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Mistral goes multimodal for the first time. Meta admits to scraping the data of every adult Australian. The details on the new PS5 Pro. Wouldn’t it be wild if, through stablecoins, crypto BECOMES the banking system instead of replacing it. And a weird mystery in AI land. Sponsors: Promevo.com/techmeme Links: Mistral releases Pixtral 12B, its first multimodal model (TechCrunch) Facebook admits to scraping every Australian adult user's public photos and posts to train AI, with no opt-out option (ABC News) The $700 PS5 Pro doesn’t come with a disc drive (The Verge) Exclusive Hands-On: I Played Sony's All-New PS5 Pro (CNET) Americans used record 100 trillion megabytes of wireless data in 2023 (Reuters) Payments in Singapore With Stablecoins Rise to Almost $1 Billion (Bloomberg) Reflection 70B model maker breaks silence amid fraud accusations (VentureBeat) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple loses its longest standing regulatory battle in the EU. Some drips and drabs from yesterday’s iPhone event. Would a phone you can fold three times be more enticing than a phone that folds two times? And are we about to see that new Strawberry AI model from OpenAI by the end of the month? Sponsors: Timeline.com/ride Links: Apple must pay 13 billion euros in back taxes, EU’s top court rules (CNBC) iPhone 16 battery life: How much better is it? (9to5Mac) Huawei launches $2,800 trifold phone hours after Apple debuts iPhone 16 (CNBC) Oracle’s Missteps in Cloud Computing Are Paying Dividends in AI (WSJ) New Details on OpenAI’s Strawberry; Apple’s Siri Makeover; Larry Ellison Doubles Down on Data Centers (The Information) Audible to Start Generating AI Voice Replicas of Select Audiobook Narrators (Bloomberg) JPMorgan Plans to Report Customers Who Exploited TikTok ‘Glitch’ to Authorities (WSJ) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All the headlines from today’s iPhone event. It IS interesting the degree to which Elon’s various businesses have potential synergy. The Times digs into the content on Telegram and says, it ain’t pretty. And e-bikes seem to be back. In London, at least, anyway. Links: Apple Announces iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max with Larger Displays, New Camera Control, and More (MacRumors) Apple announces iPhone 16: camera button, new colors, AI features (9to5Mac) AirPods Pro 2 adds ‘clinical grade’ hearing aid feature (9to5Mac) Musk’s xAI Has Discussed Deal for Share of Future Tesla Revenue (WSJ) How Telegram Became a Playground for Criminals, Extremists and Terrorists (NYTimes) London e-bike boom leads to clashes with councils (Financial Times) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pavel Durov speaks, and Telegram blinks, both for the first time since the French arrest. Are XR glasses tethered to smartphones the next big product category? What if your smartphone could cure your vision problems? And in the longreads, if Waymo is about to scale, what, exactly, is the business model, long-term? Links: Pavel Durov: Telegram founder says France arrest is ‘misguided’ (The Guardian) Exclusive: Qualcomm explores acquiring pieces of Intel chip-design business (Reuters) Qualcomm says it’s working on mixed reality smart glasses with Samsung and Google (CNBC) Review: Honor Magic V3 (Wired) Exclusive: Honor's latest devices use AI to try to reverse nearsightedness (Android Central) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Waymo’s Robot Taxis Are Almost Mainstream. Can They Now Turn a Profit? (NYTimes) When the Bitcoin Scammers Came for Me (The Atlantic) Among the Idlers (Curbed) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The DOJ says it has taken down a big election influence campaign allegedly directed by Russia. The Internet Archive loses a big case. Android 15 is here. And two really interesting new gadgets, one I probably need to buy and one I want to buy but probably won’t. Sponsors: LinkedIn.com/ride Links: Biden administration announces major actions to tackle Russian efforts to influence 2024 election (CNN) The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case (Wired) Android 15 will be available on supported Pixel devices in the coming weeks (TechCrunch) DJI Neo hands-on: A powerful and lightweight $200 drone (Engadget) The Remarkable Paper Pro is as outrageous as it is luxurious (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SpaceX has agreed to block access to X, in Brazil, on Starlink. Looks like YubiKeys are hackable. Who is the mystery platform looking to expand AI datacenters at an historic scale? And the Catch 22 that Intel is in. They need CHIPS Act money, but can their troubles mean the CHIPS Act money shouldn’t be spent on them? Sponsors: Ramp.com/techmeme Lumen.me/ride Links: Starlink backtracks, complies with order blocking X in Brazil, says regulator (Reuters) No X in Brazil? No problem, Brazilians say. (Washington Post) Microsoft to announce ‘next phase of Copilot’ on September 16th (The Verge) YubiKeys are vulnerable to cloning attacks thanks to newly discovered side channel (ArsTechnica) Nvidia Gets DOJ Subpoena in Escalating Antitrust Probe (Bloomberg) Two AI Developers Are Plotting $125 Billion Supercomputers (The Information) Exclusive: Intel manufacturing business suffers setback as Broadcom tests disappoint (Reuters) Intel’s Money Woes Throw Biden Team’s Chip Strategy Into Turmoil (Bloomber

We missed a pretty big story this weekend. X getting banned in Brazil. I’ll try to catch you up on all the contours of this. Canva’s raising prices and it’s pissing people off because, I mean, they are REALLY raising prices. And the two pretty big success stories in crypto this year that we haven’t spoken about yet. Sponsors: DataTribe.com/challenge Hims.com/ride Links: Brazil’s Most Powerful Judge Is in the Spotlight—Again (Americas Quarterly) How Brazil’s Experiment Fighting Fake News Led to a Ban on X (NYTimes) Canva says its AI features are worth the 300 percent price increase (The Verge) HP to Pursue $4 Billion Damages After Mike Lynch Yacht Death (Bloomberg) Pump.fun surpasses $100 million in revenue as Polymarket outshines NFTs in August (The Block) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At this point it would be quicker to name the big tech company that’s NOT investing in OpenAI’s latest round. Amazon’s new Alexa service is just going to be Anthropic’s Claude in drag disguise I guess. I’m starting to get really worried about Intel y’all. And, of course, The Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Links: OpenAI Funding Round Tempts Nvidia as Big Tech Leans on ChatGPT (Bloomberg) Apple, Nvidia Are in Talks to Invest in OpenAI (WSJ) Ask Claude: Amazon turns to Anthropic's AI for Alexa revamp (Reuters) ChatGPT’s weekly users have doubled in less than a year (The Verge) Intel Weighs Options Including Foundry Split to Stem Losses (Bloomberg) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Sunk cost (the Open Sea story) (The Verge) The secret inside One Million Checkboxes (eieio.games) I Watched Footage of Jerry Lewis’s Unreleased 1972 Holocaust Film (The New Republic) End of the Road: An AnandTech Farewell (AnandTech) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nvidia’s earnings were huge but because they didn’t manage to beat the biggest expectations out there, it’s kind of a miss? Pavel Durov has been formally charged by France. Does TikTok fall outside of Section 230 protection? And it seems like the effort by the car companies to wean themselves off of smartphone tech is… not going great. Links: Nvidia’s CEO Says New Chip Will Have ‘Lots and Lots’ of Supply (Bloomberg) Telegram CEO Charged in France for Crimes Committed on His App (Bloomberg) TikTok must face lawsuit over 10-year-old girl's death, US court rules (Reuters) OpenAI in Talks for Funding Round Valuing It Above $100 Billion (WSJ) Top Movie Piracy Ring Taken Down, Major Studios’ Enforcement Group Claims (The Hollywood Reporter) GM's 'Google Built-In' Is Glitchy, Requires A Subscription To Use Google Maps (Jalopnik) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I explain why everyone has been posting strawberries in AI circles. It’s cause of a potential new breakthrough at OpenAI. Cerebras launches the first new AI chip competition to Nvidia. China has reportedly burrowed into US ISPs. And continuing interesting details pouring out of that Pavel Durov situation. Sponsors: Timeline.com/ride Links: OpenAI Shows ‘Strawberry’ AI to the Feds and Uses It to Develop ‘Orion’ (The Information) OpenAI Races to Launch ‘Strawberry’ Reasoning AI to Boost Chatbot Business (The Information) Cerebras Systems throws down gauntlet to Nvidia with launch of ‘world’s fastest’ AI inference service (SiliconAngle) Chinese government hackers penetrate U.S. internet providers to spy (Washington Post) Google Meet’s automatic AI note-taking is here (The Verge) Instagram adds what photos have always needed: words (The Verge) Telegram Founder Was Wooed and Targeted by Governments (WSJ) Can Tech Executives Be Held Responsible for What Happens on Their Platforms? (NYTimes)

As more details come out about the arrest of the founder of Telegram, a deeper look at Pavel Durov himself. We have the date of the iPhone event. We have a new record gaming number from Steam. And are Apple’s experiment with big budget Hollywood movies losing them bucket loads of money? Sponsors: DataTribe.com/challenge Thorne.fit/ridehome Links: Telegram Founder’s Arrest Part of Broad Investigation, French Prosecutors Say (NYTimes) Macron loves Telegram. French judges hate it. (Politico) How Telegram’s Founder Went From Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg to Wanted Man (NYTimes) Steam surpasses 37 million concurrent users for the first time ever thanks to Black Myth: Wukong (PC Gamer) Anthropic publishes the ‘system prompts’ that make Claude tick (TechCrunch) Apple Rethinks Its Movie Strategy After a String of Misses (NYTimes) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

French authorities have arrested Telegram CEO Pavel Durov. Chinese tech companies are spending like crazy on AI too, btw. What are the smart glasses and VR gear Meta is poised to give us next month? And Nvidia might make you rich, but it still seems like a bear of a place to work at. Sponsors: Lumen.me/ride Links: Telegram CEO Held Over Alleged Child Protection Failures on App (Bloomberg) Telegram messaging app CEO Durov arrested in France (Reuters) Is Telegram really an encrypted messaging app? (Matthew Green) China’s tech giants splash out on AI despite US restrictions (Financial Times) Apple Explores Robotics in Search of Life Beyond the iPhone (Bloomberg) Nvidia Rally Mints Millionaires Too Busy to Bask in New Wealth (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Breaking down the Crowdstrike outage with Overmind.tech Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microsoft deprecating a feature that it launched back in 1985. There’s a pretty big loophole that is still letting China use H100 chips. The weird saga evolving over at Bolt. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Links: Microsoft finally officially confirms it's killing Windows Control Panel sometime soon (Neowin) Exclusive: Chinese entities turn to Amazon cloud and its rivals to access high-end US chips, AI (Reuters) AI-powered coding pulls in almost $1bn of funding to claim ‘killer app’ status (Financial Times) Bolt investors baffled by massive new deal proposal (Axios) Ryan Breslow’s ‘Lead Investor’ Blindsided By $450 Million Bolt Fundraise: ‘We Were Never In This Deal’ (Forbes) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: New Breed of EV Promises 700 Miles per Charge (Just Add Gas) (Bloomberg) Popping the Bubble of Noise-Cancelling Headphones (The New Yorker) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As Mike Lynch’s body is recovered off Sicily, a deeper look at what was a roller coaster of a life. More cross posting for Meta’s apps. We have a date for the re-release of Recall. Interesting executive shuffle at Apple. And more data showing the degree to which free streaming is upending the Streaming Wars. Sponsors: QualiaLife.com/ride Links: Bodies of Mike Lynch and four yacht guests pulled from Bayesian wreck (Financial Times) Mike Lynch’s journey from tech founder to long legal battle (Financial Times) Meta lets you cross-post from Instagram and Facebook to Threads. Here’s how to do it. (TechCrunch) Microsoft’s Recall AI feature won’t be available for Windows testers until October (The Verge) Neuralink Says Second Brain Device Implant ‘Went Well’ (Bloomberg) Apple’s App Store Head to Leave in Reorganization Amid Global Scrutiny (Bloomberg) Report: “FAST correcting issues that VoD created” (Advanced Television) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI news has been a bit quiet for a little while now, but the headlines came roaring back today. More evidence Waymo might be having some sort of tipping point. Can we really get 3D without the need to wear glasses? And the the interesting raise startup that is actually, literally, going to the moon, not in a figurative sense. Sponsors: LinkedIn.com/ride Links: Gemini in Gmail can now help polish up your drafts (The Verge) Microsoft releases powerful new Phi-3.5 models, beating Google, OpenAI and more (VentureBeat) OpenAI makes fine-tuning for GPT-4o customization generally available (SiliconAngle) Waymo says it has doubled its weekly paid robotaxi trips to 100,000 since May (CNBC) Samsung’s new Odyssey monitor lets you play games in glasses-free 3D (The Verge) Microsoft Teams’ new single app for personal and work is now available (The Verge) Big Tech’s bid to rewrite the rules on net zero (Financial Times) Starpath accelerates moon water mining plans with $12M in funding (TechCrunch)

New Raspberry Pi 5. Waymo’s rolling out its new self-driving tech. A major developer draws plaudits for going anti-AI. The tragic and odd story of that tech exec who is missing after his yacht sank. And after six months, how is the Apple Vision Pro evolving? What if it kind of isn’t? Sponsors: TakeThesis.com code RIDE Links: Raspberry Pi 5’s new 2GB model benchmarked: Do you need 2, 4 or 8GB? : We test against the 4 and 8GB versions (Tom's Hardware) Waymo is developing a roomier robotaxi with less-expensive tech (CNBC) Procreate’s anti-AI pledge attracts praise from digital creatives (The Verge) Search continues for British tech magnate and 5 others after luxury superyacht sinks off Sicily (AP) Apple Vision Pro review: six month stasis (Apple Insider) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is X closing up shop in Brazil? Remember how Apple is trying to make their own modems? How’s that going? Why is the online dating sector suddenly struggling? And could the next big advertising platform actually be Walmart? Sponsors: ArcticWolf.com/techmeme Links: X says it’s closing operations in Brazil (TechCrunch) AMD Buys AI Equipment Maker for Nearly $5 Billion, Escalating Battle With Nvidia (WSJ) Apple Is Playing the Long Game With Switch From Qualcomm Modems (Bloomberg) ‘Bumble fumble’: online dating apps struggle as people swear off swiping (The Guardian) How Walmart became a force in a $54bn retail advertising industry (Financial Times) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Epic saga has reached a sort of conclusion. Epic saga. See what I did there? That California AI safety bill has been pruned a bit. You can now add you California drivers license to your smartphone wallet. And, of course, the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Links: Fortnite Maker Epic Games Challenges Apple’s Dominance With New iOS App Store (Wired) California weakens bill to prevent AI disasters before final vote, taking advice from Anthropic (TechCrunch) Exclusive: Apple, Google wallets to carry California driver's licenses (Axios) Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Inside the Snowflake-Databricks Rivalry, and Why Both Fear Microsoft (Bloomberg) The Little Streamer That Could (NYTimes) Your Air Conditioner Is Lying to You (The Atlantic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The new version of Grok will pretty much let you make an AI image of anything or anyone. More rumors of an iPad/robot/smart home hybrid from Apple. Masa Son wanted Intel to spin up a competitor to Nvidia, but Intel reportedly couldn’t hack it. And is Sonos going to just say, heck with it, and re-release their old app that actually worked? Sponsors: Acorns.com/ride Links: X’s new AI image generator will make anything from Taylor Swift in lingerie to Kamala Harris with a gun (The Verge) Apple Pushes Ahead With Tabletop Robot in Search of New Revenue (Bloomberg) Apple is finally going to open up iPhone tap-to-pay (The Verge) The FTC finalizes its rules clamping down on fake online reviews (Engadget) SoftBank discussed AI chips tie-up with Intel to rival Nvidia (Financial Times) Sonos considers relaunching its old app (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices