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Amid increased momentum for defense, the NATO Innovation Fund refreshes its investment team, and Google is testing a vibe-coding app called Opal Jul 29, 2025

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The NATO Innovation Fund is entering a new chapter, marked by the arrival of two new partners and the departure of its penultimate founding team partner. Also, Google is testing a new vibe-coding tool called Opal, available in the U.S. through Google Labs, that lets users quickly spin up web apps with just a few prompts.

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Tesla is behind on its pledge to build 5,000 Optimus bots this year, Apple broadens App Store’s age rating system, and Meta will stop selling political ads in the EU Jul 28, 2025

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Tesla is behind on its goal to produce at least 5,000 Optimus humanoid robots by the end of 2025. Also, Apple has expanded its age rating system to include 13+, 16+, and 18+ ratings, in addition to the existing ratings for younger users; and in response to the European Union's incoming regulation of political advertising, Meta said on Friday that it would stop selling and showing political ads in the EU from October 2025.

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A new AI coding challenge just published its first results – and they aren’t pretty Jul 28, 2025

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A new AI coding challenge has revealed its first winner — and set a new bar for AI-powered software engineers. On Wednesday at 5pm PST, the nonprofit Laude Institute announced the first winner of the K Prize, a multi-round AI coding challenge launched by Databricks and Perplexity co-founder Andy Konwinski.

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Trump’s ‘anti-woke AI’ order could reshape how US tech companies train their models Jul 25, 2025

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When DeepSeek, Alibaba, and other Chinese firms released their AI models, Western researchers quickly noticed they sidestepped questions critical of the Chinese Communist Party. U.S. officials later confirmed that these tools are engineered to reflect Beijing’s talking points, raising concerns about censorship and bias.

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Apple launches $19.99 monthly AppleCare One subscription, plus Snapchat's 'HomeSafe' feature Jul 25, 2025

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Apple launches $19.99 monthly AppleCare One subscription with coverage for three devices Also, Snap Map's new "Home Safe" feature sends one-time alerts to friends, so you don't need to remember to message others that you're back safely.

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Proton’s new privacy-first AI assistant encrypts all chats ... plus NetZeroNitrogen wants bacteria to replace synthetic fertilizer Jul 24, 2025

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Proton's new AI assistant Lumo promises to keep user data private with zero-access encryption, no logging, and an incognito mode. In other news, NetZeroNitrogen's bacteria approach has attracted investors and $6.6 million in seed funding.

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21-year-old MIT dropouts raise $32M at $300M valuation led by Insight Jul 24, 2025

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Karun Kaushik and Selin Kocalar weren’t planning to raise a Series A so soon. Their AI compliance startup, Delve, which announced a $3 million seed round in January, was growing fast and signing customers at a steady clip.

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Serial spyware founder Scott Zuckerman wants the FTC to unban him from the surveillance industry Jul 23, 2025

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The spyware maker was banned from the surveillance industry in 2021, but was caught flouting the ban less than a year later. Now the founder wants the ban lifted altogether.

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A surveillance vendor was caught exploiting a new SS7 attack to track people’s phone locations Jul 23, 2025

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The new SS7 bypass-attack tricks phone operators into disclosing a cell subscriber's location, in some cases down to a few hundred meters.

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Starbase injury rates outpace rivals as SpaceX chases its Mars moonshot Jul 22, 2025

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SpaceX has been moving at breakneck pace, rapid progress comes at a cost. Worker injury rates at its Starbase facility are almost six times higher than the average, data reveals.

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