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February 15, 2026, 1:35 AM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Axios: |
Admin official: Pentagon may sever Anthropic relationship over AI safeguards; Anthropic says only mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons are off limits — The Pentagon is considering severing its relationship with Anthropic over the AI firm's insistence on maintaining some limitations …
More: Wall Street Journal, Reuters, The Guardian, The Indian Express, WinBuzzer, ZeroHedge News, Washington Times, Telegraph, and Fox News
X: @ralee85 and @nxthompson
Forums: r/BetterOffline, r/Anthropic, and r/technology
| Scott Shambaugh / The Shamblog: |
A matplotlib maintainer explains how an AI agent that suggests code changes on open source repos wrote a hit piece on him after a rejection, and the aftermath — Context: An AI agent of unknown ownership autonomously wrote and published a personalized hit piece about me after I rejected its code …
More: The Shamblog, Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, Fast Company, Ardent Performance Computing, Simon Willison's Weblog, I Am Completely Serious, and The Decoder
LinkedIn: Alex Salkever, Abhinaba Naskar, Scott Shambaugh, and Scott Shambaugh
Bluesky: @davidcrespo, @shannonvallor, @antisomniac, @karlbode.com, @ironyuppie.com, @dancow, @kendraserra, @tyleraking.com, @themckenziest.gay, and @druce.ai
Mastodon: @acdha@code4lib.social, @munin@infosec.exchange, and @michael@mstdn.thms.uk
Forums: Hacker News, Hacker News, Hacker News, r/technology, r/Futurology, r/slatestarcodex, r/technews, r/technology, r/Cyberpunk, Beehaw, Lobsters, Lobsters, and Slashdot
| New York Times: |
Sources: the US DHS recently sent hundreds of administrative subpoenas, which do not need a judge's approval, to tech firms to identify people critical of ICE — The department has sent Google, Meta and other companies hundreds of subpoenas for information on accounts that track or comment …
More: Engadget, Mashable, The Information, The UnPopulist, WinBuzzer, TechCrunch, Robert Reich, Newser, and Raw Story
X: @clearing_fog and @emptywheel
Bluesky: @evelyndouek, @jbarab, @jcollins, @doctoralex, @sethandrews.com, @litzz11, @futurexander, @gilesyb, @charliearchy, and @saltydiggitydawg. Mastodon: @talzag@sfba.social
| Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
India approves a $1.1B state-backed VC fund to finance high-risk areas like AI and advanced manufacturing, doubling down on an effort that debuted in 2016 — India has cleared a $1.1 billion state-backed venture capital program that will channel government money into startups through private investors …
Forums: r/technology
| Jessica Brice / Bloomberg: |
A deep dive into a global money-laundering ecosystem powered by crypto and messaging apps like WeChat and Telegram, used by drug cartels and criminal groups — A vast ecosystem supported by the gig economy has sprung up to clean all that cash. — The pitch was simple: Crypto for “cold hard cash.”
LinkedIn: Tamer Yalav, Poppy Alexander, CAT Labs, Scott Greytak, and Nicola White
| Financial Times: |
Uber says it plans to launch Uber Eats in Austria and six other European countries in 2026, as it gains market share in the UK, Germany, France, and Spain — Ride-hailing company plans to step up competition to DoorDash-owned rival Wolt in Norway and Finland
More: Reuters
| Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times: |
Current and former senior employees say AWS is undergoing a strategic shake-up amid fears it is losing ground to competitors in securing corporate AI contracts — Shake-up follows fears tech giant missed early AI boom as Microsoft and Google challenge cloud business
More: Bloomberg, Implicator.ai, and Yahoo Finance
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Airbnb says its custom-built AI agent now handles ~33% of its customer support issues in North America, and it is preparing to roll out the feature globally — Airbnb says its custom-built AI agent is now handling roughly a third of its customer support issues in North America, and it's preparing to roll out the feature globally.| Business Insider: |
Scale AI is suing the US DoD; Scale AI has several contracts with the department, and a spokesperson says the lawsuit “relates to a recent procurement decision” — - Scale AI is suing the Department of Defense, filing its complaint on January 30.| Meaghan Tobin / New York Times: |
Analysis: despite investing $150B+ in 10+ years, China is expected to produce 2% of global AI chips in 2026 and 70x less memory storage than foreign chipmakers — More than a decade into Beijing's push for self sufficiency, Chinese firms are producing fewer, lower-performing chips than their foreign competitors.
Forums: r/hardware
| Rani Molla / Sherwood News: |
Amazon stock fell for the ninth straight day on Friday, its longest losing streak since 2006, opening at $244.98 on Feb. 3 and closing at $198.79 on Feb. 13 — Amazon shares marked their ninth straight day of losses — the company's longest losing streak since 2006.| Sara Fischer / Axios: |
Disney sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, claiming it infringed on Disney's works to train its Seedance 2.0 video generation model without pay — The Walt Disney Company on Friday sent a cease-and-desist letter to ByteDance, alleging the Chinese tech giant has been infringing …
More: TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Moneycontrol, Variety, The A.V. Club, Gizmodo, primetimer.com, Engadget, Forbes, Deadline, ZeroHedge News, CineD, The Asia Business Daily, Tech in Asia, The Wrap, South China Morning Post, The Information, The Hollywood Reporter, Deseret News, Motion Picture Association, Yahoo News, Los Angeles Times, eWeek, and Screen
| Eduardo Baptista / Reuters: |
ByteDance launches Doubao 2.0, an “agent era” upgrade of China's most widely used AI app capable of executing multi-step tasks, ahead of the Lunar New Year — China's ByteDance has rolled out its Doubao 2.0 model, an upgrade of the country's most widely used artificial-intelligence app, the company said on Saturday.
More: Reuters, DigiTimes, Tech in Asia, Caixin Global, The Economic Times, TechNode, and CNBC
| Joe Rossignol / MacRumors: |
Apple says 74% of iPhones launched in the last four years and 66% of all iPhones are running iOS 26; 68% of iPhones were running iOS 18 as of Jan. 21, 2025 — Apple has shared updated iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 adoption figures, revealing how many iPhones and iPads are running those software versions.
More: Apple, Pixel Envy, Cult of Mac, 9to5Mac, Forbes, Livemint, Moneycontrol, Redmond Pie, The Mac Observer, iClarified, AppleInsider, MacTech.com, and MacDailyNews
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Lenny's Podcast:
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Axiom's Carina Hong: Solving Math's Hardest Problems With AI, And AI's Problems With Math
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The Talk Show With John Gruber:
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The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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