February 19, 2026

The Download: autonomous narco submarines, and virtue signaling chatbots

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 uncrewed narco subs could transform the Colombian drug trade For decades, handmade narco subs have been some of the cocaine trade’s most elusive and productive workhorses, ferrying multi-ton loads of illicit drugs…

Grip Security raises $41M to help enterprises manage their SaaS identity risk

August 22, 2023
Grip Security, which provides businesses with the tools to protect their SaaS applications and describes itself as the “industry’s first SaaS security control plane,” today announced that it has raised a $41 million Series B funding round led by Third Point Ventures. Previous investors YL Ventures, Intel Capital and The Syndicate Group also participated in […]

Cerby lands $17M to manage access to ‘nonstandard’ enterprise apps

August 22, 2023
Bel Lepe, a former Google software engineer, tells me that it always seemed risky to him that there were apps business users needed and used, but that IT and security teams were unwilling to approve them because of their lack of support for identity standards. It’s a legitimate issue. According to a Ponemon Institute survey, […]

Why we should all be rooting for boring AI

August 22, 2023
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. I’m back from a wholesome week off picking blueberries in a forest. So this story we published last week about the messy ethics of AI in warfare is just the antidote, bringing my…

Why salt marshes could help save Venice

August 22, 2023
Venice, Italy, is suffering from a combination of subsidence—the city’s foundations slowly sinking into the mud on which they are built—and rising sea levels. In the worst-case scenario, it could disappear underwater by the year 2100. Alessandro Gasparotto, an environmental engineer, is one of the many people trying to keep that from happening. Standing on…

UK’s CMA confirms decision to block Microsoft-Activision but opens fresh probe of restructured deal proposal

August 22, 2023
The UK’s antitrust regulator has confirmed its April decision to block the $68.7BN Microsoft-Activision gaming mega-merger — rejecting arguments by Microsoft that it should overturn its original prohibition because of developments since the original decision. However in a simultaneous announcement today the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened a new investigation into a restructured […]

X is planning to hide headlines from news links for ‘improved aesthetics’

August 22, 2023
Elon Musk-owned X, formerly Twitter, is planning to roll out a new way to display news links without any headline or description. The social network will display just the link and the header image in a post, according to a report by Fortune. Musk confirmed the move in a post on Monday and said it […]