Techmeme
December 12, 2025, 12:25 PM

Top News

Reuters:
President Trump signs an executive order aimed at preempting a growing number of state AI laws, saying “we want to have one central source of approval”  —  U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order on artificial intelligence that will attempt to preempt …
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
In his EO, Trump orders US AG Pam Bondi to create an “AI Litigation Task Force” that meets regularly with David Sacks to challenge “inconsistent” state AI laws  —  The administration will also attempt to prevent states with “onerous” AI laws from accessing broadband funding.
Reuters:
Reddit files a lawsuit against Australia to overturn its social media ban for under-16s, saying it “infringes the implied freedom of political communication”  —  Message board website Reddit (RDDT.N) on Friday filed a lawsuit asking the High Court to overturn Australia's social media ban …
Lucas Ropek / TechCrunch:
Sam Altman's Tools for Humanity updates World to make it a “super app” with encrypted chat integration and a Venmo-like tool for sending and requesting crypto  —  World, the biometric ID verification project co-founded by Sam Altman, released the newest version of its app today …
Alex Heath / Sources:
An interview with Nikita Bier, who wants to lure journalists back to X with a rebuilt recommendation algorithm with no keyword suppression or manual downranking  —  Product chief Nikita Bier on journalists who left: “We have to earn their trust.”  Also: Fidji Simo on OpenAI's Code Red, and a new episode of ACCESS.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Tim Sweeney: the Ninth Circuit's decision on the Epic v. Apple contempt ruling appeal “completely shuts down” App Store rules letting Apple collect “junk fees”  —  In an interview, Epic Games' CEO says that an appeals court ruling in its case against Apple is ‘really awesome for all developers.’
Bloomberg:
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
YouTube launches an option for US-based creators to receive payouts in PayPal's stablecoin, PYUSD  —  Big Tech continues to tiptoe into crypto.  The latest example is a move by YouTube to let creators on the video platform choose to receive payouts in PayPal's stablecoin.
Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk:
A US judge sentences Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon to 15 years in prison; Kwon pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud charges in August  —  The Terraform Labs co-founder pleaded guilty to conspiracy and wire fraud in August.  —  NEW YORK — Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon …
Kirsty Needham / Reuters:
Papua New Guinea says Google will build three subsea cables for the country, a $120M effort funded by Australia, amid China boosting its influence in the region  —  Papua New Guinea said on Friday that Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google will build three subsea cables, funded by Australia under …
More: Tech in Asia
Axios:
The OpenAI deal gives Disney a fair amount of oversight and control over how its IP is used, including a joint steering committee to monitor user creations  —  Walt Disney has reached an agreement with OpenAI that will make the company the first major content licensing partner on Sora, OpenAI's social video platform.
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Issie Lapowsky / Transformer:
Sources: New York's governor proposes rewriting the RAISE Act, the AI bill that passed NY legislature in June, with text copied verbatim from California's SB 53  —  New York Governor Kathy Hochul is proposing a dramatic rewrite of the RAISE Act, the AI transparency and safety bill …

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More News

Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Zachary Small / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

OpenAI:
Time:
The Verge:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: