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February 18, 2026, 4:20 PM
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The Keyword:
Google rolls out Lyria 3, a generative music model that can make 30-second tracks with Nano Banana-made cover art, in beta in the Gemini app in eight languages  —  The Gemini app now features our most advanced music generation model Lyria 3, empowering anyone to make 30-second tracks using text or images in beta.
Todd Haselton / The Verge:
Google unveils the $499 Pixel 10a, with a Tensor G4 and 8GB of RAM like the Pixel 9a, Satellite SOS, an 11% brighter screen, but no Pixelsnap, shipping March 4  —  Google's midrange Pixels have been our top pick for budget Android phones for a while.  They offer good cameras and most of what you need at a budget-friendly price.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google expands Quick Share support with AirDrop to the Pixel 9, 9 Pro, 9 Pro XL, and 9 Pro Fold, after introducing it on the Pixel 10 in November 2025
The Record:
Texas AG Ken Paxton sues TP-Link, alleging it deceptively markets its products as secure while allowing the CCP to hack into consumers' devices  —  Texas is suing networking equipment company TP-Link Systems for allegedly allowing the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to hack into consumers' devices …
OpenAI:
OpenAI and Paradigm announce EVMbench, a benchmark that measures how well AI agents can detect, exploit, and patch high-severity smart contract vulnerabilities  —  Making smart contracts safer by evaluating AI agents' ability to detect, patch, and exploit vulnerabilities in blockchain environments.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Audible launches an “immersion reading” feature that lets readers switch between ebook and audiobook versions of a title in their Audible and Kindle libraries  —  Only days after Spotify announced its foray into physical book sales, which included an audiobook feature that lets …
Krystal Hur / Wall Street Journal:
A Las Vegas federal appeals court rejects Kalshi's emergency bid for an administrative stay on Nevada's push to block the platform, a major setback for Kalshi  —  A federal appeals court rejected Kalshi's bid, setting the stage for Nevada's civil-enforcement proceedings
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
At India's AI Summit, Alphabet announces the America-India Connect Initiative, which will build new fiber optic lines between India, the US, and other countries  —  Alphabet Inc. unveiled several new initiatives to support its expansion in India, including new fiber-optic routes that will connect …
Abu Sultan / Reuters:
Microsoft says it is on pace to invest $50B by 2030 to help expand AI across the Global South, after unveiling $17.5B worth of AI investments in India in 2025
Dylan Butts / CNBC:
Nvidia says it is working with Peak XV, Z47, and other VC firms in India to fund AI startups; 4,000+ Indian AI startups have joined its global startup program
Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
Sports-focused prediction market Novig raised a $75M Series B led by Pantera Capital at a $500M valuation; Novig is commission-free for retail traders  —  As the prediction markets Kalshi and Polymarket dominate the attention of investors and regulators, a sports-focused challenger called Novig …
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft confirms a bug that let Microsoft 365 Copilot summarize confidential emails from Sent Items and Drafts folders, and deployed a fix in early February  —  Microsoft says a Microsoft 365 Copilot bug has been causing the AI assistant to summarize confidential emails since late January …
Joe Miller / Financial Times:
How US citizens, clergy, and elected officials in conservative communities like Missouri are leading a grassroots rebellion against the Trump-backed AI boom  —  Republicans fear backlash against White House agenda could undermine support in this year's midterm elections
Bloomberg:
Saudi-backed AI startup Humain invested $3B in xAI, becoming a “significant minority shareholder” in a deal that completed just before SpaceX's xAI acquisition  —  Saudi Arabian artificial intelligence company Humain has invested $3 billion into Elon Musk's xAI …
George Hammond / Financial Times:
Sources: Ineffable Intelligence, founded by former Google DeepMind Principal Scientist David Silver, is raising a $1B seed led by Sequoia at a ~$4B valuation  —  Funding deal would value David Silver's start-up Ineffable Intelligence at $4bn  —  David Silver, one of Britain's top AI researchers …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple adds support for third-party voice-based conversational apps in CarPlay starting with iOS 26.4, letting CarPlay users access apps like AI chatbots  —  With iOS 26.4, CarPlay users will be able to use third-party chatbots with CarPlay.  AI services like Claude, Gemini …
CNBC:
Social media addiction trial: Mark Zuckerberg says increasing engagement on Instagram is not a company goal and that Meta removes underage users it identifies  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed back against the notion that the social media company made increasing time spent on Instagram a company goal.
Cristina Criddle / Financial Times:
Perplexity says it has no plans to further pursue ads, which it introduced in 2024, after phasing them out in late 2025 over fears they would erode user trust  —  Leading start-ups have recently embraced sponsors as they search for revenue  —  AI start-up Perplexity has abandoned advertising …
David Singleton / flurries of latent creativity:
Dreamer, founded by former Stripe CTO David Singleton, Hugo Barra, and others, launches in beta to let technical and non-technical users build agentic AI apps  —  Dreamer is the name of the platform and company I started with Hugo, Nicholas and others a little over a year ago.
New York Times:
Meta plans to spend $65M in 2025 to boost state politicians friendly to AI; filings: Meta started two super PACs, one backing the GOP and another for Democrats  —  Meta's biggest election investment aims to prevent state legislation that it fears could inhibit artificial intelligence development.
More: Benzinga.  X: @teddyschleifer and @teddyschleifer.  Bluesky: @sachalouise
Forums: r/technology and r/politics
Bloomberg:
Robinhood launches an IPO for Robinhood Ventures Fund I, a $1B closed-end fund to provide retail investors access to private markets, offering 40M shares at $25  —  Robinhood Markets Inc. is seeking to raise $1 billion in an initial public offering of a closed-end fund designed …
Jyoti Mann / The Information:NEW
Sources: Meta has revived a previously shelved smartwatch project, now code-named Malibu 2, and plans to release it in 2026 with health features and Meta AI  —  Meta Platforms plans to release its first smartwatch in 2026, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Clay:
Turn any GTM idea into reality  —  Clay helps GTM teams combine AI agents, enrichment, and intent data to move faster and turn insights into action.
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Lily Mae Lazarus / Fortune:
Cogent Security, which aims to use AI agents to decide which software bugs to remediate, raised a $42M Series A led by Bain, taking its total funding to $53M  —  Cogent Security has raised a $42 million Series A just six months after launch.  Their bet?  That AI agents can finally fix …

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Streamline payment collections in Singapore with PayNow and GrabPay  —  Under the “Smart Nation” initiative, Singapore is making a transformation towards cashless and quick payment options.
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Newest

Jyoti Mann / The Information:
Sources: Meta has revived a previously shelved smartwatch project, now code-named Malibu 2, and plans to release it in 2026 with health features and Meta AIFind
10 minutes ago
CNBC:
Social media addiction trial: Mark Zuckerberg says increasing engagement on Instagram is not a company goal and that Meta removes underage users it identifiesFind
19 minutes ago
OpenAI:
OpenAI and Paradigm announce EVMbench, a benchmark that measures how well AI agents can detect, exploit, and patch high-severity smart contract vulnerabilitiesFind
79 minutes ago
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple adds support for third-party voice-based conversational apps in CarPlay starting with iOS 26.4, letting CarPlay users access apps like AI chatbotsFind
1½ hours ago
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Efficient Computer, which is developing AI chips with a “spatial dataflow” architecture to minimize energy consumption, raised a $60M Series AFind
2 hours ago
The Record:
Texas AG Ken Paxton sues TP-Link, alleging it deceptively markets its products as secure while allowing the CCP to hack into consumers' devicesFind
2½ hours ago
Julia Black / Vanity Fair:
OpenAI hires Instagram's VP of global partnerships, Charles Porch, as its first VP of global creative partnerships, seeking to win over a skeptical HollywoodFind
2½ hours ago
Full Time-Sorted List

From Mediagazer

Jack Dunn / Variety:
Stephen Colbert says CBS released its statement “without ever talking to me” and talk shows have long been exempt from “equal time” rules

Cameron Adams / The Daily Beast:
Sources: CNN restricted staff from using its platforms for self-promotion, after Jake Tapper pushing his Joe Biden book turned into a “rolling infomercial”

Dominic Patten / Deadline:
Netflix sends ByteDance a C&D letter over Seedance 2.0, joining WBD, Paramount, and Disney, saying “forensic evidence” shows “unauthorized derivative works”

More News

Sophie McEvoy / GamesIndustry.biz:
Matthew Ball's State of Video Gaming 2026 report: global video game content sales grew 5.3% YoY to $195.6B in 2025 while job losses fell 40% YoY to 9,200 people
Alexandre Rajbhandari / Bloomberg:
Filings: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway cut its Amazon stake by 75%+ to ~2.3M shares in Q4 2025; Berkshire bought 5.1M NYT shares, worth ~$352M in December

Earlier Picks

Sidhartha Shukla / Bloomberg:
SEC filing: Peter Thiel and Founders Fund have fully exited ETHZilla, after disclosing a 7.5% stake in August 2025; ether is down 60% from its August 2025 peak
Rachel Swan / San Francisco Chronicle:
Tesla agrees to stop using the term “autopilot” to market its EVs in California to avoid a 30-day suspension by the state's DMV, resolving a long-running battle
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