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August 17, 2025, 1:15 AM
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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
Amanda Hess / New York Times:
A look at AI-powered stuffed animals like Grem, Grok, and Gabbo, which are being promoted as an alternative to screen time for children as young as 3  —  Curio is a company that describes itself as “a magical workshop where toys come to life.”  When I recently visited its cheery headquarters …
Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:
How an editor uncovered the “largest self-promotion operation in Wikipedia's history” that promoted obscure composer David Woodard with entries in 335 languages  —  Quick—what are the top entries in the category “Wikipedia articles written in the greatest number of languages”?
More: The Signpost.  Mastodon: @Khrys@mamot.fr.  X: @egavactip and @wikisignpost.  Forums: news.ycombinator.com
Counterpoint Research:
Global smart glasses shipments grew 110% YoY in H1; Meta's share of the market rose to 73%; AI smart glasses accounted for 78% of shipments, up from 46% YoY  —  - The global smart glasses market grew by 110% YoY in H1 2025, fueled by robust demand for Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses and the entry …
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” …
More: PCMag and Mashable
Bluesky: @nealiosaurus and @ashleybraun.  Mastodon: @pernillet@mastodon.online.  Forums: r/technology
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.
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.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:15 AM ET, August 17, 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

Lucas Manfredi / The Wrap:
Paramount reports Q4 revenue of $8.15B, a net loss of $573M, and DTC revenue up 10% YoY to $2.213B; Paramount+ subs reach 78.9M, up 4%

Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:
Nexstar lays off on-air staffers at LA's KTLA and New York's WPIX, after similar cuts at WGN in Chicago, as the company pursues a merger with Tegna

Rob Golum / Bloomberg:
A group of 11 state AGs, led by two Republicans, send a letter to the DOJ opposing Netflix's proposed acquisition of WBD, saying it will harm consumers

More News

Reuters:
The World Humanoid Robot Games kicked off in Beijing on August 15, with robots across 280 teams from 16 countries competing in track and field and other sports
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

Earlier Picks

Matt Kaufman / Roblox Corporate:
Roblox plans to restrict unrated experiences to devs, automatically remove servers with violative content, and limit some social hangouts to verified 17+ users
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