Open Links In New Tab
Mobile Archives Advertise
Techmeme
February 12, 2025, 12:10 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Get our daily newsletter and never miss a story!   ⓧ Newsletter

Top News

Foreign Policy:
DOGE accessing Treasury systems and classified data breaks a fundamental security principle and could help the US' adversaries steal data and install backdoors  —  The U.S. government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history.
Caroline Igo / CNET:
Apple partners with Brigham and Women's Hospital to launch a voluntary, virtual five-year Apple Health Study in its Research app, open to iPhone users in the US  —  I got the inside scoop on Apple Health's new five-year research study.  All Apple users can participate starting today.
Wired:
A letter to US senator Ron Wyden shows data broker Datastream, which was selling US military location data, got the data from Lithuanian ad tech company Eskimi  —  In a letter to a US senator, a Florida-based data broker says it obtained sensitive data on US military members in Germany …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple now lets users migrate apps, music, books, shows, and movies between Apple accounts, but the feature isn't available to users in the EU, the UK, or India  —  If you have two Apple Accounts with multiple digital purchases between them, Apple now has a way for you to consolidate the accounts …
Kate Knibbs / Wired:
Thomson Reuters wins the first major US AI copyright ruling against fair use, in a case filed in May 2020 against legal research AI startup Ross Intelligence  —  The Thomson Reuters decision has big implications for the battle between generative AI companies and rights holders.
Euractiv:
After the AI Action Summit, the EU Commission says it will withdraw the AI Liability Directive, a strategic move to show goodwill to the Trump administration  —  The Commission justified its removal by saying it could see “no foreseeable agreement” on the directive.  —  This article is exceptionally available for free!
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researcher Johann Rehberger shows a hack to override Gemini's prompt injection defenses, letting an attacker plant long-term memories for all future sessions  —  In the nascent field of AI hacking, indirect prompt injection has become a basic building block for inducing chatbots …
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Adobe launches Generate Video in public beta via its redesigned Firefly web app, alongside new image generation, translation, and AI credit subscription tiers  —  Generate Video is now in public beta, allowing anyone to generate five-second video clips at 1080p.
The Logic:
Internal message: Shopify's general council said the company closed Ye's store since the swastika shirt listed for sale “brought with it the real risk of fraud”  —  TORONTO — Shopify's general counsel said the company took down musician Kanye West's online store because of the potential …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google schedules I/O 2025 for May 20 to 21 in Mountain View, with the main keynote on May 20 at 10am PT; Gemini, Android 16, and more announcements are expected  —  Following the “Prism Shift” puzzle this morning, Google has announced that I/O 2025 is taking place Tuesday, May 20
Bloomberg:
White House document: President Trump plans to nominate Brian Quintenz, a16z Crypto's head of policy and a former GOP commissioner at the CFTC, to lead the CFTC  —  - Trump to tap Jonathan Gould as Comptroller of the Currency  — Trump also set to nominate Jonathan McKernan as CFPB director
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Source: the Trump administration is releasing cybercriminal Alexander Vinnik to Russia in exchange for the US retrieving the American schoolteacher Marc Fogel  —  Where Things Stand  — Final hurdle for Gabbard: The Senate on Wednesday is expected to vote on the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Google rolls out AI image remixing tool Whisk to 100+ countries, letting users upload three images for subject, scene, and style to remix, powered by Imagen 3  —  Google keeps releasing experimental products built with its AI models to give users a taste of its capabilities.
More: Neowin
Katarina Hoije / Bloomberg:
Central African Republic, the first African country to adopt BTC as legal tender, launches CAR MEME on Solana, trading at $0.03 on February 11, down nearly 90%  —  - CAR Meme is second cryptocurrency launched by the country  — Nation first in Africa to adopt Bitcoin as tender in 2022
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Groq says Saudi Arabia has committed $1.5B over the course of 2025, to expand the delivery of the US startup's AI inference chips for LLMs to the country  —  U.S. semiconductor startup Groq said on Monday it has secured a $1.5 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to expand the delivery of its advanced AI chips to the country.
The Information:
Source: Apple and Alibaba submitted their co-developed AI features for approval by China's cyberspace regulator; Apple considered but rejected DeepSeek's models  —  Apple has recently started working with Chinese internet and e-commerce giant Alibaba Group to roll out artificial intelligence features …
Dylan Butts / CNBC:
SoftBank posts a surprise Q3 net loss of ~$2.4B on ~$12.04B revenue, vs. $12.1B est., as the Vision Fund, after two profitable quarters, reports a ~$2.04B loss  —  SoftBank Group posted a surprise quarterly loss Wednesday as investments under its Vision Funds fell into red.

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
What you need to know about fine-tuning LLMs  —  Success with generative AI hinges on honing a pretrained LLM to be a specialist at your intended domain or application.  Learn how to fine-tune for four key characteristics.
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
Planned India Data Center Maintenance on 5th and 6th April 2025 from 09.00 AM to 09:30 AM IST for Zoho Payments  —  Dear customers,Our bi-annual infrastructure maintenance for our India Data Center is scheduled for April 5 & 6 …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
 (Essay) Silicon Valley's "Sovereign Tech Stack" Problem
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Sponsor this podcast
Hard Fork:
 The Tech Behind Signalgate + Dwarkesh Patel's "Scaling Era" + Is A.I. Making Our Listeners Dumb?
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
 Aaron Levie (CEO, Box) on Enterprise AI Trends No One is Talking About Yet
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Great Chat:
 Does anyone care about bad behavior anymore?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Add your postcast here
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:10 PM ET, February 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

Matt Donnelly / Variety:
Sources describe rising tensions at Warner Bros. Pictures amid movie flops, with WBD CEO David Zaslav losing confidence in co-heads Mike De Luca and Pam Abdy

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
After White House criticism, WHCA says comedian Amber Ruffin won't headline this year's annual dinner “to ensure the focus is not on the politics of division”

Brian Stelter / CNN:
A US district court judge issues a temporary restraining order halting the Trump administration's efforts to close Voice of America, in a lawsuit by VOA staff

More News

Earlier Picks

Emma Goldberg / New York Times:
A look at ACTS 17 Collective, a nonprofit devoted to introducing Christianity to technologists by asking Peter Thiel and other executives to discuss their faith
Samantha Subin / CNBC:
Super Micro forecasts FY 2026 revenue above est. and is “confident” it will file its delayed annual report by the Feb. 25 deadline; SMCI jumps 7%+
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
Home River Leaderboards About Events Newsletter