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August 13, 2025, 9:40 PM
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Top News

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
New York sues Zelle, claiming that security lapses led to $1B in consumer fraud losses; the US CFPB dropped a similar case in March  —  Zelle was sued on Wednesday by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who said the electronic payment platform's refusal to adopt critical safety features …
Alexandra Alper / Reuters:
Sources: the US Navy and Air Force may cancel two nearly complete HR software projects to give firms like Salesforce and Palantir a chance to win similar work  —  Donald Trump's Navy and Air Force are poised to cancel two nearly complete software projects that took 12 years …
Business Insider:
Sources: Perplexity is seeking new funding at a $20B post-money valuation, up from a reported $18B in its latest fundraising round in July  —  - Perplexity is raising fresh funding at a $20 billion valuation, sources told Business Insider.  — The AI search startup recently made headlines for its surprise bid for Google Chrome.
The Information:
Sources: Perplexity talked with The Browser Co. and Brave about buying them, offering ~$1B for Brave; OpenAI also discussed an acquisition with The Browser Co.
Katherine Blunt / Wall Street Journal:
Perplexity offers to acquire Chrome for $34.5B, significantly more than Perplexity's estimated $18B valuation, and says large VC funds agreed to back the deal
M.G. Siegler / Spyglass:
Perplexity's unsolicited $34.5B bid for Chrome with claimed VC backing is clearly a marketing stunt and maybe a signal to the judge in Google's antitrust case
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple AI plans include robots, such as a tabletop one in 2027, a conversational Siri, a smart speaker with a display in 2026, and home security cameras  —  Apple Inc. is plotting its artificial intelligence comeback with an ambitious slate of new devices, including robots …
Bloomberg:
Bullish shares closed up 84% at $68 in the company's NYSE debut, above the IPO price of $37, giving Bullish a market value of $9.9B based on outstanding shares  —  Bullish shares jumped 84% from the IPO price after the digital-asset exchange operator and owner of media outlet CoinDesk raised $1.1 billion in an initial public offering.
Bloomberg:
Bullish raised $1.1B in its IPO, selling 30M shares for $37 each, above its $32-to-$33 marketed range; sources say the IPO was more than 20 times oversubscribed
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google is rolling out a feature for Gemini that, when enabled, will let the AI chatbot “remember” a user's past conversations without prompting  —  You'll no longer have to prompt Gemini in order for it to recall what you've discussed in previous chats.
Reuters:
Sources: the US secretly embedded location trackers in select AI chip shipments, such as in Dell and Super Micro servers, to detect illegal diversions to China  —  U.S. authorities have secretly placed location tracking devices in targeted shipments of advanced chips they see as being at high risk …
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Core Devices CEO Eric Migicovsky unveils the Pebble Time 2 in four colors, with a 1.5" e-paper display, multicolor RGB backlighting, and a 30-day battery life  —  The Time 2 sports a sleeker profile and RGB backlighting. … Now that Pebble is Pebble again, we're getting an official look …
Dasha Litvinova / Associated Press:
Russia is “partially” restricting WhatsApp and Telegram calls, saying the apps are used “to deceive and extort money” and “in sabotage and terrorist activities”  —  Russian authorities announced Wednesday they were “partially” restricting calls …
Bloomberg:
Amazon says it now offers same-day grocery delivery in 1,000+ cities and plans to bring it to 2,300+ more by the end of 2025; Prime subscribers get it free  —  Amazon.com Inc. plans to offer same-day grocery delivery in 2,300 cities by the end of the year, more than doubling the current number …
Ted Mann / Bloomberg:
TTP analysis: Google used an internal reorganization to reduce the amount it reported on US lobbying spending, likely by millions; Google disputes the claims  —  It was the end of 2018, and Google's leaders were tired of being Number One.  —  For the second year in a row …
Juby Babu / Reuters:
Cisco reports Q4 revenue up 8% YoY to $14.67B, vs. $14.62B est., net income up 31% to $2.8B, and forecasts Q1 revenue above estimates  —  Cisco Systems (CSCO.O) forecast first-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, as the artificial intelligence boom boosted demand for its networking equipment from cloud customers.
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
xAI co-founder Igor Babuschkin, who led its engineering teams, says he is leaving the company to launch a venture firm that supports AI research and startups  —  Igor Babuschkin, a co-founder of Elon Musk's xAI startup, announced his departure from the company on Wednesday in a post …
More: The Information, Reuters, and CNBC
Bluesky: @kolchak and @caseynewton
X: @ibab and @teortaxestex
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
OpenAI adds GPT-5 Auto, Fast, and Thinking settings to ChatGPT's model picker; Auto seems to work like GPT-5's model router that OpenAI initially announced  —  When OpenAI launched GPT-5 last week, the company said the model would simplify the ChatGPT experience.
SemiAnalysis:
GPT-5's router directs queries based on complexity and intent, helping OpenAI allocate compute across low-value informational and high-value commercial requests

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:40 PM ET, August 13, 2025.

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From Mediagazer

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: David Ellison has asked CNN CEO Mark Thompson to stay on after the WBD acquisition closes; Thompson's current deal extends into 2027

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
A US judge dismisses Penske Media's lawsuit against Google over traffic and revenue loss due to AI Overviews since Google never promised any traffic to Penske

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Disney plans a TV restructuring that is expected to result in more layoffs and consolidation of divisions as it pivots from linear TV toward streaming

More News

Reuters:
Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 15% YoY to ~$25.7B, vs. ~$24.8B est., domestic gaming revenue up 17% YoY to ~$5.6B, and global gaming revenue up 35% YoY to ~$2.6B

Earlier Picks

Derek Thompson:
Studies suggest AI chatbots' sycophantic responses may increase narcissism among young and vulnerable users, potentially changing personality traits at scale
John Sakellariadis / Politico:
A senior US official says the recent hack of the US federal court filing system is a “continuation of the same rudimentary security issues” present since 2020
Mark Gurman / @markgurman:
In response to Elon Musk's claims that the App Store favors ChatGPT, Apple says that it “is designed to be fair and free of bias” and has “objective criteria”
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