Signal President Meredith Whittaker calls out agentic AI as having ‘profound’ security and privacy issues

Signal President Meredith Whittaker warned Friday that agentic AI could come with a risk to user privacy. Speaking onstage at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, the advocate for secure communications referred to the use of AI agents as “putting your brain in a jar,” and cautioned th

Intuitive Machines’ second moon lander is dead

Intuitive Machines’ Athena lunar lander is dead, just one day after it touched down at the moon’s south pole and tipped over. Luckily, the company says it was able to “accelerate several program and payload milestones” and deploy a few of the experiments that were riding sho

What is Instagram's Threads app? All your questions answered

Twitter alternatives — new and old — have found audiences willing to try out a newer social networks since Elon Musk took over the company in 2022. Mastodon, Bluesky, Spill and T2 are some of the social media platforms people are among them. So is Meta’s Threads platform. What is Threads

Threads tests adding ‘interests’ on profiles to connect users with topical discussions

Meta’s Threads has begun testing a new feature that would allow people to add their interests to their profile on the social network. Instead of only advertising to profile visitors the sort of topics you might post about, the new interests feature will also direct users to active conversatio

Google removes ‘underrepresented’ language from its grant website

Just weeks after Google said it would review its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, the Google for Startups Founders Fund web page is peppered with changes. Most notably Google is now using past tense to describe all of its fund programs for underrepresented founders.  This is a change t

Google debuts a new Gemini-based text embedding model

Google on Friday added a new, experimental “embedding” model for text, Gemini Embedding, to its Gemini developer API. Embedding models translate text inputs like words and phrases into numerical representations, known as embeddings, that capture the semantic meaning of the text. Embe

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, acquires 1 million-square-foot property in Memphis

xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has acquired a 1 million-square-foot property in Southwest Memphis to expand its AI data center footprint, according to a press release from the Memphis Chamber of Commerce. The new land will host infrastructure to complement xAI's existing Memphis data cente

AI-powered ‘more personalized Siri’ is delayed

Apple is delaying the rollout of the “more personalized Siri” experience it promised as part of its rollout of Apple Intelligence. According to a statement from the tech giant published on Friday by Apple blog Daring Fireball, the company admits it will “take us longer than we tho

Startups Weekly: Startups raised funding to help others navigate challenges

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can't miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Sometimes problems are just that: problems. But often, they are also fodder. This week brought us a mix of startups facing adversity, some

Health expert warns of leaning too heavily on AI for social connections

With the rise of AI companions who serve as online friends or romantic interests, experts are questioning how the technology affects our real-world social connections and relationships. According to Kasley Killam, author of the social health-focused book “The Art and Science of Connection: W

US charges admins of Garantex for allegedly facilitating crypto money laundering for terrorists and hackers

The U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday criminal charges against the administrators of the Russian cryptocurrency exchange Garantex for allegedly facilitating money laundering by criminal and terrorist organizations, as well as violating U.S. sanctions.  The two administrators are Lith

Google adds a Gemini panel to Calendar to help you manage your schedule

Google is testing a new AI-powered Gemini side panel within Google Calendar that lets users quickly and conversationally check their schedule, create an event, and look up event details. The feature is available as part of the tech giant’s early access testing program, Google Workspace Labs.

Japanese telco giant NTT Com says hackers accessed details of almost 18,000 organizations

Japanese telecom giant NTT Communications (NTT Com) has confirmed that hackers accessed the data of almost 18,000 corporate customers during a February cyberattack, affecting an as-yet-unknown number of individuals. The Tokyo-based NTT Com, which provides phone and network tech to enterprises, sai

CollX raises $10M to grow its card collection marketplace

CollX, a company offering an online trading card marketplace, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Austin-based Brand Foundry Ventures and Philadelphia-based 114 Ventures, both of which were previous investors in the company. Other investors such as Next Coast Vent