A massive data breach at American retailer Hot Topic has compromised the personal data of 57 million customers. The stolen information includes email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, purchases, genders, and dates of birth, as well as partial credit card data. The breach occurred on October 19 and was claimed by a threat actor operating…
The tech industry is experiencing a significant wave of layoffs, with over 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies in 2024 alone. Major players like Tesla, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have all conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of the year. Smaller startups have also seen significant cuts, with some even shutting down operations altogether….
A small group of climate tech founders, including Halen Mattison and Luke Neise, have shifted their focus from space to Earth, developing technology that can convert carbon dioxide into methane for use in industries such as chemical and plastic manufacturing. Their company, General Galactic, has built a pilot system that can produce 2,000 liters of…
Mozilla’s Firefox browser is celebrating its 20th anniversary, and the company is refocusing on its core business. Interim CEO Laura Chambers aims to restore Firefox’s growth path by prioritizing product development, investing in user experience, and innovating with AI. Mozilla is also looking to reach new users, especially younger ones, and is running marketing campaigns…
OpenAI, a leading artificial intelligence startup, has lost another top researcher, Lilian Weng, who served as Vice President of Research and Safety. Weng’s departure marks the latest in a string of AI safety researchers and executives who have left the company in the past year, raising concerns about OpenAI’s focus on commercial products over AI…
The FBI has warned that hackers are obtaining private user information from U.S.-based tech companies by compromising government and police email addresses to submit “emergency” data requests. This abuse of emergency data requests is not new, but the FBI has seen an uptick in criminal posts online advertising access to or conducting fraudulent emergency data…
Anthropic, a leading AI vendor, has announced a strategic partnership with Palantir and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies with access to its Claude family of AI models. This collaboration aims to operationalize the use of Claude within Palantir’s platform, leveraging AWS hosting to enhance analytical capabilities and operational efficiencies…
In a recent presidential election, two AI startups, xAI and Perplexity, attempted to provide accurate, real-time information to the public. While xAI failed miserably, Perplexity successfully offered helpful insights and maps, linking to reliable resources and providing historical context. This achievement sets Perplexity apart from other AI chatbots, such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which refused to…
OpenAI has acquired the domain name Chat.com, redirecting it to its AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT. The acquisition marks the latest move by the company to expand its digital presence. The domain name, which was previously owned by HubSpot co-founder Dharmesh Shah, was sold for $15.5 million last year. Forecast for 6 months: OpenAI is expected to…
A grueling election cycle has come to a close, with Donald Trump poised to become the 47th president of the U.S. The effects of this shift will be acutely felt in the AI industry, which has largely rallied against federal policymaking. Trump has repeatedly said he plans to dismantle Biden’s AI policy framework on ‘day…
