The EU says Meta agreed to make changes to its "pay or consent" model in the EU, including ad-lite Instagram and Facebook versions, but "the case is not closed" (Barbara Moens/Financial Times)
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Techmeme
The EU says Meta agreed to change its “pay or consent” model to let Facebook and Instagram users share less data in exchange for less personalized ads
By Barbara Moens / Financial Times. View the full context on Techmeme.
Big Tech's AI data center plans, which are set to need an estimated 44GW of additional capacity by 2028, face a power crunch that could deflate the AI "bubble" (Financial Times)
Client Challenge
Techmeme
Big Tech
From Financial Times. View the full context on Techmeme.
Users of ByteDance's agentic AI phone Nubia M153 report that its Doubao assistant is blocked or limited by Tencent's WeChat, Alibaba's Taobao, and other apps (Cissy Zhou/Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia
ByteDance AI phone sparks security fears from Tencent and Alibaba
Experts say bigger concern is TikTok parent trying to rewrite Big Tech market rules
Techmeme
Users of ByteDance
By Cissy Zhou / Nikkei Asia. View the full context on Techmeme.
Singapore-based banking and payments startup Airwallex raised $330M at an $8B valuation, after raising $300M at a $6.2B valuation in May, and plans a US HQ (Laith Al-Khalaf/Financial Times)
Client Challenge
Techmeme
Singapore-based banking and payments startup Airwallex raised $330M at an $8B valuation, after raising $300M at a $6.2B valuation in May, and plans a US HQ
By Laith Al-Khalaf / Financial Times. View the full context on Techmeme.
Binance receives three licenses from Abu Dhabi's financial regulator, allowing comprehensive operations across its exchange, clearing, and brokerage arms (Alex Dooler/Bloomberg) https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-08/crypto-exchange-binance-gains-regulatory-win-in-abu-dhabi
Techmeme
Binance receives three licenses from Abu Dhabi
By Alex Dooler / Bloomberg. View the full context on Techmeme.
Police in Edmonton, Canada partner with Axon to test body cameras with AI facial recognition, and say the results will be verified by human officers (Associated Press)
AP News
AI-powered police body cameras, once taboo, get tested on Canadian city's 'watch list' of faces
Police in Edmonton, Canada, have started a pilot project using AI-equipped body cameras to detect faces on a "high risk" watch list.
Techmeme
Police in Edmonton, Canada, partner with Axon to test body cameras with AI facial recognition, and say the results will be analyzed later at police stations
From Associated Press. View the full context on Techmeme.
Google says Gemini 3 Pro sets new vision AI benchmark records, including in complex visual reasoning, beating Claude Opus 4.5 and GPT-5.1 in some categories (Rohan Doshi/The Keyword)
Google
Gemini 3 Pro: the frontier of vision AI
Build with Gemini 3 Pro, the best model in the world for multimodal capabilities.
Techmeme
Google says Gemini 3 Pro sets new vision AI benchmark records, including in complex visual reasoning, beating Claude Opus 4.5 and GPT-5.1 in some categories
By Rohan Doshi / The Keyword. View the full context on Techmeme.
An interview with 10 Kenyan AI annotators shows Chinese companies hire data labelers via opaque middleman networks and WhatsApp groups to avoid accountability (Rest of World)
Rest of World
The hidden Kenyan workers training China’s AI models
An unemployment crisis has created fertile ground for companies to step in with opaque systems built on WhatsApp groups, middlemen, and bargain-bas...
Techmeme
Interviews with 10 Kenyan AI annotators show how Chinese companies hire data labelers via opaque middleman networks and WhatsApp groups to avoid accountability
From Rest of World. View the full context on Techmeme.
Coinbase reopens app registration in India after an over-two-year pause, letting users make crypto-to-crypto trades, and plans to open up crypto buying in 2026 (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)
TechCrunch
Coinbase starts onboarding users again in India, plans for fiat on-ramp next year | TechCrunch
Coinbase is exploring expansion into India with a staggered relaunch and hiring for different roles.
Techmeme
Coinbase reopens app registrations in India after an over-two-year pause, letting users make crypto-to-crypto trades, and plans to open up crypto buying in 2026
By Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch. View the full context on Techmeme.
Inside the creation of AI actress Tilly Norwood, which included 2,000 iterations; Particle6, its creator, says it has ~60 NDAs for projects involving Tilly (Ellen Gamerman/Wall Street Journal) https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/film/tilly-norwood-ai-actress-particle6-d5c51da9?st=fMdFoq&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
Techmeme
Inside Particle6
By Ellen Gamerman / Wall Street Journal. View the full context on Techmeme.