AI Strategy

SpaceX is working with Cursor and has an option to buy the startup for $60 billion

Only Elon would do this before an IPO.

Roundtables: Unveiling The 10 Things That Matter in AI Right Now

Listen to the session or watch below Watch a special edition of Roundtables simulcast live from EmTech AI, MIT Technology Review’s signature conference for AI leadership. Subscribers got an exclusive first look at a new list capturing 10 key technologies, emerging trends, bold ideas, and powerful mo

The new word in home construction could be “plastics”

Single-use plastics are a persistent source of environmental pollution, and the need to house a growing global population puts increasing pressure on resources such as timber. MIT engineers have an idea that could make a dent in both problems at once. In a recent study, a team led by mechanical engi

A natural protein may protect the GI tract from infection

Embedded in the body’s mucosal surfaces, proteins called lectins bind to sugars found on cell surfaces. A team led by MIT chemistry professor Laura Kiessling has found that one such protein, intelectin-2, both helps fortify the mucosal barrier and offers broad-spectrum protection against harmful bac

This tool could show how consciousness works

How does the physical matter in our brains translate into thoughts, sensations, and emotions? It’s hard to explore that question without neurosurgery. But in a recent paper, MIT philosopher Matthias Michel, Lincoln Lab researcher Daniel Freeman, and colleagues outline a strategy for doing so with an

Regulation

Copyright and DMCA Best Practices for Fediverse Operators

People building the future of the social web — interoperable and decentralized — need to protect themselves against copyright liability. Like anyone who creates and operates platforms for user-uploaded content, the hosts of the decentralized social web can take preventive measures to reduce their le

Palantir Has a Human Rights Policy. Its ICE Work Tells a Different Story

For years, EFF has pushed technology companies to make real human rights commitments—and to live up to them. In response to growing evidence that Palantir’s tools help power abusive immigration enforcement by ICE, we sent the company a detailed letter asking how the promises in its own human rights

The Internet Still Works: Reddit Empowers Community Moderation

Section 230 helps make it possible for online communities to host user speech: from restaurant reviews, to fan fiction, to collaborative encyclopedias. But recent debates about the law often overlook how it works in practice. To mark its 30th anniversary, EFF is interviewing leaders of online platfo

Keep Pushing: We Get 10 More Days to Reform Section 702

In a dramatic middle-of-the-night stand off, a bipartisan set of lawmakers pushing for true reform and privacy protections for Americans bought us some more time to fight! They are holding out for, at a minimum, the requirement of an actual probable cause warrant for FBI access to information collec

Stop New York's Attack on 3D Printing

New Yorks proposed 2026-2027 budget currently includes provisions that will require all 3D printers sold in the state to run print-blocking censorware —software that surveils every print for forbidden designs. This policy would also create felony charges for possessing or sharing certain design file

Technology

Only Elon would do this before an IPO.

Markets

Only Elon would do this before an IPO.

Tim Cook is stepping down as CEO of Apple: Here’s a look at his 15-year legacy, from new products and services to China expansion

Cook, who joined Apple in 1998, succeeded Steve Jobs as CEO in 2011 and went on to transform Apple into a $4 trillion powerhouse.

Apple’s John Ternus will run one of the world’s most powerful companies; the job is a minefield

Apple's top job comes with almost unrivaled power and money, but it comes with plenty of baggage, too.

AI research lab NeoCognition lands $40M seed to build agents that learn like humans

Founded by an OSU researcher, the startup is developing AI agents that can become experts in any domain.

Apple’s Cal AI crackdown signals it’s still policing the App Store

Apple tells TechCrunch Cal AI was removed not for web payments alone, but for deceptive billing, manipulative tactics, and App Store rule violations.

Geopolitics

How the War in Iran Is Affecting Its Northern and Eastern Neighbors

When the U.S.Israeli war with Iran began on Feb. 28, there were immediate impacts on the countries to Irans west as Iran struck multiple Gulf Arab states and Jordan, Iraq absorbed direct attacks while facing renewed risks of internal stability, Israel launched intensive airstrikes and ground operati

The counterterrorism czar without a counterterrorism plan

Iranian threats against U.S. targets have brought renewed attention to the absence of Sebastian Gorka's long-promised doctrine.

The United States Is Repeating Its Silicon Mistake with Gallium Nitride

China controls 99 percent of the worlds primary gallium, a critical mineral and semiconductor crucial for building the microchips of the future. In 2023, it placed export controls on gallium to retaliate against American restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China. In December 2024, China

I’m Sorry, Dave. I’m Afraid I Can’t De-escalate: On (AI) Wargaming and Nuclear War

Recent experiments placing large language models in simulated nuclear crises have produced alarming headlines. Bloodthirsty AI systems escalate conflicts, threaten nuclear strikes, and behave erratically under simulated pressure. A recent set of experiments presented in a pre-print paper from Kennet

What the War Against Iran Means for the U.S.-South Korean Alliance

South Koreas security is no longer confined to the peninsula. That is the real lesson from the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz. And if decision-makers in Seoul didnt understand this before, they surely understand this now.The U.S.-South Korean alliance was built to deter North Korea, defend South


AI Strategy

Google updates Workspace to make AI your new office intern

Google has introduced a host of new automated functions into Workspace, all of which are driven by Workspace Intelligence, its new AI system.

Hands on with X’s new AI-powered custom feeds

X's AI-powered custom timelines are replacing Communities, with Grok-curated feeds...and new ad slots.

How SpaceX preempted a $2B fundraise with a $60B buyout offer

Cursor was on track to close a $2 billion funding round this week but chose to halt discussions after SpaceX offered a $10 billion "collaboration fee" and a path to a $60 billion acquisition.

Google Cloud launches two new AI chips to compete with Nvidia

Google's newest TPUs are faster and cheaper than the previous versions. But the company is still embracing Nvidia in its cloud — for now.

Google turns Chrome into an AI co-worker for the workplace

Google brings Gemini-powered "auto browse" capabilities to Chrome for enterprise users, letting workers automate tasks like research, data entry, and more.

Regulation

📁 How ICE Got My Data | EFFector 38.8

When we use the internet, were entrusting tech companies with some of our most private information. These companies have promised theyll keep our data safe. But what happens when the government comes knocking at their doors? In our latest EFFector newsletter , we hear from an EFF client whose data w

EFF Sues DHS and ICE For Records on Subpoenas Seeking to Unmask Online Critics

Agencies Ignored EFF’s Public-Records Requests Regarding Unlawful Efforts to Locate People Who Criticized the Government or Attended Protests. SAN FRANCISCO – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today d

Copyright and DMCA Best Practices for Fediverse Operators

People building the future of the social web — interoperable and decentralized — need to protect themselves against copyright liability. Like anyone who creates and operates platforms for user-uploaded content, the hosts of the decentralized social web can take preventive measures to reduce their le

Palantir Has a Human Rights Policy. Its ICE Work Tells a Different Story

For years, EFF has pushed technology companies to make real human rights commitments—and to live up to them. In response to growing evidence that Palantir’s tools help power abusive immigration enforcement by ICE, we sent the company a detailed letter asking how the promises in its own human rights

The Internet Still Works: Reddit Empowers Community Moderation

Section 230 helps make it possible for online communities to host user speech: from restaurant reviews, to fan fiction, to collaborative encyclopedias. But recent debates about the law often overlook how it works in practice. To mark its 30th anniversary, EFF is interviewing leaders of online platfo

Technology

Microsoft issues emergency update for macOS and Linux ASP.NET threat

Markets

Elon Musk admits millions of Tesla owners need upgrades for true ‘Full Self-Driving’

The admission could open Tesla to legal challenges after it spent years promising customers they were just one software update away from owning fully autonomous cars.

LinkedIn’s CEO is moving on; please hold your tearful video tributes

Ryan Roslansky has stepped down as LinkedIn's CEO after six years running the world's largest professional network. Dan Shapero, the company's COO, takes over immediately.

Tesla Q1 revenue rises, driven by EV sales and FSD subscriptions

Sales rebounded a bit from the first quarter of 2025, as Tesla throws a ton of money at massive bets like robotics, AI, and its own chip fab.

Geopolitics

Navy secretary leaving the Pentagon ‘effective immediately’ amid Iran blockade

His departure was long rumored.

Air Force pushes to fund upgraded refueling systems instead of new tanker development

One former military official fears delays for a tanker replacement could hurt the combat fleet.

The Navy will keep shrinking until the industrial base catches up

A commission on the service’s future is looking at ways to help the service along as ships wear down before they can be replaced.

Europe Might Sit Out In An Indo-Pacific War — But It Can’t Escape the Fallout

In 2024, Paul van Hooft and Tim Sweijs wrote, Two-Theater Tragedy: A Reluctant Europe Cannot Easily Escape a Sino-American War Over Taiwan, where they argued a war in the Indo-Pacific would likely draw in and weaken Europe, even if European states try to remain on the sidelines. Two years later, ami

When the Rules Fail: Tax Incentives and Defense Sustainment

In the 1986 World Cup, Diego Maradona scored his infamous Hand of God goal an obvious handball that went uncalled, because the referee did not have the tools to see it. Today, soccer has addressed that vulnerability with sensors and video review, ensuring the game is adjudicated fairly. U.S. defense


AI Strategy

Bret Taylor’s Sierra buys YC-backed AI startup Fragment

Sierra, the AI customer service agent startup founded by technologist Bret Taylor, announced today that it has acquired the YC-backed French startup Fragment.

Meet Noscroll, an AI bot that does your doomscrolling for you

Noscroll wants to cure doomscrolling with an AI bot that reads the internet for you.

OpenAI releases GPT-5.5, bringing company one step closer to an AI ‘super app’

OpenAI says its latest model offers increased capabilities across a broad variety of categories.

Era raises $11M to build a software platform for AI gadgets

Era thinks that we will see many form factors of AI hardware, including glasses, rings, and pendants.

Grab a ticket today: The first StrictlyVC of 2026 kicks off in just a week in San Francisco

StrictlyVC San Francisco is in just a week. Now’s the time to grab yourself a ticket. Join VCs and founders at Sentro Filipino Cultural Center on April 30.

Regulation

EFF to 9th Circuit (Again): App Stores Shouldn’t Be Liable for Processing Payments for User Content

EFF filed an amicus brief for the second time in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, arguing that allowing cases against the Apple, Google, and Facebook app stores to proceed could lead to greater censorship of users’ online speech. Our brief argues that the app stores should not lose S

Speaking Freely: Lizzie O'Shea

Lizzie O’Shea is an Australian lawyer, author, and the founder and chair of Digital Rights Watch , which advocates for freedom, fairness, and fundamental rights in the digital age. She sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech , and in 2019 was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Interview

📁 How ICE Got My Data | EFFector 38.8

When we use the internet, were entrusting tech companies with some of our most private information. These companies have promised theyll keep our data safe. But what happens when the government comes knocking at their doors? In our latest EFFector newsletter , we hear from an EFF client whose data w

EFF Sues DHS and ICE For Records on Subpoenas Seeking to Unmask Online Critics

Agencies Ignored EFF’s Public-Records Requests Regarding Unlawful Efforts to Locate People Who Criticized the Government or Attended Protests. SAN FRANCISCO – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sued the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) today d

Copyright and DMCA Best Practices for Fediverse Operators

People building the future of the social web — interoperable and decentralized — need to protect themselves against copyright liability. Like anyone who creates and operates platforms for user-uploaded content, the hosts of the decentralized social web can take preventive measures to reduce their le

Technology

In a first, a ransomware family is confirmed to be quantum-safe

Markets

Redwood Materials loses COO amid layoffs, restructuring

Former Tesla executive Chris Lister is retiring, and at least three other VPs have left Redwood around the recent restructuring, TechCrunch has learned.

These are the countries moving to ban social media for children

Australia was the first country to issue a ban in late 2025, aiming to reduce the pressures and risks that young users may face on social media, including cyberbullying, social media addiction, and exposure to predators.

Instagram tests a new ‘Instants’ app for sharing disappearing photos

The app lets users share disappearing photos with their friends that can be viewed only once and remain available for 24 hours.

Geopolitics

Exploding shells may turn the Apache helicopter into a drone hunter

Soldier’s idea may help the service capture lessons from Ukraine, Iran.

DOD completes $1B investment in L3Harris missile unit

L3Harris Technologies is keeping an 80% stake in the solid-rocket-motor business, which is becoming a public company.

Autonomous weapons will be 'key part' of US warfare: Joint Chiefs chairman

Gen. Dan Caine said the Pentagon is looking at autonomous tech for drones and command-and-control, but lawmakers have questions.

Why Do Many Western Defense Tech Firms Struggle in Ukraine?

Michael Kofman joined Ryan at a live event earlier this year to discuss the performance of American defense technology in Ukraine and why it often falls short. They examine the challenges of fielding and iterating systems in combat, from poor implementation and weak feedback loops to deeper mismatch

A Formal Defense Pact in the Indo-Pacific Is the Wrong Answer

The debate over how best to deter China in the western Pacific has reached a new level of ambition. Ely Ratner, a former senior defense official in the Biden administration, proposed a Pacific Defense Pact a legally binding multilateral treaty among the United States, Japan, Australia, and the Phili


AI Strategy

Three reasons why DeepSeek’s new model V4 matters

On Friday, Chinese AI firm DeepSeek released a preview of V4, its long-awaited new flagship model. Notably, the model can process much longer prompts than its last generation, thanks to a new design that helps it handle large amounts of text more efficiently. Like DeepSeek’s previous models, V4 is o

Meta’s loss is Thinking Machines’ gain

Meta has been poaching talent from Thinking Machines Lab. But it's a two-way street.

ComfyUI hits $500M valuation as creators seek more control over AI-generated media

ComfyUI, whose tools give creators more control over AI image, video, and audio generation, just raised $30 million.

Google to invest up to $40B in Anthropic in cash and compute

Google plans up to $40B investment in Anthropic as AI rivals race to secure massive compute capacity, following the limited release of its powerful, cybersecurity-focused Mythos model.

Apple’s new CEO, and why Elon Musk wants to buy Cursor for $60B

A new era is on the way for Apple as Tim Cook plans to step down from his CEO role in September,handing the reins to hardware chief John Ternus. Ternus may be inheriting one of the most durable businesses in tech, buthe’salso stepping intoa very differentecosystem than the one Cook spent decades sha

Regulation

Act Now to Stop California’s Paternalistic and Privacy-Destroying Social Media Ban

California lawmakers are fast-tracking A.B. 1709—a sweeping bill that would ban anyone under 16 from using social media and force every user, regardless of age, to verify their identity before accessing social platforms. That means that under this bill, all Californians would be required to submit h

EFF Challenges Secrecy In Eastern District of Texas Patent Case

Clinic students Emily Ko and Zoe Lee at the Technology Law and Policy Clinic at the NYU School of Law were the principal authors of this post. Courts are not private forums for business disputes. They are public institutions, and their records belong to the public. But too often, courts forget that

California Coastal Community Must Reject CBP's AI-Powered Surveillance Tower

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking permission from the California city of San Clemente to install an Anduril Industries surveillance tower on a cliff that would allow for constant monitoring of entire coastal neighborhoods. The proposed tower is Andurils Sentry, part of the Autonomous Su

EFF to 9th Circuit (Again): App Stores Shouldn’t Be Liable for Processing Payments for User Content

EFF filed an amicus brief for the second time in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, arguing that allowing cases against the Apple, Google, and Facebook app stores to proceed could lead to greater censorship of users’ online speech. Our brief argues that the app stores should not lose S

Speaking Freely: Lizzie O'Shea

Lizzie O’Shea is an Australian lawyer, author, and the founder and chair of Digital Rights Watch , which advocates for freedom, fairness, and fundamental rights in the digital age. She sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech , and in 2019 was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Interview

Technology

Meta’s loss is Thinking Machines’ gain

Why are top university websites serving porn? It comes down to shoddy housekeeping.

Markets

Palantir is reportedly helping the IRS investigate financial crimes

The IRS has used Palantir's software since at least 2018, The Intercept reports.

Cohere acquires, merges with Germany-based startup to create a ‘transatlantic AI powerhouse’

Cohere, the Canada-based AI company that makes AI tools for businesses in regulated industries, announced Friday it would merge with Aleph Alpha, a German company that also builds AI systems for businesses and governments.

Two college kids raise a $5.1 million pre-seed to build an AI social network in iMessage

Series, a social networking app that's grown popular on college campuses, announced a $5.1 million pre-seed round from some big names in tech.

Meta’s loss is Thinking Machines’ gain

X-energy stock pops 27% on first day of trading following upsized IPO

Investors flocked to nuclear power startup X-energy in its first day of public trading on the Nasdaq.

Geopolitics

Space Force picks firms to develop Golden Dome’s space-based interceptors

Defense giants and startups vie to create orbital defenses—even as the program’s czar concedes they may be unaffordable.

US Navy ordered to ‘shoot and kill’ alleged Iranian mine-laying boats amid ceasefire

Hegseth says U.S. has "all the time in the world" as the number of interdicted vessels grows.

Airwaves of Power: Why the Pentagon Should Shift to a Commercial-First Spectrum Model

The U.S. military is firing million-dollar missiles at Iranian drones that cost a tiny fraction as much a striking example of the kind of overmatch modern warfare punishes.The Department of Defenses approach to electromagnetic spectrum policy follows a similar logic, occupying prime mid-band frequen

Presence or Capacity? The Coast Guard Can Have Both Through Small Boat Stations

Closing small boat stations has proven difficult. Leaving them unchanged is operationally inefficient. These units are enduring parts of the Coast Guards force structure, yet their full potential is not always realized. This article proposes a model to better align their mission with national priori

The Pentagon replicated a Ukrainian-style drone attack in Florida. Now it’s changing its counter-drone strategy

Several things—from the players to the technology—set the exercise apart from previous experiments.


AI Strategy

Anthropic created a test marketplace for agent-on-agent commerce

In a recent experiment, Anthropic created a classified marketplace where AI agents represented both buyers and sellers, striking real deals for real goods and real money.

Maine’s governor vetoes data center moratorium

L.D. 307 would have imposed the country’s first statewide moratorium on new data centers — lasting, in this case, until November 1, 2027.

OpenAI CEO apologizes to Tumbler Ridge community

In a letter to the residents of Tumbler Ridge, Canada, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said he is “deeply sorry” that his company failed to alert law enforcement about the suspect in a recent mass shooting.

Why Cohere is merging with Aleph Alpha

Canadian AI startup Cohere is taking over Germany-based Aleph Alpha with support from Lidl’s owner, Schwarz Group. With the blessing of their governments, the companies intend to offer a sovereign alternative to enterprises in an AI landscape dominated by American players.

Why Tokyo is the most important tech destination of 2026

SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 has four tightly defined technology domains, each backed by live demonstrations, dedicated exhibit floors, and sessions featuring the people actually building and funding these technologies globally.

Regulation

Act Now to Stop California’s Paternalistic and Privacy-Destroying Social Media Ban

California lawmakers are fast-tracking A.B. 1709—a sweeping bill that would ban anyone under 16 from using social media and force every user, regardless of age, to verify their identity before accessing social platforms. That means that under this bill, all Californians would be required to submit h

EFF Challenges Secrecy In Eastern District of Texas Patent Case

Clinic students Emily Ko and Zoe Lee at the Technology Law and Policy Clinic at the NYU School of Law were the principal authors of this post. Courts are not private forums for business disputes. They are public institutions, and their records belong to the public. But too often, courts forget that

California Coastal Community Must Reject CBP's AI-Powered Surveillance Tower

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking permission from the California city of San Clemente to install an Anduril Industries surveillance tower on a cliff that would allow for constant monitoring of entire coastal neighborhoods. The proposed tower is Andurils Sentry, part of the Autonomous Su

EFF to 9th Circuit (Again): App Stores Shouldn’t Be Liable for Processing Payments for User Content

EFF filed an amicus brief for the second time in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, arguing that allowing cases against the Apple, Google, and Facebook app stores to proceed could lead to greater censorship of users’ online speech. Our brief argues that the app stores should not lose S

Speaking Freely: Lizzie O'Shea

Lizzie O’Shea is an Australian lawyer, author, and the founder and chair of Digital Rights Watch , which advocates for freedom, fairness, and fundamental rights in the digital age. She sits on the board of Blueprint for Free Speech , and in 2019 was named a Human Rights Hero by Access Now. Interview

Technology

Why Cohere is merging with Aleph Alpha

Markets

The climate tech IPO window could finally be cracking open

Nuclear startup X-energy went public, geothermal startup Fervo is about to. Could this be the moment that climate tech investors have been waiting for?

Why Cohere is merging with Aleph Alpha


AI Strategy

To buy this Bay Area home, you’ll need Anthropic equity

Someone’s offering an unusual deal for a 13-acre property in Mill Valley, just north of South Francisco.

Why Cohere is merging with Aleph Alpha

Regulation

Speaking Freely: Lizzie O'Shea

Technology

Why Cohere is merging with Aleph Alpha

Markets

The Stanford freshmen who want to rule the world . . . will probably read this book and try even harder

Can a book like this actually change anything? Or does the spotlight, as it always seems to, send more students racing to the place?

Amazon’s new podcast strategy: Monetize everything

Amazon's podcasting business seems to have transformed over the past six months.

What Tim Cook built

On the latest episode of Equity, we discuss how Apple has changed since Cook became CEO in 2011, and what challenges incoming CEO John Ternus will be facing.

TechCrunch Mobility: Elon’s admission

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.

Geopolitics

Space Force picks firms to develop Golden Dome’s space-based interceptors

Defense giants and startups vie to create orbital defenses—even as the program’s czar concedes they may be unaffordable.

US Navy ordered to ‘shoot and kill’ alleged Iranian mine-laying boats amid ceasefire

Hegseth says U.S. has "all the time in the world" as the number of interdicted vessels grows.

Airwaves of Power: Why the Pentagon Should Shift to a Commercial-First Spectrum Model

The U.S. military is firing million-dollar missiles at Iranian drones that cost a tiny fraction as much a striking example of the kind of overmatch modern warfare punishes.The Department of Defenses approach to electromagnetic spectrum policy follows a similar logic, occupying prime mid-band frequen

Presence or Capacity? The Coast Guard Can Have Both Through Small Boat Stations

Closing small boat stations has proven difficult. Leaving them unchanged is operationally inefficient. These units are enduring parts of the Coast Guards force structure, yet their full potential is not always realized. This article proposes a model to better align their mission with national priori

The Pentagon replicated a Ukrainian-style drone attack in Florida. Now it’s changing its counter-drone strategy

Several things—from the players to the technology—set the exercise apart from previous experiments.


AI Strategy

OpenAI ends Microsoft legal peril over its $50B Amazon deal

OpenAI has won major concessions from its largest shareholder, Microsoft, that will allow it to sell products on AWS, while Microsoft gets more cash in a revenue-share agreement.

DeepMind’s David Silver just raised $1.1B to build an AI that learns without human data

Ineffable Intelligence, a British AI lab founded a mere few months ago by former DeepMind researcher David Silver, has raised $1.1 billion in funding at a valuation of $5.1 billion.

The missing step between hype and profit

This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. In February, I picked up a flyer at an anti-AI march in London. I can’t say for sure whether or not its writers meant to riff on South Park’s underpants gnomes. B

Investors back Skye’s AI home screen app for iPhone ahead of launch

Skye's new AI app attracted investors before it even launched — a sign of interest in a more AI-aware iPhone.

China blocks Meta’s $2B Manus deal after months-long probe

China has ordered Meta to unwind its multibillion-dollar Manus acquisition, dealing a potential setback to Zuckerberg’s push into AI agents.

Regulation

Congress Must Reject New Insufficient 702 Reauthorization Bill

Speaker Johnson has introduced a new fig leaf over the American surveillance state, the Foreign Intelligence Accountability Act . Introduced with only days to go before Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expires and the U.S. government loses one of its most invasive surv

The Internet Still Works: SmugMug Powers Online Photography

SmugMug is a family-owned photo hosting and e-commerce platform that helps professional photographers run their businesses online. Founded in 2002, the company provides tools for photographers to show their work, deliver client galleries, sell prints, and manage payments. In 2018, SmugMug purchased

Act Now to Stop California’s Paternalistic and Privacy-Destroying Social Media Ban

California lawmakers are fast-tracking A.B. 1709—a sweeping bill that would ban anyone under 16 from using social media and force every user, regardless of age, to verify their identity before accessing social platforms. That means that under this bill, all Californians would be required to submit h

EFF Challenges Secrecy In Eastern District of Texas Patent Case

Clinic students Emily Ko and Zoe Lee at the Technology Law and Policy Clinic at the NYU School of Law were the principal authors of this post. Courts are not private forums for business disputes. They are public institutions, and their records belong to the public. But too often, courts forget that

California Coastal Community Must Reject CBP's AI-Powered Surveillance Tower

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is seeking permission from the California city of San Clemente to install an Anduril Industries surveillance tower on a cliff that would allow for constant monitoring of entire coastal neighborhoods. The proposed tower is Andurils Sentry, part of the Autonomous Su

Technology

Open source package with 1 million monthly downloads stole user credentials

Markets

Letterboxd, the social platform for film buffs, reportedly looking for new owner

Potential buyers of Letterboxd include Versant, the parent company of CNBC and MS NOW, and Hollywood media company The Ankler, according to Semafor.

Consumers lost $2.1B to social media scams in 2025, FTC reports

The agency reports that losses from social media scams have increased eightfold and that social media scams resulted in higher losses than any other method scammers used to contact consumers.

Hacker who allegedly carried out cyberattacks for China is extradited to US

Xu Zewei is accused of participating in a Chinese government hacking group that broke into thousands of U.S. organizations and stole COVID-19-related research.

Geopolitics

Confronting the Past and Present, Lessons from Chornobyl

Welcome toThe Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum only forWar on the Rocksmembers. Each Monday, we bring you a curated selection of articles from Ukrainian media offering insight into how Ukrainians themselves debate the issues sha

Pentagon adds Google’s latest model to GenAI.mil as usage soars

Users have built more than 100,000 AI agents using the generative-AI platform, officials said.

From Slogan to Standard: How the Pentagon Should Define Affordable Mass

The term affordable mass entered public defense discourse in 2021 as a munitions concept, which the Air Force adopted in 2023 to describe its effort to field large numbers of lower-cost, semi-autonomous aircraft to complement crewed fighters. The term has since spread in defense reporting, think-tan

Beijing’s United Front and the Quiet Transfer of Western Technology

The military modernization and technological ambitions of the Peoples Republic of China dominate headlines in Washington. Hypersonic missiles, AI breakthroughs, and an expanding navy are the visible symbols of competition with the Chinese Communist Party. But if the United States is serious about lo

The Importance of the Battle of Savo Island

On the night of Aug. 9, 1942, an Allied fleet of 17 warships guarded the approaches to Guadalcanal. The fleet was newer, larger, and better equipped than the Japanese force bearing down on it. It had six heavy cruisers, two light cruisers, and nine destroyers. It carried radar, a technology that sho


AI Strategy

Amazon is already offering new OpenAI products on AWS

A day after OpenAI got Microsoft to agree to end exclusive rights, AWS announced a slate of OpenAI model offerings, including a new agent service.

Amazon launches an AI-powered audio Q&A experience on product pages

Amazon's new "Join the chat" feature lets you ask questions about products and receive AI-powered audio responses.

Google expands Pentagon’s access to its AI after Anthropic’s refusal

After Anthropic refused to allow the DoD to use its AI for domestic mass surveillance and autonomous weapons, Google has signed a new contract with the department.

Lovable launches its vibe-coding app on iOS and Android

The app allows developers to vibe code web apps and websites on the go.

YouTube is testing an AI-powered search feature that shows guided answers

YouTube is rolling out the new AI search feature to Premium subscribers in the U.S. on an opt-in basis.

Regulation

The Open Social Web Needs Section 230 to Survive

If you want to overthrow Big Tech, you’ll need Section 230. The paradigm shift being built with the Open Social Web can put communities back in control of social media infrastructure, and finally end our dependency on enshitified corporate giants. But while these incumbents can overcome multimillion

The GUARD Act Isn’t Targeting Dangerous AI—It’s Blocking Everyday Internet Use

Lawmakers in Congress are moving quickly on the GUARD Act , an age-gating bill restricting minors’ access to a wide range of online tools, with a key vote expected this week. The proposal is framed as a response to alarming cases involving “AI companions” and vulnerable young users. But the text of

Congress Must Reject New Insufficient 702 Reauthorization Bill

Speaker Johnson has introduced a new fig leaf over the American surveillance state, the Foreign Intelligence Accountability Act . Introduced with only days to go before Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expires and the U.S. government loses one of its most invasive surv

The Internet Still Works: SmugMug Powers Online Photography

SmugMug is a family-owned photo hosting and e-commerce platform that helps professional photographers run their businesses online. Founded in 2002, the company provides tools for photographers to show their work, deliver client galleries, sell prints, and manage payments. In 2018, SmugMug purchased

Act Now to Stop California’s Paternalistic and Privacy-Destroying Social Media Ban

California lawmakers are fast-tracking A.B. 1709—a sweeping bill that would ban anyone under 16 from using social media and force every user, regardless of age, to verify their identity before accessing social platforms. That means that under this bill, all Californians would be required to submit h

Markets

Match Group invests $100M in Sniffies, a cruising app for gay men

The app is Match Group's newest attempt to get mobile users excited about online romance again.

Paragon is not collaborating with Italian authorities probing spyware attacks, report says

Despite promising to help determine what happened with the hacks targeting journalists and activists in Italy, Israeli American spyware maker Paragon has reportedly not responded to authorities’ requests for information.

Geopolitics

Navy’s drone refueler notches first flight—but it won’t be on aircraft carriers until 2029

The MQ-25A delay pushes deliveries another two years past the prior reschedule.

Marines will update land warfare doctrine as they prep for near-peer, drone-driven fight

Officials previewed Ground Combat Element 2040 plan at the Modern Day Marine conference.

Textron unveils autonomous ground vehicle designed for Marine Corps littoral units

The RIPSAW M1 demonstrator made its debut on the show floor at the Modern Day Marine conference.

The Mountaintop Mirage: Why Xi’s Military Purges Cannot Produce the Force He Wants

During the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War, a 26-year-old company commanders unit was pinned down by a fortified hilltop. After frontal assaults failed, the junior officer made an extraordinary request: an entire battalion, four times the size of his own unit, for a jungle flanking maneuver. The regimental

The Strange Rise and Fall of Russia’s Crowd Sourced Defense Industry

In the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, much that could go wrong did for the Russian military. As one volunteer organization called KatyaValya recalled:We called all our military friends in (Russian-held) Donetsk, but no one could really explain or say anything. Thr


AI Strategy

Google Cloud surpasses $20B but says growth was capacity-constrained

Google Cloud topped $20B in quarterly revenue for the first time, fueled by surging demand for AI. But capacity constraints mean it could have grown even faster.

Google gains 25M subscriptions in Q1, driven by YouTube and Google One

Google added 25M paid subscriptions in Q1, reaching 350M total, as YouTube and Google One grow.

Is AI video just a prequel? Runway’s CEO thinks world models are next

AI-generated video has gone from novelty to creative tool almost overnight, and Runway has a front row seat to the shift. The New York-based company has raised close to $860 million at a $5.3 billion valuation, and its models are going toe-to-toe with the most well-funded labs in the world, includin

Parallel Web Systems hits $2B valuation five months after its last big raise

The AI agent-tool startup founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has raised $100 million, led by Sequoia, months after raising a previous $100 million.

Google Photos uses AI to make the iconic closet from ‘Clueless’ a reality

Google says the new feature will leverage AI technology to automatically create a copy of your wardrobe that's based on the pieces of clothing appearing in your Google Photos library.

Regulation

EFF Submission to UN Report on the Role of Media in the Context of Israel’s Policies Toward Palestinians

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 recently announced a study addressing the killings and attacks against Palestinian journalists and media workers, the destruction of media infrastructure in Gaza, and the production and diss

The Open Social Web Needs Section 230 to Survive

If you want to overthrow Big Tech, you’ll need Section 230. The paradigm shift being built with the Open Social Web can put communities back in control of social media infrastructure, and finally end our dependency on enshitified corporate giants. But while these incumbents can overcome multimillion

The GUARD Act Isn’t Targeting Dangerous AI—It’s Blocking Everyday Internet Use

Lawmakers in Congress are moving quickly on the GUARD Act , an age-gating bill restricting minors’ access to a wide range of online tools, with a key vote expected this week. The proposal is framed as a response to alarming cases involving “AI companions” and vulnerable young users. But the text of

Congress Must Reject New Insufficient 702 Reauthorization Bill

Speaker Johnson has introduced a new fig leaf over the American surveillance state, the Foreign Intelligence Accountability Act . Introduced with only days to go before Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expires and the U.S. government loses one of its most invasive surv

The Internet Still Works: SmugMug Powers Online Photography

SmugMug is a family-owned photo hosting and e-commerce platform that helps professional photographers run their businesses online. Founded in 2002, the company provides tools for photographers to show their work, deliver client galleries, sell prints, and manage payments. In 2018, SmugMug purchased

Markets

Fusion power startup Zap Energy pulls a partial pivot, adding nuclear fission to the mix

Surprise! Fusion startup Zap Energy says it will be developing fission reactors alongside its fusion devices.

Geopolitics

Marine Corps considering Army’s MV-75 as an attack helo replacement

Bell unveiled an armed version specifically for the Corps at the Modern Day Marine conference.

Sixty days in, Pentagon estimates $25B spent on Iran war

The defense secretary and Joint Chiefs chairman appeared before Congress for the first time since strikes began Feb. 28.

Human Geography: The Strategic Edge in a Complex World

In 2024, Judd Devermont wrote, Human Geography Is Mission-Critical, where he argued that the United States should focus on behaviors and attitudes informed by human geography to craft better strategy. Two years later, we asked Judd to revisit his arguments.Image:Samuel Lampteyvia Wikimedia CommonsIn

Meet the 3-star insiders say will be Space Force’s next top leader

Lt. Gen. Douglas Schiess is seen as the likely replacement for Gen. Chance Saltzman.

Aligning the U.S. and Canadian Defense Industrial Bases

The United States and Canada are both racing to rebuild their defense industrial bases, recognizing that future conflicts will be determined not only by military capability, but by the ability to produce at scale. But they cannot succeed alone and importantly, they do not need to start from scratch.


AI Strategy

Legal AI startup Legora hits $5.6B valuation and its battle with Harvey just got hotter

The two wildly fast-growing rivals have raised massive sums, pushed into each other's home turf, and now have dueling ad campaigns.

After dissing Anthropic for limiting Mythos, OpenAI restricts access to Cyber, too

OpenAI will begin rolling out its cybersecurity testing tool, GPT-5.5 Cyber only "to critical cyber defenders" at first.

Exclusive eBook: Inside the stealthy startup that pitched brainless human clones

The ultimate plan to live forever is a brand new body. This subscriber-only eBook explores R3 Bio, a small startup that has pitched a startling and ethically charged vision for brainless clones to serve the role of backup human bodies. by Antonio Regalado March 20, 2026 Related Stories: Access all s

OpenAI announces new advanced security for ChatGPT accounts, including a partnership with Yubico

OpenAI is launching additional opt-in protections for ChatGPT accounts. The new security initiative includes a new partnership with security key provider Yubico.

Elon Musk testifies that xAI trained Grok on OpenAI models

"Distillation" is a hot topic as frontier labs try to prevent smaller competitors from copying their models.

Regulation

Open Records Laws Reveal ALPRs’ Sprawling Surveillance. Now States Want to Block What the Public Sees.

Reporters, community advocates, EFF, and others have used public records laws to reveal and counteract abuse, misuse, and fraudulent narratives around how law enforcement agencies across the country use and share data collected by automated license plate readers (ALPRs). EFF is alarmed by recent law

Digital Hopes, Real Power: From Connection to Collective Action

If the Arab Spring was defined by optimism about what the internet could do, the years since have been marked by a more sober understanding of what it takes to defend it. Back in 2011, the term “digital rights” was still fairly new. While in the decades prior, open source and hacker communities—as w

EFF Submission to UN Report on the Role of Media in the Context of Israel’s Policies Toward Palestinians

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 recently announced a study addressing the killings and attacks against Palestinian journalists and media workers, the destruction of media infrastructure in Gaza, and the production and diss

Former EFF Activism Director's New Book, Transaction Denied, Explores What Happens When Financial Companies Act like Censors

A U.S. citizen who teaches Persian poetry classes online is suddenly unable to receive payments or access funds when his account is flagged and frozen by Paypal and its subsidiary Venmo. A Muslim city councilwoman in New York City has a Venmo payment blocked because she uses the name of a Bangladesh

The Open Social Web Needs Section 230 to Survive

If you want to overthrow Big Tech, you’ll need Section 230. The paradigm shift being built with the Open Social Web can put communities back in control of social media infrastructure, and finally end our dependency on enshitified corporate giants. But while these incumbents can overcome multimillion

Technology

The most severe Linux threat to surface in years catches the world flat-footed

Markets

Apple was surprised by AI-driven demand for Macs

Apple said it will be supply-constrained on Mac Mini, Studio, and Neo in the next quarter, too.

Rivian downsizes DOE loan to $4.5B, while boosting capacity of Georgia factory

Rivian has reworked its loan deal with the Department of Energy and now expects to borrow $4.5 billion to build its new factory in Georgia, down from the original amount of $6.6 billion.

Hackers are actively exploiting a bug in cPanel, used by millions of websites

Web hosts are scrambling to fix the bug under active attack by hackers. One company said hackers have been abusing the bug for months.

Geopolitics

Marine commandant: Every combatant command has requested an amphibious ready group

The demand is about twice as high as the Marine Corps’ goal of three deployed at any given time, Gen. Eric Smith said Thursday.

Admin mum on whether Trump will seek to legalize Iran war

The 60 days allowable by the War Powers Resolution is about to run out, but the defense secretary thinks a ceasefire has paused the clock.

Economic Fury and Claims of Victory

Welcome to The Adversarial.Every other week, well provide you with expert analysis on Americas greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below.***IranThree weeks since a ceasefire took effect, the United States and Iran have shifted from open hostilities to uns

Air Force’s top general: Supplemental funding needed to replace US aircraft lost in Iran

The 2027 budget request was made before dozens of aircraft were destroyed during Epic Fury.

What a Post-Orbán Hungary Means for Hungarians and Europe

Hungary has turned the page. After 16 years of rule by Viktor Orbn, opposition leader Pter Magyar has emerged as the winner by a landslide. Ryan is joined by Sndor sik, the lawyer and writer behind theHungarian Muse, to understand how Orbn built his soft-authoritarian system, how it failed to stave


AI Strategy

Meta buys robotic startup to bolster its humanoid AI ambitions

Meta bought humanoid startup Assured Robot Intelligence to beef up its AI models for robots, the company said.

Did you know you can’t steal a charity? Don’t worry. Elon Musk will remind you.

Elon Musk spent the better part of three days on the witness stand this week in his lawsuit against OpenAI, and its already getting messy. Emails, texts, and his own tweets are surfacing in court, and there are plenty more witnesses to come. Musks argument against OpenAI? By converting the company t

Pentagon inks deals with Nvidia, Microsoft, and AWS to deploy AI on classified networks

The deals come as the DOD has doubled down on diversifying its exposure to AI vendors in the wake of its controversial dispute with Anthropic over usage terms of its AI models.

Cyber-Insecurity in the AI Era

Cybersecurity was already under strain before AI entered the stack. Now, as AI expands the attack surface and adds new complexity, the limits of legacy approaches are becoming harder to ignore. This session from MIT Technology Reviews EmTech AI conference explores why security must be rethought with

Operationalizing AI for Scale and Sovereignty

Companies are taking control of their own data to tailor AI for their needs. The challenge lies in balancing ownership with the safe, trusted flow of high‑quality data needed to power reliable insights. This conversation from MIT Technology Reviews EmTech AI conference examines how AI factories unlo

Regulation

A Bridge to Somewhere: How to Link Your Mastodon, Bluesky, or Other Federated Accounts

One of the central promises of open social media services is interoperability—the idea that wherever you personally decide to post doesn’t require others to be there just to follow what you have to say. Think of it like a radio broadcast: you want to reach people and dont care where they are or what

Utah’s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect Next Week

For the last couple of years, we’ve watched the same predictable cycle play out across the globe: a state (or country) passes a clunky age-verification mandate, and, without fail, Virtual Private Network (VPN) usage surges as residents scramble to maintain their privacy and anonymity. Weve seen this

Open Records Laws Reveal ALPRs’ Sprawling Surveillance. Now States Want to Block What the Public Sees.

Reporters, community advocates, EFF, and others have used public records laws to reveal and counteract abuse, misuse, and fraudulent narratives around how law enforcement agencies across the country use and share data collected by automated license plate readers (ALPRs). EFF is alarmed by recent law

Digital Hopes, Real Power: From Connection to Collective Action

This is the fifth and final installment of a blog series reflecting on the global digital legacy of the 2011 Arab uprisings. You can read the rest of the series here . If the Arab Spring was defined by optimism about what the internet could do, the years since have been marked by a more sober unders

EFF Submission to UN Report on the Role of Media in the Context of Israel’s Policies Toward Palestinians

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 recently announced a study addressing the killings and attacks against Palestinian journalists and media workers, the destruction of media infrastructure in Gaza, and the production and diss

Technology

Ubuntu infrastructure has been down for more than a day

Cyber-Insecurity in the AI Era

Markets

Coatue has a plan to buy up land for data centers, possibly for Anthropic

Coatue, one of the biggest names in venture capital, has a new venture that is reportedly buying land near large power sources.

Ubuntu services hit by outages after DDoS attack

A group of hacktivists have claimed responsibility for a distributed denial-of-service attack, which has affected several Ubuntu and Canonical websites, and prevented users from updating the Linux-based operating system.

Geopolitics

Trump’s assumptions are running his Iran policy aground—again

His blunders underscore the importance of a vigorous interagency process.

7 AI firms cleared to provide tools for classified Pentagon networks

The wide variety—which does not include Anthropic—is intended to prevent AI-vendor lock.

Space Force wraps decades-long GPS upgrade—and the next one is on tap

A last-minute rocket swap shows agility in pursuit of faster launches.

Former head of ‘Pentagon’s think tank’ joins Anthropic

The strategy expert calls adaptation to AI a "civilizational" challenge.

Modern Combat Requires Warrior Medics Modeled After Machaon

Modern peer combat has blown apart the myth of protected combat medical units. On the battlefields of Ukraine, scores of medical personnel, shielded in theory by both international law and historic norms, now lie dead. To survive in this environment while rescuing others, medics ranging from junior


AI Strategy

AI-generated actors and scripts are now ineligible for Oscars

Bad news for Tilly Norwood.

The best AI dictation apps, tested and ranked

AI-powered dictation apps are useful for replying to emails, taking notes, and even coding through your voice

Replit’s Amjad Masad on the Cursor deal, fighting Apple, and why he’d rather not sell

At TechCrunch's sold-out StrictlyVC event in San Francisco on Thursday night, we covered a lot of ground in a short time, beginning with the question everyone in the industry is asking right now: in a world where rival Cursor is reportedly in talks to be acquired by SpaceX for $60 billion, is Replit

Meta buys robotics startup to bolster its humanoid AI ambitions

Meta bought humanoid startup Assured Robot Intelligence to beef up its AI models for robots, the company said.

Musk v. Altman week 1: Elon Musk says he was duped, warns AI could kill us all, and admits that xAI distills OpenAI’s models

In the first week of the landmark trial between Elon Musk and OpenAI, Musk took the stand in a crisp black suit and tie and argued that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and president Greg Brockman had deceived him into bankrolling the company. Along the way, he warnedthat AI could destroy us all and sat throug

Regulation

A Bridge to Somewhere: How to Link Your Mastodon, Bluesky, or Other Federated Accounts

Utah’s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect Next Week

Open Records Laws Reveal ALPRs’ Sprawling Surveillance. Now States Want to Block What the Public Sees.

Digital Hopes, Real Power: From Connection to Collective Action

EFF Submission to UN Report on the Role of Media in the Context of Israel’s Policies Toward Palestinians

Technology

Bad news for Tilly Norwood.

Markets

Bad news for Tilly Norwood.

Farewell, Jeeves: Ask.com shuts down

Owner IAC says it's discontinuing its search business.

Netflix delays Greta Gerwig’s ‘Narnia’ movie for big theatrical push in 2027

"The Magician's Nephew" looks like a big next step in Netflix's thawing relationship with movie theaters.

Beyond Lovable and Mistral: 21 European startups to watch

It is not that European startups never get attention — Lovable and Mistral AI are proof of that. But there are many more that insiders are tracking.

Geopolitics

Trump’s assumptions are running his Iran policy aground—again

7 AI firms cleared to provide tools for classified Pentagon networks

Space Force wraps decades-long GPS upgrade—and the next one is on tap

Former head of ‘Pentagon’s think tank’ joins Anthropic

Modern Combat Requires Warrior Medics Modeled After Machaon


AI Strategy

‘This is fine’ creator says AI startup stole his art

The ad comes from Artisan, the AI startup behind billboards urging businesses to "stop hiring humans."

In Harvard study, AI offered more accurate emergency room diagnoses than two human doctors

A new study examines how large language models perform in a variety of medical contexts, including real emergency room cases — where at least one model seemed to be more accurate than human doctors.

AI-generated actors and scripts are now ineligible for Oscars

Bad news for Tilly Norwood.

The best AI dictation apps, tested and ranked

Replit’s Amjad Masad on the Cursor deal, fighting Apple, and why he’d rather not sell

Regulation

A Bridge to Somewhere: How to Link Your Mastodon, Bluesky, or Other Federated Accounts

One of the central promises of open social media services is interoperability—the idea that wherever you personally decide to post doesn’t require others to be there just to follow what you have to say. Think of it like a radio broadcast: you want to reach people and dont care where they are or what

Utah’s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect Next Week

For the last couple of years, we’ve watched the same predictable cycle play out across the globe: a state (or country) passes a clunky age-verification mandate, and, without fail, Virtual Private Network (VPN) usage surges as residents scramble to maintain their privacy and anonymity. Weve seen this

Open Records Laws Reveal ALPRs’ Sprawling Surveillance. Now States Want to Block What the Public Sees.

Reporters, community advocates, EFF, and others have used public records laws to reveal and counteract abuse, misuse, and fraudulent narratives around how law enforcement agencies across the country use and share data collected by automated license plate readers (ALPRs). EFF is alarmed by recent law

Digital Hopes, Real Power: From Connection to Collective Action

This is the fifth and final installment of a blog series reflecting on the global digital legacy of the 2011 Arab uprisings. You can read the rest of the series here . If the Arab Spring was defined by optimism about what the internet could do, the years since have been marked by a more sober unders

EFF Submission to UN Report on the Role of Media in the Context of Israel’s Policies Toward Palestinians

The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 recently announced a study addressing the killings and attacks against Palestinian journalists and media workers, the destruction of media infrastructure in Gaza, and the production and diss

Technology

Bad news for Tilly Norwood.

Markets

TechCrunch Mobility: How do you issue a ticket to a robotaxi?

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation.

This tiny, magnetic e-reader could stop you from doomscrolling

The Xteink X3 is a delightfully tiny, MagSafe-compatible e-ink reader that attaches to the back of your phone like a Pop Socket.

Bad news for Tilly Norwood.

Geopolitics

Trump’s assumptions are running his Iran policy aground—again

His blunders underscore the importance of a vigorous interagency process.

7 AI firms cleared to provide tools for classified Pentagon networks

The wide variety—which does not include Anthropic—is intended to prevent AI-vendor lock.

Space Force wraps decades-long GPS upgrade—and the next one is on tap

A last-minute rocket swap shows agility in pursuit of faster launches.

Former head of ‘Pentagon’s think tank’ joins Anthropic

The strategy expert calls adaptation to AI a "civilizational" challenge.

Modern Combat Requires Warrior Medics Modeled After Machaon

Modern peer combat has blown apart the myth of protected combat medical units. On the battlefields of Ukraine, scores of medical personnel, shielded in theory by both international law and historic norms, now lie dead. To survive in this environment while rescuing others, medics ranging from junior


AI Strategy

OpenAI’s cozy partner Cerebras is on track for a blockbuster IPO

AI chip maker Cerebras is heading for a blockbuster IPO that could value it at $26.6 billion or more. Its relationship with OpenAI is deep and rich.

Image AI models now drive app growth, beating chatbot upgrades

Appfigures finds visual model launches generate 6.5x more downloads — but most don’t convert that spike into revenue.

Elon Musk’s only AI expert witness at the OpenAI trial fears an AGI arms race

Stuart Russell is a long-time AI researcher who thinks governments need to restrain frontier labs.

Sierra raises $950M as the race to own enterprise AI gets serious

The raise gives Sierra more than $1 billion to work with — capital the company says it will use to become the "global standard" for AI-powered customer experiences.

Elon Musk sent ominous texts to Greg Brockman, Sam Altman after asking for a settlement, OpenAI claims

Musk texted OpenAI's president and co-founder saying that he and CEO Sam Altman "will be the most hated men in America" if OpenAI doesn't settle the suit.

Regulation

EFF Submission to UK Consultation on Digital ID

Last September, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to introduce a new digital ID scheme in the country. The scheme aims to make it easier for people to prove their identities by creating a virtual ID on personal devices with information like names, date of birth, nation

Getting Digital Fairness Right: EFF's Recommendations for the EU's Digital Fairness Act

Digital Fairness in the EU The next few years will be decisive for EU digital policymaking. With major laws like the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the AI Act now in place, the EU is entering an enforcement era that will show whether these rules are rights-respecting or drift tow

A Bridge to Somewhere: How to Link Your Mastodon, Bluesky, or Other Federated Accounts

One of the central promises of open social media services is interoperability—the idea that wherever you personally decide to post doesn’t require others to be there just to follow what you have to say. Think of it like a radio broadcast: you want to reach people and dont care where they are or what

Utah’s New Law Targeting VPNs Goes Into Effect Next Week

For the last couple of years, we’ve watched the same predictable cycle play out across the globe: a state (or country) passes a clunky age-verification mandate, and, without fail, Virtual Private Network (VPN) usage surges as residents scramble to maintain their privacy and anonymity. Weve seen this

Open Records Laws Reveal ALPRs’ Sprawling Surveillance. Now States Want to Block What the Public Sees.

Reporters, community advocates, EFF, and others have used public records laws to reveal and counteract abuse, misuse, and fraudulent narratives around how law enforcement agencies across the country use and share data collected by automated license plate readers (ALPRs). EFF is alarmed by recent law

Technology

GameStop offers $56 billion for eBay, struggles to explain how it'll pay for it

Markets

Katie Haun raises $1B for new venture funds

Katie Haun announced on Monday that $1 billion has been raised across new funds to continue the firm’s thesis of backing crypto and blockchain startups.

Hackers are mass-exploiting the cPanel bug to gain control of thousands of websites

Days after the disclosure of a critical vulnerability in popular web hosting software cPanel and WHM, hackers are now targeting and hacking thousands of vulnerable websites.

Geopolitics

Navy F/A-18Gs over Iran, Venezuela show rise in aerial electronic attack

Here's what's next for the Navy jamming plane.

Looking at Europe With a Sharper Eye

Welcome toThe Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum only forWar on the Rocksmembers. Each Monday, we bring you a curated selection of articles from Ukrainian media offering insight into how Ukrainians themselves debate the issues sha

Cheap Missiles, Not Drones, Will Win the Next Air War

After four years of watching the war in Ukraine, NATO defense decision-makers are finally beginning to pour money into drones. The Iran conflict has drawn further attention to these investments. The assumption is that unmanned aerial systems will ensure a long-term advantage in conflicts requiring g

The Illusion of Sovereignty: How International Law and Big Tech are Eroding the State

Caught between two hammers international law and technological dependence on the private sector modern state sovereignty is in crisis. When a state attempts to act decisively against an adversary operating below the threshold of armed attack, it risks not only diplomatic sanctions and international

Why Kim Jong Un Won’t Pick Up the Phone and What to Do About It

Every American administration pledges to learn from the past when devising a strategy for contending with nuclear North Korea. And yet, few portfolios are so paralyzed by path dependency and resistance to learning. But now, confronted with the inescapable prospect that the legacy approach is actuall


AI Strategy

Apple plans to make iOS 27 a Choose Your Own Adventure of AI models

With Apple's latest operating system updates, users will reportedly have their pick of which third-party AI models they want to use for a host of tasks.

ASML CEO Christophe Fouquet on his company’s monopoly: no one is coming for us

Christophe Fouquet, who became ASML's CEO in 2024 after more than a decade at the company, sat down with this editor on the rooftop deck of his Beverly Hills hotel Tuesday morning ahead of his appearance at the Milken Institute Global Conference. Dressed in a blue suit and white shirt, he was relaxe

Pennsylvania sues Character.AI after a chatbot allegedly posed as a doctor

According to Pennsylvania's filing, a Character.AI chatbot presented itself as a licensed psychiatrist during a state investigation, and also fabricated a serial number for its state medical license.

OpenAI releases GPT-5.5 Instant, a new default model for ChatGPT

The company said the model reduces hallucination in sensitive areas such as law, medicine, and finance, while maintaining the low latency of its predecessor.

PayPal says it’s ‘becoming a technology company again’ — that means AI

PayPal is pitching an AI-led turnaround, tying automation and restructuring to $1.5 billion in savings as it cuts jobs and works to modernize its tech stack.

Regulation

EFF and 18 Organizations Urge UK Policymakers to Prioritize Addressing the Roots of Online Harm

EFF joins 18 organizations in writing a letter to UK policymakers urging them to address the root causes of online harm—rather than undermining the open web through blunt restrictions. The coalition, which includes Mozilla, Tor Project, and Open Rights Group, warns that proposed measures following t

Shut Down Turnkey Totalitarianism

William Binney, the NSA surveillance architect-turned-whistleblower, called it the " turnkey totalitarian state ." Whoever sits in power gains access to a boundless surveillance empire that scorns privacy and crushes dissent. Politicians will come and go, but you can help us claw the tools of oppres

EFF Submission to UK Consultation on Digital ID

Last September, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced plans to introduce a new digital ID scheme in the country. The scheme aims to make it easier for people to prove their identities by creating a virtual ID on personal devices with information like names, date of birth, nation

Getting Digital Fairness Right: EFF's Recommendations for the EU's Digital Fairness Act

Digital Fairness in the EU The next few years will be decisive for EU digital policymaking. With major laws like the Digital Services Act, the Digital Markets Act, and the AI Act now in place, the EU is entering an enforcement era that will show whether these rules are rights-respecting or drift tow

A Bridge to Somewhere: How to Link Your Mastodon, Bluesky, or Other Federated Accounts

One of the central promises of open social media services is interoperability—the idea that wherever you personally decide to post doesn’t require others to be there just to follow what you have to say. Think of it like a radio broadcast: you want to reach people and dont care where they are or what

Technology

Widely used Daemon Tools disk app backdoored in monthlong supply-chain attack

Markets

As crypto cools, a16z crypto raises a $2.2B fund

As some of the biggest VCs in crypto start to consider funding AI startups, a16z crypto's new fund will stay the course.

Volkswagen becomes Rivian’s top shareholder, displacing Amazon

VW Group's stake will continue to grow under the $5.8 billion joint venture with Rivian.

Threads finally brings messaging to the web

By bringing messaging to the web, Threads is aligning its desktop experience more closely with competitors like X and Bluesky.

Geopolitics

How the War with Iran Is Shaping U.S.-Chinese Competition

The war with Iran has once again raised questions about Washingtons ability to prioritize its interests in East Asia and particularly to manage intensifying competition with Beijing. Furthermore, the war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have presented American and Chinese leaders with new cha

Army turns to ‘hackathons’ to better connect dozens of weapons, systems

Nine leading vendors are to attend the first brainstorming session at Fort Carson, Colorado.

US escort of ships through Hormuz is a ‘gift to the world,’ Hegseth says

But secretary says the escorts are temporary, and the world should “step up.”

'This is how we prevail in the Pacific': US, allies train to repel amphibious assault

The U.S. Army's 25th Infantry Division brought several new weapons to this year's Balikatan exercise.

Acquisition Reform Needs Its Own Wargame

One number buried in the Pentagons Fiscal Year 2027 budget request reveals a decade of acquisition decisions in a data point: The U.S. Navy is requesting 785 Tomahawk cruise missiles. In 2025, Congress funded 55. That 1,200 percent jump is the cost of choices never stress-tested against the scenario


AI Strategy

Barry Diller trusts Sam Altman. But ‘trust is irrelevant’ as AGI nears, he says.

Barry Diller defended OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, while warning that AGI remains an unpredictable force needing guardrails.

Snap says its $400M deal with Perplexity ‘amicably ended’

The deal, announced last November, would have seen Perplexity's AI search engine integrated directly into Snapchat.

Is xAI a neocloud now?

xAI's real business may be more about building data centers than training AI models.

How Elon Musk left OpenAI, according to Greg Brockman

Cutthroat negotiations between startup founders are rarely shared so publicly, especially when a company becomes as world-changing as OpenAI.

SpaceX may spend up to $119B on ‘Terafab’ chip factory in Texas

The project would be a "multi-phase, next-generation, vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturing and advanced computing fabrication facility," according to the proposal.

Regulation

Young evil genius forces hamster to run on wheel to power his gadgets

Okay, the rodent was a willing participant - after all, who turns down treats for a spin that charges a phone?

Claude hitches ride on SpaceX's datacenter capacity

Compute from Colossus leads to relaxed limits

Musk has never built a wafer fab, but he wants to burn $119B on one anyway

Initial phases of SpaceX's Terafab project in rural Texas are expected to cost about 1.25 Twitters

Arctic Wolf kicks 250 employees out of the pack to save money for AI

Cuts appear to hit sales, product, and marketing, accounting for under 10% of staff

1 in 8 employees totally cool with selling work credentials

13% say they’ve sold logins or know someone who has, survey suggests

Technology

Is xAI a neocloud now?

Markets

Is xAI a neocloud now?

Insurance startup Corgi hits $1.3B valuation 4 months after its Series A

Corgi announced on Wednesday a $160 million Series B, led by TCV, valuing the startup at $1.3 billion.

Microsoft’s AI data center push is colliding with its clean power goals

The push for new data centers at Microsoft is putting its key clean power goals at risk.

Geopolitics

How Much Longer Can Russia Last in the War?

In 2025, Collin Meisel and Mathew Burrows wrote, Russia Can Afford to Take a Beating in Ukraine, where they argued Russia was able to absorb the blows Ukraine was delivering and could continue fighting for a while. A year later, we asked Collin and Mathew to revisit their assessments.Image: The Krem

The Cop on the Corner Is Our First Line of Defense: Local Police and the Surveillance Detection Gap

Just before midnight on Nov. 24, 2025, New Castle County police officers conducting a routine property check in Wilmingtons Canby Park spotted a white Toyota Tacoma parked after hours. What initially appeared to be a standard traffic stop uncovered a detailed terror plot. The suspect a University of

Between Intent and Capability: Assessing the Lack of Iranian Attacks on the U.S. Homeland

Three days into the Iran war, Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the quiet part out loud: The Revolutionary Guards Qods Force has long carried out plots around the world and now intended to deploy those capabilities against the U.S. homeland.The United States, a Qods Forcestatementcarried

How the War with Iran Is Shaping U.S.-Chinese Competition

The war with Iran has once again raised questions about Washingtons ability to prioritize its interests in East Asia and particularly to manage intensifying competition with Beijing. Furthermore, the war and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have presented American and Chinese leaders with new cha

Air Force wants AI in its air-ops command-and-control system

Kessel Run is managing the nascent effort to improve the Air Operations Center Weapon System used by COCOMs.


AI Strategy

Voi founders’ new AI startup Pit has become the latest rising star out of Stockholm

AI startup Pit is led by the co-founders of European scooter giant Voi and backed by a16z, which is leading the startup’s $16 million seed round.

OpenAI introduces new ‘Trusted Contact’ safeguard for cases of possible self-harm

The company is expanding its efforts to protect ChatGPT users in cases where conversations may turn to self-harm.

Perplexity’s Personal Computer is now available to everyone on Mac

Perplexity's Personal Computer brings AI agents to your Mac, and is now open to everyone.

Elon Musk’s lawsuit is putting OpenAI’s safety record under the microscope

Elon Musk's legal effort to dismantle OpenAI may hinge on how its for-profit subsidiary enhances or detracts from the frontier lab's founding mission of ensuring that humanity benefits from artificial general intelligence.

Bumble is getting rid of the swipe, CEO says

Based on Whitney Wolfe Herd's past comments about Bumble's new direction, the company is expected to lean into AI -- Bumble is even working on an AI dating assistant called Bee, and the CEO has made many comments over the years about how AI will be "a supercharger to love and relationships."

Regulation

Fake IT workers rented laptops to Nork scammers, got prison time

Matthew Isaac Knoot and Erick Ntekereze Prince will each do 18 months for hosting laptops used by North Korean IT workers to remotely infiltrate US companies

Anthropic response to 1-click pwn: Shouldn't have clicked 'ok'

Security biz Adversa AI argues users of AI tools need clearer warnings

60% of MD5 password hashes are crackable in under an hour

Happy World Password Day! Maybe it's finally time to kill this holiday in favor of World No-More-Passwords Day?

IBM Cloud evaporates as datacenter loses power

Customers say services were down for at least 4 hours, while status page showed no issues

$250M crypto-robbing gang’s dirty work guy sentenced to 6.5 years behind bars

The then-teen was told to break in and steal what the keyboard warriors couldn’t

Technology

Mozilla says 271 vulnerabilities found by Mythos have "almost no false positives"

Markets

Kodiak AI raises $100M at a steep discount, sending its stock tumbling 37%

The company made a series of other announcements during earnings, including a new commercial contract, a pilot program in Canada, and a collaboratio

Disney looking to make a unified ‘super app,’ report says

Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro, who took over for Bob Iger earlier this year, has emphasized his intent to streamline the Disney experience.

Hackers deface school login pages after claiming another Instructure hack

The cybercrime group ShinyHunters claimed to have hacked Instructure again, defacing the login pages of several Instructure customer schools with an extortion message.

Gusto hits $1B revenue, a figure that brings it closer to public markets

Gusto has shared an impressive milestone on its actual revenue, not an ARR number that estimates future income.

Geopolitics

With launches slated to grow a hundredfold, Space Force seeks more sites, money, people, and AI

Even today’s accelerated pace strains decades-old launch facilities.

The Pentagon Needs a Playbook for Munitions Surge Production

The Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles the U.S. military fired during Operation Epic Fury take months to put on contract and years to produce.Whether driven by U.S. military operations or support to partners, the challenge of quickly replenishing U.S. munitions is not new. Exquisite munitions often take

What 300 Emails Say About Americans and the Army’s Direct Commission Program

For nine months in 2024 and 2025, I had an additional duty monitoring an inbox that connected potential direct commission candidates with the Armys individual branches. I served on the Army Reserves senior leadership team, helping to stand up a brokerage between mid-career professionals and the dece

The Army Needs to Build Better Command Posts

It would be odd to see a TOC Mahal in the Russo-Ukrainian War. Often spotted at U.S. Army Combat Training Center rotations or large home-station exercises, TOC Mahals are sprawling tactical operation centers (TOCs) made from a series of connected tents, vehicles, and generators. They typically have

Defense Business Brief: Pitching America first; Visa deal?; Skunk Works exec moves up; plus a little more


AI Strategy

The Download: AI malaise and babymaking tech

This is todays edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of whats going on in the world of technology. We’ve entered the era of AI malaise AI is spreading everywhere, and it is not going away. But what will it do? What effect will it have on our society? Will

Here’s how technology transformed babymaking

Technology is changing the way we make babies. The pioneering work of the scientists who invented IVF led to the birth of the first “test tube baby” in 1978. We’ve come a long, long way since then. This week, I’ve been working on a piece about the cutting edge of IVF technologies and what’s coming

Why you can never get your doctor to call you back

Like many AI companies automating work that humans currently do, Basata will eventually face a harder question about where the line is between augmenting workers and displacing them. For now, the founders say the administrative staff they work with aren't worried about that; they're more worried abo

OpenAI launches new voice intelligence features in its API

The new features could be handy for customer service systems, but OpenAI says they have applications that work across a variety of other fields, including education and creator platforms.

Voi founders’ new AI startup Pit has become the latest rising star out of Stockholm

AI startup Pit is led by the co-founders of European scooter giant Voi and backed by a16z, which is leading the startup’s $16 million seed round.

Regulation

'Dirty Frag' Linux flaw one-ups CopyFail with no patches and public root exploit

Broken disclosure embargo left admins facing a fresh root-level flaw with no CVE

Trump jumps from 'anything goes' to 'strict regulation' AI policy

In a word, 'Huh?'

Meta U-turns on encryption push for Instagram as DMs go plaintext

After years of insisting end-to-end encryption was the future of online comms, Zuckcorp has handed itself full visibility into user chats once again

Vi clone written in BASIC proves old habits :wq hard

A few hundred lines of Yabasic recreate just enough to keep modal editing muscle memory alive

UK abandons police database cloud move after £35M transformation stalls

Home Office finds 80% of code cannot be reused, balks at £26M in extra costs

Markets

Last 24 hours to get 50% off a second pass to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

Last day to buy one pass and get a second one at 50% off to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Bring a partner, co-founder, or colleague at half off. Register now.

Lime, the Uber-backed micromobility company, files for IPO

After years of hints and preparation, Lime plans to enter the public markets.

The biggest U.S. power grid is under strain from AI — and no one is happy

PJM Interconnection — which oversees the grid for some of the densest data center developments on Earth — wants to overhaul itself. Not everyone thinks it's up to the task.

Airbnb says AI now writes 60% of its new code

Airbnb also said its customer support AI bot now handles 40% of issues without escalating to a human agent.

Geopolitics

As Adversaries Integrate, U.S. Partners Bypass Washington

The drones hitting Gulf Arab states daily since the United States and Israel launched large-scale military operations against Iran in February are not merely Iranian. They are originally Iranian, yes. But these designs and production processes were improved and refined by Russia through years of bat

Could Russia Follow the “Hormuz Playbook” in the Baltic and Black Seas?

On the eve of the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, 56 tankers sailed through the Strait of Hormuz. Two days later, Lloyds List, the maritime industrys journal of record, counted just seven tankers and a single gas carrier all small and three of them shadow-fleet vessels with hundreds more drifting in t

With launches slated to grow a hundredfold, Space Force seeks more sites, money, people, and AI

Even today’s accelerated pace strains decades-old launch facilities.

Pentagon will ‘never again’ rely on a single AI provider, official says

Emil Michael, defense undersecretary for research and engineering, said new agreements with Big Tech companies are a “counterstatement” to the ongoing Anthropic-Pentagon conflict as the agency prioritizes flexible contracts.

CISA's sharp reductions in election-security assistance could leave midterms vulnerable, senator says

Sen. Warner says state and local officials report getting less training, intelligence, and cybersecurity help.