Techmeme
August 5, 2025, 12:50 PM

Top News

Kathrin Hille / Financial Times:
Taiwanese prosecutors say two ex-TSMC employees and a third suspect were arrested for allegedly stealing proprietary tech; investigators searched Tokyo Electron  —  Taiwanese prosecutors probe ‘potential trade secret leaks’ in first case since key technologies added to national security legislation
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Sources: TSMC fires several employees for violating rules on obtaining sensitive information about its 2nm tech; TSMC says it detected “unauthorized activities”  —  TAIPEI — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has fired several employees for violating rules …
Bloomberg:
White House OSTP Director Michael Kratsios says the US is exploring software or physical ways to track the location of AI chips, as part of its AI Action Plan  —  The US is exploring ways to equip chips with better location-tracking capabilities, a senior official said …
Wall Street Journal:
A draft White House EO shows President Trump plans to step up pressure against big banks over alleged discrimination against crypto companies and conservatives  —  The president is expected to sign an executive order as soon as this week that targets so-called debanking of businesses including crypto companies
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google DeepMind releases its Genie 3 model, which can generate 3D worlds from a prompt and has enough visual memory for a few minutes of continuous interaction  —  AI world models have many limitations, but Genie 3 offers improvements like real-time interaction and better memory.
Lydia Beyoud / Bloomberg:
The CFTC is asking for public comment by August 18 about trading spot crypto asset contracts listed on CFTC-registered futures exchanges  —  Takeaways by Bloomberg AI  —  Hide … Tell us how AI is shaping your news experience.  Share your feedback  —  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission …
Anthropic:
Anthropic releases Claude Opus 4.1 to paid Claude users, in Claude Code, via its API, and more, featuring broad improvements over Opus 4 for the same cost  —  Today we're releasing Claude Opus 4.1, an upgrade to Claude Opus 4 on agentic tasks, real-world coding, and reasoning.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
The UK's Online Safety Act shows the UK prioritized government control over improving safety, becoming a cautionary tale for democracies regulating the internet  —  Well, well, well.  The “age assurance” part of the UK's Online Safety Act has finally gone into effect, with its age checking …
Kelly Lawler / USA Today:
Roku launches Howdy, an ad-free streaming service for $2.99 per month, initially only on Roku devices, with content from Lionsgate, WBD, FilmRise, and others  —  Roku is ready to say Howdy.  —  The company − which sells set-top streaming devices, smart TVs and has its own free …
Reuters:
Sources: Intel's 18A process yield has remained low, with only ~5% of its Panther Lake chips meeting its specifications in late 2024 and ~10% by summer 2025  —  The production process that Intel (INTC.O) hoped would pave the way to winning manufacturing deals and restore its edge in churning out high-end …
Tobias Mann / The Register:
Google signs a deal with two power utilities to lower its power use by pausing non-essential AI workloads during demand surges or weather-based grid disruptions  —  Google will pause non-essential AI workloads to protect power grids, the advertising giant announced on Monday.
Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:
ElevenLabs launches Eleven Music, letting individuals and businesses use its AI model to generate music cleared for commercial use via English-language prompts  —  New model allows customers to create music with AI that is cleared for commercial use.  But AI-generated music still faces legal battles and stiff opposition from artists.
John Herrman / New York Magazine:
Search-engine optimization feels dated as marketers look to generative-engine optimization, or GEO, which focuses on tricking AI chatbots rather than Google  —  Search-engine optimization now feels dated.  Generative-engine optimization is all about trying to trick AI chatbots.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
WhatsApp adds a new “safety overview” that appears in new group chats, including info on the group and when it was created, to help protect users from scams  —  The overview will contain information about when the group was created, who invited you, and how many members it has.
The Information:
Internal email: Cognition offers buyouts to its ~200 newly acquired Windsurf staff, with Cognition CEO Scott Wu writing “we don't believe in work-life balance”  —  Cognition, a two-year-old artificial intelligence coding startup last valued at $4 billion, has offered buyouts …
Bloomberg:
US DOT Secretary Sean Duffy proposes a rule change to let commercial drones fly beyond an operator's line of sight, a boon for Walmart and Alphabet's Wing  —  Takeaways by Bloomberg AI  —  Hide … Tell us how AI is shaping your news experience.  Share your feedback
Anthony Hughes / Bloomberg:
Nikkei Asia:
DRAM prices remain high after doubling from May 2025 to June 2025, amid speculation that China's CXMT may have halted DDR4 production to focus on DDR5 and HBM  —  TOKYO — Prices for standard DRAM, a widely used type of memory chip, remain high after doubling in just one month on speculation …
More: Benzinga

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Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
The Ezra Klein Show: How Fast Will A.I. Agents Rip Through the Economy?
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AI takes over meetings, the SF vs London tech scene, and ethics in media
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Harvey's Winston Weinberg: From Law Associate To $11 Billion Legal AI Startup CEO
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
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Earlier Picks

Jon Blistein / Rolling Stone:
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget: