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Casio confirms customer data compromised in ransomware attack Oct 15, 2024

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A ransomware and extortion racket called Underground has claimed responsibility for the breach on its dark web leak site, which TechCrunch has seen.

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SpaceX alums are working to raise a hefty $550M first deep tech fund Oct 14, 2024

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Interlagos, the venture capital firm started by former senior SpaceX leaders, is looking to raise $550 million for its first venture fund, according to regulatory filings and a confidential deck sent to prospective LPs and viewed by TechCrunch.

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Bluesky joins Threads to court users frustrated by Meta’s moderation issues Oct 14, 2024

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Social networking startup Bluesky is seizing the moment. Amid ongoing moderation issues affecting X rival Instagram Threads, the decentralized X competitor Bluesky has created an account on Meta’s newest platform.

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A reporter used AI to apply to 2,843 jobs, Internet Archive slammed by DDoS attack, Scope3 starts tracking the carbon footprint of AI, and Opera’s new feature lets you group, pin and close tabs through natural language commands Oct 11, 2024

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AI is spamming up job applications. 404 Media’s Jason Koebler writes about how he used a free tool, AI Hawk, to apply for 17 jobs in an hour while working a restaurant shift — only stopping when he’d reached 2,843; The Internet Archive, the nonprofit organization that digitizes and archives materials like web pages, came under attack Wednesday; The startup, which already monitors the climate impact of digital advertising, is expanding to include artificial intelligence; Opera browser has a new AI-powered feature that lets you take action on tabs through natural language queries. Things you can do include grouping, pinning, bookmarking and closing tabs with these commands.

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Antitrust challenge to Facebook’s ‘superprofiling’ finally wraps in Germany — with Meta agreeing to data limits Oct 11, 2024

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A multi-year competition challenge to Facebook (aka Meta), which saw Germany’s antitrust authority become a pioneering champion for privacy rights in 2019 after it sought to block the social media giant’s ‘superprofiling’ of users on the grounds that consentless cross-site tracking of users is an “exploitative abuse” of Facebook’s monopoly position, finally concluded Thursday.

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North American robotics sales declined in first half of 2024 Oct 10, 2024

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Even a category as hot as robotics is not immune from macroeconomic trends. According to figures from automation advocacy group, A3, the North American robotics market declined in the first half of 2024, both in terms of sales and revenue. The number of industrial robotics ordered in H1 declined 7.5% year-over-year to 15,705.

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Billionaire Robinhood co-founder launches Aetherflux, a space-based solar power startup Oct 10, 2024

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It’s been the stuff of science fiction for decades: to provide gigawatts of cheap, clean power anywhere on Earth, day or night, using satellites that collect and transmit solar energy directly on orbit

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Adobe proposes a way to protect artists from AI ripoffs Oct 09, 2024

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As the engine powering the world’s digital artists, Adobe has a big responsibility to mitigate the rise of AI-driven deepfakes, misinformation, and content theft. In the first quarter of 2025, Adobe is launching its Content Authenticity web app in beta, allowing creators to apply content credentials to their work, certifying it as their own.

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Emma Watson invests in reproductive health company Hertility Oct 09, 2024

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Actress Emma Watson has made a previously undisclosed investment into the women’s health company Hertility, bringing its total funding to more than $14 million, the company told TechCrunch in an interview on Monday. Watson is known for her interest in the environment and supporting women-led initiatives.

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Sonair takes a cue from dolphins to build autonomous 3D vision sans LIDAR Oct 08, 2024

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Ultrasound is perhaps best known as the technology that enables non-invasive body scans, underwater communication, and to help us park our cars. A young startup called Sonair out of Norway wants to employ it for something else: 3D computer vision used in autonomous hardware applications.

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