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Techmeme
February 7, 2025, 11:10 AM
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Top News

Joseph Menn / Washington Post:
Sources: in a secret January order, UK security officials demanded that Apple create a backdoor to access all cloud content any Apple user globally has uploaded  —  Security officials in the United Kingdom have demanded that Apple create a back door allowing them to retrieve all the content …
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
WBD took $300M in gaming writedowns in 2024; current and former staff blame a lack of a strong, cohesive vision during former games chief David Haddad's tenure  —  Last year, Warner Bros. Discovery took $300 million in losses on gaming.  The near future is rife with additional challenges.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon expects to boost its capex to $100B in 2025, largely driven by AI and up from 2024's ~$83B, in what Andy Jassy calls a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity
Amazon.com, Inc.:
Amazon reports Q4 revenue up 10% YoY to $187.8B, vs. $187.3B est., net income up 89% YoY to $20B, and operating income up 61% YoY to $21.2B
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft warns that attackers are using static ASP.NET machine keys found online to inject malware into ViewState, which controls web form state during reloads  —  Microsoft warns that attackers are deploying malware in ViewState code injection attacks using static ASP.  NET machine keys found online.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to unveil its long-awaited overhaul of the iPhone SE as early as next week, opting to reveal it on its website instead of at a launch event  —  - Revamped SE model is set to be unveiled in the coming days  — Apple plans flurry of 2025 products, including smart home hub
Ashley Belanger / Ars Technica:
Kadrey v. Meta: unsealed emails show Meta allegedly torrented 81.7TB+ of data across multiple shadow libraries through the site Anna's Archive, for AI training  —  Newly unsealed emails allegedly provide the “most damning evidence” yet against Meta in a copyright case raised by book authors alleging …
Wired:
Sources: DOGE is pushing to develop GSAi, a custom generative AI chatbot for the US GSA to boost productivity, analyze contract and procurement data, and more  —  The chatbot is part of Elon Musk and President Donald Trump's ambitions to use AI and other technologies to cut costs and modernize the US government.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google has edited Gemini's response in a Super Bowl commercial after it was found to contain false information about Gouda cheese  —  Gemini's response no longer says that Gouda makes up '50 to 60 percent of the world's cheese consumption.'  —  Gemini's response no longer says that Gouda makes …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI updates o3-mini's chain of thought to help free and paid ChatGPT users “understand how the model thinks”, in response to DeepSeek and other competitors  —  In response to pressure from rivals including Chinese AI company DeepSeek, OpenAI is changing the way its newest AI model …
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Mistral partnered with Cerebras to help its Le Chat app respond to user questions at 1,000 words per second, making Le Chat the world's fastest AI assistant  —  Cerebras Systems, an artificial intelligence chip firm backed by UAE tech conglomerate G42, said on Thursday it has partnered …
Marina Temkin / TechCrunch:
In a meeting with GOP lawmakers, Donald Trump proposed taxing carried interest as ordinary income, a policy that could sharply increase the tax bill for VCs  —  On Thursday, President Trump asked Republican lawmakers to end tax breaks on carried interest.  —  The tax break allows private equity …
Zaheer Kachwala / Reuters:
Take-Two reports Q3 net bookings up 3% YoY to $1.37B, vs. $1.39B est., and reiterates GTA VI is set to launch in the fall of 2025; TTWO jumps 6%+ after hours  —  Take-Two Interactive Software (TTWO.O) forecast its fourth-quarter bookings below Wall Street expectations on Thursday …
Charles Capel / Bloomberg:
HIG Capital plans to buy Toronto-based IT solution provider Converge Technology for $908M and merge it with Mainline Information; the deal closes in Q2, 2025  —  Converge will merge with Tallahassee, Florida-based Mainline Information Systems LLC, which is also owned by HIG, the companies said in a statement on Friday.

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UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:10 AM ET, February 7, 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

Sara Fischer / Axios:
PBS and a public TV affiliate in Minnesota sue the Trump administration, saying his executive order to cut federal funding violated PBS' First Amendment rights

Max Tani / Semafor:
The California State Senate opens an inquiry into whether Paramount's reported $15M proposed settlement with Trump violated bribery and unfair competition laws

Chris Willman / Variety:
Taylor Swift acquires the rights to her first six albums from Shamrock Capital; sources say the deal was in the mid-$300M range

More News

Katherine Long / Wall Street Journal:
DOGE staff member Marko Elez resigns after being linked to racist X posts; the 25-year-old was embedded in the US Treasury and previously worked at SpaceX and X

Earlier Picks

Julaiza Alvarez / Bloomberg:
Pinterest reports Q4 revenue up 18% YoY to $1.15B, vs. $1.14B est., MAUs up 11% YoY to 553M, and forecasts Q1 revenue will top est.; PINS jumps 15%+
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Email: Google is testing a Search “AI Mode” powered by Gemini 2.0 that lets users ask “open-ended / exploratory questions” and get AI Overview-style responses
Natalie Andrews / Wall Street Journal:
US lawmakers introduce a bipartisan bill that would ban DeepSeek's app from government-owned devices, amid concerns that China would be able to access user data
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
GitHub announces updates for Copilot, including Vision for Copilot being able to generate interfaces, code, and alt text from a screenshot, photo, or a diagram
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