AI mental illness lawyer warns of risk of mass casualties
Prior to last month’s Tumbler Ridge School shooting in Canada, 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootseller spoke to ChatGPT about feelings of isolation and a growing obsession with violence, according to court filings. According to the filing, the chatbot helped Ms. Van Roetselaar plan her attack by validating her feelings, telling her what weapon to use, and […]
Digg lays off staff and closes app as company reorganizes
Digg, Kevin Rose’s reboot of the once-popular link-sharing site, announced Friday that it will lay off a significant portion of its staff. However, Digg CEO Justin Mezzell said the startup is not shutting down. Instead, Rose plans to return to work full time to help Digg gain a foothold. Rose will continue to work as […]
Founded by father-son duo, Nyne provides AI agents with the human context they lack
AI agents are expected to soon make purchasing and scheduling decisions autonomously on behalf of humans. But Michael Fanous, a UC Berkeley computer science graduate and former CareRev machine learning engineer, argues that these agents currently lack a key piece of the puzzle: the full context needed to truly understand the people they’re being programmed […]
Facebook makes it easier for creators to report impersonation
Following widespread complaints that Facebook has become an “AI sloppy hell,” Meta on Friday announced new tools to detect impersonation, as well as updates to its creator guidelines that more clearly define what Facebook considers “original content.” Last year, the company announced a crackdown on spammy and unoriginal content, such as repeatedly reusing other people’s […]
Travis Kalanick launches new company called Atoms focused on robotics
Uber founder Travis Kalanick has started a new company called Atoms that will focus on robotics and will operate in the food, mining and transportation industries, according to its website. Kalanick is integrating his existing ghost kitchen company, CloudKitchens, into Atoms. It was not immediately clear how he plans to approach mining and transportation. Atoms’ […]
Chinese hackers target Southeast Asian militaries with AppleChris and MemFun malware
The suspected China-based cyber espionage operation has targeted military organizations in Southeast Asia as part of a state-sponsored campaign dating back to at least 2020. Palo Alto Networks Unit 42 is tracking threat activity under the designation CL-STA-1087. CL refers to clusters and STA stands for state-backed motives. Security researchers Lior Rochberger and Yoav Zema […]
Six grueling weeks for NanoClaw creators to reach deal with Docker
For NanoClaw creator Gabriel Cohen, it’s been a whirlwind. About six weeks ago, he introduced NanoClaw, which he built during a weekend coding spree, on Hacker News as a small, open source, and secure alternative to AI agent building sensation OpenClaw. The post went viral. “I put on my sweatpants and sat on the couch,” […]
Meta to end Instagram’s end-to-end encrypted chat support starting May 2026
Ravi LakshmananMarch 13, 2026Encryption/data protection Meta announced plans to discontinue support for end-to-end encryption (E2EE) in Instagram chats after May 8, 2026. “If you have chats that are affected by this change, you will receive instructions on how to download the media and messages you want to keep,” the social media giant said in its […]
Interpol destroys 45,000 malicious IPs and arrests 94 people in global cybercrime investigation
Ravi LakshmananMarch 13, 2026Ransomware/Cybercrime Interpol announced on Friday that it would remove 45,000 malicious IP addresses and servers used in connection with phishing, malware and ransomware campaigns as part of the agency’s ongoing efforts to dismantle criminal networks, thwart new threats and protect victims from fraud. This effort is part of an international law enforcement […]
Apple lowers commission rates in China without any fuss
Apple announced Thursday that it will reduce commission rates on its App Store in China from 30% to 25% after consultation with Chinese regulators. The new 25% fee applies to paid apps and in-app purchases, but auto-renewing in-app purchases after the first year will be charged a lower 12% fee (down from 15%). The changes […]