Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips bring agentic AI to mobile phones

It's Wednesday, September 23rd. I'm Wes Ott, and here's what's going on in Tech Today

Paramount agreed to major concessions to save its takeover bid of Warner Brothers

Twelve state attorney generals previously filed suit against the merger. To resolve legal challenges, Paramount will keep major studios separate

Paramount Pictures and Warner Brothers Studios will operate independently. The combined company must release 30 films annually or pay fines

Additionally, Paramount will establish an independent board for CBS and CNN. The board aims to protect newsroom decisions from corporate interference

The total value of the pending deal reaches $111 billion. State regulators raised severe antitrust concerns regarding the Hollywood market power

This landmark settlement clears a crucial hurdle for the takeover. On September 18th, the FCC approved an enormous infusion of foreign cash to finance the deal

The merged company will be 49.5% owned by foreign interests, including the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Abu Dhabi

Disney Plus recently updated its European subscriber agreement terms. Reports claimed the change eliminated ad-free streaming tiers entirely

However, reports of full commercial breaks are completely inaccurate. Ad-free subscribers will not see mid-roll commercial breaks

The updated language simply clarifies existing platform promotional rules All tiers may display brief trailers before or after videos Additionally live sporting events and broadcasts will keep commercials American subscribers have experienced

no terms of service change whatsoever. The clarification aligns Disney with the industry

standard in services like Amazon Prime and competitors like Max already run pre-roll

promotional clips. Subscribers with junior mode enabled will remain completely ad-free. Amazon officially blocked Meta's new Muse Assistant from its marketplace. The retailer

cut access for the personal AI agent. Amazon accused Meta of violating platform terms of

service agreements. Executives claimed Muse accesses store data without explicit prior authorization, Amazon raised security concerns regarding customer credentials and order histories

The company insists shopping agents must operate transparently with permission. Users trying to

shop via Muse now face blocked pop-ups. Meta previously claimed Muse encrypts login detail

securely in storage, and Meta says the tool requires user approval before processing orders

This conflict reflects the ongoing battle over agentic e-commerce platforms. Amazon previously restricted similar shopping assistance from Google and OpenAI

So that's what's going on in tech today. I'm Wes Ott, wishing you a happy National Checkers Day, and I'll see you in the next one