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August 13, 2025, 9:15 PM
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Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
New York sues Zelle, claiming that security lapses led to $1B in consumer fraud losses; the US CFPB dropped a similar case in March  —  Zelle was sued on Wednesday by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who said the electronic payment platform's refusal to adopt critical safety features …
Business Insider:
Sources: Perplexity is seeking new funding at a $20B post-money valuation, up from a reported $18B in its latest fundraising round in July  —  - Perplexity is raising fresh funding at a $20 billion valuation, sources told Business Insider.  — The AI search startup recently made headlines for its surprise bid for Google Chrome.
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
Perplexity's unsolicited $34.5B bid for Chrome with claimed VC backing is clearly a marketing stunt and maybe a signal to the judge in Google's antitrust case
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
Alexandra Alper / Reuters:
Sources: the US Navy and Air Force may cancel two nearly complete HR software projects to give firms like Salesforce and Palantir a chance to win similar work  —  Donald Trump's Navy and Air Force are poised to cancel two nearly complete software projects that took 12 years …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple AI plans include robots, such as a tabletop one in 2027, a conversational Siri, a smart speaker with a display in 2026, and home security cameras  —  Apple Inc. is plotting its artificial intelligence comeback with an ambitious slate of new devices, including robots …
Bloomberg:
Bullish shares closed up 84% at $68 in the company's NYSE debut, above the IPO price of $37, giving Bullish a market value of $9.9B based on outstanding shares  —  Bullish shares jumped 84% from the IPO price after the digital-asset exchange operator and owner of media outlet CoinDesk raised $1.1 billion in an initial public offering.
Bloomberg:
Bullish raised $1.1B in its IPO, selling 30M shares for $37 each, above its $32-to-$33 marketed range; sources say the IPO was more than 20 times oversubscribed
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google is rolling out a feature for Gemini that, when enabled, will let the AI chatbot “remember” a user's past conversations without prompting  —  You'll no longer have to prompt Gemini in order for it to recall what you've discussed in previous chats.
Reuters:
Sources: the US secretly embedded location trackers in select AI chip shipments, such as in Dell and Super Micro servers, to detect illegal diversions to China  —  U.S. authorities have secretly placed location tracking devices in targeted shipments of advanced chips they see as being at high risk …
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Core Devices CEO Eric Migicovsky unveils the Pebble Time 2 in four colors, with a 1.5" e-paper display, multicolor RGB backlighting, and a 30-day battery life  —  The Time 2 sports a sleeker profile and RGB backlighting. … Now that Pebble is Pebble again, we're getting an official look …
Dasha Litvinova / Associated Press:
Russia is “partially” restricting WhatsApp and Telegram calls, saying the apps are used “to deceive and extort money” and “in sabotage and terrorist activities”  —  Russian authorities announced Wednesday they were “partially” restricting calls …
Bloomberg:
Amazon says it now offers same-day grocery delivery in 1,000+ cities and plans to bring it to 2,300+ more by the end of 2025; Prime subscribers get it free  —  Amazon.com Inc. plans to offer same-day grocery delivery in 2,300 cities by the end of the year, more than doubling the current number …
Ted Mann / Bloomberg:
TTP analysis: Google used an internal reorganization to reduce the amount it reported on US lobbying spending, likely by millions; Google disputes the claims  —  It was the end of 2018, and Google's leaders were tired of being Number One.  —  For the second year in a row …
Juby Babu / Reuters:
Cisco reports Q4 revenue up 8% YoY to $14.67B, vs. $14.62B est., net income up 31% to $2.8B, and forecasts Q1 revenue above estimates  —  Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) forecast first-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as the artificial intelligence boom boosted demand for its networking equipment from cloud customers.
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

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:15 PM 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.

From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

Sam Roberts / New York Times:
Arthur L. Carter, who started a Connecticut newspaper in 1981, bought and sold The Nation, and founded the New York Observer in 1987, has died at 93

More News

Reuters:
Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 15% YoY to ~$25.7B, vs. ~$24.8B est., domestic gaming revenue up 17% YoY to ~$5.6B, and global gaming revenue up 35% YoY to ~$2.6B

Earlier Picks

Derek Thompson:
Studies suggest AI chatbots' sycophantic responses may increase narcissism among young and vulnerable users, potentially changing personality traits at scale
John Sakellariadis / Politico:
A senior US official says the recent hack of the US federal court filing system is a “continuation of the same rudimentary security issues” present since 2020
Mark Gurman / @markgurman:
In response to Elon Musk's claims that the App Store favors ChatGPT, Apple says that it “is designed to be fair and free of bias” and has “objective criteria”
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