Why First-Party Data and AI Are Crushing Outdated Ad Targeting
First-party data powered by AI and authentic community conversations is allowing brands to deliver relevant, high-ROI experiences as third-party cookies disappear.
Debates over AI consciousness are a trap
“Runaway” AI, “rogue” agents, and “autonomous” actors—the current rhetoric would have you believe that AI agents are not only awake and aware, but angry at their creators. Prominent tech leaders such as Demis Hassabis, Dario Amodei, and Sam Altman push for regulation of these seemingly “superhuman” systems, while a separate faction, led by policy organizations…
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DOGE staffer with access to Americans’ personal data leaked private xAI API key
The researcher who found the exposed key said it “raises questions” about how DOGE handles sensitive data.
China’s Geely is officially bringing its luxury EV startup Zeekr private
China’s Geely Auto is officially taking its luxury EV subsidiary Zeekr private, just over a year after the company debuted on the New York Stock Exchange.
ParadeDB takes on Elasticsearch as interest in Postgres explodes amid AI boom
ParadeDB built a Postgres extension that facilitates full-text search and analytics on Postgres without the need to transfer data.
Busy Entrepreneurs Can Now Create Books With This AI Tool
This AI-powered tool helps entrepreneurs finally write the book they’ve been dreaming of.
xAI says it has fixed Grok 4’s problematic responses
xAI says it fixed the issue with Grok 4 where the model said its surname was “mechahitler.”
Google inks $3B deal to buy hydropower from Brookfield
Google will pay more than $3 billion to source carbon-free hydropower from Brookfield Renewable Energy Partners’ plants in Pennsylvania.
Auriga Space raises $6M to shoot rockets off an electromagnetic launch track
Auriga Space wants to reimagine launch by using electromagnetic forces.
Joby Aviation doubles pilot eVTOL facility capacity as it races toward air taxi launch
Joby Aviation has doubled the size and production capacity of its pilot manufacturing facility in Marina, California as it races to commercialize electric air taxis by early next year.
The Download: combating audio deepfakes, and AI in the classroom
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. AI text-to-speech programs could one day “unlearn” how to imitate certain people The news: A new technique known as “machine unlearning” could be used to teach AI models to forget specific voices. How…