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Techmeme
October 23, 2025, 3:35 PM
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Wall Street Journal:
President Trump pardons convicted Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, following months of efforts by Zhao to boost the Trump family's World Liberty Financial  —  Pardon follows months of efforts by Changpeng Zhao to boost Trump crypto company  —  President Trump has pardoned Changpeng Zhao …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils Mico, a character that responds with real-time expressions when talked to, now on by default in Copilot's voice mode in the US, UK, and Canada  —  Copilot now has its own virtual character for its voice mode. … It's been nearly 30 years since Microsoft's Office assistant …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft updates Copilot to add Copilot Groups, enabling up to 32 people to collaborate in a session, and a “real talk” mode to add more personality to Copilot
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:
OpenAI acquires Software Applications Incorporated, which is building an AI-powered user interface for macOS and raised $6.5M from Sam Altman and others  —  OpenAI has acquired Software Applications Inc., a startup building an AI-powered user interface for Mac desktops …
Bloomberg:
Sources and docs: the US DOJ charged an ex-director of zero-day vendor L3Harris' Trenchant with stealing secrets from two companies to sell to a Russian buyer  —  A director at a company that sells computer vulnerabilities has been charged with stealing secrets to sell to an unspecified buyer in Russia …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft asked its Xbox unit to hit 30% profit margins, well above the industry average, prompting product cancellations, price hikes, and job cuts  —  Management's goal of 30% profit margins for gaming has led to job losses, canceled projects  —  Microsoft Corp. is asking …
Ian Carlos Campbell / Engadget:
Amazon relaunches its game streaming service Luna, available at no additional cost for Prime subscribers, and adds new beginner-friendly multiplayer games  —  The big addition is a collection of multiplayer games that can be controlled with a smartphone.  —  After detailing its plans …
Dane Stuckey / @cryps1s:
OpenAI CISO Dane Stuckey outlines prompt injection mitigations in ChatGPT Atlas, including a “logged out mode” that blocks agent access to user credentials  —  Yesterday we launched ChatGPT Atlas, our new web browser. In Atlas, ChatGPT agent can get things done for you. We're excited to see how this feature makes work and day-to-day life more efficient and effective for people. ChatGPT agent is powerful and helpful, and designed to be
Katie Roof / The Information:
Sources: Adobe held talks to acquire Synthesia, which makes AI tools that generate video avatars of people, for ~$3B; the startup was valued at $2.1B in January  —  Adobe in recent months held talks with Synthesia, a London-based maker of artificial intelligence software that generates video avatars …
More: The Times
Sam Tobin / Reuters:
The UK's Competition Appeal Tribunal rules against Apple in a lawsuit accusing it of abusing its dominant position by charging a 30% App Store commission  —  Apple (AAPL.O) on Thursday lost a London lawsuit accusing the U.S. tech company of abusing its dominant position by charging app developers …
Wall Street Journal:
Top AI researchers and executives in Silicon Valley are working 80 to 100 hours per week, driven by competition, as AI's progress compresses product timelines  —  With expertise in the field scarce, workers in Silicon Valley are pushing themselves to extremes day after day
James Reddick / The Record:
Starlink VP Lauren Dreyer says the company “proactively identified and disabled over 2,500 Starlink Kits in the vicinity of suspected ‘scam centers’” in Myanmar  —  SpaceX says it has disabled more than 2,000 Starlink devices connected to scam compounds in Myanmar …
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Email: Indian crypto exchange WazirX plans to resume operations on October 24, following a court-approved restructuring, after hackers stole $230M in July 2024  —  That was the final step in a process that began after a massive security breach last year froze assets, shuttered withdrawals …
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Chainguard, which helps companies secure software supply chains, raised $280M, six months after a $356M Series D, bringing its total funding to $892M  —  GeekWire chronicles the Pacific Northwest startup scene.  Sign up for our weekly startup newsletter, and check out the GeekWire funding tracker and VC directory.
More: Chainguard
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Lawyers for a teen who died by suicide after allegedly discussing methods with ChatGPT call OpenAI's request for all memorial documents “intentional harassment”  —  Family of teen who took his own life after ChatGPT use alleges chatbot maker intentionally weakened protections
Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: IonQ, Rigetti, D-Wave, and other quantum computing companies are in talks to give the US Commerce Department equity in exchange for $10M+ funding each  —  Discussions signal Washington's wider involvement in key parts of the economy  —  WASHINGTON—Several quantum-computing companies …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Eight Sleep adds an outage mode to its smart beds after complaints they were stuck at sweltering temperatures and in inclined positions during the AWS outage  —  Thousands of Eight Sleep owners were unable to adjust temperatures or bed positions while while Amazon's servers were down.
Financial Times:
Airbus, Leonardo, and Thales agree to a deal to combine their space and satellite businesses, seeking to build a European SpaceX competitor  —  European defence groups promise ‘significant synergies’ to respond to rapid expansion of Starlink network  —  Airbus, Leonardo and Thales have struck …
Rocket Drew / The Information:
Source: SoftBank held talks about acquiring Agility Robotics for $900M+ before participating in Agility's funding round valuing the startup at $1.75B pre-money  —  SoftBank's Masayoshi Son has long predicted a future where robots would outnumber people and take over many jobs from humans.
Juro Osawa / The Information:
Internal memo: TikTok plans leadership changes, moving two teams under ByteDance veteran Fiona Zhi and undoing earlier efforts to empower Western executives  —  TikTok is implementing drastic leadership changes that pull the video app closer to the orbit of its parent ByteDance …
Sabrina Ortiz / ZDNET:
Anthropic says Claude's memory feature, initially available for Team and Enterprise users, is rolling out to Pro and Max subscribers  —  ZDNET's key takeaways  — Anthropic Pro and Max subscribers have access to Memory.  — The feature creates a more intuitive experience with AI that knows you.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:35 PM ET, October 23, 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

New York Times:
WaPo begins widespread layoffs, cutting into international coverage and more; sources: it is laying off 30% of its employees, including 300+ of 800 journalists

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Ex-WaPo Executive Editor Marty Baron says “this ranks among the darkest days in the history of” the paper; WaPo laid off Amazon beat reporter Caroline O'Donovan

Allie Canal / NBC News:
Trump says he will stay out of the Netflix-Paramount battle over WBD, a reversal from his December statement that he would be involved in the approval process

More News

Earlier Picks

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Elon Musk says Tesla's AI5 chip will be made by Samsung in Texas and TSMC in Arizona, with the “oversupply” of chips not used by Tesla going to his data centers
Kate Clark / Bloomberg:
Sources: Polymarket is in early talks with investors to raise funds at a $12B to $15B valuation, up from ~$8B pre-investment in a raise earlier in October
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon is testing AR glasses for delivery drivers, using AI and computer vision to help them scan packages, follow walking directions, and get proof of delivery
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