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March 19, 2026, 4:35 PM
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Agnee Ghosh / Bloomberg:
OpenAI agrees to acquire Astral, which makes Python tools for developers, to integrate its team into Codex, and says Codex has 2M+ users, up 3x since January  —  OpenAI plans to acquire Astral, a startup that makes Python tools for developers, marking the ChatGPT maker's latest investment …
New York Times:
Mark Zuckerberg's original metaverse vision is effectively over, after renaming Facebook to Meta and spending ~$80B on the endeavor, as his focus shifts to AI  —  Five years ago, Mark Zuckerberg proclaimed that the future of Facebook would be the metaverse.
Janko Roettgers / Lowpass:
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth says Meta will keep Horizon Worlds in VR “for existing games”, a day after Meta said Quest owners will lose access from June 15
Rustin Banks / The Keyword:
Google updates Stitch to let users turn natural language prompts into UI designs, introducing an “AI-native” software design canvas and a reasoning design agent  —  Stitch is evolving into an AI-native software design canvas that allows anyone to create, iterate and collaborate on high-fidelity UI from natural language.
John Wang / @j0hnwang:
Figma's stock closed down 7.98% on March 18 after Google updated its Stitch tool for “vibe designing”; FIG is down ~80% since the company's IPO in August 2025
Dominic Preston / The Verge:
Google announces a new “advanced flow” for Android sideloading that requires a mandatory 24-hour cooling-off period to install apps from unverified developers  —  The one-time ‘advanced flow’ includes 24 hours of cooling off time. … Google has revealed the “advanced flow” …
Rachel Metz / Bloomberg:
Cursor launches Composer 2, an AI agent trained solely on coding-related data to perform autonomous, lengthy coding tasks, to compete with Anthropic and OpenAI  —  Cursor, a leading artificial intelligence startup for coding, is set to release a more efficient AI model for software development …
Brian Danga / The Block:
Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek says the company cut ~12% of its workforce, or ~180 roles, saying the layoffs target roles that “do not adapt” as it integrates AI  —  Quick Take  — Crypto.com cut about 12% of its workforce, or roughly 180 roles based on a previously disclosed headcount of over 1,500 employees.
Margi Murphy / Bloomberg:
CISA warns US companies to follow Microsoft's recommendations for fortifying Intune, a tool that manages staff access, after a cyberattack on Stryker last week  —  The US government is warning businesses to secure their corporate accounts within a popular Microsoft Corp. management tool …
Wall Street Journal:
MLB makes Polymarket its official prediction markets platform, giving it exclusive data access; Polymarket will restrict contracts that pose “integrity risk”  —  On the cusp of opening day and under the cloud of a recent betting scandal, MLB reaches a licensing agreement with event-prediction platform
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Uber plans to invest $1.25B in Rivian through 2031, contingent on meeting autonomy milestones, starting with $300M at signing, to deploy 50K Level 4 robotaxis  —  The companies say they plan on deploying 10,000 autonomous Rivian R2 vehicles by 2031. … Uber and Rivian are joining forces …
Paresh Dave / Wired:
Walmart plans to add its Sparky chatbot into ChatGPT and Gemini, after OpenAI's Instant Checkout conversion rates were 3x lower than those with clicking out  —  After OpenAI's Instant Checkout feature fell short, Walmart is instead embedding its Sparky chatbot directly into ChatGPT and Google Gemini.
More: Financial Times, Search Engine Land, and Ad Age
LinkedIn: Tomas Heiskanen.  Bluesky: @shiraovide and @quinnypig.com.  Threads: @eric_seufert
Forums: r/technology and Slashdot
Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:
DoorDash launches Tasks, a new app that pays delivery couriers in some markets to submit video clips and complete other tasks for training AI models  —  DoorDash Inc. is paying delivery couriers in some markets to submit video clips and complete other digital tasks to help improve artificial intelligence …
Anthropic:
Anthropic releases a survey of 80,508 Claude users' hopes, dreams, and fears about AI, calling it “the largest and most multilingual qualitative study ever”  —  Last December, tens of thousands of Claude users around the world had a conversation with our AI interviewer to share how they use AI …
The Information:
Amazon acquires Zurich-based autonomous robotics startup Rivr, formerly Swiss-Mile; PitchBook: the startup was valued at $110M in an August 2024 funding round  —  Amazon has acquired autonomous robotics startup Rivr, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed, a deal that could help the commerce …
Mizy Clifton / Politico:
Ofcom fines 4chan £520K for OSA violations, including £450K for not complying with age check requirements, and gives it until April 2 to implement age assurance  —  4chan has until 2 April to implement age assurance, carry out a “suitable and sufficient” illegal harms risk assessment …
Dara Kerr / The Guardian:
Google co-founder Sergey Brin raises his total contribution to $45M for the Building a Better California Super PAC, which opposes a proposed 5% billionaire tax  —  Sergey Brin gives $25m on top of $20m he's already given to Super Pac trying to block state's proposed 5% wealth tax
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Alphabet's X spins out Anori, which seeks to streamline building approvals through a unified platform for developers and city regulators, with $26M in funding  —  For more than a decade, Alphabet's X moonshot factory has been quietly trying to fix one of the world's most stubborn industries.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:35 PM ET, March 19, 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

CNN:
Haberman-Swan book: Trump wanted to make Fox News “beg” for a presidential interview, he almost settled for $3M with ABC instead of $16M, and more

Andrew Cohen / InvestmentNews:
Robinhood plans to shutter the Sherwood News site in favor of newsletters and the Robinhood app; at least three reporters were cut in company layoffs this week

Christopher Wiggins / Advocate:
A profile of Don Lemon, whose independent company Lemon Media Network has surpassed 10M followers across platforms, with more than 50% growth in the past year

More News

Ryan Felton / Wall Street Journal:
The US NHTSA escalates its investigation into Tesla's FSD to an “engineering analysis”, which could result in a recall campaign or other enforcement action
Kati Pohjanpalo / Bloomberg:
The UN-backed World Happiness Report says passively consuming algorithmic social media hurts teens' mental health and heavy use disproportionately affects girls

Earlier Picks

Shubham Bose:
An analysis of a NYT article load finds 422 network requests totaling 49MB, triggering a sprawling programmatic ad auction, an example of “hostile architecture”
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