Techmeme
March 9, 2025, 10:45 PM

Top News

Craig S. Smith / Forbes:
A look at Manus, which its Chinese creators claim is the world's first fully autonomous AI agent, as some say it might be China's second DeepSeek moment  —  One recent evening in Shenzhen, a group of software engineers gathered in a dimly lit co-working space, furiously typing as they monitored the performance of a new AI system.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Some early users of Manus say the agentic AI is no panacea, with long waits, errors, unsatisfying answers, and endless loops often plaguing the experience  —  Manus, an “agentic” AI platform that launched in preview last week, is generating more hype than a Taylor Swift concert.
More: The Decoder
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Tarlogic researchers find an undocumented “backdoor” in Chinese manufacturer Espressif's ESP32 microchip used in 1B+ devices for WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity  —  The ubiquitous ESP32 microchip made by Chinese manufacturer Espressif and used by over 1 billion units as of 2023 contains …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple planned to announce a smart home hub in March but it has been postponed since the device relies on the delayed Siri capabilities  —  Also: The company continues to explore different glasses ideas, and the latest iOS beta software adds a Vision Pro app and new AI capabilities.
Naomi Nix / Washington Post:
SEC whistleblower complaint: an ex-executive who is launching a book alleges Facebook built a censorship system for the CCP in a bid to enter China in the 2010s  —  Meta went to extreme lengths, including developing a censorship system, in a failed attempt to bring Facebook to millions …
Sun Yu / Financial Times:
Asset managers and investors say wealthy Chinese investors are using SPVs to quietly funnel tens of millions of dollars into Musk's xAI, Neuralink, and SpaceX  —  Asset managers have been promoting tech mogul's ties to Donald Trump to lure capital to xAI, Neuralink and SpaceX
Bloomberg:
Sources: workflow automation company ServiceNow nears deal to buy enterprise AI assistants company Moveworks in a deal that could value Moveworks at ~$3B  —  - Transaction could value Moveworks at close to $3 billion  — ServiceNow has been pushing into generative AI products
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Hugging Face co-founder Thomas Wolf: current AI development paradigms won't yield outside-the-box problem-solving that leads to true scientific breakthroughs  —  AI company founders have a reputation for making bold claims about the technology's potential to reshape fields, particularly the sciences.
Bluesky: @prietschkaX: @thom_wolf, @thom_wolf, @thom_wolf, and @littmathForums: r/technology
Richard MacManus / Cybercultural:
A look back at GeoCities, launched in 1994 as Beverly Hills Internet, which allowed people who had no technical knowledge of HTML to build web pages  —  GeoCities, known throughout most of 1995 as Beverly Hills Internet, was one of the first commercial internet services to make it easy …
Thomas Germain / BBC:
A look at YouTube's hidden world: most of the videos on the platform capture everyday life and have rarely been seen, with the median video having just 41 views  —  There's a secret side of YouTube, just beyond the guiding hand of the algorithm - and it's nothing like what you know.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Janko Roettgers / Fast Company:
How focusing on West Africa helped music streamer Audiomack grow alongside industry giants like Spotify; 50% of its 40M monthly listeners are from Africa  —  By focusing on rising stars from West Africa, Audiomack has been able to grow alongside much larger streaming music services.  —  Kendrick Lamar.

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Everything new in the Zoho Sign iOS mobile app  —  Ranked highly in the iOS App Store (4.9 stars), Zoho Sign's mobile app for iPhone is a user favorite.  We're thrilled to share that the app has been enhanced …
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.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Tariff Groundhog Day
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Grit:
Flexport's Third Act: Winning in a Broken Global Trade System
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
Everyone's an engineer now: Inside v0's mission to create a hundred million builders | Guillermo Rauch (founder & CEO of Vercel, creators of v0 and Next.js)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Derek Thompson (Writer, The Atlantic) and Zach Weinberg (Co-founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) Discuss the Tariff Withdrawal and America's Future
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Big Tech's Tariff Chaos + A.I. 2027 + Llama Drama
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:45 PM ET, March 9, 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

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Wall Street Journal:
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times: