News for Wednesday (11/26/2025): Perplexity; Nvidia & TikTok; Character.AI

TikTok, you must stop?

Chinese tech regulators won’t let ByteDance use Nvidia’s chips in its new data centers. The TikTok owner needs a lot of computing power to keep its 1 billion+ users watching lip-syncing videos. But Nvidia is a U.S. company, and China wants data centers made with homegrown chips. (Reuters)

Just in time for Black Friday 

Days after OpenAI announced its AI shopping researcher, Perplexity is unveiling a shopping tool that recommends products to you. Ostensibly, these are products you’re actually searching for instead of those hiking boots you bought two years ago after a Google Search but keep showing up in your feed anyway. (The Verge)

Building Character

After banning teens from using its chatbot yesterday, Character.AI today has launched a “Stories” feature specifically for that demographic. The format is more guided exploration and less open-ended convo, as Character.AI responds to allegations that its platform contributed to a teen’s suicide. (The Verge)