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February 7, 2025, 10:55 AM
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Top News

Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Sources: in a secret January order, UK security officials demanded that Apple create a backdoor to access all cloud content any Apple user globally has uploaded  —  Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content …
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
WBD took $300M in gaming writedowns in 2024; current and former staff blame a lack of a strong, cohesive vision during former games chief David Haddad's tenure  —  Last year, Warner Bros. Discovery took $300 million in losses on gaming.  The near future is rife with additional challenges.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon expects to boost its capex to $100B in 2025, largely driven by AI and up from 2024's ~$83B, in what Andy Jassy calls a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity
Amazon.com, Inc.:
Amazon reports Q4 revenue up 10% YoY to $187.8B, vs. $187.3B est., net income up 89% YoY to $20B, and operating income up 61% YoY to $21.2B
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to unveil its long-awaited overhaul of the iPhone SE as early as next week, opting to reveal it on its website instead of at a launch event  —  - Revamped SE model is set to be unveiled in the coming days  — Apple plans flurry of 2025 products, including smart home hub
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft warns that attackers are using static ASP.NET machine keys found online to inject malware into ViewState, which controls web form state during reloads  —  Microsoft warns that attackers are deploying malware in ViewState code injection attacks using static ASP.  NET machine keys found online.
Wired:
Sources: DOGE is pushing to develop GSAi, a custom generative AI chatbot for the US GSA to boost productivity, analyze contract and procurement data, and more  —  The chatbot is part of Elon Musk and President Donald Trump's ambitions to use AI and other technologies to cut costs and modernize the US government.
Ashley Belanger / Ars Technica:
Kadrey v. Meta: unsealed emails show Meta allegedly torrented 81.7TB+ of data across multiple shadow libraries through the site Anna's Archive, for AI training  —  Newly unsealed emails allegedly provide the “most damning evidence” yet against Meta in a copyright case raised by book authors alleging …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google has edited Gemini's response in a Super Bowl commercial after it was found to contain false information about Gouda cheese  —  Gemini's response no longer says that Gouda makes up '50 to 60 percent of the world's cheese consumption.'  —  Gemini's response no longer says that Gouda makes …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI updates o3-mini's chain of thought to help free and paid ChatGPT users “understand how the model thinks”, in response to DeepSeek and other competitors  —  In response to pressure from rivals including Chinese AI company DeepSeek, OpenAI is changing the way its newest AI model …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Meta and UNESCO launch the Language Technology Partner Program to collect speech recordings and transcriptions to aid the development of openly available AI  —  Meta is launching a new program in partnership with UNESCO to collect speech recordings and transcriptions the company said will help …
More: Engadget, Meta, and UNESCO
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Mistral partners with Cerebras to help its Le Chat app respond to user questions at 1,000 words per second, making Le Chat the world's fastest AI assistant  —  Cerebras Systems, an artificial intelligence chip firm backed by UAE tech conglomerate G42, said on Thursday it has partnered …
Marina Temkin / TechCrunch:
In a meeting with GOP lawmakers, Donald Trump proposed taxing carried interest as ordinary income, a policy that could sharply increase the tax bill for VCs  —  On Thursday, President Trump asked Republican lawmakers to end tax breaks on carried interest.  —  The tax break allows private equity …
Dominique Vidalon / Reuters:
Paris prosecutors open a probe into X over alleged algorithmic distortions, after an MP's complaint that X was using biased algorithms  —  Paris prosecutors have opened a probe into Elon Musk's X social media over alleged algorithmic distortions, Franceinfo reports on Friday, citing the prosecutors' office.
Bluesky: @teresala
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Sources: SoftBank is set to invest $40B in OpenAI at a $260B pre-money valuation; OpenAI was last valued at $157B by private investors in October 2024  —  - CNBC Councils  — CNBC on Peacock  — Join the CNBC Panel  — Supply Chain Values  — Select Shopping  — Ad Choices

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:55 AM ET, February 7, 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

Hadas Gold / CNN:
Anthropic is running Super Bowl ads criticizing ads in chatbots, prompting a public response from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman defending plans for ads in ChatGPT

Financial Times:
Sources: WaPo is losing about $100M per year but aiming to break even by the end of 2026, which could unlock fresh funding from Jeff Bezos

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Filing: Amazon's spending on content, including music, sports rights, and licensed and produced TV and film, rose 10% YoY to $22.4B

More News

Katherine Long / Wall Street Journal:
DOGE staff member Marko Elez resigns after being linked to racist X posts; the 25-year-old was embedded in the US Treasury and previously worked at SpaceX and X

Earlier Picks

Julaiza Alvarez / Bloomberg:
Pinterest reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to $1.15B, vs. $1.14B est., MAUs up 11% YoY to 553M, and forecasts Q1 revenue will top est.; PINS jumps 15%+
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Email: Google is testing a Search “AI Mode” powered by Gemini 2.0 that lets users ask “open-ended / exploratory questions” and get AI Overview-style responses
Natalie Andrews / Wall Street Journal:
US lawmakers introduce a bipartisan bill that would ban DeepSeek's app from government-owned devices, amid concerns that China would be able to access user data
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
GitHub announces updates for Copilot, including Vision for Copilot being able to generate interfaces, code, and alt text from a screenshot, photo, or a diagram
Emma Roth / The Verge:
OpenAI opens ChatGPT search to users who are not logged in, after launching it to paying subscribers in October 2024 and logged-in users in December 2024
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