Techmeme
August 18, 2025, 12:30 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Politico:
A look at OpenAI's campaign over the past year to secure its transition from a nonprofit, led by a team of Democratic insiders in California  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Sam Altman, the driving force behind ChatGPT's meteoric rise, is running a team of veteran political operatives, campaigning to secure his company OpenAI's future.
Anthropic:
Anthropic enables Claude Opus 4 and 4.1 to end conversations in “cases of persistently harmful or abusive user interactions”; users can still start new chats  —  We recently gave Claude Opus 4 and 4.1 the ability to end conversations in our consumer chat interfaces.
Financial Times:
GPT-5's underwhelming performance on benchmarks suggests that the current approach of scaling LLMs is starting to reach the limits of available resources  —  OpenAI's underwhelming new GPT-5 model suggests progress is slowing — and competition in the space is changing
Patrick Howell O'Neill / Bloomberg:
Interview with Trent Brunson, R&D director at cybersecurity firm Trail of Bits, which won $3M and 2nd place in DARPA's AI Cyber Challenge, behind Team Atlanta  —  Last week, the Pentagon's long AI Cyber Challenge, or AIxCC, came to a head onstage in Las Vegas.
Nikkei Asia:
How Chinese streaming giants iQiyi and Tencent are gaining on Netflix in Southeast Asia through original productions and free, ad-supported services  —  BANGKOK/SHANGHAI — Chinese streaming services are catching up with American rivals in the Southeast Asian market, with giants iQiyi …

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Azure Content Understanding: Building on lessons from a decade of Document Intelligence  —  What a decade of teaching machines to read real-world documents taught us about what LLMs can and can't do.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
UK tax compliance with Zoho Books  —  The evolving tax landscape in the UK has added an additional responsibility to business owners, accountants, and bookkeepers to ensure their choice of accounting software supports compliance …
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:
AI Leaders Can't Get Along. So How Will They Keep Us Safe? — With Kevin Roose
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
How to Run a Political Campaign in the TikTok Era (And How Not To)
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.
Sources:
Robinhood's CEO on letting AI trade your money
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.
Training Data:
David Silver and Lasse Espeholt of Ineffable Intelligence: A Superlearner for the Age of Experience
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
David Vélez - Building Nubank and the Future of Global Banking
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Cheeky Pint:
Muse Wonder: Zuckerberg and Wang's $100B AI
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
 

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More News

Michael S. Rosenwald / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
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Martina Di Licosa / Forbes: