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March 19, 2026, 1:35 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 …
More: OpenAI, Astral, Fortune, Simon Willison's Weblog, CNBC, PYMNTS.com, MacStories, The Economic Times, Reuters, Proactive, Implicator.ai, Blockonomi, and Sherwood News
X: @gdb, @sherwinwu, @openainewsroom, @jsuarez, @trekedge, @hsvsphere, @svpino, @theahmadosman, @ivanfioravanti, @chrisalbon, @hanchunglee, @banteg, @charliermarsh, @alxfazio, @reach_vb, @fujikanaeda, @charliermarsh, @julien_c, @boristane, @jxnlco, and @himanshustwts
Bluesky: @ramon-astudillo, @reillywood.com, and @cameron.stream. Mastodon: @webology@mastodon.social
Forums: Hacker News, r/rust, and r/BetterOffline
| 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 — VR Worlds will be available for “foreseeable future” — One day after announcing the wind-down of its Horizon Worlds metaverse platform …
More: The Verge, TechCrunch, Engadget, 9to5Mac, CNBC, UploadVR, Android Headlines, PC Gamer, Gameranx, Road to VR, and Bloomberg
| 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: PCMag, The Daily Dot, Not the Bee, The Hans India, Digital Music News, Digit, Yahoo Finance, and Aftermath
X: @kevinroose, @paultassi, @canteverdie, @kyliebytes, @anisha_moonka, @wdavidmarx, @willsolfiac, @malonebarry, and @abhijitwt
Bluesky: @edzitron.com and @daniloc.xyz
| 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, XDA Developers, Business Insider, The Information, TechRadar, Android Central, The Rundown AI, The Indian Express, The Register, Neowin, Digit, The Deep View, The Decoder, iPhone in Canada, The Verge, and The Decoder
| John Wang / @j0hnwang: |
More: Benzinga. X: @timhaldorsson, @scottastevenson, @dorizzdt, @hadley, @melkeydev, @hewarsaber, @aakashgupta, and @lexsokolin
Bluesky: @seanhodgdon.com and @seanhodgdon.com
| 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.| 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 … | 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: Silicon Valley Business …, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, Benzinga, Reuters, Uber, New York Times, Associated Press, The Hill, The Information, Mercury News, Proactive, electrive.com, Watcher Guru, iPhone in Canada, Automotive World, Business Insider, Barron's Online, Quartz, Blockchain.News, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires, The Next Web, Financial Times, Axios, Yahoo Finance, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Motley Fool, Electrek, InsideEVs, The Drive, Jalopnik, EV, Blockonomi, CBT News, and The Independent
X: @aakashgupta, @theaustinlyons, @joshkale, @andrewgordonmac, @pitdesi, @rjscaringe, @zacksjerryrig, @rivian, and @uber. LinkedIn: Dara Khosrowshahi. Forums: r/Rivian
| 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 … | 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 … | 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: Music Ally, TheNeuron, eWeek, and Implicator.ai
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/singularity, and r/claudexplorers
| 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.| 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, Fortune, The Block, CoinDesk, Cointelegraph, Washington Examiner, The Crypto Times, Front Office Sports, Benzinga, Bitcoin News, Blockonomi, ESPN, CNBC, Bloomberg, Sports Business Journal, Front Office Sports, Fast Company, and MarketWatch
X: @polymarket, @benhorney, @super70ssports, @foolishbb, @sportradar, @wallachlegal, @biasedslightly, @joshbtucker, @mikemayer22, @tipping_pitches, @joonlee, @matthewmodabber, @ntmoney, @chairmanselig, @nickdevor_, @cftc, @thamosdeaf, @robtornoe, @bymattweyrich, @benhorney, @tmathsports, and @jaketodonnell
Bluesky: @timweston.com, @rjcurren, @caseynewton, and @josephgruber.com
| 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: TechCrunch, CNBC, Meta Newsroom, and The Post Millennial
| 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, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, PetaPixel, The AI Economy, and Creative Bloq. LinkedIn: Allison Blais
| Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge: |
Waymo says its fleet hit 170M+ miles as of December 2025, and its Waymo Driver system was involved in 92% fewer serious-injury crashes than human drivers — Waymo says its robotaxis are involved in 92 percent fewer crashes causing serious injuries or worse than human drivers.| Wall Street Journal: |
AppMagic: Apple's revenue from GenAI apps grew from ~$35M in January 2025 to a high of $101M in August 2025, with 75% coming from ChatGPT and only ~5% from Grok — Apple AAPL -1.69%decrease; red down pointing triangle is on pace to surpass $1 billion in artificial-intelligence revenue this year …
More: The Currency, Benzinga, Digit, The Decoder, Livemint, and The Information
| Kate O'Keeffe / Bloomberg: |
Sources: TP-Link told US federal agencies probing its China ties that CEO Jeffrey Chao applied for US permanent residency under the $1M Trump Gold Card program — The Chinese founder of the massive router maker facing national security probes by the Trump administration has applied … | 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
Forums: r/DemocraticSocialism, r/politics, r/siliconvalley, and r/California
| 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 business| 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.
More: FinSMEs
| Jyoti Mann / The Information: |
Meta confirms a critical security incident after an internal rogue AI agent's actions led to exposing sensitive data to employees who didn't have authorization — A rogue AI agent recently triggered a major security alert at Meta Platforms, by taking action without approval that led …
More: TechCrunch, Engadget, International Business Times, DigiTimes, Unite.AI, Fortune, and The Decoder
Bluesky: @captaindisillusion, @mikesager.net, and @caseynewton. Threads: @jpkmensah. Forums: r/theprimeagen
| 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. X: @leahlibresco and @leahlibresco
Bluesky: @mitchsaid and @maggie-lee
Mastodon: @js@podcastindex.social, @assaf@mas.to, @shriramk@mastodon.social, @ppatel@mstdn.social, and @gedankenstuecke@scholar …
Forums: Hacker News and Lobsters
| 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: Engadget, Music Ally, Roll Call, Senator Marsha Blackburn, The Daily Signal, Axios, and The Tennessean
| Bloomberg: |
Alibaba reports Q3 revenue up 2% YoY ~$41.3B, vs. ~$42B est., and net income down 67% YoY to ~$2.4B, as it seeks to monetize AI to help offset e-commerce losses — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. declared a target of reaching $100 billion of cloud and AI-related business revenue in five years … | 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 — Passively consuming algorithmic social media hurts teens' mental health, according to the World Happiness Report for 2026 …
More: Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Scientific American, The World Happiness Report, The World Happiness Report, The Indian Express, The World Happiness Report, Deutsche Welle, The World Happiness Report, The World Happiness Report, Digital Content Next, DutchNews.nl, Reuters, ox.ac.uk, Forbes, The Independent, Wallpaper*, CNN, and Dow Jones Newswires
| 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 — The probe covers about 3.2 million Tesla vehicles — Federal safety regulators are sharpening their focus …
More: CNBC, The Verge, Mercury News, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Reuters, Investor's Business Daily, Bloomberg Law, Automotive World, The Independent, TESLARATI, TechCrunch, Electrek, and EV. Bluesky: @peark.es
| Ben Geman / Axios: |
Claros, which aims to cut data center energy losses by using voltage regulators that provide power directly to servers' main processors, raised a $30M seed — Claros, a startup with tech that minimizes energy waste at data centers, closed a $30 million seed round co-led by General Catalyst and Red Cell Partners.Sponsor Posts
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