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AI agents are starting to execute more sophisticated tasks, such as identifying vendors that can deliver freight, comparing prices, and messaging the vendor to organizing a delivery. But when it comes to making a payment for the shipment, they still need to involve a human. Today’s financial sector relies on financial rails, the underlying infrastructure that moves money and information between a money and financial information between banks, businesses, and consumers. But these financial rails were built for human-initiated transactions, not autonomous AI agents. For example, traditional payment systems like credit cards and ACH rely on human authorization for transactions,…

Many studies examining the link between sleep deprivation and obesity have focused on severe sleep deprivation, such as restricting participants’ sleep to about four hours a night. These studies suggest that this may lead to increased appetite and overeating, which in turn could contribute to weight gain.Because very few people can endure such severe sleep restrictions for more than a few days, though, the practical utility of this research is limited, and it hasn’t necessarily clarified whether more common and milder types of sleep deprivation, such as getting five to six hours of sleep per night, actually lead to weight…

This post was created in partnership with Scripps SportsWhere does fandom begin now? Rarely at tipoff.During an ADWEEK House Sports Summit fireside chat co-hosted with Scripps Sports, Sherry Pitkofsky, SVP of marketing at Scripps Sports, sat down with Alexis Ohanian, tech entrepreneur and founder of Seven Seven Six, and Dawn Harper-Nelson, Olympic gold and silver medalist and Emmy Award-winning broadcaster, to discuss how belonging shapes the next phase of sports fandom.Fandom starts with accessScripps Sports built its portfolio for fans who follow athletes well past game day. And Scripps’ ION network takes that commitment to women’s sports. The network includes…

Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery has hit a roadblock after a judge temporarily paused the deal in response to a lawsuit filed by a coalition of 12 state attorneys general who argue that the merger would harm competition. U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a 14-day pause on Monday after hearing arguments from both sides last week. The coalition, which is being led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, could seek another pause after the 14 days, further delaying the merger. The lawsuit from the states alleges that the deal would harm movie theaters, basic cable distributors,…

Brand tracking startup Tracksuit has acquired Hall, a Sydney based startup that measures how brands appear in responses from AI assistants, the company announced on Monday. Terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed.The deal adds AI-monitoring capability to Tracksuit’s existing business of surveying consumer sentiment for brands including Unilever and Pfizer.Marketers are growing increasingly concerned about how their products are described–or omitted–by AI assistants like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. “Brands are particularly worried about their brand being authentic for both humans and the LLMs” said Connor Archbold, Tracksuit’s CEO, further describing the resulting product as one built to show marketers…

Hackers are breaking into websites that run vulnerable versions of the popular blogging software WordPress, according to several cybersecurity firms. One estimate puts the number of vulnerable WordPress websites at tens of millions as of Monday. Last week, WordPress patched two critical security flaws, urging people who run its software on their websites to update it “immediately.” The vulnerabilities are so severe that WordPress enabled forced updates where possible. Since then, cybersecurity companies Patchstack, Hexastrike, and WatchTowr have all warned that hackers are exploiting the vulnerabilities in the wild, meaning they are taking over websites that are still running susceptible…

Adobe is adding new AI-powered features to its experimental iOS camera app called Project Indigo, launched last year. The app previously offered pro controls, multi-frame super-resolution, and different capture modes, and is now adding features that will use LLMs (large language models) to critique photos and provide editing suggestions. It’s also adding other AI features, like advanced object removal, depth of field generation, and the ability to add different styles to photos. Marc Levoy, the person heading Adobe’s project, had previously developed Pixel’s camera chops. He said that most generative AI tools provide prompt-based editing and, often, finding the perfect…

Marketing Vanguard continues its Cannes Lions 2026 series as host Jenny Rooney sits down with Jill Kramer, chief marketing and communications officer at Mastercard. In this conversation, Jill reveals the false binaries marketing keeps boxing itself into: AI vs. creativity, brand vs. performance, strategy vs. execution, “what’s in” vs. what’s “dead.” Her point is clear: the strongest marketing does not live at the extremes. It lives in the gray area where accountability, emotion, creativity, and business outcomes all have to work together.What you’ll learn: Why AI should sharpen creative focus, not replace the human craft How brand and performance marketing became a…

U.K.-based healthcare billing software maker Craneware is responding to a cyberattack in which hackers stole a “significant volume” of customer data from its systems, the company said on Monday. The company said the hackers appear to have been expelled from its systems, but its investigation into the breach is ongoing, according to a statement filed with the London Stock Exchange. Craneware’s flagship accounting and billing software is used by thousands of clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies across the United States. The company did not say exactly what kinds of data were taken in the breach, only noting that a “percentage” of…

The American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts says it’s releasing an online toolkit this week for criminal defense attorneys designed to uncover whether police used surveillance technologies—facial recognition, automatic license plate readers, gunshot detection systems, and more—to build the cases against their clients in secret.The toolkit, which the group describes as the first of its kind, is built around handcrafted legal motions that, when granted by a judge, will force prosecutors to reveal whether surveillance technology was used against a defendant. It covers an array of technologies, from “stingray” phone trackers and location data sold by commercial brokers to AI-drafted…

Argentina may have lost to Spain at the FIFA World Cup 2026 final, but one of its players still stole the spotlight throughout the tournament: Lionel Messi.Michelob Ultra, the official beer sponsor of the tournament, celebrated the G.O.A.T.’s legendary 20-year World Cup career in an ad released soon after the final match on July 19.Created by Wieden+Kennedy New York and directed by W+K’s Zak DeLange, “Tab Closed” is a playful take on a bar tab. But instead of drink orders, the spot tallies Messi’s World Cup accomplishments, from matches won to goals scored to records broken.In the final shot, Messi…

For the first time since 2024, StrictlyVC is coming back to New York City — and we’re bringing the kind of access you’d expect from an under-wraps event to the whole startup, VC, and dealmaking community. For years, StrictlyVC has run a series of some of the most interesting nights that a VC, founder, or dealmaker can spend, built around candid conversation you can’t get anywhere else.   Our newly announced NYC event takes place September 10 at Ideal Glass Studios in the West Village, with general admission tickets open now at $180. You can register here.  Why NYC, why now  New York’s startup engine isn’t just moving along; it’s accelerating. In H1 2026, more than 240 NYC startups raised a combined $1.13 billion in…

The track world, I discovered, has coined a name for this much-discussed phenomenon of kids getting ultra-fast: trackflation. In June 2025 at the New Balance Nationals, an annual championship that draws around 6,000 top youth athletes, more than 100 kids beat previous meet records. “There might now be a hundred kids that run under 4:10 in the full mile,” says Will Rodgers, who ran track at the University of Alabama in Huntsville in the early 2010s and now co-owns RunningLane, a coaching and events business. “Back when we were competing in high school, it might’ve been like 20 at max.”I…

Hugging Face, a platform that hosts AI models and datasets, said its internal datasets and service credentials were compromised in a hack last week. The company disclosed the breach on Friday, but said it was still investigating whether any customer or partner data was stolen during the incident. In a blog post, the company said a dataset uploaded to its platform abused a security vulnerability to run malicious code on its servers, allowing the attackers to escalate their permissions and gain broader access to Hugging Face’s internal systems. The company said it has revoked and rotated the stolen credentials that…

Amazon and UL, a company that tests and certifies that products meet safety standards, settled a lawsuit in July with several Chinese companies that manufacture ebikes under the Aipas brand name.The US companies accused the Chinese firms in January of claiming in Amazon listings and on Aipas’ website that the ebikes had been certified by UL, giving recognizable, brand-name assurance to online shoppers worried about risks like ebike lithium-ion battery fires. But that wasn’t true. On July 15, a federal judge signed off on a permanent injunction in which the companies agreed that they would no longer use the UL…

As GLP-1 medications become increasingly mainstream, digital health platform Noom is betting on psychology-backed behavior change as its biggest competitive advantage in a crowded space. That strategy underpins “Lose For Keeps,” the company’s new campaign fronted by actor Rebel Wilson.Created by Mekanism, the campaign argues that lasting weight loss comes from combining GLP-1 medication with healthier habits. As Noom looks for an edge in the market, it is “putting our flag down in the conversation and differentiating who we are,” said chief brand officer Rachel Mahoney.Somewhere between the diet culture of the early 2000s and today’s GLP-1 boom, Noom emerged as…