributor model is “financially sound”

Liam Scott / Columbia Journalism Review:
A look at the First Amendment Watch's SLAPP Back Initiative, a US SLAPP tracker; in 2024, 69 of 500 cases involved the media, of which 46 were dismissed

More News

RT Watson / The Block:
eToro says it's launching tokenized US equities, ETF, and futures trading via ERC-20 tokens, citing regulatory clarity from the US' Genius Act and the EU's MiCA
Anthony Hughes / Bloomberg:
Sources: Figma's IPO, which could raise as much as $1.2B after Figma raised its range to $30 to $32 per share on July 28, is approaching 40 times oversubscribed
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Block-owned Cash App unveils Pools, a new peer-to-peer feature for group payments, and says users can accept contributions via Apple Pay or Google Pay, a first
Brunella Tipismana Urbano / Bloomberg:
Ambience Healthcare, which uses AI to automate administrative tasks for medical professionals, raised $243M led by a16z and Oak HC/FT at a $1B+ valuation

Earlier Picks

Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Internal memo: Meta is piloting letting job candidates use AI assistants during coding interviews and asks employees for “mock AI-enabled interview” volunteers
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple says it will open the Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit in August, run by Michigan State University, as Trump ramps up pressure to invest in the US
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
PayPal reports Q2 net revenue up 5% YoY to $8.29B, vs. $8.08B est., but sees slowing transaction margin dollars growth, up 7% to $3.84B; PYPL closes down 8.66%
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Waymo plans to launch its robotaxi service in Dallas in 2026 with Avis as the fleet partner, a first after exclusively working with Uber in Austin and Atlanta
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter