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March 18, 2026, 3:50 PM
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Top News

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Google, iVerify, and Lookout researchers discover DarkSword, a hacking tool used by Russia-sponsored and other hackers to target iOS 18 via Ukrainian websites  —  A powerful iPhone-hacking technique known as DarkSword has been discovered in use by Russian hackers.
Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
Samsung and AMD sign a preliminary deal for Samsung to supply its next-gen HBM4 for AMD's MI455X accelerators, used in data centers, and DDR5 for AMD's Helios  —  Samsung Electronics Co. agreed to supply and collaborate with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. on next-generation AI memory and computing technologies.
Steven Levy / Wired:
Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard, who pioneered quantum information theory, win the ACM A.M. Turing Award; the pair developed the BB84 cryptography protocol  —  Charles Bennett and Gilles Brassard pioneered quantum information theory.  Now they've been awarded the highest honor in computer science.
Ben Weiss / Fortune:
Stripe and Paradigm-backed blockchain startup Tempo launch the Machine Payments Protocol, which uses Tempo's new blockchain to handle AI agents' transactions  —  The fintech giant Stripe along with Tempo, a blockchain startup incubated by the payments company as well as the venture firm Paradigm …
The Information:
Sources: Apple stops vibe coding apps from pushing updates, citing rules on running code; Replit thinks Apple may approve opening AI-generated apps in a browser  —  Apple has quietly prevented AI vibe coding apps such as Replit and Vibecode, which help people create games and other applications …
Bloomberg:
Chengdu's government says Tim Cook attended Apple's 50th anniversary event in the city; Chinese state media called for Apple to fix its “monopolistic” App Store  —  Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook showed up at a company event in China on Wednesday after the company lowered …
Kanika Talwar / WWD:
Meta makes its Meta Lab NYC pop-up on Fifth Avenue a permanent flagship location after signing a 10-year lease; it opened its first flagship store in LA in 2025  —  The tech company has signed a decade-long lease for its Meta Lab town house on Fifth Avenue.
Graham Fraser / BBC:
The UK government withdraws a proposal to let AI companies train on copyrighted works unless creators opt out, after backlash from artists like Dua Lipa  —  The UK government has backtracked on its position on copyright and AI, stating it must take time to “get this right”.
ProPublica:
Investigation: the US FedRAMP authorized Microsoft service GCC High to handle sensitive government data in 2024, despite years of concerns about its security  —  In late 2024, the federal government's cybersecurity evaluators rendered a troubling verdict on one of Microsoft's biggest cloud computing offerings.
Paresh Dave / Wired:
Filing: the US DOD said it designated Anthropic a supply chain risk over concerns the AI company could disable its tech if the Pentagon crossed its “red lines”
Brent Lang / Variety:
Director Coerte Voorhees says he is using AI to feature Val Kilmer in “a significant part” in an indie film, with the cooperation of the late actor's estate  —  Five years prior to his death in 2025, Val Kilmer was cast as Father Fintan, a Catholic priest and Native American spiritualist, in “As Deep as the Grave.”
Financial Times:
Sources: Microsoft is weighing legal action against Amazon and OpenAI over whether AWS can offer OpenAI Frontier without breaching OpenAI's Microsoft agreement  —  Rift deepens as start-up tests limits of Microsoft's exclusive rights to host its models  —  Microsoft is weighing legal action …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
A US judge rules Apple can remove apps “with or without cause”, a loss for Musi, a streaming app Apple removed from the App Store that played music from YouTube  —  Musi, a free music streaming app that had tens of millions of iPhone downloads and garnered plenty of controversy …
Simon Sharwood / The Register:
The Linux Foundation says Anthropic, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI gave $12.5M in grants to help FOSS maintainers handle AI-generated security findings  —  Half a dozen Big Tech players have together delivered $12.5 million in grants towards a project that aims to help maintainers …
Jasmine Sun / The Atlantic:
How AI's post-training process suppresses the creativity and whimsicality seen in earlier models, like GPT-2, leading to poor writing from many top AI models  —  In a certain, strange way, generative AI peaked with OpenAI's GPT-2 seven years ago.  Little known to anyone outside of tech circles …
Bloomberg:
Tencent reports Q4 revenue up 13% YoY to ~$28.3B, vs. ~$28.2B est., its fifth quarter of double-digit growth, driven by gaming and ads, as it bets on agentic AI  —  Tencent Holdings Ltd. plans to at least double investments in AI to more than 36 billion yuan ($5.2 billion) in 2026 …
Sharon Goldman / Fortune:
RunSybil, whose AI agent runs continuous autonomous penetration testing on live apps to find and document vulnerabilities, raised $40M led by Khosla Ventures  —  RunSybil, an AI cybersecurity startup that uses AI agents to automatically hack company software to find security weaknesses …
More: RunSybil
Upstarts Media:
Compute startup Andromeda raised new funding from Paradigm at a $1.5B valuation, bringing Paradigm's total to $60M; it passed a $100M revenue run rate in 2025  —  Once a service spun up by AI investors Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross, Andromeda has now raised $60M from Paradigm to stand alone.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:50 PM ET, March 18, 2026.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

David Bauder / Associated Press:
A look at the work of photographer Ann Hermes, who has documented 50 newsrooms across the US, many in smaller towns and cities, and hopes to photograph 100

Deadline:
SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP have “reached a tentative agreement” on terms for a successor contract to their 2023 contracts; the deal is now headed for a board review

Bloomberg:
Sources: Disney CEO Josh D'Amaro is exploring a “super app” that integrates Disney+ with parks passes, games, merchandise, and cruise and resort apps

More News

Andrew E. Freedman / Tom's Hardware:
Jensen Huang dismisses social media criticism of DLSS 5 at GTC 2026, asserting that claims that the generative AI tech homogenizes games are “completely wrong”
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
The EU unveils EU Inc., a single bloc-wide proposal that lets companies incorporate in 48 hours, to help European startups compete with US and Chinese rivals

Earlier Picks

Esther Fung / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon, long the USPS' biggest customer, plans to cut packages it ships via the service by at least two-thirds this fall, when its contract expires
Arvelisse Bonilla Ramos / Bloomberg:
AI drone software company Swarmer closed up 520% in its Nasdaq debut, valuing it at $380M+; its tech has been used in 100K+ missions in Ukraine since April 2024
Lydia Beyoud / Bloomberg:
The SEC and CFTC issue guidance on which digital assets are securities, carving out stablecoins, digital collectives, and digital commodities as non-securities
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