OpenAI’s Sora appears to have leaked

A group appears to have leaked access to Sora, OpenAI’s video generator, in protest of what they’re calling duplicity and “art washing” on OpenAI’s part. On Tuesday, the group published a project on the AI dev platform Hugging Face seemingly connected to OpenAI’s Sora API, which isn’t yet publicly available. U…Read More

Instagram takes on Snapchat with new location-sharing feature

Instagram is introducing the ability for users to share their locations with their friends via DMs (direct messages), the company announced on Monday. The feature indicates that the Meta-owned social network is looking to challenge services like Apple’s “Find My” and Snapchat’s Snap…Read More

Latin America fintech will be a market to watch in 2025

Heading into 2024, Mike Packer, a partner at fintech-focused QED Investors, predicted we’d hit the bottom for funding to Latin American fintech startups during the year. While momentum wasn’t a straight shot up and to the right, Packer’s prediction may still have come true. The volume of…Read More

The rise and fall of the ‘Scattered Spider’ hackers

The prolific hacking group broke into Caesars Entertainment, Coinbase, DoorDash, Mailchimp, Riot Games, Twilio (twice), and dozens more. 
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Tesla Superchargers: GM, Ford, Rivian, and other EV brands with access

EV owners of GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq will now officially have access to Tesla’s Superchargers.
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Crusoe, a rumored OpenAI data center supplier, has secured $686M in new funds, filing shows

Crusoe Energy, a startup building data centers reportedly to be leased Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI, is in the process of raising $818 million, according to an SEC filing. The filing indicates that Crusoe has secured $686 million of the $818 million total…Read More

Federal prosecutors have charged another Forbes 30 Under 30 alum with fraud

The FBI unsealed an indictment yesterday that alleges Joanna Smith-Griffin, founder of the AI startup AllHere Education, engaged in “securities fraud, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in connection with defrauding investors” out of nearly $10 million. The FBI cla…Read More

Bluesky tops 20M users, narrowing gap with Instagram Threads

Bluesky, the social network and X competitor has been benefiting from a surge of departures from the Elon Musk-owned app formerly known as Twitter. Today, Bluesky has hit a major milestone: it’s topped 20 million users. What’s more, new data indicates the app’s rapid growth is seeing it…Read More

CISA director Jen Easterly to depart agency on January 20

CISA’s director will depart the agency after three years at the helm, as part of the “seamless transition” of government power.
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Precursor’s Charles Hudson believes founders should test their investors

Charles Hudson, managing partner of Precursor Ventures, told an audience at AfroTech the basics of knowing when to invest: A company should have product-market fit and some form of traction.  But the next thing he said garnered some surprised looks from the audience: F…Read More

Consumer tech is bouncing back, and consumer founders like Brynn Putnam are bouncing back with it

When Brynn Putnam sold her last company, Mirror, to Lululemon for $500 million at the start of the pandemic, it looked to this editor like she’d sold the smart fitness company too soon.  Instead, the timing proved brilliant. The home fitness craze c…Read More