Techmeme
February 16, 2026, 5:40 PM

Top News

Axios:
A senior official says Pentagon is “close” to designating Anthropic a “supply chain risk”, requiring all US military contractors to sever ties with the company  —  Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is “close” to cutting business ties with Anthropic and designating the AI company a …
Eduardo Baptista / Reuters:
Alibaba debuts Qwen3.5, a 397B-parameter open-weight multimodal AI model that it says is 60% cheaper to use and 8x better at large workloads than Qwen3  —  Alibaba on Monday unveiled a new artificial intelligence model Qwen 3.5 designed to execute complex tasks independently …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Apple says it will bring “advanced video capabilities” to Apple Podcasts this spring, including allowing users to switch between watching and listening to shows  —  Apple Podcasts is finally giving video a full embrace.  —  The tech giant, which pioneered the podcast audio format …
Tripti Lahiri / Wall Street Journal:
As India prepares to host its AI Impact Summit in New Delhi this week, the country is set to promote a frugal AI strategy focused on solving local issues  —  The world's most populous country is looking at how it can become an artificial-intelligence power without breaking the bank
Anthropic:
Osmond Chia / BBC:
ByteDance says it “respects IP rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance” and it plans to “strengthen” safeguards, after Disney's legal threats  —  Chinese technology giant ByteDance has pledged to curb a controversial artificial intelligence (AI) …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple debuts iOS 26.4 beta 1 for developers, adding limited support for encrypted RCS messages, enhancements to Apple Music, a Smart List for Reminders, more  —  iOS 26.4 beta 1 is now available in beta for developers.  The update includes a ton of new features and changes for iPhone users.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Sony is considering pushing back the debut of its next PlayStation console to 2028 or even 2029, as the AI boom fuels huge memory chip demand  —  A growing procession of tech industry leaders including Elon Musk and Tim Cook are warning about a global crisis in the making …
Mari Novik / Financial Times:
Keir Starmer says “no platform gets a free pass”, as the UK moves to amend safety laws to include AI chatbots like Grok, which made sexualized deepfakes of kids  —  Keir Starmer to warn tech companies that ‘no platform gets a free pass’ after deepfake scandal involving Grok
Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:
Apple sends invites for a “special Apple Experience” event on March 4 in New York City; rumors suggest an M5 MacBook Pro, entry-level iPad Air, and iPhone 17e  —  Apple today announced a “special Apple Experience” in New York, London, and Shanghai, taking place on March 4, 2026 at 9:00am ET.
Latent.Space:
Q&A with Google Chief AI Scientist Jeff Dean about the evolution of Google Search, TPUs, coding agents, balancing model efficiency and performance, and more  —  From rewriting Google's search stack in the early 2000s to reviving sparse trillion-parameter models and co-designing TPUs …
Marcus Schuler / Implicator.ai:
In a podcast, OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger describes his phone calls with Mark Zuckerberg and Sam Altman, and says he had been contacted by “every big VC”  —  Mark Zuckerberg needed ten minutes.  He was finishing code.  —  Peter Steinberger had called him on WhatsApp without scheduling anything.
Sam Altman / @sama:
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Samsung releases an ad for the Galaxy S26 series that briefly shows a “Zero-peeking privacy” toggle to black out on-screen content for onlookers at an angle  —  Leaker Ice Universe has shared a video of the tech in action. … Samsung has released a new advertisement …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
The central nervous system of your business  —  Used by 80% of Fortune 100 companies, Airtable combines AI with the scale of an infinitely flexible, no-code system.  With all your data in one place, it's like mission control for your company.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
AI that actually helps: Practical intelligence in Zoho Workplace  —  Lately, most AI assistants feel like that one over-eager intern who interrupts every five minutes with a suggestion you didn't ask for.At Zoho …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Pentagon Insider: What's Next For Anthropic and The Department of War — With Michael Horowitz
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
The World's Cup Is Coming to Trump's America, with Roger Bennett
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Invest Like the Best:
John Arnold - China, Energy Markets and Fixing America's Systems
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
The Social Radars:
Peter Reinhardt, CEO & co-founder, Charm Industrial; CEO & co-founder, Segment
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Garry Tan, Harj Taggar, and Jared Friedman from YC
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:40 PM ET, February 16, 2026.

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

Erik Brynjolfsson / Financial Times:
Shirin Ghaffary / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Zack Abrams / The Block: