February 17, 2026

The Download: the rise of luxury car theft, and fighting antimicrobial resistance

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 curious case of the disappearing Lamborghinis Across the world, unsuspecting people are unwittingly becoming caught up in a new and growing type of organized criminal enterprise: vehicle transport fraud and theft. Crooks…

Venmo lets you gift money to your loved ones with special Hallmark greeting cards

August 30, 2023
Venmo is partnering with greeting card manufacturer Hallmark to let you send a physical gift card loaded with money. Hallmark said that this new line of cards will be available for $4.99 on the company’s websites, in Hallmark Gold Crown stores, and in select retailers. People will be able to choose cards from different ranges, […]

Voxel uses computer vision to increase workplace safety

August 30, 2023
The International Labour Organization estimates that there are 340 million workplace incidents every year. Voxel was created to increase workplace safety through computer vision. The startup announced today it has raised $12 million in strategic funding led by manufacturer Rite-Hite, with participation from returning investors Eclipse Ventures and MTech. This brings its total funding raised […]

Large language models aren’t people. Let’s stop testing them like they were.

August 30, 2023
When Taylor Webb played around with GPT-3 in early 2022, he was blown away by what OpenAI’s large language model appeared to be able to do. Here was a neural network trained only to predict the next word in a block of text—a jumped-up autocomplete. And yet it gave correct answers to many of the…

Longevity loving Fairphone 5 unwrapped, with pledge of 8+ years software support

August 30, 2023
Ethical electronics startup, Fairphone, has taken the recycled wrapping off a new flagship smartphone, the Fairphone 5, which will start shipping to buyers in Europe next month. The Android 13-powered handset comes with a five year warranty and the promise of software support that it says will last until at least 2028 — and even […]

The involuntary criminals behind pig-butchering scams

August 30, 2023
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. There’s something so visceral about the phrase “pig-butchering scam.” The first time I came across it was in my reporting a year ago, when I was looking into how strange LinkedIn…

Hyperproof, a compliance and risk management startup, raises $40M

August 30, 2023
Hyperproof, a software-as-a-service risk and compliance management company, today announced that it raised $40 million in a funding round led by Riverwood Capital with participation from Toba Capital, an early-stage VC firm. The tranche brings Hyperproof’s total raised to $66.5 million and “doubles” the company’s valuation from nine months ago, according to co-founder and CEO […]

With Beijing’s greenlight, mobility unicorns Zeekr and WeRide inch closer to US IPOs

August 30, 2023
Six months ago, China’s securities authority announced a set of new rules to facilitate overseas IPOs of Chinese companies, allowing Beijing to tighten its grip on businesses seeking to sell shares abroad. Since then, companies have committed themselves to meeting these new requirements, and now news is surfacing that some have managed to receive regulatory […]

Google discontinues its Pixel Pass subscription, which combined phones and services

August 30, 2023
Google is discontinuing its Pixel Pass subscription service, which allowed people to get a Pixel phone combined with premium services including YouTube Premium, Google Play Pass, and YouTube Premium for a monthly fee. The company said on its support page — spotted first by 9to5Google — that it will stop offering purchases or renewals for […]