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August 16, 2025, 8:40 AM
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| Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg: |
Roblox shares closed down 6.34% on Friday after the company was accused in two lawsuits of failing to sufficiently protect youngsters on its platform — Roblox Corp. shares fell more than 6% Friday after the company, which operates an online video-game service popular with children …
More: Associated Press, The Verge, Roblox Corporate, TechCrunch, Breitbart, Notebookcheck, Developer Forum, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Los Angeles Times, Polygon, PCMag, Washington Examiner, Gizmodo, Destructoid, PYMNTS.com, The US Sun, Forbes, MarketWatch, Distractify, Gameranx, WAFB-TV, ZeroHedge News, Screen Rant, Mashable, Kotaku, Telegraph, PC Gamer, Dexerto, Barron's Online, The Gateway Pundit, and Variety
X: @aglizmurrill, @aglizmurrill, @realschlep, @kreekcraft, @realschlep, @roblox_rtc, @aglizmurrill, @simon_hypixel, @hedgeyecommor, @aglizmurrill, @chrishansen, @kreekcraft, @hedgeyecomm, @aglizmurrill, @kreekcraft, @stockjabber, @realschlep, @kreekcraft, @steak834, @kreekcraft, @blox, @roblox_rtc, @realschlep, @stockjabber, @realschlep, @kreekcraft, @repschlegel, and @stockjabber
| Bobby Allyn / NPR: |
A proposed class action lawsuit accuses Otter.ai of “deceptively and surreptitiously” recording private conversations to train its AI without user consent — A federal lawsuit seeking class-action status accuses Otter.ai of “deceptively and surreptitiously” … | Forbes: |
Sources say Meta's chaotic culture and lack of vision have led to AI brain drain; Meta strongly denies it has had issues with talent and retention — At Meta, a chaotic culture and lack of vision have led to brain drain, with rivals saying its AI talent is lackluster.
More: The Information, Business Insider, Fortune, Fast Company, and Tech in Asia
Bluesky: @chronotope.aramzs.xyz and @richardnieva
LinkedIn: Rashi Shrivastava and Luisa Kroll
| Kalley Huang / The Information: |
Sources: Meta plans its fourth AI restructuring in six months, dividing its superintelligence lab into TBD Lab, a product team, an infrastructure team, and FAIR — Meta Platforms is planning the fourth restructuring of its artificial intelligence efforts in six months, according to three people familiar with the matter.| Kate Clark / Bloomberg: |
Sources: current and former OpenAI employees plan to sell ~$6B in stock to Thrive Capital, SoftBank, and others in a secondary sale that values OpenAI at ~$500B — SoftBank, Dragoneer and Thrive Capital are set to buy OpenAI shares from current and former employees at a $500 billion valuation.
More: CNBC, The Economic Times, The Information, Tech in Asia, StrictlyVC, Reuters, and NewsMax.com
| Jonathan Vanian / CNBC: |
Senator Josh Hawley says he will investigate Meta after a report on its AI policy allowing sensual chats with kids, tells Meta to produce docs by September 19 — Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said Friday that he will investigate Meta following a report that the company approved rules allowing …
More: TechCrunch, Mercury News, Josh Hawley, The Guardian, Associated Press, Jamaica Observer, 1819 News, San Francisco Chronicle, New York Times, Simon Willison's Weblog, Engadget, MLex, Baltimore Sun, Reuters, Townhall, Euractiv, Fox News, MobileSyrup, PCWorld, and Washington Examiner
Bluesky: @dimitridrekonja, @wyden.senate.gov, and @wyden.senate.gov
X: @hawleymo, @benbrodydc, @senkatiebritt, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @realdcochrane, @hawleymo, @bedoyausa, @sayssimonson, @senkatiebritt, @emrwilkins, and @saalevine. Forums: r/technology
| David Heaney / UploadVR: |
Hands-on with Tiramisu, Meta's “hyperrealistic” VR research prototype with beyond-retinal resolution, high brightness and contrast, and a narrow field of view — At SIGGRAPH 2025, I went hands-on with Tiramisu, Meta's research prototype that combines beyond-retinal resolution …
X: @ibrews and @heaney555
| Lauren Goode / Wired: |
Some developers say GPT-5 excels at technical reasoning and planning coding tasks and is cost-effective, but Claude Opus and Sonnet still produce better code — Software engineers are finding that OpenAI's new GPT-5 model is helping them think through coding problems—but isn't much better at actual coding.| Monique Mulima / Bloomberg: |
Winklevoss twins' Gemini files for a US IPO and reports a $282.5M net loss on $67.9M revenue in H1 2025, vs. a $41.4M net loss on $73.5M revenue a year earlier — Gemini Space Station Inc., led by the billionaire Winklevoss twins, filed for an IPO as the cohort of crypto businesses seeking to list on public markets continues to swell.| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
TikTok is updating its Community Guidelines, adding new rules for Live creators, including a requirement that commercial content must be disclosed — TikTok is preparing an update to its Community Guidelines, which dictate the rules for participating on the social video platform … | Martina Di Licosa / Forbes: |
A profile of UCB CS professor Ion Stoica, a billionaire who has helped launch four startups out of his privately-funded research lab, including Databricks — This computer science professor became a billionaire launching four startups out of his privately-funded research lab, including unicorns Databricks and Anyscale.
More: EECS at UC Berkeley and Berkeleyside
LinkedIn: Tuan Vu, Rich Adao, Martina Di Licosa, Hui Zhang, and Luisa Kroll
| Bloomberg: |
A US district court judge temporarily blocks an FTC probe into Media Matters, part of an antitrust investigation into ad boycotts, calling the probe retaliatory — Nonprofit Media Matters for America won a court order blocking a Federal Trade Commission information demand for documents …
More: New York Times, Washington Post, MLex, and Raw Story
X: @adamsteinbaugh, @mmfa, and @bedoyausa
| Katherine Hamilton / Wall Street Journal: |
Lyft co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer step down as board chair and vice chair, convert their Class B stock to Class A, completing the succession plan — Logan Green and John Zimmer are stepping down from their roles as chair and vice chair of the board of directors
More: The Information, Yahoo Finance, Automotive Dive, and Reuters
| Kelly Cloonan / Wall Street Journal: |
Applied Materials Q3: revenue up 8% YoY to $7.3B, vs. $7.22B est., profit up 4% YoY to $1.78B, and projects Q4 revenue and profit below est. on China challenges — The semiconductor-equipment maker had expected a slowdown in China after two years of rapid build-out, CFO Brice Hill says in an interviewSponsor Posts
Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!
AI-powered law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements — 2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements — 2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
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.
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.Featured Podcasts
Big Technology Podcast:
Alex And Ranjan's 2026 Outlook: ChatGPT 1 Billion, AI Shopping, Apple's Big Year, AI Love Boom
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.
Hard Fork:
Where Is All the A.I.-Driven Scientific Progress?
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.
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The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
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.
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BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
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