Techmeme

How Disney Imagineering built an Olaf robot, set to arrive at Disneyland Paris this month, and taught it to move via reinforcement learning and simulation (Jacob Krol/TechRadar)

https://www.techradar.com/streaming/entertainment/four-months-worth-of-work-disney-imagineering-built-a-walking-olaf-robot-and-imagines-an-entire-world-populated-with-characters-you-know-and-love
http://www.techmeme.com/260316/p47#a260316p47

President Trump accuses Iran of using AI as a "disinformation weapon" to make fake images of wartime successes against the US, saying "AI can be very dangerous" (Kenrick Cai/Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/trump-accuses-iran-using-ai-spread-disinformation-2026-03-16/
http://www.techmeme.com/260316/p1#a260316p1

Study: most AI-generated videos on social media about the war in Iran push pro-Iranian views, often exaggerating its military capabilities and sophistication (New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/03/14/business/media/iran-disinfo-artificial-intelligence.html?unlocked_article_code=1.TVA.ng5C.XptQ5HbNUCwF&smid=url-share
http://www.techmeme.com/260315/p4#a260315p4

A survey of 1,000 hiring managers: 59% say they stress AI's role in layoffs or hiring freezes "because it plays better"; only 9% say AI has fully replaced roles (Gautam Mukunda/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2026-03-13/the-ai-washing-of-job-cuts-is-corrosive-and-confusing
http://www.techmeme.com/260314/p8#a260314p8

MacBook Neo teardown: most repairable MacBook in ~14 years, with no parts pairing issues, a screwed-down battery, and relatively easy keyboard replacement (Elizabeth Chamberlain/iFixit News)

https://www.ifixit.com/News/116152/macbook-neo-is-the-most-repairable-macbook-in-14-years
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p18#a260313p18

Elon Musk says xAI "was not built right first time around, so is being rebuilt from the foundations up" (Fred Lambert/Electrek)

https://electrek.co/2026/03/13/elon-musk-admits-xai-built-wrong-rebuild-tesla-spacex-investment/
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p13#a260313p13

AWS plans to deploy Cerebras' Wafer-Scale Engine chip for AI inference functions; AWS will still offer slower, cheaper computing using its Trainium processors (Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/amazon-announces-inference-chips-deal-with-cerebras-109ecd31?st=C4CAFK
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p12#a260313p12

Amazon Prime Video plans to raise the price of its ad-free plan, Ultra, to $4.99 per month, and add support for up to five simultaneous streams, from April 10 (Emma Roth/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/tech/894466/amazon-prime-video-ultra-ad-free-price-hike
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p11#a260313p11

Sources: Elon Musk pushed out two more xAI co-founders after getting frustrated with xAI's coding product progress and brought in "fixers" from SpaceX and Tesla (Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/e5fbc6c2-d5a6-4b97-a105-6a96ea849de5
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p10#a260313p10

Adobe agrees to pay $75M to resolve a US government lawsuit accusing it of concealing hefty termination fees and making it difficult to cancel subscriptions (Jonathan Stempel/Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/world/adobe-pay-75-million-resolve-us-lawsuit-over-fees-subscription-cancellations-2026-03-13/
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p9#a260313p9

Peacock adds a new feature to its app that uses AI to curate personalized vertical video playlists, narrated by a generative AI avatar of host Andy Cohen (Lauren Forristal/TechCrunch)

https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/13/peacock-expands-into-ai-driven-video-mobile-first-live-sports-and-gaming/
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p8#a260313p8

Banking, manufacturing, and other EU businesses warn "tech sovereignty" could hit profits and competitiveness as Brussels aims to cut reliance on US tech giants (Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/95fe93ef-2439-4519-834e-eb1ac7dd0a04
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p7#a260313p7

Uber is relaunching a robotaxi service with Hyundai-backed Motional in Las Vegas; the service will initially have a safety driver behind the wheel (Natalie Lung/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-13/uber-hyundai-backed-motional-relaunch-robotaxi-service-in-vegas
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p6#a260313p6

STMicro plans to retrain workers and deploy humanoid robots in its older chip plants for repetitive and physically demanding tasks, aiming to avoid closures (Nathan Vifflin/Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/business/stmicroelectronics-plans-robots-retraining-avoid-closures-2026-03-13/
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p5#a260313p5

Sources: HSBC and Standard Chartered are set to be among the first licensed stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong, as the city pushes to become a crypto hub (Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-13/hsbc-standard-chartered-to-get-stablecoin-licenses-in-hong-kong
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p4#a260313p4

China approves the market launch of an invasive BCI system that helps restore hand movement, the world's first approval of such a device for commercial use (Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/china-approves-market-launch-brain-computer-interface-medical-device-world-first-2026-03-13/
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p3#a260313p3

Alex Karp says AI disrupts the economic power of "humanities-trained, largely Democratic voters" and strengthens that of "working-class, often male voters" (Kelby Vera/HuffPost)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/palantir-ceo-ai-future-job-market-democrats_n_69b301b5e4b05a3e2aa502ce
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p2#a260313p2

Docs: Binance investigators found accounts, including those of VIP Chinese traders and a suspected Iranian gold smuggler, helped move $1B to Iran-linked groups (Fortune)

https://fortune.com/2026/03/12/binance-accounts-iranian-entities-sanctions-chinese-vips-gold-smuggler/
http://www.techmeme.com/260313/p1#a260313p1

Source: the perpetrators of a wiper attack on Stryker appear to have used Microsoft Intune to issue a "remote wipe" command against all connected devices (Brian Krebs/Krebs on Security)

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/03/iran-backed-hackers-claim-wiper-attack-on-medtech-firm-stryker/
http://www.techmeme.com/260312/p65#a260312p65

Sources: ByteDance is working with Aolani Cloud to deploy 500 Nvidia Blackwell systems in Malaysia, featuring ~36,000 B200 chips and likely costing over $2.5B (Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/chinas-bytedance-gets-access-to-top-nvidia-ai-chips-d68bce3a?st=ARFgVa&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/260312/p64#a260312p64

The European Commission says "X has submitted remedies in relation to its blue check mark" in the EU and the commission will "assess" the proposed remedies (Gian Volpicelli/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-12/musk-s-x-to-alter-verification-system-in-europe-commission-says
http://www.techmeme.com/260312/p63#a260312p63

A survey of US adults: 75% say they have heard a lot or a little about data centers; 39% say they are bad for the environment, and 38% bad for home energy costs (Pew Research Center)

https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2026/03/12/how-americans-view-data-centers-impact-in-key-areas-from-the-environment-to-jobs/
http://www.techmeme.com/260312/p62#a260312p62

Developers on AI coding: many show enthusiasm and now feel more like architects than construction workers, some think software jobs might actually grow, more (Clive Thompson/New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/12/magazine/ai-coding-programming-jobs-claude-chatgpt.html?unlocked_article_code=1.SlA.iAbQ.SHJOG4M1qGu0&smid=url-share
http://www.techmeme.com/260312/p61#a260312p61

Apple is lowering its commission for its mainland China App Store from 30% to 25%, starting on March 15, "following discussions with the Chinese regulator" (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-13/apple-lowers-app-store-cut-to-25-from-30-in-china-to-fend-off-local-regulators
http://www.techmeme.com/260312/p60#a260312p60

Telus Digital confirms a security incident after ShinyHunters claimed to have stolen ~1PB of data from the Canadian outsourcing giant in a multimonth breach (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/telus-digital-confirms-breach-after-hacker-claims-1-petabyte-data-theft/
http://www.techmeme.com/260312/p59#a260312p59

The US' February jobs report shows the tech sector's post-2022 job losses are now outpacing past downturns in 2008 and 2020 (Business Insider)

https://www.businessinsider.com/tech-jobs-getting-demolished-great-recession-dot-com-era-2026-3
http://www.techmeme.com/260306/p35#a260306p35

Google has quietly released an unsupported Workspace CLI, making it easier for agentic AI tools to access Gmail, Calendar, Drive, Docs, and other apps (Ben Patterson/PCWorld)

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3079523
http://www.techmeme.com/260305/p58#a260305p58

Apple implemented geoblocking in January to prevent US-based users from downloading or updating ByteDance's Chinese apps, even with a Chinese Apple account (Zeyi Yang/Wired)

https://www.wired.com/story/bytedance-apps-are-no-longer-available-in-us-app-stores/
http://www.techmeme.com/260305/p39#a260305p39

Lenovo's Motorola partners with GrapheneOS, a privacy-focused, de-Googled version of Android, to preinstall GrapheneOS on upcoming Motorola smartphones (Ben Schoon/9to5Google)

https://9to5google.com/2026/03/01/motorola-confirms-grapheneos-partnership-for-a-future-smartphone-porting-features/
http://www.techmeme.com/260302/p2#a260302p2

Sources: the Pentagon used Claude in its major air attack in Iran, hours after Trump declared that the federal government will end its use of Anthropic's tools (Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-strikes-2026/card/u-s-strikes-in-middle-east-use-anthropic-hours-after-trump-ban-ozNO0iClZpfpL7K7ElJ2
http://www.techmeme.com/260228/p21#a260228p21

Google is ending Gmailify and POP access in Gmail; new users will lose access in Q1 2026, and existing users will keep both features until later in 2026 (David Nield/Wired)

https://www.wired.com/story/gmail-killing-pop-and-gmailify-access-what-it-means-for-you/
http://www.techmeme.com/260221/p8#a260221p8

Q&A with Replit CEO Amjad Masad, who says India is Replit's second-largest market by active users, on integrating Razorpay's tech, AI's impact on SaaS, and more (Bhavya Dilipkumar/Moneycontrol)

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/startup/ai-impact-summit-two-kids-in-india-can-now-compete-with-salesforce-says-replit-ceo-amjad-masad-13831656.html
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p9#a260217p9

Indian conglomerate Adani Group announces plans to invest $100B to build renewable energy-powered AI-ready data centers across India by 2035 (Urvi Dugar/Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/indias-adani-invest-100-billion-ai-data-centres-by-2035-2026-02-17/
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p8#a260217p8

How LLMs are dismantling the moats that made vertical SaaS defensible, and why the market selloff is structurally justified but temporally exaggerated (Nicolas Bustamante/@nicbstme)

https://x.com/nicbstme/status/2023501562480644501
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p7#a260217p7

Indian IT giant Infosys partners with Anthropic to develop AI services for telecoms, with plans to expand to finance, manufacturing, and software development (Kosaku Narioka/Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/infosys-anthropic-partner-on-ai-for-telecom-finance-manufacturing-4680fb5d?st=M7qRgS&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p6#a260217p6

Top AI researchers argue that AI is now more useful for mathematics thanks to the latest "reasoning" models, as math becomes a key way to test AI progress (Melissa Heikkilä/Financial Times)

https://giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/actions/redeem/8bb4a2e0-a2e7-43d1-9f03-4593abd31205
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p5#a260217p5

Micron, which has undertaken a $200B US expansion, says it can currently meet about 50%-66% of demand for some key customers, as AI drives memory chip demand (Robbie Whelan/Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/tech/micron-is-spending-200-billion-to-break-the-ai-memory-bottleneck-a4cc74a1?st=1ESZSw&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p4#a260217p4

Sources: US healthcare manufacturer Danaher is nearing a deal to buy medtech company Masimo for ~$10B; Masimo is in an IP dispute with Apple over Apple Watch (Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/da25dd17-0e28-4ad1-bc38-a8be2ab88368
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p3#a260217p3

Sources: Moonshot, the Chinese startup behind Kimi chatbot, is targeting a $10B valuation in a funding round expansion after securing $500M at a $4.3B valuation (Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-17/china-ai-startup-moonshot-seeks-10-billion-value-in-new-funding
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p2#a260217p2

UK software firm Pinewood's stock fell ~31% on Feb. 16 after Apax Partners withdrew its £575M takeover offer, citing "prevailing challenging market conditions" (Alexandra Heal/Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/438b5e5e-7a4e-4add-b68b-927837bc2269
http://www.techmeme.com/260217/p1#a260217p1

Sources: top VC firms operating in India are expected to commit investments ranging from $300M to $500M each to India's AI ecosystem at the AI Impact Summit (The Economic Times)

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/artificial-intelligence/major-vcs-line-up-top-dollars-for-coordinated-ai-capital-push-in-india/articleshow/128437006.cms
http://www.techmeme.com/260216/p35#a260216p35

Valve says the Steam Deck OLED may be "intermittently" out of stock due to memory and storage shortages; it has been out of stock in the US for a few days (Jay Peters/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/games/879845/valve-steam-deck-oled-out-of-stock-memory-storage-ram-crisis
http://www.techmeme.com/260216/p34#a260216p34

Sony says it has developed tech to identify copyrighted music in AI-generated songs, aiming to help rights holders receive compensation if their music was used (Rei Nakafuji/Nikkei Asia)

https://asia.nikkei.com/business/technology/artificial-intelligence/sony-group-tech-can-identify-original-music-in-ai-generated-songs
http://www.techmeme.com/260216/p33#a260216p33

Micron introduces the first mass-produced PCIe 6.0 SSDs, with read speeds up to 28GB/s, double that of PCIe 5.0 SSDs, optimized for AI/data center deployments (Aaron Klotz/Tom's Hardware)

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/worlds-first-pcie-6-0-ssd-enters-mass-production-with-28gb-s-speeds-micron-9650-series-ssds-support-air-and-liquid-cooling
http://www.techmeme.com/260216/p32#a260216p32

Letter and sources: Starboard plans to nominate a majority slate to Tripadvisor's board; Starboard holds a 9% stake, and TRIP has dropped ~46% in the past year (Ben Glickman/Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/starboard-to-push-for-big-shake-up-of-tripadvisors-board-2acb0df4?st=tbNCvd&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/260216/p31#a260216p31

Nifty IT Index, which tracks Indian IT stocks, has slumped about 15% so far in February on worries about AI and is on track for its worst month since March 2020 (Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-16/ai-scare-s-56-billion-hit-tests-resilience-of-india-s-it-stocks
http://www.techmeme.com/260216/p30#a260216p30

Ireland's DPC says it has opened a "large-scale" inquiry into X over the creation and publication of "potentially harmful" sexualized images by Grok (Hannah Murphy/Financial Times)

https://www.ft.com/content/3c720c9b-d2b6-41b3-a7b7-960b5f1fb94b
http://www.techmeme.com/260216/p29#a260216p29

Manus launches Manus Agents, allowing users to access Manus directly inside messaging apps, starting with Telegram and coming soon to other platforms (Manus)

https://manus.im/blog/manus-agents-telegram
http://www.techmeme.com/260216/p28#a260216p28

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 (Chance Miller/9to5Mac)

https://9to5mac.com/2026/02/16/ios-26-4-beta-1-heres-everything-new/
http://www.techmeme.com/260216/p27#a260216p27