Source: OpenAI rolled back ChatGPT's model router, which sent some queries to reasoning models, for Free and $5/month Go tiers, as it was costly and hurt DAUs (Maxwell Zeff/Wired)

https://www.wired.com/story/openai-router-relaunch-gpt-5-sam-altman/
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p24#a251216p24

Event software company Cvent acquires video content platform Goldcast; source: Cvent paid just under $300M to acquire Goldcast, which had raised around $38M (Dan Primack/Axios)

https://www.axios.com/pro/merger-deals/2025/12/15/cvent-300m-goldcast-buy
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p23#a251216p23

DoorDash launches Zesty, a standalone AI-powered social app for users to find nearby restaurants, in public testing in San Francisco and New York (Natalie Lung/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-16/doordash-launches-zesty-an-ai-powered-app-for-finding-new-restaurants
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p22#a251216p22

OpenAI launches FrontierScience, a benchmark to measure models' expert-level scientific reasoning with 700+ questions, finding GPT-5.2 is its strongest model (OpenAI)

https://openai.com/index/frontierscience/
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p21#a251216p21

A look at Apple's iPhone roadmap; sources say the iPhone 18 Pro lineup will get under-screen Face ID, and the front camera will move to the top-left corner (The Information)

https://www.theinformation.com/articles/inside-apples-iphone-road-map-foldable-screens-curved-glass-cases
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p20#a251216p20

Meta launches prompt-based sound separation model SAM Audio in its Segment Anything Playground, letting users isolate individual sounds from complex recordings (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE)

https://siliconangle.com/2025/12/16/meta-platforms-transforms-audio-editing-prompt-based-sound-separation/
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p19#a251216p19

Instagram unveils its first TV app, initially available on Amazon's Fire TV as a test with plans to expand to other TV platforms (Kurt Wagner/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-16/instagram-debuts-dedicated-television-app-for-amazon-fire-tv
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p18#a251216p18

The cost-per-watt of compute for orbital solar data centers is $51.10/W vs. just $15.85/W for terrestrial sites; SpaceX is uniquely positioned to try orbital (Andrew McCalip)

https://andrewmccalip.com/space-datacenters
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p17#a251216p17

Sequence, which builds AI agents to automate B2B companies' revenue operations, raised a $20M Series A led by 645 Ventures, bringing its total funding to ~$40M (Ryan Lawler/Axios)

https://www.axios.com/pro/fintech-deals/2025/12/16/sequence-20-million-revenue-ops
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p16#a251216p16

Q&A with Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe on founding Rivian in 2009, production challenges, the VW partnership, autonomy, AI, EVs, chips, CarPlay, and more (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)

https://stratechery.com/2025/an-interview-with-rivian-ceo-rj-scaringe-about-building-a-car-company-and-autonomy/
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p15#a251216p15

Adobe updates Firefly's app to add a prompt-based video editor using Runway's Aleph model, and adds image and video models from Black Forest Labs and others (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/16/adobe-firefly-now-supports-prompt-based-video-editing-adds-more-third-party-models/
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p14#a251216p14

Mozilla appoints Anthony Enzor-DeMeo as its CEO amid a challenging period for Mozilla's for-profit arm with layoffs, restructuring, and its Google dependence (David Pierce/The Verge)

https://www.theverge.com/tech/845216/mozilla-ceo-anthony-enzor-demeo
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p13#a251216p13

Databricks is raising a $4B Series L at a $134B valuation, up from $100B in August and $62B in December 2024, and had a $4.8B annual revenue run rate in October (Belle Lin/Wall Street Journal)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/databricks-is-raising-funds-at-134-billion-valuation-4a2efaea?st=gxgVf7&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p12#a251216p12

Visa says it will allow US banks to settle transactions using Circle's USDC stablecoin over Solana, the US' first full deployment of a stablecoin settlement (Emily Mason/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-16/visa-offers-stablecoin-settlement-for-us-banks-using-circle-s-usdc
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p11#a251216p11

Elizabeth Warren and two Democratic senators write to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, and more to investigate AI data centers' role in rising electricity costs (New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/business/energy-environment/senate-democrats-electricity-prices-data-centers.html
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p10#a251216p10

Sources and a memo: Amazon plans to cut 370 jobs, or ~8.5% of its 4,370 employees, at its European HQ in Luxembourg, the country's biggest layoffs in 20 years (Benoit Berthelot/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-16/amazon-european-hub-in-luxembourg-braces-for-record-job-cuts
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p9#a251216p9

VW plans to end vehicle production at its Dresden plant, which opened in 2001, and convert it into a research hub focused on AI, robotics, and chip design (Gregory Schmidt/New York Times)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/business/volkswagen-dresden-factory-closed.html
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p8#a251216p8

As Europe rearms, Anduril is trying to break through in the UK by co-funding major programs, cutting manufacturing deals, and billing itself as "Anglo-American" (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-12-16/anduril-hunts-uk-drone-deal-with-billion-dollar-playbook
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p7#a251216p7

Analysis: of the 8,808 global data centers in October 2025, ~7,000 are in areas outside the optimal 18C to 27C temperature range; 600 are in areas above 27C (Rest of World)

https://restofworld.org/2025/data-center-heat-map/
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p6#a251216p6

China approves two cars from state-owned automakers with Level 3 autonomous capabilities, the first such approvals; the cars can drive in Chongqing and Beijing (Reuters)

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/china-approves-first-batch-l3-autonomous-driving-vehicles-2025-12-15/
http://www.techmeme.com/251216/p5#a251216p5