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March 19, 2026, 4:25 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 …
More: OpenAI, Astral, Ars Technica, MacStories, Fortune, Simon Willison's Weblog, CNBC, PYMNTS.com, iPhone in Canada, DevOps.com, Proactive, Implicator.ai, The Economic Times, and Reuters
X: @rohanpaul_ai, @openainewsroom, @jsuarez, @gdb, @trekedge, @hsvsphere, @svpino, @theahmadosman, @ivanfioravanti, @chrisalbon, @hanchunglee, @banteg, @charliermarsh, @alxfazio, @reach_vb, @fujikanaeda, @charliermarsh, @julien_c, @boristane, @sherwinwu, @jxnlco, and @himanshustwts
Bluesky: @seldo.com, @reillywood.com, @timonsku.zip, @ramon-astudillo, and @cameron.stream. Mastodon: @webology@mastodon.social
Forums: Hacker News, r/rust, and r/BetterOffline
| 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” …
More: Ars Technica, Android Authority, Android Developers Blog, Android Police, Thurrott, Engadget, How-To Geek, The Register, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, and BleepingComputer
Forums: r/EmulationOnAndroid, r/degoogle, r/androiddev, and r/fossdroid
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Bluesky raised a $100M Series B led by Bain Capital Crypto in April 2025, following a $15M Series A in 2024 and an $8M seed in 2023; it now has over 43M users — Social network Bluesky is gearing up for big changes with today's news that the company raised $100 million in Series B funding.
More: Bluesky and Knight Foundation
| 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.
More: Stitch, CNBC, XDA Developers, Business Insider, Fast Company, The Information, TechRadar, Android Central, The Rundown AI, The Decoder, The Indian Express, and The Decoder
| John Wang / @j0hnwang: |
More: Benzinga and Blockonomi
X: @timhaldorsson, @scottastevenson, @dorizzdt, @hadley, @melkeydev, @hewarsaber, @aakashgupta, and @lexsokolin
Bluesky: @seanhodgdon.com and @seanhodgdon.com
| 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.
More: 404 Media, The Verge, Sandra Rose, PCMag, Barron's Online, The Daily Dot, Not the Bee, The Hans India, and Digital Music News
X: @rcbregman, @kevinroose, @paultassi, @matvelloso, @canteverdie, @kyliebytes, @anisha_moonka, @wdavidmarx, @wallstmemes, @joeperticone, @willsolfiac, @malonebarry, and @abhijitwt
Bluesky: @ethanz, @tommysalty, @tabletopminions, @deanwampler.com, @maeve, @shadowmanos, @edzitron.com, and @daniloc.xyz
| Janko Roettgers / Lowpass: |
More: TechCrunch, CNBC, The Verge, Ars Technica, Engadget, 9to5Mac, UploadVR, Lifehacker, Wired, Gameranx, Android Headlines, and Bloomberg
| 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 …
More: eWeek, The Decoder, Implicator.ai, Blockonomi, and Towards Data Science
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Google has started consumer beta testing of a dedicated Gemini AI app for the Mac, as it seeks to compete with Mac apps for ChatGPT and Claude — Google is ramping up development of a dedicated Gemini AI app for Apple Inc.'s Mac computer lineup, looking to step up competition with OpenAI and Anthropic PBC.| 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.| 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
More: MLB.com, CFTC, TechCrunch, PYMNTS.com, Decrypt, Fortune, Front Office Sports, ESPN, Awful Announcing, Cointelegraph, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Associated Press, The Block, Benzinga, Blockonomi, CoinDesk, The Crypto Times, CNBC, Bitcoin News, Fast Company, Bloomberg, and Sports Business Journal
X: @polymarket, @joshbtucker, @mikemayer22, @tipping_pitches, @foolishbb, @joonlee, @matthewmodabber, @ntmoney, @super70ssports, @chairmanselig, @nickdevor_, @cftc, @thamosdeaf, @robtornoe, @bymattweyrich, @benhorney, @wallachlegal, @biasedslightly, @tmathsports, @sportradar, @benhorney, and @jaketodonnell. LinkedIn: Michael Selig
Bluesky: @rjcurren, @caseynewton, @timweston.com, and @josephgruber.com
| 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 …
More: Austin American-Statesman, Fortune, Uber, Silicon Valley Business …, UPI, TechCrunch, Digital Trends, Axios, Gizmodo, South Florida Business Journal, TechEBlog, Engadget, Carscoops, New York Times, Proactive, Automotive World, Motley Fool, Electrek, Wall Street Journal, Blockchain.News, Financial Times, Associated Press, InsideEVs, The Information, Forbes, Barron's Online, Bloomberg, The Drive, Jalopnik, Reuters, Yahoo Finance, TheTruthAboutCars, EV, The Next Web, CNBC, Dow Jones Newswires, electrive.com, Quartz, Blockonomi, CBT News, iPhone in Canada, The Independent, Business Insider, and Benzinga
X: @theaustinlyons, @joshkale, @andrewgordonmac, @pitdesi, @rjscaringe, @zacksjerryrig, @aakashgupta, @rivian, and @uber. LinkedIn: Dara Khosrowshahi. Forums: r/Rivian
| 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 … | Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: |
Meta plans to reduce its reliance on third-party vendors for content moderation, in favor of AI tools that it says are better at spotting scams and other tasks — Meta Platforms Inc. will soon cut back on its use of third-party vendors to help with content moderation, relying instead …
More: Meta Newsroom, The Information, RTÉ, Engadget, TechCrunch, MediaPost, CNBC, and The Post Millennial. LinkedIn: Brian Dalessandro
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: Jeff Bezos is in talks to raise $100B for a fund that would buy companies in industrial sectors such as chipmaking and defense and revamp them with AI — Amazon.com founder has traveled to Middle East, Singapore in fundraising effort linked to Project Prometheus AI startup| Maxwell Zeff / Wired: |
Google moved some staffers working on Project Mariner, its AI agent that can navigate Chrome and complete tasks on a user's behalf, to higher-priority projects — As Silicon Valley obsesses over a new wave of AI coding agents, Google and other AI labs are shifting their bets.
Bluesky: @caseynewton
| 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.| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Adobe launches Firefly Custom Models in public beta, letting users train AI image generators on their own assets; the custom models are private by default — Firefly custom models analyze your assets to preserve character designs and emulate illustration and photography styles.
More: The Adobe Blog, Moneycontrol, TechEBlog, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, The AI Economy, and PetaPixel. LinkedIn: Allison Blais
| 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 …
More: Bloomberg, TheNeuron, and eWeek
X: @jkeatn, @zeynep, @jackclarksf, @saffronhuang, @dounbug, @typewriters, @saffronhuang, @joshkale, @kimmonismus, @gailcweiner, @usgraphics, @lulumeservey, @abhishekn, @jasminewsun, @cryptopunk7213, @neerajka, @divy93t, @provisionalidea, @saffronhuang, @randalltemple, @jackclarksf, and @ahall_research
Forums: Hacker News, r/neoliberal, r/singularity, and r/claudexplorers
| Marissa Newman / Bloomberg: |
Oasis Security, which specializes in securing non-human identities, such as AI bots and automated work tools, raised $120M, bringing its total funding to $190M — Oasis Security, a cybersecurity startup that helps companies manage access to their systems from non-human accounts … | 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 …
More: Ofcom, BBC, Reclaim The Net, Dexerto, The Independent, Engadget, and Help Net Security
X: @prestonjbyrne, @ofcom, @prestonjbyrne, @prestonjbyrne, and @peteryared
Bluesky: @marypcbuk and @owenboswarva
Forums: Hacker News and r/technology
| Wired: |
Signal's Moxie Marlinspike says his privacy-focused AI platform Confer will integrate its encryption tech into Meta AI to provide E2EE for chatbot interactions — Moxie Marlinspike says the technology powering his end-to-end encrypted AI chatbot, Confer, will be integrated into Meta AI.| 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
Bluesky: @primosecundo.eurosky.social and @jbraden2008
Forums: r/google, r/DemocraticSocialism, r/politics, r/siliconvalley, and r/California
| Thomas Brewster / Forbes: |
Privacy-focused MVNO Cape raised a $100M Series C at a $900M valuation, and says its revenue grew from $4.5M in 2024 to $37M in 2025 — Cape cofounder and CEO John Doyle is seeing rapid revenue growth for his cell network, which deletes call logs and doesn't collect social security numbers like AT&T and Verizon do.| Oma Seddiq / Bloomberg Law: |
US Senator Marsha Blackburn releases a draft of the TRUMP AMERICA AI Act, a federal framework to replace state AI laws, incorporating KOSA and the NO FAKES Act — The Senate has released a draft national framework to replace state laws on artificial intelligence and promote the technology's development …
More: Techstrong.ai, Engadget, Roll Call, Music Ally, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Axios, and The Tennessean
| 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” — If active distraction of readers of your own website was an Olympic Sport, news publications would top the charts every time.
More: Daring Fireball, NextDraft, and Daring Fireball
X: @leahlibresco and @leahlibresco
Bluesky: @mitchsaid, @indyposterboy.scot, and @maggie-lee
Mastodon: @hectorjcorrea@mastodon.social, @shriramk@mastodon.social, @assaf@mas.to, @js@podcastindex.social, @ppatel@mstdn.social, and @gedankenstuecke@scholar …
Forums: Hacker News and Lobsters
| 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.| Stephen Foley / Financial Times: |
PwC US Senior Partner Paul Griggs says partners who resist AI have no place at the firm, and PwC plans to convert some services into AI-powered automated tools — Consultancy begins overhaul of pricing and services in face of technology undercutting its businessSponsor Posts
Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data — Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics. Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
World models need real-world data — Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics. Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
Meet Zoho Books MCP: Bring AI-powered accounting to your business — Isn't change the only constant? And that holds true for accounting too. For years, accounting software has helped businesses manage their finances …
Meet Zoho Books MCP: Bring AI-powered accounting to your business — Isn't change the only constant? And that holds true for accounting too. For years, accounting software has helped businesses manage their finances …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Anuma:
The Private AI That Remembers — Anuma is the all-in-one AI platform with private, portable memory. Chat, text, create, build, and solve across every model.
The Private AI That Remembers — Anuma is the all-in-one AI platform with private, portable memory. Chat, text, create, build, and solve across every model.Featured Podcasts
Lenny's Podcast:
Why cultivating agency matters more than cultivating skills in the AI era | Max Schoening (Head of Product, Notion)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's User Growth Miss, Musk vs. Altman, Prediction Market Ban
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Training Data:
OpenAI's Greg Brockman: Why Human Attention Is the New Bottleneck
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Runway's Cris Valenzuela: Building The Hollywood-Friendly Video AI That OpenAI Couldn't
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI's Big Reset + A.I. in the Doctor's Office + Talkie, a pre-1930s LLM
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
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