Stop Hiding Behind Zoom — the Best Ideas Are Formed From In-person Collaboration
Whether you’re hybrid, remote or in-person, you can’t build a company culture over Zoom. Here’s what actually works.
The Download: failed social media bans, and extending pets’ lives
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. Kids are outsmarting social media bans. That’s not a problem we need to solve. —Michal Luria, Aliya Bhatia, and Danah Boyd Social media bans are stacking up. In July, France joined…
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How Ciara Turned a Mom’s Daily Frustration Into a Nationwide Brand
The pop star faced a common parenting conundrum — so she started a brand to help others.
They Started Their Business in College. Now It’s Valued at Nine Figures. Here’s How Breakaway Broke the Mold for Live Events.
Adam Lynn, co-founder of Breakaway, explains how he and his company found the white space in live entertainment.
A startup, Everand, is now bundling ebooks, audiobooks, and book clubs in challenge to Amazon
A new reading subscription from Everand offers access to both ebooks and audiobooks, and Fable’s book club community.
Martin Scorsese becomes the latest — and most unlikely — Hollywood voice for AI
The caveat is that one of the world’s most famous living directors is using the tech solely for storyboarding.
Microsoft launches Scout, an OpenClaw-inspired personal assistant
Launched at Build, Microsoft Scout is a new AI assistant meant to bring the power and flexibility of OpenClaw into the Microsoft 365 system.
Ex-Anduril engineer raises $42M to build the Amazon of composite parts
Layup Parts co-founder Zack Eakin has drawn on a motorsports background, and his experience working for Palmer Luckey and Elon Musk, to tackle making faster, cheaper, and better composites.
Google rolls out fake call detection to protect against AI deepfake impersonation scams
As people increasingly refuse to answer calls from unknown numbers, scammers are shifting their tactics by spoofing trusted phone numbers and using AI deepfake technology to sound like authority figures, family members, or employers.
Microsoft offers devs a better way to control AI agent behavior
The specification lets developer, compliance and security teams define their own policies for agents to follow in portable policy files.
Amazon faces class action lawsuit over Ring facial recognition feature
The class action lawsuit, filed in Seattle by Virginia resident Charles Sigwalt, claims that Ring’s Familiar Faces feature stores images of passersby without consent.