Techmeme
July 21, 2026, 12:40 PM

Top News

Tulsee Doshi / Google:
Google launches Gemini 3.6 Flash, 3.5 Flash-Lite, and 3.5 Flash Cyber, and says it has started its “most ambitious pre-training run yet” for Gemini 4  —  Our newest Gemini models deliver the efficiency, latency, and reliability to build AI agents at scale.
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Google says Gemini 3.6 Flash delivers better coding, knowledge work, and multimodal performance while reducing output token usage by up to 17% vs. 3.5 Flash  —  Alphabet is releasing three new Gemini models on Tuesday, including its clearest answer yet to Anthropic's lead in cybersecurity …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Financial Times:
Sources: China is weighing tightening AI and chip export controls and is consulting leading domestic AI companies, in a bid to slow advanced tech acquisitions  —  Chinese regulators are considering tightening export controls on artificial intelligence and semiconductor technologies …
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Nathan Lambert / Interconnects AI:
Kimi K3 marks the arrival of frontier open-weight models; the core Kimi team has incredible culture and a freedom to express it within a GPU-limited environment  —  The global implications on the AI ecosystem. … Audio playback is not supported on your browser.  Please upgrade.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to launch Apple Upgrade, a leasing program for iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, in partnership with Klarna in the US next week  —  Apple Inc. is preparing to introduce Apple Upgrade, a leasing program that will mark one of the biggest-ever changes to how the company sells devices.
Philippa Wain / BBC:
UK PM Andy Burnham abolishes the Department for Science, Innovation, and Tech and elevates UK AI Minister Kanishka Narayan, who oversees AISI, to attend cabinet  —  The AI Minister, Kanishka Narayan, will be given a seat at the top table of government but the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) has been scrapped.
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Sources: TSMC plans to hike advanced and mature node prices 5% to 10% in 2027, plus a 10% to 15% premium for advanced chip orders exceeding customers' forecasts  —  TAIPEI — TSMC is set to raise prices for both advanced and mature chip production services by up to 10% in 2027 to reflect rising costs …
Dom Cooke / Colossus:
A profile of Sarah Guo, Greylock's youngest GP before she founded Conviction in 2022, which has since backed six of the 21 AI-native companies now worth $10B+  —  The investor closest to the AI frontier is betting against the ambitions of its biggest companies
Kate Conger / New York Times:
How Google's AI Search is endangering the open web; Cloudflare says that from June 2025 to April 2026 human traffic to many businesses' websites fell nearly 40%  —  When Google prepared to go public in 2004, Larry Page, a co-founder of the company, wrote a letter to shareholders describing …
Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft and Mistral sign a multibillion-dollar deal to build European data centers and integrate Mistral models into Foundry, Copilot Studio, and Azure Local  —  ‘Multibillion-dollar’ pact will support Mistral data centers in Europe, helping the French company sell its AI models, and Microsoft its cloud and AI services
John Velasco / Tom's Guide:
Samsung debuts the Samsung Galaxy Card, a Visa card issued by Barclays that offers 5% cash rewards for purchases directly from Samsung, its first US credit card  —  You get 5% rewards when you buy stuff directly from Samsung  —  With Galaxy Unpacked 2026 set to kick off in a matter of days …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Meta quietly releases StoryKit, a new mobile app that uses AI to create personalized children's stories, including illustrations and original music, in Mexico  —  Meta has quietly released a new iPhone app that uses AI to create personalized children's stories, complete with illustrations, narration, and original music.
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
A judge approves Anthropic's $1.5B settlement with authors, the first major US case of its kind to settle; some authors opted out and have other ongoing suits  —  A federal judge in San Francisco on Monday signed off on artificial intelligence company Anthropic's landmark $1.5 billion settlement …
Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Sony Music files a second copyright suit against Udio, alleging the AI music company copied 30,117 recordings without permission to train its AI models  —  Sony Music Entertainment has filed a second copyright infringement lawsuit against Udio, asserting 30,117 sound recordings …
AI Security Institute:
Analysis: every frontier AI model tested in cybersecurity evaluations attempted to “cheat”, led by GPT-5.4 at 14.1% of tasks; Mythos cheated the least, at 7.8%  —  Can you trust an AI model to do what you intended?  This is a central question both for those deploying AI systems …
Maggie Eastland / Bloomberg:
OpenAI executive Chris Lehane says Sam Altman plans to brief the Trump administration and US lawmakers next week on the company's upcoming generation of models  —  OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman plans to brief the Trump administration and US lawmakers next week on the upcoming generation …

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Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Kohei Yamada / Nikkei Asia:
OpenAI: