Techmeme
October 9, 2025, 7:15 AM

Top News

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Discord estimates 70,000 users globally may have had their government ID photos exposed in a September 20 data breach of third-party customer service Zendesk  —  Discord claims that the attackers are circulating inaccurate information about the breach of a customer service provider as part of an extortion attempt.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Apple plans to update its Declared Age Range API and launch new APIs “later this year” to verify the ages of Apple Account users in Texas from January 1, 2026  —  Starting next year in Texas, new rules will go into effect. … Starting next year, Texas will require companies …
Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:
A Samsung researcher introduces the Tiny Recursion Model, a 7M-parameter model that was able to outperform LLMs 10,000x larger like o3-mini on specific problems  —  The trend of AI researchers developing new, small open source generative models that outperform far larger …
Ryan McMorrow / Financial Times:
China unveils sweeping export controls on rare-earth minerals, creating rules akin to US measures that block chip-related exports to China from third countries  —  Beijing is leveraging its dominant position in the critical minerals supply chain  —  China has unveiled sweeping new export controls …
Vince Quill / Cointelegraph:
The Ethereum Foundation announces the “Privacy cluster”, a team of 47 blockchain industry experts developing protocol-level privacy features for the network  —  The team of 47 professionals from the blockchain industry will help research and develop privacy features for the Ethereum layer-1 network.
Joseph Cox / 404 Media:
Apple removes Eyes Up, which archives video evidence of ICE abuses, from the App Store; unlike ICEBlock, Eyes Up doesn't share ICE officers' real-time locations  —  Apple removed an app for preserving TikToks, Instagram reels, news reports, and videos documenting abuses by ICE, 404 Media has learned.
Logan Hitchcock / Decrypt:
YZi Labs, formerly Binance Labs, announces a $1B Builder Fund to support long-term builders developing on BNB Chain in areas like trading, AI, and DeFi  —  YZi Labs, the venture office of Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao and formerly known as Binance Labs, is creating a $1 billion fund …
Lee V. Gaines / NPR:
A survey of 1,000 ninth through 12th grade US students finds that nearly one in five say they or someone they know has had a romantic relationship with AI  —  New survey data finds that nearly 1 in 5 high schoolers say they or someone they know has had a romantic relationship with artificial intelligence.
Mayumi Negishi / Bloomberg:
SoftBank-owned PayPay takes a 40% stake in Binance Japan for an undisclosed sum, to capitalize on Japan's crypto boom; PayPay filed for a US IPO in August  —  SoftBank Group Corp.'s digital payment provider PayPay Corp. has taken a 40% stake in Binance's Japan unit, seeking to capitalize on the country's booming crypto market.
Michael Kan / PCMag:
Verizon signs a commercial agreement with AST SpaceMobile to offer satellite-to-phone connectivity in cellular dead zones starting in 2026; ASTS closed up 8.6%  —  As SpaceX races to dominate satellite-to-phone services, Verizon is doubling down on rival AST SpaceMobile instead.
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:
Toronto-based Spellbook, whose AI helps with legal contracts, raised $50M led by Khosla Ventures at a $350M valuation and says it has ~4,000 customers  —  Artificial intelligence startup Spellbook raised $50 million in a funding round led by Khosla Ventures managing partner Keith Rabois …
Geoffrey A. Fowler / Washington Post:
An analysis of nearly 50 Amazon purchases over six months in 2025: during the October 7-8 Prime Day sales, average savings were only 0.6% and some items went up  —  Next time Amazon hypes its Prime Days savings, remember this: The prices during the sale aren't always better.  I've got the receipts to prove it.
Los Angeles Times:
US prosecutors say the evidence against a man accused of starting what became the Pacific Palisades fire includes a ChatGPT-generated image of a burning city  —  - Authorities have arrested a suspect in the Palisades fire after a nine-month investigation into the blaze that killed 12 people.
Emmanuel Morgan / New York Times:
A profile of Twitch streamer Kai Cenat, who has 19M followers on the platform, many of them young people, and drew nearly 50M viewers to a monthlong stream  —  With his boisterous antics, Cenat has gained 19 million Twitch followers and the attention of celebrities who covet that audience.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Google Pixel Watch 4 review: a significant leap in Google's smartwatch lineup with a nice domed display, but Gemini is unreliable and GPS maps are still wonky  —  Five years ago, I used to groan when it came time to review an Android smartwatch.  Back then, anything that wasn't a Samsung watch was disappointing at best.
Ryan Whitwam / Ars Technica:

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Earlier Picks

Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
Stephanie Palazzolo / The Information:
Alex Konrad / Upstarts Media:
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: