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Techmeme
February 12, 2025, 4:15 PM
Mediagazer memeorandum WeSmirch
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Top News

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Sam Altman says GPT-5 will include o3, which will no longer be offered as a standalone model, GPT-4.5 will be OpenAI's last non-chain-of-thought model, and more  —  OpenAI has effectively canceled the release of o3, which was slated to be its next major AI model release …
Foreign Policy:
DOGE accessing Treasury systems and classified data breaks a fundamental security principle and could help US adversaries steal data and install backdoors  —  The U.S. government has experienced what may be the most consequential security breach in its history.
Makena Kelly / Wired:
Over the past few weeks, the Trump administration replaced the CIOs of the OMB, OPM, and Department of Energy with Elon Musk- and Peter Thiel-aligned executives  —  The chief information officers of at least three major government agencies have been replaced by Silicon Valley executives, including from Palantir and Elon Musk's SpaceX.
New York Times:
Sources: the Trump administration is releasing cybercriminal Alexander Vinnik to Russia in exchange for the US retrieving the American schoolteacher Marc Fogel  —  The release is part of a swap with the Kremlin that freed an American schoolteacher being held in a Russian prison.
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.
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.
Tim Starks / CyberScoop:
Google Threat Intelligence: US adversaries, especially Russia, are increasingly turning to cybercriminals and free or public malware to advance their goals  —  A Google Threat Intelligence Group report notes that Russia in particular has been doing this since the Ukraine war began.  —  Learn more.
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
Wired:
A letter to Sen. Ron Wyden claimed Datastream, which sold US military location data, got the data from Lithuanian ad tech company Eskimi, but Eskimi denies this  —  In a letter to a US senator, a Florida-based data broker says it obtained sensitive data on US military members in Germany …
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!
Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
Snowflake and Anthropic partner to integrate Claude 3.5 Sonnet into Snowflake's new Cortex Agents platform, embedding AI agents into corporate data environments  —  Snowflake and Anthropic unveiled a major partnership today to embed AI agents directly into corporate data environments …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple releases an Apple TV app for Android phones and tablets, limited to Apple TV+, MLS Season Pass, and MLB Friday Night Baseball; it doesn't support casting  —  The Apple TV app is finally making its way to Android users.  The app is now available in the Google Play Store for Android phones and tablets.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Microsoft details BadPilot, an “initial access” team within the Russian hacking group Sandworm that targeted the US, the UK, Canada, and Australia in 2024  —  A team Microsoft calls BadPilot is acting as Sandworm's “initial access operation,” the company says.
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 …
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 …
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
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
Jeran Wittenstein / Bloomberg:
In Q4, Meta tweaked its depreciation accounting for AI infrastructure, extending it from 4-5 to 5.5 years, cutting expenses by $2.9B in 2025 and boosting profit  —  - Facebook owner recently extended useful life on computing gear  — Change will significantly reduce depreciation expense in 2025

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:15 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

Tyler Pager / New York Times:
Trump signs an EO seeking to dismantle seven federal agencies, including VOA parent USAGM, which is congressionally chartered as an independent agency

The Times:
An investigation into the unsolved 1977 murder of The Sunday Times foreign correspondent David Holden in Egypt suggests he doubled as a KGB spy and had CIA ties

Kayla Gogarty / Media Matters for America:
An analysis of popular podcasts, streams, and other long-form audio and video content with political leanings indicates that right-leaning outlets dominate

More News

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

Earlier Picks

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
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
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
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
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