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Techmeme
August 21, 2025, 11:15 AM
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Top News

Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:
Meta froze hiring in its AI division last week with sources saying exceptions need Chief AI Officer Alexandr Wang's permission; the freeze's duration is unclear  —  Company reorganizes its sprawling artificial-intelligence operation, whose spiraling cost has drawn investor scrutiny
Bloomberg:
DeepSeek details V3.1 and says it surpasses R1 on key benchmarks and is customized to work with next-gen Chinese-made AI chips, after unveiling it on August 19  —  DeepSeek unveiled an update to an older model that it says surpasses the seminal R1 on key benchmarks, keeping the Chinese startup …
Matt Burgess / Wired:
CBP data: between April and June 2025, CBP searched 14,899 devices carried by international travelers, up from a record 12,766+ between January and March 2022  —  Customs and Border Protection agents searched nearly 15,000 devices from April through June of this year, a nearly 17 percent spike …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google expands AI Mode to 180 countries and territories in English, following the US, the UK, and India, and plans to add more languages and regions “soon”  —  After launching in three countries, Google is now bringing AI Mode to many more countries around the world …
Mustafa Suleyman:
Mustafa Suleyman says “Seemingly Conscious AI” is coming but is something to avoid, and that developers must build AI for people, not to be a digital person  —  Seemingly Conscious AI is Coming  —  I write, to think.  More than anything this essay is an attempt to think through …
TechCrunch:
Halo, a startup founded by two former Harvard students who built a facial recognition app for Ray-Ban Meta glasses, introduces “always-on” AI glasses for $249  —  Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai Rebecca Bellan  —  Two former Harvard students are launching a pair of “always-on” …
Financial Times:
Sources: China's H20 curbs were triggered by US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick's not selling China the “best stuff” remark, which officials found “insulting”  —  Comments by US commerce secretary trigger Chinese regulatory effort to stop tech groups buying H20 processors
Trishla Ostwal / Adweek:
In a UK tribunal filing, former Meta employee Samujjal Purkayastha alleges Meta misled advertisers by inflating its Shops ads metrics and bypassed Apple's ATT  —  After Apple rolled out its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature in 2021, Meta executives scrambled for what they called …
John Collison / Cheeky Pint:
Q&A with Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong on starting the company, battling North Korean hackers, stablecoin adoption, the GENIUS Act, pro-crypto Congress, and more  —  Brian Armstrong joins John Collison to talk about what's happening behind the scenes at Coinbase: battling North Korean hackers …
Christopher Yasiejko / Bloomberg Law:
Masimo sues the US CBP, saying it exceeded its authority in an August 1 internal advice ruling that let Apple reactivate a Watch blood oxygen tracking feature  —  US Customs and Border Protection unlawfully let Apple Inc. reactivate a blood-oxygen tracking feature on Apple Watches …
Jesse Hamilton / CoinDesk:
TRM Labs launches Beacon Network, a real-time alert system for illicit crypto activity, partnering with law enforcement and exchanges like Binance and Coinbase  —  An industry-wide project led by TRM Labs is officially going live, and includes law enforcement and the major exchanges such as Coinbase and Binance.
Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
India's lower house of parliament passes a sweeping online gaming bill that imposes a blanket ban on real-money games nationwide, threatening a ~$23B industry  —  India's lower house of parliament on Wednesday passed a sweeping online gaming bill that, while promoting esports …
Matt Swider / The Shortcut:
Google unveils the $349+ Pixel Watch 4 in 41mm and 45mm sizes, with a curved display, a Snapdragon W5 Gen 2, and SOS satellite service, shipping from October 9  —  ✅ Pros  — ⌚ New Acuta 360 display offers a curved screen, not just domed glass
Andrew Liszewski / The Verge:
Google launches its first magnetic wireless charging accessories, under the Pixelsnap brand; the Pixel 10 phones are compatible with Qi2 and MagSafe accessories
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google's new AI features for Pixel include Magic Cue for contextual suggestions across apps, Voice Translate for calls, and Visual Overlays for the camera  —  With the launch of the new Pixel 10 series, Google is rushing ahead of Apple to deliver AI-powered smartphones to consumers.
Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:
An interview with GM SVP of Software and Services Engineering David Richardson on GM's new AI team, building factory “cobots”, or collaborative robots, and more  —  So far the team includes hires from Google, Meta, AWS and even a Pixar vet who is helping GM develop new factory ‘cobots’
More: CBT News and Axios
Jeanny Yu / Bloomberg:
Analysis: Baidu's stock is trading at a forward P/E ratio of ~9.7, the lowest of any profitable Hang Seng Tech Index company, amid AI competitiveness concerns  —  Sharp stock underperformance for Baidu Inc. on concerns over its outlook have left it trading at the cheapest valuation among China's major internet firms.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:15 AM ET, August 21, 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

Bloomberg:
Sources: WBD begins exclusive talks with Netflix to sell its film and TV studios and HBO Max; Netflix is offering a $5B breakup fee if the deal isn't approved

The Guardian:
Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands exit Eurovision after Israel received an all-clear to compete; the BBC and Germany's SWR plan to participate

James Faris / Business Insider:
Kalshi strikes a deal with CNBC that will integrate Kalshi's prediction data into CNBC's channel, site, and app starting in 2026, days after striking a CNN deal

More News

Ali McCadden / CNBC:
Microsoft and the NFL extend their partnership to bring real-time game data and analysis to coaches and players using Copilot on Surface tablets and Azure AI
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Photos will let users edit images via text or voice prompts, available first on Pixel 10 devices in the US, and will get C2PA Content Credentials support
Michael L Hicks / Android Central:
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon W5+ Gen 2 and W5 Gen 2 for wearables, featuring satellite messaging support, improved GPS accuracy, better efficiency, and more
Peter Hall / MIT Technology Review:
NASA and IBM release Surya, an open-source machine learning model trained on over a decade's worth of NASA solar data to predict solar flares and solar winds

Earlier Picks

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Google announces Gemini for Home, a Google Home voice assistant with Gemini Live, available in early access in October and eventually replacing Google Assistant
Made by Google on YouTube:
A recording of the Made by Google 2025 event hosted by Jimmy Fallon
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google unveils a new Gemini-powered personal health coach for Fitbit, rolling out as a preview in October for Fitbit Premium users in the redesigned Fitbit app
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Google unveils the $999+ Pixel 10 Pro and $1,199+ 10 Pro XL, with 6.3" and 6.8" OLED displays, Tensor G5 chips, and Zoned UFS storage, available from August 28
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Sony raises PlayStation 5's prices by $50 in the US due to the “challenging economic environment”: PS5 is $550, PS5 Digital Edition is $500, and PS5 Pro is $750
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft and Asus plan to launch the Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handhelds on October 16; leaks suggest the Ally and Ally X will cost €599 and €899, respectively
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