October 2, 2023
Stitch raises $25M Series A extension led by Ribbit Capital, increasing the round’s total to $46M
Open banking, in which traditional banks release their data via application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable the development of new financial services for their consumers, has been one of the…
Unitary AI picks up $15M for its multimodal approach to video content moderation
Content moderation continues to be a contentious topic in the world of online media. New regulations and public concern are likely to keep it as a priority for many years…
Elon Musk is being sued for defamation after falsely claiming a man was a neo-Nazi on X
Elon Musk has been on something of a suing spree lately, but on Monday, Twitter’s new owner was hit with a fresh inbound lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that Musk defamed…
Tesla Autopilot arbitration win could set legal benchmark in auto industry
In a victory for Tesla, a California federal judge ruled over the weekend that a group of Tesla owners cannot pursue in court claims that the company falsely advertised its…
In this issue: Mining water on the moon with Starpath Robotics, news from Blue Origin, SpaceX and more.
Featured Article
Republicans still don’t know how to talk to young voters online
In an appeal to younger voters, Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy — who proposed raising the voting age to 25 — launched his TikTok presence with an endorsement from Jake Paul, the YouTuber turned boxer who built a content empire by marketing to children. Ramaswamy is one of the only Republican politicians making an effort…
Dave Clark, the former Amazon executive who was ousted as CEO of Flexport just a year into the job, fired back at its founder and board, calling recent reporting on…
Visa announced today that it plans to invest $100 million in companies developing generative AI technologies and applications “that will impact the future of commerce and payments.” The investments will…
Elon Musk’s X Corp. faces trademark lawsuit from social media ad agency
When Elon Musk rebranded Twitter to X this summer, there were concerns that the new company could face trademark lawsuits as there were nearly 900 active U.S. trademark registrations that…
We developed an ‘AI as agent’ approach and shipped a new AI capability that exploded to 5% adoption in the first week.
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SBF’s trial promises to be just as riveting as the rest of the FTX drama
‘If the SBF trial starts to look like the crypto equivalent of an organized crime trial, don’t be surprised.’
Kenyan legislative committee calls for Worldcoin shutdown in the country
A Kenyan parliamentary committee formed in August to investigate operations and activities of Sam Altman’s crypto project, Worldcoin, in the East African country, has recommended for it to be shut…
Featured Article
Fearless Fund barred from awarding grant to Black women founders
Experts and venture industry insiders following the Fearless Fund case remain dumbfounded as it continues to unfold.
IronNet, founded by former NSA director, shuts down and lays off staff
IronNet, a once-promising cybersecurity startup founded by a former NSA director and funded by cyber and defense investors, has shuttered and laid off its remaining staff following its collapse. In…
Lex, the app inspired by vintage lesbian personals, just raised $5.6 million in seed funding and elevated co-founder Jennifer Lewis from COO to CEO. As a result, founding CEO Kel…
Amid Twitter chaos, Mastodon grew donations 488% in 2022, reached 1.8M monthly active users
Consumer interest in open source, decentralized social networking isn’t something that was only reflected in news headlines over the past year, it’s also apparent in the financials behind Mastodon. The…
Keeping up with an industry as fast-moving as AI is a tall order. So until an AI can do it for you, here’s a handy roundup of recent stories in the world…
How much carbon pollution is in your product? Muir AI raises $3.25M seed to answer that question
Everything from materials to manufacturing and distribution leaves a carbon footprint, and not all vendors report their emissions.
Crypto pretty much seems to have lost its allure as far as venture capitalists are concerned.
Beams helps product teams shine a light on the work that matters most
Beams’ co-founders Jana Schellong and Mihri Minaz see a fundamental problem with how product teams work. While they have productivity tools that are supposed to help them work smarter, too…
It is time for a new technology that will give more power to the consumer, more freedom to developers and more opportunity for innovation.
TikTok confirms small test of an ad-free subscription tier outside the US
Soon, you might be able to watch TikTok ad-free. Mostly. And for a price. As first reported by Android Authority, code within the TikTok app indicates that TikTok might begin…
Elon Musk’s X to test livestream shopping in partnership with Paris Hilton
As Elon Musk’s X expands its efforts to become an “everything app,” the company formerly known as Twitter announced today it will run a livestream shopping event with media icon…
Eyeing vision-based autonomy for farm equipment, Bonsai Robotics raises $10.5M
One can’t accuse Bonsai Robotics of lacking focus. The Bay Area-based firm is starting with trees — specifically nut trees. Like most labor-intensive sectors these days, farms have suffered from…
Google Pixel Event 2023: Watch the Pixel 8 series reveal live
The biggest question at this point is whether Google has any more surprises up its sleeve. The company appears to have announced everything about the Pixel 8, Pixel 8 Pro…
Rivian Q3 deliveries beat expectations, jump 23% from previous quarter
Rivian reported Monday it produced 16,304 vehicles at its Normal, Illinois factory and delivered 15,564 to customers, a higher-than-expected result that puts the company on track to beat its estimates…
Spotify spotted developing AI-generated playlists created with prompts
Following the successful launch of Spotify’s AI-powered DJ feature and, more recently, added support for AI-translated podcasts, Spotify now appears to be developing another means of using AI in its…
Tesla delivered 435,059 vehicles in the third quarter, a result that missed Wall Street expectations and was nearly 7% lower than the previous quarter. Tesla said planned downtimes at its…
Cyrus Khajvandi, a Stanford biology graduate and two-time entrepreneur, often found it challenging to stay on top of scientific research while managing his daily workload. Recognizing that he wasn’t the…
Progress, the company behind MOVEit, patches new actively exploited security flaws
Progress Software, the company behind the recently hacked MOVEit file-transfer software, has released fixes for two more critical-rated vulnerabilities that are being exploited by attackers. In an advisory published last…
