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October 18, 2025, 5:40 PM
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Top News

Andy Newman / New York Times:
Two Wikipedia contributors disarmed a gunman who threatened to kill himself at WikiConference to protest a policy banning editors who identify as pedophiles  —  After the man walked onto the stage at the “Wiki World's Fair” event and threatened to kill himself, witnesses said, two members of the audience jumped in to stop him.
Carly Nairn / Courthouse News Service:
A US judge bars NSO Group from targeting WhatsApp users and cuts the ~$168M damages verdict awarded to Meta by a jury in May to $4M, ruling it was excessive  —  Meta previously won $168 million in damages over claims spyware compromised WhatsApp users, but a judge reduced the damages down to $4 million.
Natallie Rocha / New York Times:
The AI boom has pushed SF's residential rents up by the most in the US over the past year, as AI companies lease apartments and offer rent stipends to employees  —  The artificial intelligence gold rush has pushed San Francisco's residential rents up by the most in the nation …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Google says North Korea hackers are using “EtherHiding” to embed malware on blockchains, the first time it has seen a nation-state threat actor using the method  —  North Korean hackers have adopted the ‘EtherHiding’ technique that leverages smart contracts to host and deliver malware …
Winston Cho / The Hollywood Reporter:
Inside the discussions between OpenAI and talent agencies about the video app Sora; some agents say studios have been too reluctant to challenge tech giants  —  OpenAI's CEO brazenly regurgitated major studios' characters to allow video app Sora 2 to spit out clips tailor-made for users.
John Kang / Forbes:
Shares of ISU Petasys, a South Korea-based multi-layer PCB supplier for AI servers used by Alphabet, Nvidia, Microsoft, and others, are up 215% so far this year  —  Based in Daegu, a city in southeastern South Korea, ISU Petasys makes multi-layer printed circuit boards that hold chips and other components for AI servers.
Kendra Barnett / Adweek:
Google is phasing out its Privacy Sandbox technologies; the initiative was launched in 2019 to develop privacy-protecting tech to replace third-party cookies  —  The elimination of many remaining Privacy Sandbox APIs come six months after third-party cookies got a reprieve in Chrome.
Christian Davies / Financial Times:
South Korea restricts travel to Cambodia over online scam center kidnappings; the UK and US sanction Cambodia's Prince Group for allegedly running scam centers  —  Seoul says 330 of its nationals detained or abducted in the first eight months of this year  —  South Korea has prohibited …

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:40 PM ET, October 18, 2025.

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From Mediagazer

Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Disney and OpenAI sign a three-year deal to bring 200+ Disney characters to Sora; Disney will make a $1B investment in OpenAI and become a major OpenAI customer

Max Tani / Semafor:
Sources: WaPo's top standards editor decried “frustrating” errors in its new AI-generated personalized podcasts, announced this week for users of its mobile app

Axios:
Sources: during the bidding process, Paramount promised WBD that its foreign partners and Jared Kushner's fund wouldn't have any voting or governance rights

More News

Thomas Beaumont / Associated Press:
Senate Republicans share an AI-generated video falsely depicting Chuck Schumer saying on camera comments he made in a print interview on the government shutdown
Bloomberg:
Sources: Li Lin, founder of crypto exchange Huobi, and some of Asia's earliest Ethereum backers have raised ~$1B to launch a digital asset trust to buy Ether

Earlier Picks

Ari Levy / CNBC:
Marc Benioff apologizes for saying Trump should send the National Guard to SF, says the comments were made out of “an abundance of caution” around Dreamforce
Axios:
At TSMC Arizona, Nvidia and TSMC unveil the first Blackwell chip wafer made in the US, representing that Blackwell has reached volume production
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Apple and Formula One announce a five-year US media rights deal for all races, starting in 2026; sources: Apple is paying ~$140M/year, up from ESPN's ~$85M/year
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