Techmeme
August 12, 2026, 2:15 PM

Top News

xAI:
SpaceXAI releases Grok 4.6, saying it matches GPT-5.6 Sol on the Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index, and prices it at $2/1M input and $6/1M output tokens  —  Grok 4.6 builds on Grok 4.5 with a particular focus on long-running agents and more ambitious interactive and visual work.  —  Try for free
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Google unveils the $899+ Pixel 11, $1,099+ 11 Pro, and $1,299+ 11 Pro XL, with a Tensor G6, new Gemini features, Magic Capture to pick the best frames, and more  —  For the last few years, Google's Pixel has been a showcase of new AI features, with few hardware changes from the previous year's devices.
Max Buondonno / The Shortcut:
Jessica Conditt / Engadget:
Google unveils the $1,899+ Pixel 11 Pro Fold, with a stronger hinge, inner and outer displays that are 20% brighter, Tensor G6 chip, and an updated 48MP camera  —  Fly like a (Tensor) G6.  —  The Pixel 11 Pro Fold is the ultimate evolution in Google's latest line of mobile devices …
Sam Rutherford / Engadget:
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Google unveils the $399 Pixel Watch 5 with a satin pyrite case finish, offline Gemini, proactive AI suggestions, better GPS maps, and insulin resistance trends  —  The $399 Google Pixel Watch 5 isn't about the hardware.  Sure, there's a new satin pyrite case finish, a few new strap colors, and a Steph Curry Special Edition.
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Google DeepMind launches SL2T, a multilingual sign-language-to-text model debuting on the Pixel 11 in Gboard and Live Transcribe, first for ASL to English text  —  Google DeepMind said today it wants to bring the artificial intelligence revolution to the estimated 70 million people across …
Tom Wilson / Financial Times:
Researchers say suspected Chinese hackers used open-source AI agents to build an autonomous hacking tool that compromised Taiwanese government websites in July  —  AI agents ran simultaneous reconnaissance and break-ins in display of new phase of cyberwarfare.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google says Android's AirDrop-like Quick Share will now let some devices exchange files and contact info when tapped together, starting with the Pixel 6 and up  —  The Quick Share update makes it easier to share contact info and files between Pixel devices, and soon, Samsung phones.
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Google plans to launch the $29 Pixel Tag on November 11, with a four-pack priced at $99, matching AirTag 2's pricing, offering UWB, Find Hub support, and more  —  The $29 tracker combines UWB with Bluetooth channel sounding. … More than two years after launching its own device-tracking network …
Ben Dummett / Wall Street Journal:
Stockholm-based AI coding startup Lovable raised $400M at a $13.3B valuation, up from $6.6B in December 2025, becoming one of Europe's most valuable startups  —  New funding round catapults AI company into the ranks of Europe's most valuable startups  —  Artificial-intelligence startup Lovable …
Bloomberg:
Tencent reports Q2 revenue up 11% YoY to ~$30.4B, above ~$30B est., driven by surging WeChat advertising and resilient game spending, and net income of ~$8.3B  —  Tencent Holdings Ltd. more than doubled spending on AI projects and computing to about $7.8 billion last quarter …
Wall Street Journal:
The NYC Council sent letters to Polymarket, Kalshi, Coinbase, and Gemini Titan as it investigates alleged deceptive marketing practices and targeting minors  —  Probe targets the marketing practices of four prediction markets with operations in the city  —  The New York City Council …
Prakhar Srivastava / Reuters:
AI code review startup CodeRabbit raised a $143M Series C co-led by Atomico and Smash at a $1.5B valuation, after raising a $60M Series B in September 2025  —  AI code review startup CodeRabbit said on Wednesday it had raised $143 million in a funding round that valued it at $1.5 billion.
Sumedha Mukherjee / Reuters:
FlightAware withdraws its Kalshi lawsuit, after alleging Kalshi used its data to let users bet on flight cancellations; Kalshi no longer names it as a source  —  Flight-tracking company FlightAware withdrew its lawsuit against Kalshi on Tuesday, a day after it filed the suit that accuses …
Juro Osawa / The Information:
Former Alibaba star researcher Junyang Lin launches Shanghai-based Pragmatik Labs to build digital and physical AI agents; Pragmatik hit a $2B valuation in June  —  Former Alibaba star researcher Junyang Lin announced that he had started a new AI company, confirming The Information's earlier reports.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work  —  Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Command Line:
GitHub Universe 2026: Highlights from the developer's developer conference  —  Copilot Fusion was the belle of the ball, but the hero at the heart of the two-day event was the developer community.
Zoho:
Update on Node.js vulnerabilities CVE-2026-111497, CVE-2026-105482, CVE-2026-105483 and CVE-2026-106069  —  Overview On October 21, 2026, Node.js announced security releases for the 26.x, 24.x and 22.x release lines to fix multiple vulnerabilities.
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:
Big Tech's Ugly Week, Getting Rich At Anthropic, AI Costs Plunge
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.
Machine Gods:
OpenAI's Latest Discoveries Spark a Backlash + Help! My Kid Hates AI
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The Accidental YC Founder Solving AI's GPU Crisis | SF Compute's Evan Conrad
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Cheeky Pint:
Why Sam Altman is against a single superintelligence
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Great Chat:
The case for AI optimism
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Sources:
Tobi Lütke on the AI agent revolution and future of Shopify
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:15 PM ET, August 12, 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

Kate Knibbs / Wired:

Earlier Picks

Dwarkesh Patel / Dwarkesh Podcast:
Frederic Lardinois / The New Stack:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Will Knight / Wired: