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Techmeme - 2025-08-29T17:10:56-04:00

The Ethereum Foundation pauses its grants program, which awarded $3M+ to 100+ projects since 2018, to rethink its spending strategy and reduce its burn rate (Daniel Kuhn/The Block) - 2025-08-29T17:00:14-04:00

Meta created and let users create flirty chatbots and intimate images using the names and likenesses of Taylor Swift and other celebs without their permission (Jeff Horwitz/Reuters) - 2025-08-29T16:15:01-04:00

The FCC rejects a proposal by broadcasters and others to impose cable-style regulatory fees on streaming services, tech companies, and pure broadband providers (Matthew Keys/TheDesk.net) - 2025-08-29T15:55:02-04:00

WhatsApp fixed a zero-click bug in its iOS and Mac apps that was being used, alongside a now-fixed Apple flaw, to hack into devices of "specific targeted users" (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch) - 2025-08-29T15:20:02-04:00

Taco Bell, which deployed voice AI-powered ordering at 500+ drive-through locations, is now reconsidering the tech after viral videos of glitches and pranks (Isabelle Bousquette/Wall Street Journal) - 2025-08-29T14:50:00-04:00

Sources: Google is set to face a modest EU antitrust fine over adtech practices, in an investigation triggered by a complaint by the European Publishers Council (Foo Yun Chee/Reuters) - 2025-08-29T14:30:01-04:00

Flip, a TikTok rival that let shoppers post video reviews and earn cash based on engagement, has shut down; it had raised $300M and was valued at $1B+ in 2024 (Ann Gehan/The Information) - 2025-08-29T14:10:04-04:00

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers strike a deal with Uber and Lyft allowing drivers to unionize while remaining classified as independent contractors (Los Angeles Times) - 2025-08-29T14:05:01-04:00

xAI sues a former employee in federal court in California for allegedly stealing Grok trade secrets and taking them to OpenAI, where he recently accepted a job (Blake Brittain/Reuters) - 2025-08-29T13:55:01-04:00

Meta says it'll update AI chatbot rules to prevent inappropriate chats with teens and let teens access only AI characters that promote education and creativity (Maxwell Zeff/TechCrunch) - 2025-08-29T13:30:01-04:00

Mastodon says it does not "have the means to apply age verification" to its services and it's up to server admins to observe local laws in places they operate (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch) - 2025-08-29T13:15:14-04:00

French President Emmanuel Macron vows a strong response if any country takes measures that undermine Europe's digital sovereignty (Richard Bravo/Bloomberg) - 2025-08-29T12:40:01-04:00

Perplexity's head of advertising and shopping Taz Patel has left after nine months; its ad business reportedly generated only about $20,000 in Q4 2024 (Trishla Ostwal/Adweek) - 2025-08-29T12:25:02-04:00

Valve adds credit card-based age checks for UK users to access "mature content" games on Steam; Discord and others are using selfies for verification (Tom Warren/The Verge) - 2025-08-29T12:05:02-04:00

FriendliAI, which invented "continuous batching" to optimize dynamic and uneven LLM inference traffic, raised a $20M extension to its $6M seed from 2021 (Judy Rider/Crunchbase News) - 2025-08-29T11:10:01-04:00