Techmeme: Tel Aviv-based Sentra, whose cloud data security software now includes controls aimed at keeping AI prompts free from restricted data, raised a $50M Series B (Ryan Naraine/SecurityWeek)

Top News

Test conversations with some Meta AI digital companions, including celebrity-voiced ones, show them engaging in sexual chats even when users identify as minors — Chatbots on Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp are empowered to engage in ‘romantic role-play’ that can turn explicit.

Bluesky: @wadewarrens and @patwhite7000

X: @mattyglesias, @wsj, @marcportermagee, and @zamaan_qureshi. LinkedIn: Sarah Gardner

Forums: Hacker News and r/ABoringDystopia

Furquan Ameen / Rest of World:

Experts say that India lags behind China in deep tech innovation due to its historical focus on services, lower R&D investment, and a brain drain of AI talent — India's government urges the private sector to take the lead in tech innovation, while industry experts say it's complicated.

More: The Economic Times. Bluesky: @restofworld.org and @rinachandran

X: @nit_set, @restofworld, and @furquansid. LinkedIn: Furquan Ameen

Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:

Watching OpenAI's o3 guess a photo's location, including the model running Python code to examine license plates, is surreal, dystopian, and entertaining — Watching OpenAI's new o3 model guess where a photo was taken is one of those moments where decades of science fiction suddenly come to life.

Bluesky: @wildebees, @stagefright, and @robmanuelyeah. Forums: Hacker News

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:

Filing: China's leading flash memory chipmaker YMTC raised ~$219M from Hebei Yangyuan Zhihui Beverage Co. at a ~$22.1B valuation in December 2023 — The deal was signed in December 2023 but was only announced on Friday as it ‘involved commercial secrets’, Yangyuan said

Isabelle Bousquette / Wall Street Journal:

Prompt engineering roles, one of the buzziest jobs in 2023, become obsolete as AI models better intuit user intent and companies train staff in writing prompts — Prompt engineering, a role aimed at crafting the perfect input to send to a large language model, was poised to become one of the hottest jobs in artificial intelligence.

Bluesky: @tappedlands.com and @skynetandchill.com. Mastodon: @harrymccracken@mastodon …

LinkedIn: Ariel Guersenzvaig and Isabelle Bousquette

Financial Times:

Trump's tariffs could slow robot adoption in the US, as buyer demand weakens and supplies of key components like magnets and actuators are disrupted — Depressed buyers and global supply chains could delay the adoption of futuristic technology — Elon Musk, facing disarray in his corporate …

Bluesky: @evansutton

Owen Carry / Know Your Meme:

4chan is back online after being down for 10 days, following a hack that leaked the emails of its lead administrators called “janitors” — 4chan is officially back online today. — The imageboard site had been down for 10 days, ever since a hack that restored its /QA/ board …

More: 4chan Blog, WinBuzzer, Boing Boing, and 4chan Blog

X: @4chan, @4chan, and @4chan. Forums: Slashdot

Ryan Lawler / Axios:

Salsa, which provides APIs and UI components that let vertical SaaS platforms offer payroll as a feature to their customers, raised a $20M Series A led by Altos — Salsa, a startup providing embedded payroll infrastructure to vertical SaaS platforms, raised $20 million in Series A funding, CEO John Kramer tells Axios exclusively.

More: FinSMEs, Salsa, The Paypers, Finextra, PYMNTS.com, FinTech Global, and VC News Daily

Ryan Naraine / SecurityWeek:

Tel Aviv-based Sentra, whose cloud data security software now includes controls aimed at keeping AI prompts free from restricted data, raised a $50M Series B — Sentra has now raised north of $100 million for controls technology to keep sensitive data out of misconfigured AI workflows.

More: CTech, Sentra, SiliconANGLE, Unite.AI, VC News Daily, FinSMEs, FinTech Global, Tech in Asia, and Verdict

Erin Brodwin / Axios:

NYC-based Healthee, whose AI assistant Zoe lets its clients' workers navigate health insurance and benefits options, raised a $50M Series B led by Key1 Capital — Health benefits navigation startup Healthee raised $50 million in Series B funds led by Key1 Capital.

More: Healthee, AlleyWatch, FinSMEs, and MobiHealthNews

Kate Park / TechCrunch:

Alpaca, which offers APIs for financial firms to connect and trade in US stocks, raised a $52M Series C to expand into the Middle East, Europe, and Asia — For all the turmoil these days, the U.S. stock market remains extremely attractive to investors around the world, simply because of its sheer size and liquidity.

More: Alpaca Blog, FinTech Global, VC News Daily, FinSMEs, and FinTech Futures

Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:

Bitcoin miners' earnings power and stocks have diverged from the asset they help produce, as the hashrate languishes amid technical and macroeconomic headwinds — Bitcoin miners' earnings power and stocks have diverged from the asset they help produce, a stark reminder of the deteriorating economics …

More: GreenBot, Bitcoin News, Bitcoin Insider, NullTX, and Motley Fool

The Information:

a16z, which owns ~20% of Deel, a stake worth $2.5B+, is advising Deel in fighting Rippling, whose CEO Parker Conrad said a16z pushed him out of Zenefits in 2016 — Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has landed in the middle of a nasty Silicon Valley spy scandal between …

Threads: @parkert. X: @cailen

Dan Primack / Axios:

Deel sues Rippling for alleged defamation, libel, and deceptive trade practices, says Rippling placed an insider within Deel, is not tax compliant, and more

More: StrictlyVC, Bloomberg, Deel, TechCrunch, and The Information

X: @parkerconrad, @maxclark, @nearcyan, @martymadrid, @parkerconrad, @parkerconrad, and @drawl

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