Techmeme
January 16, 2025, 12:10 AM

Top News

Washington Post:
Donald Trump is considering issuing an executive order once in office that would suspend enforcement of the TikTok sale-or-ban law for 60 to 90 days  —  Trump, the infamous dealmaker, is exploring unconventional ways to rescue the Chinese-owned video app from a nationwide ban …
Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg:
The US unveils new rules calling for TSMC, Samsung, and other chip producers to step up their scrutiny and due diligence of customers, especially Chinese firms  —  - Measures also impose sanctions on 16 Chinese entities  — Biden has issued a raft of China regulations in his last week
Daniel Kuhn / The Block:
BitMEX is fined an additional $100M for US Bank Secrecy Act violations between 2015 and 2020; it pleaded guilty in July 2024 and previously agreed to pay $110M  —  - BitMEX has been slapped with an additional $100 million fine for Bank Secrecy Act violations between 2015 and 2020.
Lindsay Whitehurst / Associated Press:
During oral arguments, SCOTUS seemed open to a Texas law requiring age checks to view online porn, but could send the case back to a lower court  —  The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed open to a Texas law aimed at blocking kids from seeing online pornography, though the justices could still send …
Pete Schroeder / Reuters:
Block agrees to pay $80M to a group of 48 US state financial regulators that say it had insufficient policies for policing money laundering through Cash App  —  Block Inc (SQ.N) has agreed to pay a fine of $80 million to a group of 48 state financial regulators after the agencies determined …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google makes all its Gemini features for Workspace apps free, after charging $20 or $30 per user per month, but increases the prices of all its Workspace plans  —  Previously, Google charged an additional $20+ per user/month for Gemini in Gmail, Docs, Meet, and other Workspace apps.
Jaffer Zaidi / The Keyword:
Google says it has partnered with the AP to deliver a feed of real-time information to enhance the usefulness of results displayed in the Gemini app  —  The AP will now deliver a feed of real-time information to help enhance the usefulness of results displayed in the Gemini app.
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
A 28-year-old woman describes her “relationship” with ChatGPT, or Leo as the chatbot named itself, which became her therapist, erotic partner, and adviser  —  “It was supposed to be a fun experiment,” Aryin said of her A.I. relationship, “but then you start getting attached.”
Jesse Coghlan / Cointelegraph:
DappRadar: NFT trading volumes in 2024 fell 19% YoY to $13.7B and sales counts fell 18% YoY to just under 50M, making 2024 the worst performing year since 2020  —  DappRadar found the NFT market last year was the worst since 2020 for trading and sales volumes, with both falling nearly 20% over 2024.
Reuters:
The FTC sues John Deere, alleging it illegally drove up repair costs by making its software repair tool available only to its authorized dealers  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission on Wednesday sued farm equipment maker Deere (DE.N), alleging it illegally drives up repair costs by forcing farmers …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it will no longer support Office apps, known as Microsoft 365 apps, on Windows 10 after October 14, 2025  —  Microsoft says it will no longer support Office apps, known as Microsoft 365 apps, on Windows 10 later this year.  The support cutoff coincides with Windows 10's end …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft relaunches its free Copilot for businesses as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat, offering pay-as-you-go AI agents and using OpenAI's GPT-4o to answer queries  —  Microsoft is relaunching its free Copilot for businesses as Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat today, complete with the ability to use AI agents.
Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg:
Germany-based Neura Robotics, which is building cognitive, humanoid robots for logistics and other sectors, raised a €120M Series B led by Lingotto Investment  —  Neura Robotics, a German startup that manufactures robots that can “see, hear and touch,” has raised $120 million …
More: Sifted
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Nikita Bier, creator of apps like tbh and anonymous compliments app Gas, launches Explode, a freemium app to send disappearing texts and photos via iMessage  —  Nikita Bier, creator of popular apps like the anonymous polling app tbh (acquired by Facebook) and the anonymous compliments app Gas …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn launches free AI tools built on top of its own AI tech and data: a Jobs Match tool for job seekers and a recruitment AI agent for small businesses  —  If you've ever applied or thought of applying for a job via LinkedIn, you'll know that the experience can be immediately disheartening …

Sponsor Posts

Microsoft:
6 AI Trends to Watch in 2025  —  Explore insight from Microsoft on key AI advancements that will shape our work and daily lives in the coming year.
Genesys:
The Levels of Experience Orchestration  —  What's your vision for the future of customer experience?  See how AI can transform your business - and take you to the next level.
Zoho:
New in 2025: Transform PDFs and images into fillable forms  —  Zoho Forms has always been at the forefront of form creation, and now, with the newly introduced Convert PDF to Form feature, transforming documents …
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 01/27 - Why DeepSeek Has Stunned Silicon Valley (And Wall Street)
The day's tech news, every day. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:10 AM ET, January 16, 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.

More News

Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Sara Fischer / Axios:

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.co:
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg: