A profile of A24, valued at $3.5B in June 2024, as the studio focuses on big budget projects and invests in AI tools via A24 Labs, drawing mixed reactions (Alex Barasch/New Yorker)

Alex Barasch / New Yorker:
A profile of A24, valued at $3.5B in June 2024, as the studio focuses on big budget projects and invests in AI tools via A24 Labs, drawing mixed reactions  —  The studio is brilliant at selling small, provocative films.  Now it wants to sell blockbusters, too.  —  In November of 2015, the upstart film studio A24 had a problem.

Shopify updated a help page in May to tighten its rules against "hateful content" like racist merchandise, after removing a similar ban in July 2024 (Thomas Seal/Bloomberg)

Thomas Seal / Bloomberg:
Shopify updated a help page in May to tighten its rules against “hateful content” like racist merchandise, after removing a similar ban in July 2024  —  Shopify Inc. tightened rules against “hateful content” as users sell racist merchandise using its popular e-commerce platform, roughly a year after removing a similar ban.

How German delivery giant DHL uses automation and AI to help offset an ageing workforce, with one in three support staff set to retire in the next five years (Andrew Hill/Financial Times)

Andrew Hill / Financial Times:
How German delivery giant DHL uses automation and AI to help offset an ageing workforce, with one in three support staff set to retire in the next five years  —  The German delivery company says artificial intelligence is not taking jobs, but filling gaps in a stretched workforce

How Masayoshi Son became President Trump's favored foreign investor, after cultivating close ties since Trump's first term, leading to SoftBank's $2B Intel deal (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
How Masayoshi Son became President Trump's favored foreign investor, after cultivating close ties since Trump's first term, leading to SoftBank's $2B Intel deal  —  Japanese billionaire's deal for OpenAI and Intel came after careful courting of US president

A look at Apple's three-year iPhone redesign plan, starting with iPhone Air this fall, foldable with Touch ID in 2026, and a curved-glass "iPhone 20" in 2027 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A look at Apple's three-year iPhone redesign plan, starting with iPhone Air this fall, foldable with Touch ID in 2026, and a curved-glass “iPhone 20” in 2027  —  Apple is weeks away from its big product launch event, where it will lay the foundation for a once-in-a-generation iPhone overhaul.

An interview with Nick Clegg about Zuckerberg's "masculine energy", Silicon Valley's "cloying conformity" and "combination of machismo and self-pity", and more (Gaby Hinsliff/The Guardian)

Gaby Hinsliff / The Guardian:
An interview with Nick Clegg about Zuckerberg's “masculine energy”, Silicon Valley's “cloying conformity” and “combination of machismo and self-pity”, and more  —  When Britain's former deputy PM took a job at Meta, nothing could have prepared him for the ‘cloying conformity’ of the tech world.

How Raya, a privately held dating app with a waitlist of 2.5M people, found success through its rigorous user selection process and Fight Club-style rules (Lane Florsheim/Wall Street Journal)

Lane Florsheim / Wall Street Journal:
How Raya, a privately held dating app with a waitlist of 2.5M people, found success through its rigorous user selection process and Fight Club-style rules  —  The privately held company has attracted an A-list clientele and even gotten Gen Z onboard with online dating.

The US CFTC staff describe chaos, cutbacks, and an atmosphere of resentment and paranoia as the agency prepares to take on new crypto regulatory duties (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
The US CFTC staff describe chaos, cutbacks, and an atmosphere of resentment and paranoia as the agency prepares to take on new crypto regulatory duties  —  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission is poised to take on vast new responsibilities.  Staff describe chaos, cutbacks and an atmosphere of resentment and paranoia.

Some experts say Trump's extraordinary intervention is unlikely to save Intel, which faces challenges with poor yields and competition from TSMC and Nvidia (Reuters)

Reuters:
Some experts say Trump's extraordinary intervention is unlikely to save Intel, which faces challenges with poor yields and competition from TSMC and Nvidia  —  U.S. President Donald Trump is injecting nearly $9 billion into Intel(INTC.O) in exchange for a 9.9% equity stake.

Sources: Foxconn recalled ~300 Chinese engineers from its Indian plant making iPhone parts, replacing them with Taiwanese staff, its second such move in months (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: Foxconn recalled ~300 Chinese engineers from its Indian plant making iPhone parts, replacing them with Taiwanese staff, its second such move in months  —  Apple Inc. assembly partner Foxconn Technology Group has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India …

How AI is increasingly being used to replace human content moderators, who say that the tech is not yet capable of reliably identifying harmful content (Cecilia D'Anastasio/Bloomberg)

Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
How AI is increasingly being used to replace human content moderators, who say that the tech is not yet capable of reliably identifying harmful content  —  Kevin decided on a career in content moderation after his YouTube recommendations took a bewildering swerve.

Q&A with David Luan, head of Amazon's AGI research lab, on leaving Adept in a reverse acquihire deal, why he believes progress on AI models has slowed, and more (Alex Heath/The Verge)

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Q&A with David Luan, head of Amazon's AGI research lab, on leaving Adept in a reverse acquihire deal, why he believes progress on AI models has slowed, and more  —  Why Amazon AGI Labs chief David Luan thinks solving agents is the next ‘S-curve’ for AI.

Filing: OnlyFans gross revenue hit $7.2B in FY ending Nov. 2024, up from $6.6B YoY, and paid $5.8B to creators, up from $5.3B; creator accounts grew 13% to 4.6M (Daniel Thomas/Financial Times)

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Filing: OnlyFans gross revenue hit $7.2B in FY ending Nov. 2024, up from $6.6B YoY, and paid $5.8B to creators, up from $5.3B; creator accounts grew 13% to 4.6M  —  Porn streamer paid $5.8bn to content creators last year as Leonid Radvinsky holds talks over offloading majority stake

Email: TikTok plans to lay off several hundred UK trust and safety staff in the UK and Asia, citing "technological advances" such as LLMs in content moderation (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Email: TikTok plans to lay off several hundred UK trust and safety staff in the UK and Asia, citing “technological advances” such as LLMs in content moderation  —  Moves comes despite Online Safety Act requirements on dangerous material  —  TikTok is poised to lay off hundreds …

China's SSE Composite Index hits a decade high on Aug. 22, driven by gains in local chipmakers Cambricon and Hygon, after Nvidia reportedly halts H20 production (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
China's SSE Composite Index hits a decade high on Aug. 22, driven by gains in local chipmakers Cambricon and Hygon, after Nvidia reportedly halts H20 production  —  Chinese stocks were a standout performer in global markets on Friday, with a benchmark of onshore equities capping …