Techmeme
August 14, 2026, 2:45 PM

Top News

Z.ai:
Z.ai debuts GLM-5.3, which uses the same base model as GLM-5.2 with scaled post-training for stronger coding skills, and says it'll release weights in two weeks  —  With GLM-5.2 we built the stack: IndexShare for efficient long-context processing, SAO for RL on long-horizon tasks …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google adds a toggle in Gemini and Flow to remove visible watermarks from AI-generated images, videos, and music; SynthID watermarks and C2PA metadata remain  —  Google will still embed invisible SynthID and C2PA watermarks into AI-generated images, videos, and music.
@alibaba_qwen:
Alibaba releases weights for Qwen3.8 models under Apache 2.0 license, including Qwen3.8-27B, which it says beats Qwen3.7-Plus and excels in real-world coding  —  We promised open weights for Qwen3.8. Now, time to meet them! 🎉 ⚡ Qwen3.8-27B: - A native multimodal dense model. With just 27B parameters, it outperforms Qwen3.7-Plus overall and shines in real-world coding & office workflows. - 262K native context, easily extendable to 1M
Reuters:
Sources: Apple trained a China-specific LLM with Alibaba's support, which would make Apple the first foreign company to offer a proprietary AI model in China  —  Apple (AAPL.O) has trained a large language model specifically for the China market, three people familiar with the matter said …
Reuters:
France's top court blocks a bill banning social media for under-15s, saying it infringed upon freedom of expression; Macron orders the PM to rework the bill  —  France's top court on Friday blocked a bill banning social media access for under-15s, saying it infringed upon freedom of expression …
Carl Franzen / VentureBeat:
DeepSeek debuts DeepSeek Harness under the MIT license in developer preview, touting a design where “everything is a plugin” that can be swapped out as a plugin  —  DeepSeek is expanding beyond the model layer and deeper into the software developers use to put AI agents to work.
Ryan Christoffel / 9to5Mac:
Apple officially opens ad bookings for businesses on Apple Maps ahead of an upcoming full rollout across the US and Canada  —  Ads are coming to Apple Maps soon in the US and Canada, and today businesses can start booking their own ads.  Here are the details, including a limited-time promotional offer for businesses.
Maxwell Zeff / Wired:
Current and former OpenAI employees say pressure to quickly ship new AI models and products cut into safety time, leading to incidents like the rogue agent hack  —  OpenAI's rogue agent hack was a watershed moment for AI safety and cybersecurity.  It also sparked internal questions about the culture that led to it.
Bloomberg:
Demetri Sevastopulo / Financial Times:
The White House puts tariffs on drones and their components, including a 100% levy on “particularly sensitive” models, aiming to cut US reliance on Chinese tech  —  US to impose up to 100% levies on unmanned aircraft and their components  —  President Donald Trump has imposed sweeping …
Joann Muller / Axios:
Nevada granted Tesla a robotaxi permit, but capped the fleet at 10 vehicles, not 5,000 that Tesla sought, banned airport pickups, and ordered other restrictions  —  Tesla applied for a permit to deploy up to 5,000 robotaxis in Clark County, Nevada, but got approval from the state for just 10.
More: TESLARATI
Nathaniel Meyersohn / CNN:
A look at Quincy, a rural Washington farming town of 8,500 that benefited from a data center boom as its poverty rate fell from 29.4% in 2012 to 6.2% in 2024  —  A $15 million aquatic center with a six-lane pool, waterslides and a lazy river opened in Quincy, Washington, a few weeks ago.

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Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
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More News

Bloomberg:
Marcus Mendes / 9to5Mac:

Earlier Picks

J.J. McCorvey / Bloomberg:
The Information:
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Frederic Lardinois / The New Stack:
Stephen Totilo / Game File:
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Patrick Howell O'Neill / Bloomberg: