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August 21, 2025, 10:30 AM
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Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:
Meta froze hiring in its AI division last week with sources saying exceptions need Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang's permission; the freeze's duration is unclear  —  Company reorganizes its sprawling artificial-intelligence operation, whose spiraling cost has drawn investor scrutiny
Bloomberg:
DeepSeek details V3.1 and says it surpasses R1 on key benchmarks and is customized to work with next-gen Chinese-made AI chips, after unveiling it on August 19  —  DeepSeek unveiled an update to an older model that it says surpasses the seminal R1 on key benchmarks, keeping the Chinese startup …
Matt Burgess / Wired:
CBP data: between April and June 2025, CBP searched 14,899 devices carried by international travelers, up from a record 12,766+ between January and March 2022  —  Customs and Border Protection agents searched nearly 15,000 devices from April through June of this year, a nearly 17 percent spike …
Mustafa Suleyman:
Mustafa Suleyman says “Seemingly Conscious AI” is coming but is something to avoid, and that developers must build AI for people, not to be a digital person  —  Seemingly Conscious AI is Coming  —  I write, to think.  More than anything this essay is an attempt to think through …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google expands AI Mode to 180 countries and territories in English, following the US, the UK, and India, and plans to add more languages and regions “soon”  —  After launching in three countries, Google is now bringing AI Mode to many more countries around the world …
Matt Swider / The Shortcut:
Google unveils the $349+ Pixel Watch 4 in 41mm and 45mm sizes, with a curved display, a Snapdragon W5 Gen 2, and SOS satellite service, shipping from October 9  —  ✅ Pros  — ⌚ New Acuta 360 display offers a curved screen, not just domed glass
Andrew Liszewski / The Verge:
Google launches its first magnetic wireless charging accessories, under the Pixelsnap brand; the Pixel 10 phones are compatible with Qi2 and MagSafe accessories
Financial Times:
Sources: China's H20 curbs were triggered by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's not selling China the “best stuff” remark, which officials found “insulting”  —  Comments by US commerce secretary trigger Chinese regulatory effort to stop tech groups buying H20 processors
Trishla Ostwal / Adweek:
In a UK tribunal filing, former Meta employee Samujjal Purkayastha alleges Meta misled advertisers by inflating its Shops ads metrics and bypassed Apple's ATT  —  After Apple rolled out its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in 2021, Meta executives scrambled for what they called …
TechCrunch:
Halo, a startup founded by two former Harvard students who built a facial recognition app for Ray-Ban Meta glasses, introduces “always-on” AI glasses for $249  —  Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai Rebecca Bellan  —  Two former Harvard students are launching a pair of “always-on” …
John Collison / Cheeky Pint:
Q&A with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on starting the company, battling North Korean hackers, stablecoin adoption, the GENIUS Act, pro-crypto Congress, and more  —  Brian Armstrong joins John Collison to talk about what's happening behind the scenes at Coinbase: battling North Korean hackers …
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Google unveils the $999+ Pixel 10 Pro and $1,199+ 10 Pro XL, with 6.3" and 6.8" OLED displays, Tensor G5 chips, and Zoned UFS storage, available from August 28  —  Google's Pixel 10 Pro and 10 Pro XL are, on the surface, the least upgraded devices in the company's 2025 smartphone lineup …
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google unveils the $1,799+ Pixel 10 Pro Fold, with a Tensor G5, a hinge with a gear-less design, and 6.4" outer and 8" inner screens, available from October 9
Christopher Yasiejko / Bloomberg Law:
Masimo sues the US CBP, saying it exceeded its authority in an August 1 internal advice ruling that let Apple reactivate a Watch blood oxygen tracking feature  —  US Customs and Border Protection unlawfully let Apple Inc. reactivate a blood-oxygen tracking feature on Apple Watches …
Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
TRM Labs launches Beacon Network, a real-time alert system for illicit crypto activity, partnering with law enforcement and exchanges like Binance and Coinbase  —  An industry-wide project led by TRM Labs is officially going live, and includes law enforcement and the major exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
India's lower house of parliament passes a sweeping online gaming bill that imposes a blanket ban on real-money games nationwide, threatening a ~$23B industry  —  India's lower house of parliament on Wednesday passed a sweeping online gaming bill that, while promoting esports …
Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
An interview with GM SVP of Software and Services Engineering David Richardson on GM's new AI team, developing “cobots”, or collaborative robots, and more  —  So far the team includes hires from Google, Meta, AWS and even a Pixar vet who is helping GM develop new factory ‘cobots’
More: CBT News and Axios
Jeanny Yu / Bloomberg:
Analysis: Baidu's stock is trading at a forward P/E ratio of ~9.7, the lowest of any profitable Hang Seng Tech Index company, amid AI competitiveness concerns  —  Sharp stock underperformance for Baidu Inc. on concerns over its outlook have left it trading at the cheapest valuation among China's major internet firms.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google's new AI features for Pixel include Magic Cue for contextual suggestions across apps, Voice Translate for calls, and Visual Overlays for the camera  —  With the launch of the new Pixel 10 series, Google is rushing ahead of Apple to deliver AI-powered smartphones to consumers.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 AM ET, August 21, 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

Ali McCadden / CNBC:
Microsoft and the NFL extend their partnership to bring real-time game data and analysis to coaches and players using Microsoft Copilot and Azure AI
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Photos will let users edit images via text or voice prompts, available first on Pixel 10 devices in the US, and will get C2PA Content Credentials support
Michael L Hicks / Android Central:
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 for wearables, featuring satellite messaging support, improved GPS accuracy, better efficiency, and more
Peter Hall / MIT Technology Review:
NASA and IBM release Surya, an open-source machine learning model trained on over a decade's worth of NASA solar data to predict solar flares and solar winds

Earlier Picks

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Google announces Gemini for Home, a Google Home voice assistant with Gemini Live, available in early access in October and eventually replacing Google Assistant
Made by Google on YouTube:
A recording of the Made by Google 2025 event hosted by Jimmy Fallon
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google unveils a new Gemini-powered personal health coach for Fitbit, rolling out as a preview in October for Fitbit Premium users in the redesigned Fitbit app
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Sony says it is raising PlayStation 5 prices by $50 for all models in the US due to a “challenging economic environment”, starting on August 21
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft and Asus plan to launch the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds on October 16; leaks suggest the Ally and Ally X will cost €599 and €899, respectively
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