As startups flood the market with AI shopping agents, Amazon is playing defense by blocking agents' access to its site and investing heavily in its own tools (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
CNBC
Amazon faces 'leader's dilemma' — fight AI shopping bots or join them
Agents like OpenAI's Instant Checkout and Perplexity's Instant Buy threaten to reshape the e-commerce landscape.
Techmeme
As startups flood the market with AI shopping agents, Amazon is playing defense by blocking agents
By Annie Palmer / CNBC. View the full context on Techmeme.
A US judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration from detaining CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed, one of the Europeans the US barred on claims of promoting censorship (Aishvarya Kavi/New York Times)
Judge Blocks Detention of British Researcher Who Scrutinizes Online Hate
Imran Ahmed, who runs an organization that chronicles disinformation, was among five Europeans the State Department had barred, claiming they promo...
Techmeme
A US judge temporarily blocks the Trump administration from detaining CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed, one of the Europeans the US barred on claims of promoting censorship
By Aishvarya Kavi / New York Times. View the full context on Techmeme.
An interview with Citizen Lab founder Ronald Deibert about the US adopting authoritarian digital practices, the research group's accomplishments, and more (Finian Hazen/MIT Technology Review)
MIT Technology Review
Meet the man hunting the spies in your smartphone
Ronald Deibert and his research group, the Citizen Lab, have rigorously worked to unveil alarming digital threats for the past two decades. Now, he...
Techmeme
An interview with Citizen Lab founder Ronald Deibert about the US adopting authoritarian digital practices, the research group
By Finian Hazen / MIT Technology Review. View the full context on Techmeme.
Apple settles with Brazil's regulator to allow alternative app stores; report: Apple will charge a 5% fee for alt app stores and 15% on App Store linkouts (Hartley Charlton/MacRumors)
MacRumors
Apple to Introduce New App Store Fee Structure in Brazil Following Antitrust Settlement
Brazilian regulators have approved a settlement that will require Apple to change how the App Store operates on iPhone in the country, including al...
Techmeme
Apple settles with a Brazilian regulator to allow alternative app stores; report: Apple will charge a 5% fee for alt app stores and 15% on App Store link-outs
By Hartley Charlton / MacRumors. View the full context on Techmeme.
Xiaomi unveils $999+ 17 Ultra in China with three rear cameras, including a 50MP 1" sensor and a 200MP periscope lens; Leica edition gets a mechanical zoom ring (Siddharth/GSMArena.com)
GSMArena.com
Xiaomi 17 Ultra packs a 1-inch sensor, 200MP periscope telephoto, and a 6,800mAh battery
There’s also a Leica edition with a dual-tone design and a mechanical zoom ring. The Xiaomi 17 Ultra has finally been unveiled in China as the br...
Techmeme
Xiaomi unveils the $995+ Xiaomi 17 Ultra in China with a 200MP periscope camera, a 50MP 1
By Siddharth / GSMArena.com. View the full context on Techmeme.
AI sector minted 50+ new billionaires in 2025; Crunchbase: investors poured $200B+ into AI startups in 2025, or about 50% of global funding, up from 34% in 2024 (Alicia Park/Forbes)
Forbes
AI Minted More Than 50 New Billionaires In 2025
Record activity in the AI sector this year has boosted dozens of founders and business executives into the billionaire ranks.
Techmeme
The AI sector minted 50+ new billionaires in 2025; Crunchbase: investors poured $200B+ into AI startups in 2025, or ~50% of global funding, up from 34% in 2024
By Alicia Park / Forbes. View the full context on Techmeme.
Tesla's robotaxi service in Austin significantly trails Waymo, deploying an estimated 30 cars with safety drivers, vs. Waymo's 200 cars without human monitors (Jack Ewing/New York Times)
Tesla Robotaxis Are Big on Wall St. but Lagging on Roads
Shares of Tesla have hit new highs on optimism about the company’s self-driving taxis. But experts say Tesla is far behind Waymo, which has a big...
Techmeme
Tesla
By Jack Ewing / New York Times. View the full context on Techmeme.
A look at the humans employed to rescue robotaxis; Waymo uses the Honk app to pay $20 to $24 to manually close robotaxi doors and $60 to $80 to tow its cars (Lisa Bonos/Washington Post) https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/12/25/waymo-robots-human-work/
Techmeme
A look at the humans employed to rescue robotaxis; Waymo uses the Honk app to pay $20 to $24 to manually close robotaxi doors and $60 to $80 to tow its cars
By Lisa Bonos / Washington Post. View the full context on Techmeme.
A look at Detroit's Apple Developer Academy, launched after the BLM protests, which spends $20K per student, nearly 2x the budget of local community colleges (Paresh Dave/Wired)
WIRED
Apple’s App Course Runs $20,000 a Student. Is It Really Worth It?
Apple, Michigan taxpayers, and one of Detroit’s wealthiest families spent roughly $30 million training hundreds of people to build iPhone apps. N...
Techmeme
A look at Detroit
By Paresh Dave / Wired. View the full context on Techmeme.
PitchBook: crypto M&A hit $8.6B across 267 deals in 2025 vs. $2.17B in 2024; 11 crypto IPOs raised $14.6B worldwide, up from $310M from four IPOs in 2024 (Nikou Asgari/Financial Times)
Client Challenge
Techmeme
PitchBook: crypto M&A hit $8.6B across 267 deals in 2025 vs. $2.17B in 2024; 11 crypto IPOs raised $14.6B worldwide, up from $310M from four IPOs in 2024
By Nikou Asgari / Financial Times. View the full context on Techmeme.