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Techmeme
August 14, 2026, 5:25 PM
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Top News

Z.ai:
Z.ai debuts GLM-5.3, which uses the same base model as GLM-5.2 with scaled post-training for stronger coding skills, and says it'll release weights in two weeks  —  With GLM-5.2 we built the stack: IndexShare for efficient long-context processing, SAO for RL on long-horizon tasks …
@alibaba_qwen:
Alibaba releases weights for Qwen3.8 models under Apache 2.0 license, including Qwen3.8-27B, which it says beats Qwen3.7-Plus and excels in real-world coding  —  We promised open weights for Qwen3.8. Now, time to meet them! 🎉 ⚡ Qwen3.8-27B: - A native multimodal dense model. With just 27B parameters, it outperforms Qwen3.7-Plus overall and shines in real-world coding & office workflows. - 262K native context, easily extendable to 1M
Reuters:
France's top court blocks a bill banning social media for under-15s, saying it infringed upon freedom of expression; Macron orders the PM to rework the bill  —  France's top court on Friday blocked a bill banning social media access for under-15s, saying it infringed upon freedom of expression …
Reuters:
Sources: Apple trained a China-specific LLM with Alibaba's support, which would make Apple the first foreign company to offer a proprietary AI model in China  —  Apple (AAPL.O) has trained a large language model specifically for the China market, three people familiar with the matter said …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google adds a toggle in Gemini and Flow to remove visible watermarks from AI-generated images, videos, and music; SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata remain  —  Google will still embed invisible SynthID and C2PA watermarks into AI-generated images, videos, and music.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Epic v. Google: in a compliance hearing, a judge orders Google to remove “anticompetitive friction” for installing third-party app stores from its Play Store  —  Judge Donato was not having Google's ‘anticompetitive friction.’  —  One month after Epic Games and Google seemingly stopped fighting …
Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:
DeepSeek debuts DeepSeek Harness under the MIT license in developer preview, touting a design where “everything is a plugin” that can be swapped out  —  DeepSeek is expanding beyond the model layer and deeper into the software developers use to put AI agents to work.
Madison Mills / Axios:
Risk report: Anthropic raises misalignment risk estimate from very low to low and says it doesn't plan to release a stronger internal model called “Model 2”  —  Anthropic does not plan to release an internal model that appears to be more powerful than top-of-the-line Mythos …
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Amazon adds a clause in its user agreement that seeks to prevent shoppers from filing class-action lawsuits against it, after removing a similar clause in 2021  —  Amazon.com Inc. reintroduced a clause in its user agreement that seeks to prevent shoppers from filing class-action lawsuits …
Joann Muller / Axios:
Nevada granted Tesla a robotaxi permit, but capped the fleet at 10 vehicles, not 5,000 that Tesla sought, banned airport pickups, and ordered other restrictions  —  Tesla applied for a permit to deploy up to 5,000 robotaxis in Clark County, Nevada, but got approval from the state for just 10.
More: TESLARATI
Natasha Mascarenhas / Bloomberg:
Investor letter: Thrive's 2022 early-stage $516M fund that invested in OpenAI and SpaceX was worth $3.7B+ as of the end of June, net of fees and other charges  —  Thrive Capital's 2022 early-stage venture capital fund, a $516 million investment vehicle that made early bets on OpenAI …
Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
Current and former OpenAI employees say pressure to quickly ship new AI models and products cut into safety time, leading to incidents like the rogue agent hack  —  OpenAI's rogue agent hack was a watershed moment for AI safety and cybersecurity.  It also sparked internal questions about the culture that led to it.

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Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
 The $1.4B Startup Deciding What You See When You Shop Online | Sequen's Zoë Weil
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:25 PM ET, August 14, 2026.

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

Rajeev Syal / The Guardian:
A UK jury convicts two Iranians of assisting Iranian intelligence in a plan to “eliminate” journalists at London-based Persian broadcaster Iran International

Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Source: NBC News will stop airing one hour of primetime programming on the NBC News Now streaming service, eliminating the Stay Tuned show and a handful of jobs

Bloomberg:
Sources: Internet Brands, which owns WebMD and CarsDirect, is exploring a roughly $3.5B debt package to refinance its existing loans

More News

Nathaniel Meyersohn / CNN:
A look at Quincy, a rural Washington farming town of 8,500 that benefited from a data center boom as its poverty rate fell from 29.4% in 2012 to 6.2% in 2024
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times:
The White House puts tariffs on drones and their components, including a 100% levy on “particularly sensitive” models, aiming to cut US reliance on Chinese tech
Bloomberg:
Pony AI plans to deploy 2,000+ robotaxis across Europe in partnership with Uber, add four more European cities after Zagreb, and expand to the Middle East later

Earlier Picks

Marcus Mendes / 9to5Mac:
Epic v. Apple: Apple offers 15% commissions on US linked-out purchases for standard apps, 10% for partner programs and renewals, and 5% for Small Business apps
J.J. McCorvey / Bloomberg:
A judge orders Kalshi to stop offering most of its prediction market contracts in Washington state, after finding it likely violated state gambling-related laws
The Information:
A profile of Camilla Clark, quiet adviser to husband Dario Amodei and behind-the-scenes player at Anthropic; she once pitched a porn startup to Jeffrey Epstein
Frederic Lardinois / The New Stack:
OpenAI launches Computer History, an opt-in feature that turns day-to-day computer activity on macOS into memories and a timeline that ChatGPT and Codex can use
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
OpenAI previews Ultrafast, an API tier powered by Cerebras that runs GPT-5.6 Sol up to 14× faster and generates up to 750 output tokens per second
Patrick Howell O'Neill / Bloomberg:
President Trump signs a memo letting the US government partner with private companies to conduct cyberattacks abroad against criminal groups targeting Americans
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