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February 12, 2025, 10:35 PM
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Top News

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Sam Altman says GPT-5 will include o3, which is no longer set to ship 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 …
Kylie Robison / The Verge:
OpenAI expands its Model Spec for how its AI models should behave, from 10 to 63 pages, emphasizing “customizability, transparency, and intellectual freedom”  —  ChatGPT is learning how to handle Stalin, ethical erotica, and trolley problems.  —  ChatGPT is learning how to handle Stalin …
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
OpenAI plans to give free ChatGPT users unlimited GPT-5 access at “the standard intelligence setting”; Plus and Pro users will get to run GPT-5 at higher levels
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.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: X has agreed to pay ~$10M to settle Trump's 2021 lawsuit against Twitter and then-CEO Jack Dorsey over the ban on his accounts after the January 6 riot  —  Musk's platform becomes second social-media company to settle with Trump after Jan. 6, 2021 riot triggered bans
CJ Haddad / CNBC:
AppLovin reports Q4 revenue up 44% YoY to $1.37B, vs. $1.26B est., net income up 248%, ad revenue up 73%, and Q1 guidance above est.; APP jumps 27%+ after hours  —  AppLovin shares soared almost 30% in extended trading on Wednesday after the company reported earnings and revenue …
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.
Malathi Nayak / Bloomberg:
Filing: OpenAI says Musk's $97.4B bid contradicts his claims, made in the lawsuit against OpenAI, that its assets can't be “transferred away” for “private gain”  —  Elon Musk's all-cash bid to buy OpenAI debunks arguments he's making in court that the artificial …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google plans to begin testing an ML-based model in the US this year to estimate whether a user is under 18 to help provide more “age-appropriate experiences”  —  Google says the technology will help it provide ‘age-appropriate experiences.’  —  Google says the technology will help it provide ‘age-appropriate experiences.’
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Reddit reports Q4 revenue up 71% YoY to $428M, vs. $405M est., and daily active uniques up 39% YoY to 101.7M, vs. 103.1M est.; RDDT drops 13%+ after hours  —  Reddit shares fell more than 15% on Wednesday after the company reported weaker-than-expected user numbers in its fourth-quarter earnings.
Paige Smith / Bloomberg:
Robinhood reports Q4 revenue up 115% YoY to $1.01B, vs. $940.8M est., crypto transaction revenue up 700%+ to $358M, above est.; HOOD jumps 10%+ after hours  —  Revenue grew to $1.01 billion in the quarter, beating Wall Street analyst estimates of $940.8 million for the three-month period.
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
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Cisco reports Q2 revenue up 9% YoY to $13.99B, vs. $13.87B est., net income down 8% to $2.43B, and FY 2025 guidance above estimates; CSCO jumps 5%+ after hours  —  Cisco shares climbed about 6% in extended trading on Wednesday after the networking hardware maker reported fiscal second-quarter results …
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.
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.
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.
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Trump nominates Apple exec Jonathan Morrison to NHTSA; Morrison was NHTSA's chief counsel in Trump's first term and told Tesla it made inaccurate safety claims  —  President Donald Trump has nominated an Apple (AAPL.O) employee to serve as the nation's top auto safety regulator overseeing …
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.
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 …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:35 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

Rebecca Sananès / Vanity Fair:
Interviews with Mediaite's Dan Abrams, Ezra Klein Show editor Claire Gordon, and others about podcasts becoming YouTube shows and essentially television

The Guardian:
A reconstruction of the events that led to Ukrainian reporter Victoria Roshchyna's detention and death in Russia; forensics suggest “numerous signs of torture”

Taylor Lorenz / Rolling Stone:
The 2025 WHCD weekend, with events like Substack's party, highlighted the growing influence of new media personalities on political and cultural conversations

More News

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
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

Earlier Picks

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
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%
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
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