Tech News — 2026-06-15#

Story of the Day#

The US government has ordered Anthropic to cut off foreign access to its most advanced AI models, Mythos 5 and Fable 5, citing national security concerns over their potential use in cyberattacks. In response, Anthropic abruptly disabled access to both models globally, sparking a fierce debate over America’s tech leadership and the drastic precedent of using export controls to govern frontier AI.

Top Stories#

Fox Acquires Roku for $22 Billion · The Verge Fox is acquiring streaming hardware and software giant Roku outright in a $22 billion deal. The acquisition aims to merge Fox’s TV networks and Tubi platform with Roku’s massive base of 100 million households, creating the third-largest player in the US television industry. While Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch has promised to maintain Roku as an open platform, the deal undeniably gives Fox sweeping control over user data and advertising distribution.

UK Announces Sweeping Social Media Ban for Under-16s · The Verge The UK government will enact a total ban on social media use for children under 16, targeting platforms like TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and X by early 2027. Announced by Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the aggressive policy goes further than recent limits imposed by Australia and includes blocking under-17s from using livestreaming features or romantic companion AI chatbots. The sweeping legislation highlights a growing international movement to forcefully regulate Big Tech’s access to young audiences.

SpaceX Stock Surges Following Historic $85.7B IPO · TechCrunch SpaceX shares jumped significantly on Monday after making their blockbuster public market debut last Friday. Underwriters maxed out their share purchases, pushing the total amount raised to a record-breaking $85.7 billion. The massive influx of capital cements SpaceX’s rank among the world’s most valuable public companies and reflects intense investor appetite for commercial space operations.

Salesforce to Buy AI Firm Fin for $3.6 Billion · TechCrunch Salesforce has agreed to acquire Fin, a developer of AI-powered customer service agents, for $3.6 billion. Salesforce plans to integrate Fin’s team and technology into Agentforce, its existing enterprise platform for building custom, task-automating AI agents. The multi-billion dollar deal highlights an aggressive push by major software providers to secure dominance in the burgeoning enterprise AI and automation market.

Workers Spend as Much Time “Botsitting” AI as Producing Work · Slashdot A new study of 6,000 digital workers reveals that 37% of the time employees spend interacting with AI goes toward “botsitting”—correcting output and gathering necessary files—compared to only 36% actually producing usable work. While 75% of individuals report a personal productivity boost, merely 13% of organizations are seeing significant business gains from AI adoption. The research suggests a mostly invisible layer of human labor is currently holding enterprise generative AI together.

Xbox Closes Ninja Theory and Other Key Studios · The Verge Microsoft’s Xbox division continues its turbulent restructuring, announcing the closure of Ninja Theory, the acclaimed studio behind the Hellblade series. Alongside this shutdown, other prominent Xbox studios including Compulsion Games and Double Fine are reportedly in active negotiations to potentially spin off as independent entities. Xbox executives had previously warned staff of a necessary “reset” because the company had “over extended” its studio system and hardware strategy.

AMD Silently Strips Memory Encryption from Consumer CPUs · Slashdot AMD has quietly removed Transparent Secure Memory Encryption (TSME) from its consumer-grade Ryzen processors via a firmware update. The feature, which encrypts all RAM to protect against physical exploits like cold boot attacks, had been silently available on consumer chips for years. AMD declined to fully explain the change but stated that TSME is exclusively an “AMD PRO” feature, frustrating privacy-conscious users who viewed its sudden, unannounced removal as a betrayal.

Also Worth Knowing#

• Chinese Rocket Debris Threatens Low-Earth Orbit (Ars Technica): The upper stage of a commercial Chinese Zhuque-2E rocket broke apart shortly after reaching orbit, spreading debris dangerously close to SpaceX’s Starlink constellation and the International Space Station.
• Google Chrome Kills Old Ad Blockers (The Verge): Chrome’s upcoming version 150 update removes the final Manifest V2 loophole, permanently disabling legacy ad blockers like the original uBlock Origin.
• Nvidia Plans Massive $25 Billion Bond Sale (Ars Technica): Testing investor appetite for the AI sector, Nvidia is seeking to raise up to $25 billion in investment-grade debt, marking the chipmaker’s first corporate bond offering since 2021.
• Paralyzed Man Becomes BCI “Power User” (MIT Technology Review): A patient with ALS has successfully utilized a brain-computer interface independently for over 3,800 hours, allowing him to speak with 99% accuracy, control a cursor, and navigate the web.
• Trump’s “Made in USA” Phone is a Chinese-Made HTC (Slashdot): Teardowns by iFixit confirm the heavily promoted $499 Trump “T1” phone is actually a gold-painted, Chinese-manufactured HTC U24 Pro.