August 2, 2025

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AI ai censorship Government & Policy

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan asks Big Tech if Biden tried to censor AI

On Thursday, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent letters to 16 American technology firms, including Google and OpenAI, asking for past communications with the Biden administration that might suggest the former president “coerced or colluded” with companies to “censor lawful speech” in AI products. The Trump administration’s top technology advisors previously signaled they would pick

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accounting Exclusive Fintech Startups

Bench is charging people for services they already paid for, some customers say

After Employer.com acquired bankrupt accounting startup Bench in a fire-sale late last year, CEO Jesse Tinsley pledged on LinkedIn and elsewhere to honor past customer payments. “We’re honoring all prepaid Bench services even though we will not have the revenue from that directly ourselves,” Tinsley said in an interview with founder and investor Julian Weisser.

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AI licensing open models

‘Open’ model licenses often carry concerning restrictions

This week, Google released a family of open AI models, Gemma 3, that quickly garnered praise for their impressive efficiency. But as a number of developers lamented on X, Gemma 3’s license makes commercial use of the models a risky proposition. It’s not a problem unique to Gemma 3. Companies like Meta also apply custom,

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AI Apps gemini Google Google Assistant

Google is replacing Google Assistant with Gemini

Google will replace Google Assistant on Android phones with Gemini later this year, the company announced on Friday. Google said in a blog post that it’ll upgrade more users from Google Assistant to Gemini “over the coming months.” Later this year, Assistant will no longer be accessible on most mobile devices or available from app

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Fintech IPOs Klarna Startups

Profitable Klarna files for a potentially blockbuster IPO

Swedish fintech Klarna took the next step in its highly anticipated U.S. IPO on Friday when it made its F-1 prospectus public. We are sifting through the document now. Klarna hopes to raise at least $1 billion at a $15 billion valuation with this IPO, Bloomberg reported last week. The public documents don’t yet reveal

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Robotics Transportation

Waymo was slapped with nearly 600 parking tickets last year in SF alone

Waymo now has more than 300 driverless vehicles zipping passengers around San Francisco, but while they follow traffic laws, parking is another matter entirely. According to city records cited by The Washington Post, these rolling robots racked up 589 citations totaling $65,065 in fines last year for parking violations that ranged from blocking traffic to

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Biotech & Health bryan johnson dont die SXSW SXSW 2025

Anti-aging zealot Bryan Johnson wants to start ‘foodome sequencing’

In the same way that genome sequencing determines the genetic makeup of an organism, Bryan Johnson — the investor and founder behind the Don’t Die movement — wants to start “foodome” sequencing.  “We’re going to sequence the U.S. ‘foodome,’ which means test 20% of foods that constitute 80% of the American diet based on stuff

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Binance Crypto CZ Government & Policy Trump

Trump family is reportedly in talks to acquire stake in Binance’s US arm

President Trump’s family has been weighing an investment in Binance.US, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. The investment would come just a couple of years after Binance’s U.S. arm pleaded guilty to violating anti-money laundering regulation. As part of that guilty plea, Binance’s founder, Changpeng Zhao, better known as CZ, paid a

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AI Enterprise OpenAI SB OpenAI Japan Softbank

SoftBank buys $676M old Sharp plant for its OpenAI collab in Japan

SoftBank is marching ahead on its ambitions to build out a major AI operation in its home market of Japan, on its own steam and in strategic partnership with others like OpenAI. On Friday, the tech company confirmed it would pay $676 million for a factory previously used by Sharp to build LCD panels and

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apple icloud backdoor challenge Government & Policy In Brief Privacy Security

UK’s secret iCloud backdoor order triggers civil rights challenge

The U.K. government’s secret order to Apple demanding it backdoor the end-to-end encrypted version of its iCloud storage service has now been challenged by two civil rights groups, Liberty and Privacy International, which filed complaints Thursday. They called the order “unacceptable and disproportionate” and warned of “global consequences” as the access order is thought to

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