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July 29, 2025, 7:10 PM
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Reece Rogers / Wired:
OpenAI debuts a ChatGPT study mode, designed to guide students through learning material at their level, available to logged-in Free, Plus, Pro, and Team users  —  OpenAI's new study mode for ChatGPT throws questions back at students, but the learning feature doesn't address generative AI's underlying disruption of education.
Katherine Sayre / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify reports Q2 revenue up 10% YoY to €4.2B, MAUs up 11% to 696M, subscribers up 12% to 276M, and an €86M net loss; SPOT closes down 11.6% after missed est.  —  The audio streaming service added more listeners than it had forecast, but reported a net loss for the second quarter
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube is rolling out age estimation tech in the US to identify teen users and serve more age-appropriate content, regardless of the birthday given at signup  —  YouTube on Tuesday announced it's beginning to roll out age-estimation technology in the U.S. to identify teen users in order to provide a more age-appropriate experience.
Lauren Thomas / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Palo Alto Networks is in talks to acquire Israeli cybersecurity company CyberArk Software as soon as this week; a premium would put the deal above $20B  —  Deal for Israeli firm would be latest in big tech's cybersecurity consolidation  —  Palo Alto Networks is in talks to acquire …
Financial Times:
Sources: Anthropic is nearing a deal to raise $5B in a funding round led by Iconiq at a $170B valuation, after being valued at $61.5B in a $3.5B round in March  —  Deal would almost triple valuation of OpenAI's rival to $170bn  —  Iconiq Capital is set to lead a $5bn funding round …
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:
An interview with Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and how his father's passing from an illness, four years before a breakthrough made it 95% curable, shaped his path
Kylie Robison / Wired:
Source: Meta approached over a dozen people at Thinking Machines Lab and one offer was for $1B+ over a multiyear span; not a single person has left for Meta  —  More than a dozen people at Mira Murati's 50-person startup, Thinking Machines Lab, have been approached or received offers from the tech giant.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple loses its fourth AI researcher in a month to Meta's superintelligence team; the AFM team is in flux and Apple marginally increased AFM staff pay
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
PayPal reports Q2 net revenue up 5% YoY to $8.29B, vs. $8.08B est., but sees slowing transaction margin dollars growth, up 7% to $3.84B; PYPL closes down 8.66%  —  PayPal reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter but saw slowing growth in transaction margin dollars, a key measure of profitability.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out new AI Mode features: Search Live with video input, Canvas for planning, image and PDF uploading, and AI Mode in Google Lens in desktop Chrome  —  After adding Gemini 2.5 Pro, Google is updating AI Mode with four big features across Search Live (video with Google Lens access), Canvas, and more.
André Beganski / Decrypt:
The US SEC approves in-kind creations and redemptions for crypto ETFs, allowing institutional investors to exchange ETF shares for the underlying BTC or ETH  —  The SEC has approved in-kind redemptions for crypto ETFs, enabling a feature sought by Bitcoin and Ethereum fund issuers.
AnnaMaria Andriotis / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: JPMorgan Chase is in advanced talks to take over Apple's credit-card program from Goldman Sachs, with Apple telling JPMorgan it is its preferred choice  —  Discussions between the country's biggest bank and Apple accelerated in recent months  —  JPMorgan Chase is in advanced talks …
Stephen Council / SFGATE:
Wag, the pet care tech company reportedly valued at ~$650M after a $300M investment from SoftBank Vision Fund in January 2018, filed for bankruptcy on July 21  —  The pet care company Wag, as of Monday, was valued at less than $6 million  —  During the 2010s' boom in on-demand services …
Bluesky: @carnage4life.  Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to.  X: @armchairatty.  Forums: r/technology, r/bayarea, and Slashdot
Ernesto Londoño / New York Times:
Gov. Tim Walz activates the Minnesota National Guard to help St. Paul address a cyberattack detected Friday that led the city to shut down many of its systems  —  Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota activated the National Guard to help the city of St. Paul address a cyberattack that was detected last Friday.
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Tea, which claims to make dating safer for women, is the #2 app in the US App Store, despite multiple security flaws exposing private chats, photo IDs, and more  —  Two major security vulnerabilities in the Tea app - which claims to make dating safer for women - have exposed the private chats …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft is in advanced talks to land a deal that could give it ongoing access to critical OpenAI tech even if OpenAI reaches its goal of building AGI  —  Microsoft Corp. is in advanced talks to land a deal that could give it ongoing access to critical OpenAI technology …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe rolls out beta Photoshop generative AI features that let users more easily add or remove people and objects in photos, including “Harmonize” compositing  —  Generative AI is rapidly eroding the photo editing skill barrier. … Adobe is launching some new generative AI features …
Dave Michaels / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the US DOJ fired two of its most senior antitrust enforcers after disagreements related to defusing its lawsuit against HPE over its $14B Juniper deal  —  Dismissals come after disagreements over settling case against HPE, which hired allies of President Trump
Associated Press:
A survey of US adults: only 37% report using AI for work tasks and 60% say they use AI to find info at least some of the time, rising to 74% for those under 30  —  Most U.S. adults say they use artificial intelligence to search for information, but fewer are using it for work, drafting email or shopping.
More: Implicator.ai.  Bluesky: @karlbode.com and @childlesscatperson.  Mastodon: @koen_hufkens@mastodon.social.  Forums: Slashdot

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:10 PM ET, July 29, 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

Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Money manager Mario Gabelli said it's “highly likely” he will tender his clients' WBD shares to Paramount in an effort to spark a bidding war for WBD

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney nominates former Apple COO Jeff Williams to its board; he retired from Apple in November after overseeing the design team, supply chain work, and more

Katie Robertson / New York Times:
Email: USA Today EIC Caren Bohan has abruptly left the company, the second editor in chief to do so in less than two years; she became EIC in September 2024

More News

RT Watson / The Block:
eToro says it's launching tokenized US equities, ETF, and futures trading via ERC-20 tokens, citing regulatory clarity from the US' Genius Act and the EU's MiCA
Anthony Hughes / Bloomberg:
Sources: Figma's IPO, which could raise as much as $1.2B after Figma raised its range to $30 to $32 per share on July 28, is approaching 40 times oversubscribed
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Block-owned Cash App unveils Pools, a new peer-to-peer feature for group payments, and says users can accept contributions via Apple Pay or Google Pay, a first
Brunella Tipismana Urbano / Bloomberg:
Ambience Healthcare, which uses AI to automate administrative tasks for medical professionals, raised $243M led by a16z and Oak HC/FT at a $1B+ valuation
Jason Koebler / 404 Media:
Internal memo: Meta is piloting letting job candidates use AI assistants during coding interviews and asks employees for “mock AI-enabled interview” volunteers

Earlier Picks

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple says it will open the Apple Manufacturing Academy in Detroit in August, run by Michigan State University, as Trump ramps up pressure to invest in the US
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
Waymo plans to launch its robotaxi service in Dallas in 2026 with Avis as the fleet partner, a first after exclusively working with Uber in Austin and Atlanta
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
Sony sues Tencent for copyright and trademark infringement in California federal court, accusing the Chinese tech giant of ripping off its Horizon game series
Financial Times:
Athens-based defense tech startup Delian Alliance Industries, which makes its own hardware, software, and sensor fusion systems, raised a $14M Series A
Reuters:
Sources: Nvidia ordered 300K H20 chips from TSMC last week, adding to its 600K to 700K inventory, amid strong China demand after the US cleared H20 chip sales
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