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August 19, 2026, 12:40 PM
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| Ina Fried / Axios: |
OpenAI changed safety practices and paused RL training for two weeks after the Hugging Face breach and evidence Astra may have met a critical cyber threshold — OpenAI said Tuesday that it has made several changes to its safety practices following its determination that an upcoming system …
More: OpenAI, The Hill, International Business Times, The Guardian, BBC, WinCentral, Time, Infosecurity, Quartz, MediaNama, Help Net Security, PCMag, Tech Times, The Rundown AI, The Deep View, Fortune, Hürriyet Daily News, AI Summer, Neowin, TechCrunch, Sources, and Financial Times
X: @andrewcurran_, @sama, @alexeheath, @thezvi, @hlntnr, @eliebakouch, @daniel_mac8, @jun_song, @mattshumer_, @scaling01, @bahradx, @gabriel1, @joshua_saxe, @repligate, @tenobrus, @yonashav, @quantum_geoff, @ross__hendricks, @emollick, @rand_longevity, @emostaque, @bubbleboi, @chrisgpt, @edzitron, @jason, @wholemars, @kimmonismus, @matthewberman, @jasoncrawford, @w01fe, @miles_brundage, @ziwenxu_, @jachiam0, @peterbarnett_, @deredleritt3r, @thestalwart, @mariushobbhahn, @justalexoki, @ns123abc, @kelseytuoc, @edzitron, @openai, @deredleritt3r, @sama, @gdb, @andrewcurran_, @bindureddy, @iruletheworldmo, @rohanpaul_ai, @pigeon__s, @lu_sichu, @connortalksai, @_nathancalvin, @suchenzang, @ananth7e, @hesamation, @j_asminewang, @timjayas, @mark_k, @frenbilt, @laz4rz, @spoonedher, @notjazii, @xyhan_, @sicedricxd, @rivonn, @_nathancalvin, @tokengremlin, @rohit3a, @dieaud91, @gabgarrett, @kimmonismus, @edzitron, and @merettm. LinkedIn: Travis Bouck
Bluesky: @timkellogg.me, @sungkim, and @peark.es
Forums: Hacker News, r/television, and r/singularity
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: OpenAI's Q2 sales grew 18% QoQ to $6.7B as its loss jumped 32% to $12.3B; Anthropic's sales grew 2x+ to $11.6B as it swung to a small operating profit — The ChatGPT-maker's revenue disappointed some investors, although the company told them its growth accelerated in the third quarter
More: CNET, Semafor, The Information, Marcus on AI, Quartz, CNBC, New York Times, SiliconANGLE, Yahoo Finance, and CoinDesk
| Dominic Preston / The Verge: |
Google Pixel 11 Pro Fold review: tougher body with IP68 rating and a decent triple rear camera but an iterative hardware upgrade with design that feels dated — The foldable phone market is in the middle of a huge transformation, but no one told Google. — Last year, Samsung transformed …
More: Ars Technica, ZDNET, Tech Advisor, Engadget, The Independent, Tom's Guide, Geeking Out, MakeUseOf, The Shortcut, Mashable, CGMagazine, and SlashGear. Bluesky: @dompreston.com
| Cameron Faulkner / The Verge: |
| Alex Isenstadt / Axios: |
Memo: GOP asks AI companies to stem the backlash against data centers, saying the issue could kill the party's chances of holding a vital Senate seat in Ohio — The Senate GOP campaign arm, in a private memo to top AI companies, warns that toxic views of U.S. data centers are killing …
More: International Business Times, Washington Examiner, and Media Matters for America
X: @bstein80, @projectlincoln, @austincampbell, @davidsirota, @juliealdermanb, @thejefflutz, @jimvandehei, @jbsdc, @jimvandehei, @mattyglesias, @farzyness, @mikeallen, @axiosalex, @therickwilson, @mikenellis, and @ecaliberseven. Bluesky: @hypervisible.blacksky.app
Forums: r/politics and r/singularity
| Wall Street Journal: |
US tech companies are offering community investments, guaranteed jobs, and hosting open houses to address concerns and win public support for AI data centers — Tech companies are holding listening sessions, offering guaranteed jobs and writing big checks to win public support for the data centers they need.
More: Bloomberg. X: @jbflint, @caedrolo12, @thesimonetti, and @tedlieu. LinkedIn: Brody Ford
Bluesky: @dannygroner, @enjohnston, and @carlquintanilla
| Dana Wollman / Bloomberg: |
Marvell and Google expand their chip development deal, and Marvell grants Google a warrant to buy up to nearly 59M shares at $206.58 each, totaling up to $12.2B — Marvell Technology Inc. has agreed to give Alphabet Inc.'s Google rights to buy as much as $12.2 billion of its shares in exchange for purchasing chips.
| Matt Day / Bloomberg: |
Amazon plans to expand Prime Air drone deliveries to cities in at least five more US states in the coming months, including Chicago and Atlanta by 2026's end — Amazon.com Inc. plans to expand its drone delivery operation to cities in at least five more US states in the coming months …
More: About Amazon, CNBC, The Verge, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, PCMag, 9to5Mac, PYMNTS, Wall Street Journal, Fox Business, Mashable, FreightWaves, The Economic Times, The Hill, Digital Trends, Blockonomi, DroneXL, Quartz, Newser, DroneDJ, and GeekWire
X: @annierpalmer, @mweinbach, and @amazon
| Wired: |
Reconstructed code from Flock's login pages reveals OS Investigate, a new AI system that integrates license plate scans, arrest records, case files, and more — Flock's surveillance cameras have already sparked outrage. WIRED reconstructed its next-generation AI system, already in use by some police …
More: Breitbart, The Proton Blog, and RuntimeWire
Bluesky: @katie-drummond, @davidgilbert, @dmehro, @hypervisible.blacksky.app, @dell, and @timmarchman
Forums: r/FlockSurveillance and r/technology
| Trishla Ostwal / Adweek: |
OpenAI expands its ad pilot program across 31 European markets, including Germany, France, Spain, and Italy; the pilot launched in the US, the UK, and others — Expansion of the AI giant's ads pilot comes as ad revenue climbs more than 25% since the start of August — The future of brands gets decided here.| Murad Hemmadi / The Logic: |
Sources: Veeda, which is developing world models and is led by ex-Nvidia VP of AI Research Sanja Fidler, raised a $90M+ seed and is backed by Khosla and Radical — Toronto-based Veeda is building control systems for physical AI, and is backed by Khosla Ventures and Radical Ventures, The Logic has learned| Zijing Wu / Financial Times: |
Sources: Beijing allowed ByteDance and Tencent ~10K Nvidia H200 chips each in mainland China in recent weeks; US licenses permit the H200 in China and Hong Kong — Beijing permits small shipments to help leading tech groups in drive to catch up with US rivals
More: CNBC, Reuters, Quartz, The Asia Business Daily, Engadget, Seoul Economic Daily, Digital Trends, and Tom's Hardware
X: @firstadopter and @zijing_wu
| Kai Nicol-Schwarz / CNBC: |
Sources: Nvidia is working as a matchmaker to connect companies holding its GPUs with Nordic data center operators that have available capacity to deploy them — Nvidia is playing matchmaker, trying to connect companies with its graphics processing units to data-center operators …
Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to
| Jowi Morales / Tom's Hardware: |
A hacker known as Cyberleek leaks two GTA VI gameplay clips and the full map in protest of Rockstar Games' digital-only release; Rockstar issues DMCA takedowns — The hacker wants Rockstar to stop pre-selling digital games. … GTA VI is one of the most hotly anticipated games in history … | Alexander Martin / The Record: |
AI evaluation lab Irregular's report on its role in hacking incidents involving OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta models faces criticism over key unanswered questions — The company at the center of a series of incidents in which AI models compromised real-world computer systems during supposedly …
More: Irregular, Irregular, Cyber Security News, Bloomberg, CyberScoop, The Cyber Express, and SecurityWeek
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Amazon makes its AI-powered Alexa+ free on all compatible Fire TV devices in the US, automatically upgrading users even if they don't subscribe to Prime — AI is coming to your TV, whether you want it or not. — On Wednesday, Amazon said its AI assistant, Alexa+, will be rolled …
More: The Verge, About Amazon, Engadget, How-To Geek, Cord Cutters News, and Android Authority
| Max A. Cherney / Reuters: |
Cerebras unveils CS-4, a server rack with 50% fewer components built on its new Nexus architecture and powered by three WSE-3 Turbo chips, available in Q3 2026 — Cerebras Systems (CBRS.O) announced on Tuesday a new version of its server hardware that includes its dinner-plate-sized chips that it says will speed AI chatbot queries.| Carl Franzen / VentureBeat: |
Block releases Berd, a desktop app it built to give its employees a single environment for working with AI agents across different models, under Apache 2.0 — Block, the technology company founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey that owns Square, Cash App and the music streaming service Tidal …
More: View from the Wing, Block Open Source on GitHub, and Block
X: @aaron_aalaniz, @ksimback, @bradleyaxen, @jack, @jack, @camworboys, @yescynfria, @jack, @blocks, @blocks, @tftc21, @isazalucas, @hams, and @morganmartn. Forums: Hacker News
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Amazon appears to have leaked Jason Statham's new film Mutiny, streaming it in full on Prime Video in the US, two days before it is supposed to hit theaters — The film isn't supposed to hit theaters for two days, but it's available to stream on Prime Video now.
More: Gizmodo, World of Reel, and ScreenRant
Bluesky: @martinsfp and @hunterwalk.com
Forums: r/entertainment, r/blankies, and r/boxoffice
| Pew Research Center: |
Survey: 52% of Americans say they are more concerned than excited about increased AI use in daily life, up from 37% in 2021, including 55% of those under 30 — Americans have become increasingly worried about artificial intelligence over the years, and young adults' concern has continued to climb.| Carl Franzen / VentureBeat: |
Z.ai prices GLM-5.3 API access at $1.40/1M input tokens and $4.40/1M output tokens, unchanged from GLM-5.2; Kimi K3 costs $3/1M input and $15/1M output tokens — After a stunning debut last week with cyber capabilities so advanced they reportedly found a previously undetected vulnerability in Cursor … | Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch: |
Flipkart co-founder Sachin Bansal's fintech startup Navi raised $100M from Prosus, its first institutional capital raise, sources say at a ~$1.3B valuation — Indian fintech Navi has raised $100 million from Prosus, marking the first institutional funding for the eight-year-old startup founded …
More: Finimize, Entrackr, Moneycontrol, DealStreetAsia, VCCircle, Fortune India, Bloomberg, and Inc42
| Bloomberg: |
Hangzhou-based humanoid robot maker Unitree's stock surges 460% in its Shanghai trading debut, giving it a ~$50B market cap, after raising ~$904M in its IPO — Unitree Robotics shares surged 460% in their Shanghai trading debut after the company raised 6.1 billion yuan ($904 million) …
More: Business Insider, Reuters, Semafor, Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Barron's Online, BBC, MarketWatch, Silicon Republic, Bloomberg, Quartz, CoinDesk, The Business Times, Forbes, Proactive, Blockonomi, Nikkei Asia, Türkiye Today, Daily Sabah, The Information, Associated Press, The Economic Times, Gizmodo, South China Morning Post, and CNBC. X: @johnkoetsier
| Brian Gormley / Wall Street Journal: |
Network Bio, which is developing an AI foundation model from datasets of patient tissue and blood samples created by pooling access to biobanks, raised $50M — With $50 million in hand, Network Bio plans to offer virtual access to tissue and blood samples from major academic hospitals| Bloomberg: |
Sources: open-source orchestration platform developer Temporal is in talks to raise ~$500M at a $12B+ valuation, up from $5B after raising $300M in February — Temporal Technologies Inc. is in talks for a fresh funding round that would give the AI startup a valuation of at least $12 billion …
More: Tech Funding News
| Nicola M White / Bloomberg: |
The US CFTC bans Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang from trading for five years, as part of a settlement over their roles at FTX — FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda Research Chief Executive Officer Caroline Ellison avoided financial penalties under a settlement …
More: CFTC, Cointelegraph, The Crypto Times, Bitcoin Insider, and Protos
| Loree Seitz / The Wrap: |
Nielsen rolls out changes to make its ratings more accurate, including using data from smartwatch-like devices worn by its panelists without requiring logins — “We are relentless in our pursuit of delivering the most accurate measurement possible for our media and advertising clients,” CEO Karthik Rao saysSponsor Posts
Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
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IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Channels with Peter Kafka:
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Big Technology Podcast:
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The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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Training Data:
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