Meta needs to win over AI developers at its first LlamaCon

On Tuesday, Meta is hosting its first-ever LlamaCon AI developer conference at its Menlo Park headquarters, where the company will try to pitch developers on building applications with its open Llama AI models. Just a year ago, that wasn’t a hard sell. However, in recent months, Meta has str

Indian court orders blocking of Proton Mail

A court in India has ordered the blocking of encrypted email provider Proton Mail across the country. On Tuesday, the Karnataka High Court directed the Indian government to block Proton Mail, a popular email service known for its enhanced security, following a legal complaint filed by New Delhi-ba

Spotify adds 5M premium users and hits record operating income

Spotify reported on Tuesday that its premium subscriber base grew by 5 million in the first quarter, representing a 12% increase year-over-year. This brings the total to 268 million, marking the second-highest total ever and the highest net addition of paid subs for a first quarter since 2020.  S

Amazon Prime Day to return in July despite threat of tariffs

Amazon is bringing back its annual sales event, Prime Day, in July, the e-commerce giant said on Tuesday. This year, consumer demand for the popular sale event could be dampened by the possibility of tariffs increasing the cost of goods. To highlight the impact of President Trump’s tariffs,

Hoofprint Biome boosts cow nutrition while slashing methane burps

Sometimes, answering a long-standing problem is a matter of finding a new perspective. Take methane from cows: For years, people have been trying to eliminate the gas from cow burps in an attempt to limit the livestock's impact on the climate. But they haven't made a dent. That's in pa

Near Space Labs nabs $20M to take its high-res imaging Swift robots into the stratosphere

When it comes to creating images of Earth from above, satellites, drones, planes, and spacecraft are what tend to come to mind. But a startup called Near Space Labs has a very different approach to taking high-resolution photos from up high. Near Space Labs is building aircraft, called Swift, that

Here’s how to watch LlamaCon, Meta’s first AI developer event

On Tuesday, Meta is hosting LlamaCon, its first-ever AI developer event. It’ll center around the company’s Llama family of open AI models, and we’re expecting some big updates for developers. Also on the agenda: keynotes from Meta executives and fireside chats with Big Tech CEOs

Yelp debuts AI voice agents for restaurants and service providers

Yelp said on Tuesday that it’s working on deploying AI-powered “voice agents” to help service providers and restaurants handle calls, answer basic questions, and accomplish tasks like adding a customer to a restaurant waitlist. Yelp says its agents don’t require a complica

Government hackers are leading the use of attributed zero-days, Google says

Hackers working for governments were responsible for the majority of attributed zero-day exploits used in real-world cyberattacks last year, per new research from Google. Google’s report said that the number of zero-day exploits — referring to security flaws that were unknown to the softwa

a16z backs UK startup Dex to scale ‘AI talent agent’ and recruitment matchmaker

Storied Silicon Valley VC firm Andreessen Horowitz is backing a fledgling U.K. startup that’s setting out to “redefine” how AI is used to match companies with talent. Dex, as the startup is called, targets candidates and companies with various AI-powered recruitment smarts, inclu

Grouphug is a stealth-mode startup that plans to use AI inside WhatsApp groups

Veterans of the European startup scene, who've launched multiple consumer apps in the past, are partly coming out of stealth Tuesday with a new app. On the face of it, Grouphug will simply generate memes from the archive of a group WhatsApp chat. However, that masks a wider play.  Grouphug is

IXI raises $36.5M from Amazon and others to bring autofocus to prescription glasses

Blink and you'll miss it: A startup out of Finland is taking a new look at the market for prescription eyewear. Tapping into innovations in eye-tracking and liquid crystal lens technology, IXI is building low-power glasses that will invisibly and automatically adjust to account for a wearerR

A bigger Project Europe? EWOR launches ‘founder fellowship’ program with $68M

Supporting early-stage entrepreneurs seems to be suddenly in vogue in Europe. Back in March, podcaster and venture investor Harry Stebbings launched Project Europe to great fanfare, aiming to back founders aged 25 and under with a small $10 million fund — riffing on the “Peter Thiel Fellows

OpenAI is fixing a ‘bug’ that allowed minors to generate erotic conversations

A bug in OpenAI's ChatGPT allowed the chatbot to generate graphic erotica for accounts where a user registered as a minor, under the age of 18, technewss's testing revealed, and OpenAI confirmed.  In some cases, the chatbot even encouraged these users to ask for raunchier, more expli