Techmeme
August 13, 2025, 8:45 AM

Top News

Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI adds GPT-5 Auto, Fast, and Thinking settings to ChatGPT's model picker; Auto seems to work like GPT-5's model router that OpenAI initially announced  —  When OpenAI launched GPT-5 last week, the company said the model would simplify the ChatGPT experience.
SemiAnalysis:
GPT-5's router directs queries based on complexity and intent, helping OpenAI allocate compute across low-value informational and high-value commercial requests  —  How ChatGPT will monetize free users, Router is the Release, AIs will serve Ads, Google's moat eroded?, The shift of purchasing intent queries
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
Perplexity's unsolicited $34.5B bid for Chrome with claimed VC backing is clearly a marketing stunt and strategic signaling amid Google's antitrust uncertainty  —  Perplexity Makes Longshot $34.5 Billion Offer for Chrome  —  With its unsolicited bid for Google's browser …
Katherine Blunt / Wall Street Journal:
Perplexity offers to acquire Chrome for $34.5B, significantly more than Perplexity's estimated $18B valuation, and says large VC funds agreed to back the deal  —  With its unsolicited bid for Google's browser, AI startup seeks to take advantage of uncertainty over pending antitrust ruling
Reuters:
Sources: the US secretly embedded location trackers in select AI chip and server shipments, including Dell and Super Micro, to detect illegal China diversions  —  U.S. authorities have secretly placed location tracking devices in targeted shipments of advanced chips they see as being at high risk …
New York Times:
Sources: US investigators have uncovered evidence that Russia is at least in part responsible for a recent hack of the US federal court filing system  —  Federal officials are scrambling to assess the damage and address flaws in a sprawling, heavily used computer system long known to have vulnerabilities.
Mark Gurman / @markgurman:
In response to Elon Musk's claims that the App Store favors the ChatGPT app, Apple says the App Store “is designed to be fair and free of bias”  —  Apple on @elonmusk's claims: “The App Store is designed to be fair and free of bias. We feature thousands of apps through charts, algorithmic recommendations, and curated lists selected by experts using objective criteria.” https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Surbhi Misra / Reuters:
Financial Times:
Sources: OpenAI is preparing to back Neuralink rival Merge Labs, co-founded by Sam Altman, that aims to raise $250M at an $850M valuation, including from OpenAI  —  OpenAI in talks to invest in brain implant start-up that would compete with Musk's company  —  OpenAI and its co-founder Sam Altman …
Derek Thompson:
Studies suggest AI chatbots' sycophantic design may increase narcissism among young and vulnerable users, potentially altering personality traits at scale  —  “I can imagine a future where a lot of people really trust ChatGPT's advice for their most important decisions,” Sam Altman said.
Bloomberg:
CoreWeave reports Q2 revenue up 207% YoY to $1.21B, vs. $1.08B est., adjusted net loss of $130.8M, vs. $96.3M est., up from $5M in Q2 2024; CRWV drops 10%+  —  CoreWeave Inc.'s shares fell 10% after it delivered a disappointing earnings outlook, reflecting margin pressures from a rapid AI datacenter expansion.
Joedy McCreary / MedPage Today:
Study: endoscopists accustomed to using AI for colonoscopies detected fewer precancerous growths after the tools were removed, raising “deskilling” concerns  —  - The adenoma detection rate (ADR) in more than 1,400 non-AI assisted colonoscopies dropped 6 percentage points …
Dylan Loh / Nikkei Asia:
Singapore's three neobanks, GXS Bank, MariBank, and Trust Bank, together posted $278.1M in losses in 2024 as legacy rivals digitalized, intensifying competition  —  SINGAPORE — Eugina Sim will continue saving with a traditional lender, even though digital banks owned by technology players including Grab …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Pro Tips: 4 tips to overcome data problems in your CRM  —  Most CRM data problems don't look like problems.  At a glance, your CRM looks fine: records exist, fields are filled, and reports run.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Meta's Muse Revival, Frontier AI Under Threat, The Rise Of Dopamine Sites
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.
Sources:
Satya Nadella on Microsoft's agent bet and AI's trust problem
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Meta's New $1300 Glasses and the Fight to Control AI
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.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Invest Like the Best:
Gabe Stengel - Building Investing Superintelligence
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
Inside the AI Startup Making Customer Support 65% Cheaper
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:45 AM ET, August 13, 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.

More News

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Sharon Goldman / Fortune:

Earlier Picks

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Ashley Stewart / Business Insider:
Adrian Zmudzinski / Cointelegraph:
Emily Price / Fast Company:
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Bob Van Voris / Bloomberg: