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December 12, 2025, 3:45 PM
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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 …
Bloomberg:
David Sacks says Trump's AI EO aims to ease companies' compliance burden and that the administration is working with Congress on a common AI oversight standard  —  White House AI czar David Sacks defended President Donald Trump's push to rein in state-level regulation of artificial intelligence …
Gerrit De Vynck / Washington Post:
Trump's AI executive order directs federal agencies to look into withholding federal funding from states passing “the most onerous and excessive laws” around AI
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
Stevie Bonifield / The Verge:
Google expands Google Translate's live speech translation from Pixel Buds to any headphones, supporting 70+ languages, in beta on compatible Android phones  —  Live speech translations were once only on the Pixel Buds. … Google Translate's latest update brings live speech translations …
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 …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Amazon Prime Video pulls its AI recaps, which it began testing in November, for Fallout, Bosch, and other shows after users noticed errors in the Fallout recaps  —  Fallout's season one recap wrongly stated that The Ghoul's flashback takes place in the 1950s, rather than the year 2077.
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Sources: Oracle has delayed completion of some OpenAI data centers from 2027 to 2028, largely due to labor and material shortages; Oracle denies delays  —  Oracle Corp. has pushed back the completion dates for some of the data centers it's developing for the artificial intelligence model developer OpenAI …
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.
Carmen Arroyo / Bloomberg:
Sources: X reported $752M in Q3 revenue, up 17% YoY, a net loss of $577.4M, and EBITDA of ~$454M, up 16%; revenue for the first nine months of 2025 was $2B+  —  Sales at Elon Musk's X jumped during the third quarter, but the social network is still dealing with significant costs …
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 …
Thinking Machines Lab:
Mira Murati's Thinking Machines Lab makes Tinker, its API for fine-tuning language models, generally available, adds support for Kimi K2 Thinking, and more  —  Today we are announcing four updates to Tinker:  — No more waitlist  — New reasoning model: Kimi K2 Thinking
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:
A US appeals court upholds a contempt ruling in Epic v. Apple, but says Apple can argue in a lower court to charge <27% for transactions outside the App Store
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.
Ann Gehan / The Information:
Source: livestream shopping app Whatnot nears ~$1B in revenue for 2025; Whatnot says it has passed $6B in gross sales this year, more than doubling 2024's sales  —  Livestream shopping app Whatnot is targeting close to $1 billion in revenue for 2025, according to a person with knowledge of the company's finances.
John Liu / Bloomberg:
Sources: China is considering a ~$28B-to-$70B incentives package, which would be separate from the $50B Big Fund III plan, to support its chipmaking industry  —  China is considering a package of incentives worth as much as $70 billion to bankroll and support its chipmaking industry …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:45 PM ET, December 12, 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

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Financial Times:
OpenAI hopes the Disney deal boosts Sora, which has high costs and limited traction; Sensor Tower: users average 13 minutes per day on Sora vs. 90 on TikTok

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
The Washington Post's new Your Personal Podcast, which offers AI-generated customizable podcasts, was developed under a multiyear agreement with ElevenLabs

More News

Reuters:
EU finance ministers agree on a €3 customs duty on low-value parcels from July 2026, aiming to crack down on Chinese imports from retailers like Shein and Temu

Earlier Picks

Zachary Small / New York Times:
A look at France-based indie game studio Sandfall Interactive, whose critically acclaimed Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 had a sub-$10M budget and sold 5M+ copies
Maria Curi / Axios:
New US OMB guidance states that LLMs procured by federal agencies must comply with two “unbiased AI principles”: “truth-seeking” and “ideological neutrality”
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
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google launches Disco, a Gemini 3-powered experiment that suggests and creates GenTabs, web apps based on the user's open browser tabs and Gemini chat history
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
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