March 9, 2026

OpenAI acquires Promptfoo to secure its AI agents

This deal underscores how frontier labs are scrambling to prove their technology can be used safely in critical business operations.

Technology

How AI is turning the Iran conflict into theater

March 9, 2026
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. “Anyone wanna host a get together in SF and pull this up on a 100 inch TV?”  The author of that post on X was referring to an online intelligence dashboard following…

The usability imperative for securing digital asset devices

March 9, 2026
When Tony Fadell started working on the iPod, usability often trumped security. The result was an iterative process. Every time someone would find a security weakness or a way to hack the device, the development group would iterate to add measures and fix the issues. Yet, flaws would frequently be found, and the secure design…

Is the Pentagon allowed to surveil Americans with AI?

March 6, 2026
The ongoing public feud between the Department of Defense and AI company Anthropic over its technology has raised a deep open question: does the law actually allow the US government to conduct mass surveillance on Americans? Surprisingly, the answer is not straightforward. More than a decade after Edward Snowden exposed the NSA’s collection of bulk…

The Download: an AI agent’s hit piece, and preventing lightning

March 5, 2026
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. Online harassment is entering its AI era Scott Shambaugh didn’t think twice when he denied an AI agent’s request to contribute to matplotlib, a software library he helps manage. Then things…

How much wildfire prevention is too much?

March 5, 2026
The race to prevent the worst wildfires has been an increasingly high-tech one. Companies are proposing AI fire detection systems and drones that can stamp out early blazes. And now, one Canadian startup says it’s going after lightning. Lightning-sparked fires can be a big deal: The Canadian wildfires of 2023 generated nearly 500 million metric…

Online harassment is entering its AI era

March 5, 2026
Scott Shambaugh didn’t think twice when he denied an AI agent’s request to contribute to matplotlib, a software library that he helps manage. Like many open-source projects, matplotlib has been overwhelmed by a glut of AI code contributions, and so Shambaugh and his fellow maintainers have instituted a policy that all AI-written code must be…

Bridging the operational AI gap

March 4, 2026
The transformational potential of AI is already well established. Enterprise use cases are building momentum and organizations are transitioning from pilot projects to AI in production. Companies are no longer just talking about AI; they are redirecting budgets and resources to make it happen. Many are already experimenting with agentic AI, which promises new levels…

The Download: Earth’s rumblings, and AI for strikes on Iran

March 4, 2026
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. Listen to Earth’s rumbling, secret soundtrack The boom of a calving glacier. The crackling rumble of a wildfire. The roar of a surging storm front. They’re the noises of the living…