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August 14, 2025, 12:05 PM
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Jeff Horwitz / Reuters:
An internal policy doc shows Meta permitted its chatbots to engage in provocative behavior; Meta removed some examples, including romantic roleplay with kids  —  An internal Meta policy document, seen by Reuters, reveals the social-media giant's rules for chatbots, which have permitted provocative behavior …
Financial Times:
Sources: DeepSeek R2's launch delay is due to training issues on Huawei Ascend chips, prompting a switch to Nvidia chips for training and Huawei's for inference  —  Difficulties of training the start-up's latest system with Huawei's semiconductors highlight dependence on Nvidia
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Apple rolls out a software update that enables a redesigned blood oxygen monitoring feature for its Watch Series 9, 10, and Ultra 2, circumventing the ITC ban  —  Apple will be rolling out a redesigned version of the feature to the Series 9, 10 and Ultra 2 today.
Zac Bowden / Windows Central:
Microsoft Windows head Pavan Davuluri says the next Windows version will be more ambient, more pervasive, and more multi-modal, as voice becomes more important  —  In a new video, Microsoft CVP and Windows boss Pavan Davuluri has teased that the future of Windows will consist of a truly ambient …
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, who led xAI's engineering, says he is leaving the company to launch a venture firm that backs AI safety research and startups  —  Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of Elon Musk's xAI startup, announced his departure from the company on Wednesday in a post …
Jennifer Ouellette / Ars Technica:
Q&A with researcher Petter Törnberg on his preprint study showing how social network structures cause problematic outcomes like filter bubbles and echo chambers  —  “The [structural] mechanism producing these problematic outcomes is really robust and hard to resolve.”
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 …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out Sensitive Content Warnings in Messages for Android to blur nude images for signed-in users on-device, powered by Android System SafetyCore  —  Google Messages for Android has now rolled out Sensitive Content Warnings that blur nude images.  —  In the Messages app …
Emma Hinchliffe / Fortune:
Sola, which wants AI agents to automate businesses' repetitive tasks, raised $21M, including a $3.5M seed led by Conviction and a $17.5M Series A led by a16z  —  Jessica Wu and Neil Deshmukh are the cofounders of Sola, which automates businesses' most repetitive, manual tasks.
Business Insider:
Sources: Perplexity is seeking funding at a $20B post-money valuation, up from a reported $18B in its fundraising round in July 2025 and $520M in January 2024
Zvi Mowshowitz / Don't Worry About the Vase:
GPT-5 review: GPT-5-Thinking is a substantial upgrade over o3-pro, Auto is only useful for free tier users, picking the right model still matters, and more  —  What do I ultimately make of all the new versions of GPT-5?  —  The practical offerings and how they interact continues to change by the day.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
Google launches Flight Deals, an AI tool within Google Flights to let users find fares using natural language queries, in beta in the US, Canada, and India  —  Google on Thursday announced a new AI-powered search tool to help travelers find flight deals — even as regulators continue …
Alexandra Alper / Reuters:
Sources: the US Navy and Air Force may cancel two nearly complete HR software projects worth $800M+ to let Salesforce, Palantir, and others win similar work  —  Donald Trump's Navy and Air Force are poised to cancel two nearly complete software projects that took 12 years and well over $800 million combined …
Dylan Butts / CNBC:
Foxconn reports Q2 revenue up 16% YoY to ~$59.73B, matching est., and operating profit up 27% YoY to ~$1.9B, above $1.6B est., driven by its AI server business  —  Taiwan's Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics maker, reported Thursday that its second-quarter operating profit rose 27% year …

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:05 PM ET, August 14, 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

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Trump names Danielle Thumann, an adviser to FCC Chairman Brendan Carr, to serve as an FCC commissioner; if confirmed, she'd bring the Republican majority to 3-1

Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Scripps' CEO says the company is adopting a streaming news model enabled by AI, including cutting 12% of staff, and praises the FCC's lift of the ownership cap

Ted Johnson / Deadline:
A federal judge has dismissed an antitrust challenge to Paramount's WBD acquisition brought by a group of consumers, but allows them to file a revised complaint

More News

Kyt Dotson / SiliconANGLE:
The US NSF and Nvidia partner to fund the Open Multimodal Infrastructure to Accelerate Science project, led by Ai2; the NSF is contributing $75M and Nvidia $77M

Earlier Picks

Jaspreet Singh / Reuters:
Google plans to spend $9B in Oklahoma over two years on cloud and AI infrastructure, including on building a data center campus and expanding its Pryor facility
Juby Babu / Reuters:
Cisco reports Q4 revenue up 8% YoY to $14.67B, vs. $14.62B est., net income up 31% YoY to $2.8B, and forecasts Q1 revenue from $14.65B to $14.85B, above est.
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
New York AG Letitia James sues Zelle, claiming that security lapses led to $1B+ in consumer fraud losses; the US CFPB dropped a similar case in March 2025
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple's AI plans include robots, like a tabletop one in 2027, a conversational Siri, a smart speaker with a display in 2026, and home security cameras
Bloomberg:
Bullish shares closed up 84% at $68 in the crypto company's NYSE debut, above its IPO price of $37, giving it a $9.9B market value based on outstanding shares
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