Inside Google DeepMind's Genie 3 world model - DTNSB 5075

Cloudflare calls out Perplexity for evading no-crawl directives, and Windows XP and Clippy are coming for your feet!

Starring Jason Howell, Tom Merritt, and Ryan Whitwam.

JASON: This is the Daily Tech News for Tuesday, August 5, 2025. We tell you what you need to know, follow up on the context of those stories and help each other understand.

TOM: Today Ryan Whitwam from Ars Technica joins us to talk about Google DeepMind’s Genie 3 world model, and Cloudflare says Perplexity crawlers are sidestepping site restrictions.

I’m Jason Howell,

I’m Tom Merritt

JASON: Let’s start with what you need to know with the big story.

BIG STORY

DeepMind reveals Genie 3 “world model” that creates real-time interactive simulations

JASON: Google DeepMind has announced Genie 3, an updated "world model" that can generate entire virtual and interactive environments in real time along with the ability to dynamically change it upon request in real time. Ryan Whitwam, Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica, wrote all about Genie 3 and joins us to talk about it now. Welcome, Ryan!

First, tell us about the primary advancements within Genie 3 and what stands out for you in this announcement?
Explain what a world model is and how it relates to AI’s interpretation of data.
How detailed is DeepMind about how it's able to make this happen?
Is a world model specifically built around the dynamics of OUR Earthly world or the dynamics of whatever world the model defines?
The memory is longer for Genie 3 than Genie 2 but how long is it?
Can synthetic data from systems like this be trusted to inform the development of other AI models?
What other kinds of applications could this be useful for outside of gaming and entertainment?

Ryan Whitwam, thank you so much for joining us! Folks can find your work at ArsTechnica.com.

TOM: DTNS is made possible by you the listener. Thanks to
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JASON: There’s more we need to know today, let’s get to the briefs.

BRIEFS

Cloudflare says Perplexity’s AI bots are ‘stealth crawling’ blocked sites
"Perplexity is using stealth, undeclared crawlers to evade website no-crawl directives"
"Agents or Bots? Making Sense of AI on the Open Web"
"Some people are defending Perplexity after Cloudflare ‘named and shamed’ it | TechCrunch"

TOM: Cloudflare says it found that Perplexity’s AI bots access web pages that had been set to block its bots. Cloudflare created fresh web domains that had not been indexed by search engines and had robots.txt files that prohibited scraping. It then asked Perplexity questions about the sites and found that Perplexity answered them with detailed information from the content on the sites. Cloudflare found that when Perplexity's agent was denied access, it changed the agent to appear as a Chrome browser and rotated IPs to avoid blocks. Cloudflare said this happened across tens of thousands of domains. Perplexity said in a blog post that Cloudflare identified behavior from BrowserBase, a third-party cloud browser service that Perplexity only occasionally uses for highly specialized tasks, with less than 45,000 requests a day. Cloudflare has delisted Perplexity's bot. Cloudflare pointed out that ChatGPT uses the Cloudflare proposed standard, Web Bot Auth to identify an agent web request and therefore doesn't get blocked.

Taiwanese authorities detain three over alleged theft of TSMC chip secrets
JASON: Authorities in Taiwan arrested three people accused of stealing trade secrets from TSMC, the semiconductor manufacturer that supplies companies like Apple and Qualcomm with its chips. The information was reportedly related to the company's proprietary 2-nanometer chip technology, its most advanced technology in terms of density and energy efficiency. The identities of the individuals were not released, but investigators believe that they had plans to sell or use stolen information in the marketplace.

ElevenLabs launches an AI music generator, which it claims is cleared for commercial use
TOM: ElevenLabs has released a new AI-powered music generator tool that it says is cleared for commercial use. The company says content creators, advertisers, and developers can use the music in their own content without worrying about legal liability and copyright strikes. ElevenLabs says its dataset, training methods, and output design avoid copyrighted sources and risky audio samples.

iPhone 17 event scheduled for September 9, according to carrier documents
Google’s Pixel 10 Pro Fold might not go on sale until October
JASON: How about a few smartphone rumor threads to pull. First, carrier documents are pointing to a Tuesday, September 9 launch event for Apple's upcoming iPhone 17 lineup. If that comes to pass, history tells us that you could expect pre-orders to open on Friday, September 12, with retail sales and availability on Friday, September 19. Time to get excited?

Second, Google has its Made By Google event set for August 20, which should give the company a head start in front of Apple on its big Pixel 10 lineup release, right? A report by WinFuture claims that supply chain problems might push back the Pixel 10 Pro Fold, Pixel Watch 4, and Pixel Buds 2a all the way to October 9, 2025, a nearly two-month delay from announcement to availability.

"Illinois Bill Banning AI Therapists"

TOM: The US State of Illinois passed a law that forbids anyone from providing, advertising or otherwise offering therapy or psychotherapy to the public unless it is conducted by "an individual who is a licensed professional." Licensed professionals may use AI for administrative and supplementary support. However, the therapist takes responsibility for everything related to the AI's use and cannot use it in sessions that are recorded or transcribed without detailing in writing how it will be used and getting consent from the patient or their authorized representative. The penalty for violation of these rules is up to $10,000 per incident.

Spotify Launches its Audiobooks+ Add-ons in the US
JASON: Spotify has launched Audiobooks+ in the United States as an add-on to its existing streaming plans. The company had trialed the add-on with users in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and a few other European markets. Spotify offers two distinct plans, one meant for Premium Individual subscribers and plan managers on Family and Duo plans with an extra 15 hours of audiobook listening per month in their account. The other is for Plan Members, meaning a family member could grant 15 hours to a family member with the option of topping up an additional 10-hours on demand. The new feature launches in the US on August 5.

Say Hi To Howdy, Roku’s New Ad-Free Subscription Streamer Priced At Just $3 A Month

TOM: Roku is launching an ad-free streaming service called Howdy for $2.99 a month. It will include Roku Originals as well as library content from Warner Brothers Discovery, Lionsgate and others.

Microsoft’s Windows XP Crocs are no joke
JASON: Love them or hate them, Crocs are a thing that a lot of people enjoy wearing (including my kids). Microsoft is reportedly bringing its Windows XP grassy hill and blue sky bliss to a 50th anniversary edition of Crocs, complete with a Clippy shoe charm. Microsoft employees get first dibs ahead of a worldwide launch. These stylish shoes will set you back around $80 once Microsoft makes its official announcement that's expected in the coming days.

PROMO

 TOM: Join in the conversation in our Discord which you can join by linking to a Patreon account at patreon.com/dtns

HELPING EACH OTHER UNDERSTAND

JASON: We end every episode of DTNS with some shared wisdom. Today James has a reaction to Justin Robert Young’s appearance about political messaging on iOS.

TOM:
James writes:

Hi DTNS folks,

Long time listeners, medium time patron, and love the show.

I don't normally write in but when I was listening to the Aug 1 DTNS briefing (i think?) about the changes to the message app on iOS 26 preview, my blood was boiling...

To me, this is basically the same thing as gmail auto enabling the categories a few years back to make email more usable than before... I remember there were doom sayers about "no our emails won't work anymore"...

... Hearing the numbers from JuRY helps me understand why it was sooo much worse before the election last year; 200+ text per person, gees, that sounds about right but damn. ...

I'm really glad to hear iOS is doing more about this ... I hope they give the user more controls like email filters, personally any text from unknown sender with certain words can go straight to trash as far as i'm concerned, i don't even care which side they are coming from.

I hope Apple turns this on by default too, same with gmail, the industry will just have to deal with it...

Anyways, thanks for listening to my rants lol...

Thanks,
Kwok On (James)

JASON: What are you thinking about? Got some insight into a story? Share it with us feedback@dailytechnewsshow.com

JASON: Thanks to Ryan Whitwam and James for contributing to today’s show. And thank YOU for being along for Daily Tech News Show. You can keep us in business by becoming a patron, atPatreon.com/dtns