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12TB archive of Valve's old Steam2 files leaks, exposing lost game builds

A 12-terabyte trove of Steam2-era content dating from 2003 to 2013 has appeared online, reportedly containing nearly every uploaded build for that decade, including cut Portal 2 assets, Half-Life 2: Episode 3 files, and beta versions of Left 4 Dead 2, CS:GO, Spore, and Dragon Age: Origins. Researchers say the material came from an unsecured public API tied to Valve's old distribution system, which was replaced by SteamPipe in 2013 and left this data exposed without any password protection.

Clipto raises $15M at $250M valuation for AI video search tool

Clipto, a San Francisco-based startup with teams in Singapore and Hong Kong, closed a $15 million all-equity funding round that values the company at $250 million. The startup's software indexes videos, audio, images, and meeting recordings stored on a user's computer, letting people find files by describing them in natural language or through AI assistants like ChatGPT and Claude. Founder Henry Kang, whose prior startup ZenVideo was acquired by Tencent in 2020, built Clipto around the idea that AI has created a glut of unused content rather than a shortage of it.

12TB Steam2 server dump exposes unreleased Valve and third-party game data

A 12-terabyte archive of data from Valve's old Steam2 content servers, used between 2003 and 2013, has surfaced via BitTorrent in an incident dubbed the 'Teraleak.' The trove reportedly contains unreleased builds and prototypes from Valve and other developers, including early Portal 2 prototypes and a Sonic the Hedgehog 4 build, and appears to have been assembled from publicly accessible endpoints rather than a hack.

12TB leak exposes decade of pre-2013 Steam build history

A massive 12TB torrent dubbed the Steam 'teraleak' has surfaced online, containing thousands of game depots from Valve's old Steam2 content distribution system used between 2003 and 2013. The trove includes public release builds as well as previously unseen prototype, pre-release, and playtest versions of games from Valve and third-party publishers. Data miner Gabe Follower says the material was pulled from a publicly accessible API endpoint, suggesting the exposure originated from Valve's own systems rather than a hack.

Massive 12TB leak exposes decade of Valve's Steam files from 2003-2013

An unidentified party leaked over 12TB of Valve's internal builds and unreleased assets, spanning games published on Steam between 2003 and 2013. The trove reportedly includes early versions of Portal 2, Left 4 Dead, CS:GO, and material tied to the canceled F-Stop project and the long-rumored Half-Life 2: Episode 3. Researchers say the data appears to have been exposed via a publicly accessible endpoint, which explains why nothing newer than 2013 has surfaced.

NYT Reporter's New Book Says Tech Firms Shape US School Curricula

A New York Times reporter who has tracked tech industry influence in education for over a decade argues in a new book, 'Coding Kids: Big Tech's Battle to Remake Public Schools,' that major technology companies help write learning standards, sit on curriculum committees, and push schools to adopt industry-aligned subjects like coding and AI. The reporter contends these efforts often function as marketing rather than neutral education, giving students and teachers a sanitized view of tech products and their risks.

12TB Steam data leak exposes unused Half-Life 2: Episode 3 and Portal 2 content

A massive 12-terabyte leak containing builds of nearly every game uploaded to Steam between 2003 and 2013 has surfaced online. Researchers combing through the trove have already found scrapped assets from the canceled Half-Life 2: Episode 3, cut Portal 2 material including alternate dialogue and intro sequences, and early builds of titles like Call of Duty, Resident Evil, Mirror's Edge, and Dragon Age: Origins.

Night Vale co-creator Joseph Fink cites Grim Fandango as core storytelling influence

In a Verge interview, Welcome to Night Vale co-creator Joseph Fink discussed his creative influences and current projects, including the podcast sequel Don't Tell Alice and his new novella The Nudge, illustrated by Jessica Hayworth and out September 1st. He named the 1999 adventure game Grim Fandango as the work that shaped his entire approach to storytelling, and also shared his preference for the Android-only app Podcast Addict and the social platform Bluesky.

Investors eye Gulf South as next US innovation hub beyond Silicon Valley

A venture capital commentator argues that the next major wave of American innovation is shifting from software toward physical infrastructure like energy, logistics and manufacturing, and that the Gulf South region is positioned to lead it. The region accounts for over 40% of US crude production and half of national refining capacity, alongside major LNG, aerospace and defense hubs, plus global trade links to Latin America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. The author points to events like the 3rd Coast Venture Summit in New Orleans as evidence that founders and investors are already organizing around this thesis.

Google cuts Pixel 11 trade-in values by up to $150

Google has reduced trade-in credits offered toward Pixel 11 series purchases, ending the launch-window bonuses it previously offered. The Pixel 10 Pro Fold saw the steepest cut, dropping from $1,000 to $850, while most other recent Pixel models lost $50 or less in trade value. Google says these new lower rates will remain in effect through September.

Leaked NVIDIA DLSS 5 build shows facial AI creating uncanny, aged character faces

An early, unofficial leak of NVIDIA's upcoming DLSS 5 technology has surfaced, showing its neural rendering applied to games like Control and Skyrim. The AI-altered faces look strangely aged or overly realistic while clashing with untouched, lower-poly bodies and stiff animations, producing an uncanny visual mismatch. Testing also showed a steep performance cost, with Control's frame rate reportedly dropping from 71 fps to 35 fps at 4K on an RTX 5070 Ti when Neural Rendering was enabled.

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