New zero-day startup offers $20 million for tools that can hack any smartphone
Prices for hacking tools that allow governments to break into mobile phones keep going up, thanks to efforts by tech firms shoring up their cybersecurity.
The Download: AI’s impact on the economy, and DeepSeek strikes again
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. The State of AI: Welcome to the economic singularity —David Rotman and Richard Waters Any far-reaching new technology is always uneven in its adoption, but few have been more uneven than generative AI.…
TopTechTrends
FieldAI raises $405M to build universal robot brains
FieldAI builds foundational AI models that help all kinds of robots learn and adapt to new environments using physics.
NASA’s new AI model can predict when a solar storm may strike
NASA and IBM have released a new open-source machine learning model to help scientists better understand and predict the physics and weather patterns of the sun. Surya, trained on over a decade’s worth of NASA solar data, should help give scientists an early warning when a dangerous solar flare is likely to hit Earth. Solar…
Run a Full Mac or Windows Desktop on Any Device in Five Minutes
Shells makes any device your business HQ.
Y Combinator alum SRE.ai raises $7.2M for DevOps AI agents
The company helps automate complex enterprise workflows (like continuous integration and testing) — or, in other words, it makes DevOps capabilities more efficient as AI technology takes hold.
YC-backed Garage raises $13.5M to help firefighters buy equipment
Garage is a marketplace that sells specialized equipment commonly used in local governments and public safety.
Zoox taps ex-UberPool exec’s startup for routing software help
It’s the latest in a series of deals that have seen robotaxi companies look outward for help in scaling their fledgling networks.
The Download: churches in the age of AI, and how to run an LLM at home
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. How churches use data and AI as engines of surveillance On a Sunday morning in a Midwestern megachurch, worshippers step through sliding glass doors into a bustling lobby—unaware they’ve just passed through a…
Finally, Notion now works without an internet connection
For years, one of the most annoying issues with using Notion was that you couldn’t get much done offline because of its cloud-first architecture. The company has finally solved that problem, adding support for an offline mode to its apps.
Material Cultures looks to the past to build the future
Despite decades of green certifications, better material sourcing, and the use of more sustainable materials such as mass timber, the built environment is still responsible for a third of global emissions worldwide. According to a 2024 UN report, the building sector has fallen “significantly behind on progress” toward becoming more sustainable. Changing the way we…