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Techmeme
February 20, 2026, 3:45 PM
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Top News

Rafe Rosner-Uddin / Financial Times:
Sources: Amazon's AI tools have caused at least two AWS outages, including a 13-hour disruption in December; Amazon says it was “user error, not AI error”  —  Tech giant blames ‘user error, not AI error’ for incident in December involving its Kiro tool
The Information:
Sources: OpenAI has 200+ people working on a family of AI devices, including a smart speaker priced from $200 to $300, possibly smart glasses and a smart lamp  —  OpenAI has more than 200 people working on a family of AI-powered devices that will include a smart speaker and possibly smart glasses …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Phil Spencer will retire after 38 years at Microsoft; Asha Sharma, the president of product in Microsoft's Core AI business, will become the CEO of gaming  —  Microsoft's head of gaming, Phil Spencer, is leaving the software maker following a 38-year tenure, as the company faces increased challenges in its Xbox business.
Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:
Anthropic launches Claude Code Security, which “scans codebases for security vulnerabilities and suggests targeted software patches”; cybersecurity stocks fall  —  Shares of cybersecurity software companies tumbled Friday after Anthropic PBC introduced a new security feature into its Claude AI model.
Adam Levine / Barron's Online:
Tech stocks rise slightly from their morning lows after the Supreme Court ruled that President Trump lacked the authority to impose sweeping global tariffs  —  Shares of tech goods makers rose off their morning lows on news of the high court's ruling.  Tech goods have been some of the least …
Chris Lattner / Modular Blog:
Claude's C Compiler shows AI elevates the role of human judgment and vision; it's a milestone, but closely mirrors LLVM/GCC, and hard codes things to pass tests  —  Compilers occupy a special place in computer science.  They're a canonical course in computer science education.  Building one is a rite of passage.
Fred Lambert / Electrek:
A US judge rejects Tesla's bid to overturn a $243M jury verdict over a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash, a blow for Tesla as it faces a growing wave of lawsuits  —  A federal judge has rejected Tesla's bid to overturn a $243 million jury verdict over a fatal 2019 Autopilot crash in Florida …
Lauren Goode / Wired:
Code Metal, which uses AI to let engineers translate legacy code into modern languages, raised a $125M Series B led by Salesforce Ventures at a $1.25B valuation  —  The Boston startup uses AI to translate and verify legacy software for defense contractors, arguing modernization can't come at the cost of new bugs.
Robert Burnson / Bloomberg:
A US grand jury indicted two former Google engineers and one of their husbands for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to the Tensor chip for Pixel phones  —  Two former Google engineers and one of their husbands were indicted for allegedly stealing trade secrets relating to the company's Tensor processor for Pixel phones.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google rejected 1.75M policy-violating Android apps and blocked 80K+ developer accounts from Google Play in 2025, down from 2.36M apps and 158K accounts in 2024  —  Fewer bad actors are targeting Google Play with malicious apps, the company says, a shift that the tech giant credits …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:45 PM ET, February 20, 2026.

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

Todd Spangler / Variety:
On a staff call, Bari Weiss defends firing Scott Pelley, saying the foundation of “trust and mutual respect” was broken after Pelley's outburst on Monday

Bloomberg:
Bill Ackman's Pershing Square plans to sell its stake in Universal Music Group, days after the Amsterdam-listed group rejected his takeover bid

Washington Post:
Two Stars and Stripes advisory board members sue the US Defense Department, saying new restrictions on the paper violate the First Amendment and federal law

More News

Dan Gallagher / Wall Street Journal:
Uber's market cap fell to ~$150B, down ~25% in six months, as investors weigh robotaxi disruption and see the market as a two-horse race between Waymo and Tesla
Evan Halper / Washington Post:
Tech companies are increasingly building private power plants to fuel off-grid data centers, a move some warn has reliability challenges and hurts climate goals

Earlier Picks

Financial Times:
Sources: Nvidia is close to finalizing an up to $30B investment into OpenAI, replacing 2025's long-term $100B commitment; the deal could be closed this weekend
Jonathan Lloyd / NBC Los Angeles:
Los Angeles County sues Roblox, alleging it engaged in deceptive business practices that exposed children to sexual content, exploitation, and online predators
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
Sony shuts down Bluepoint Games, the PlayStation subsidiary behind remakes of older games like Demon's Souls and Uncharted; ~70 employees will lose their jobs
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out Gemini 3.1 Pro, which it says is “a step forward in core reasoning”, for all users in the Gemini app; the .1 increment is a first for Google
Kalley Huang / New York Times:
West Virginia's AG sues Apple for allegedly violating consumer protection law by not implementing tools like PhotoDNA to detect CSAM stored and shared on iCloud
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