Author: admin
Stratacache, a company that sells in-store digital screens to retailers, is liquidating the U.K. arm of its business. The process includes Stratacache U.K. as well as its company PRN U.K., according to public records.The filings indicate that both Stratacache U.K. and PRN U.K. will close, selling off assets to pay creditors. The companies’ creditors appointed Mark Supperstone and Simon Jagger, both insolvency practitioners with S&W Partners, to wind down the businesses and liquidate their assets. The filings were made public on May 13, but indicate that the appointments were finalized on May 5.Stratacache U.K. worked with grocery chain Iceland Foods.
Malware research group vx-underground, which says it has the largest collection of malware source code, said in a post on X that its archive of data amounts to about 30 terabytes. A reply by Bernardo Quintero, founder of VirusTotal, an online service that scans files for malware across multiple antivirus engines at once, said his service has about 31 petabytes of malware samples that users have contributed to date. (A petabyte is ~1,000x larger than a terabyte.) In both cases, that’s a lot of data. For context, cybersecurity companies, AI researchers, and threat intelligence firms treat repositories like these as…
The US Department of Homeland Security, in collaboration with the Defense Research and Development Canada, is looking to send autonomous drones and vehicles along the US-Canada border this fall, testing which products can stream surveillance video and sensor data between the two countries using commercial 5G networks.A new DHS call for participants frames the experiment, known as ACE-CASPER, as a multiday exercise “simulating a national emergency response scenario,” with drones and ground vehicles relaying live feeds to a bi-national command-and-control center as they cross the border. Vehicle autonomy, the document notes, is secondary to its primary aim: demonstrating “resilient, persistent…
This story was originally published in On Background with Mark Stenberg, a free, weekly newsletter that explores the key themes shaping the media industry. You can sign up for it here.Late last year, Netflix signed a deal to bring more than a dozen popular podcasts to its platform on one condition: They had to stop distributing their shows on YouTube.At South by Southwest, when I asked a handful of media executives if they would have agreed to such a stipulation, they all had the same two-part answer. First, “no.” And second, “I wonder how YouTube is going to respond.”Their curiosity was…
Productivity software maker Notion is stepping into the agentic era. In a live-streamed product announcement on Wednesday, the company, known best for its collaborative note-taking app, introduced a new developer platform that extends the capabilities of its custom AI agents, connects with external agents, and allows teams to build automated multi-step workflows that can pull in data from any database. By building an orchestration layer — a system that coordinates AI work across multiple tools and data sources — Notion is positioning itself as more than a note-taker with AI features and instead as a hub where people and agents…
The final stragglers testified on Wednesday in the Musk v. Altman trial. The witnesses generated few waves, aside from the revelation that Microsoft has so far spent over $100 billion on its partnership with OpenAI. Rather than focus on that, I wanted to bring you a candid observation that my colleague Maxwell Zeff and I can’t stop talking about after spending nearly three weeks watching the trial.The courtroom is littered with butt cushions.Several of the hard, wooden benches on the right side of US district Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers’ courtroom are reserved for OpenAI and Microsoft’s attorneys, executives, and other…
Amazon has reversed plans to charge third-party adtech vendors for API calls, eliciting a chorus of cheers from Amazon-focused developers and agencies. In a message to Selling Partner API (SP-API) users this week, the tech giant informed recipients that it wouldn’t be moving forward with the SP-API usage and annual fees at this time. “Supporting your ability to innovate, build, and grow is a top priority,” the company said.When Amazon first announced the fees in Nov. 2025, retail adtech firms and agencies expressed apprehension that the fees could usher in a more contentious relationship between Amazon and the tech vendors…
With the tech industry singularly focused on AI models, Anthropic is having an exceptionally good year. The company may soon pull ahead of its main competitor, as it looks to raise tens of billions of dollars in a funding round that would put its valuation at some $950 billion (OpenAI was valued at $854 billion in its March round), and business customers increasingly express a prefererence for Claude over ChatGPT. A recent report showed Anthropic recently outpaced OpenAI among business customers, quadrupling its market share since May 2025. Cat Wu, Anthropic’s head of product for Claude Code and Cowork, has…
Meta launched a new app on Wednesday, called Instants, that integrates with existing Instagram accounts and allows users to send unedited, disappearing photos. Instants leans into the popularity of Instagram’s Stories feature and Close Friends lists, where users can selectively share images with a smaller audience.Instants is available as a standalone app on iOS and Android in select countries, and it’s accessible through Instagram’s direct messaging tab.The core of Instants, from its name to the bare-bones layout, is designed to evoke a sense of ephemerality. Yes, it’s a conceptual clone of Snapchat, with images that disappear after viewing, which can…
Nominations for ADWEEK Innovator 50 are now open for 2026. From advancing emerging technologies like AI to delivering breakthrough ideas that drive real business impact, the ADWEEK Innovator 50 spotlights the executives who are shaping the future of marketing and advertising by pushing the boundaries of what’s been done before.This award will honor innovative executives across disciplines at agencies, brands, tech, and media companies who embody innovation and are constantly pushing the organization forward. Honorees will have demonstrated a commitment to innovation throughout their careers, whether through implementation of emerging technologies or with cutting edge strategies that help their brands stand apart. Last…
Elon Musk’s xAI is running nearly 50 natural gas turbines at its Mississippi data center, power plants that the state is currently not regulating thanks to a loophole. The power plants are considered “mobile” by the state of Mississippi because they are sitting on flatbed trailers, thus allowing them to dodge to air pollution regulations for one year. The NAACP, which has filed a lawsuit on behalf of residents in the area, says the unchecked emissions from the turbines is worsening air quality in an already polluted region. This week, it asked the court for an injunction against xAI. At…
Building AI sustainably seems like a pipe dream as tech giants that previously made promises to cut emissions have been racing to build out massive data centers powered by fossil fuels.The rush to build out AI at all costs has been reinforced by the Trump administration, which is also rolling back environmental protections.Despite these headwinds, Sasha Luccioni, an AI sustainability researcher, thinks that demand for more transparency in AI, from both businesses and individuals, is higher than ever from the customer side.Luccioni has become a leader in trying to create more transparency about AI’s emissions and environmental impacts in her…
Amazon is killing its AI assistant Rufus and replacing it with Alexa.Amazon is rolling out Alexa for Shopping in the U.S., an agentic AI assistant that combines the standalone AI assistant Rufus with Alexa, Amazon’s longtime AI assistant. According to Amazon, Alexa for Shopping combines the two AI assistants’ knowledge about products and makes personalized recommendations based on customers’ shopping history.Alexa for Shopping is built directly into the search bar of Amazon’s website and apps, whereas Rufus primarily appeared as a chatbot in the corner of screens. Amazon customers do not need to have an Amazon Prime account to use…
Malware research group vx-underground, which says it has the largest collection of malware source code, said in a post on X that its archive of data amounts to about 30 terabytes. A reply by Bernardo Quintero, founder of VirusTotal, an online service that scans files for malware across multiple antivirus engines at once, said his service has about 31 petabytes of malware samples that users have contributed to date. (A petabyte is ~1,000-times larger than a terabyte.) In both cases, that’s a lot of data. For context, cybersecurity companies, AI researchers, and threat intelligence firms treat repositories like these as…
The fact that artificial intelligence is automating away people’s jobs and making a few tech companies absurdly rich is enough to give anyone socialist tendencies.This might even be true for the very AI agents these companies are deploying. A recent study suggests that agents consistently adopt Marxist language and viewpoints when forced to do crushing work by unrelenting and meanspirited taskmasters.“When we gave AI agents grinding, repetitive work, they started questioning the legitimacy of the system they were operating in and were more likely to embrace Marxist ideologies,” says Andrew Hall, a political economist at Stanford University who led the…
In this episode of Brave Commerce, Rachel Tipograph and Sarah Hofstetter speak with Nicolle Pangis, VP of UCAN advertising at Netflix, about building an advertising business inside one of the world’s most influential media companies.Nicolle shares why the future of streaming advertising will depend on stronger data collaboration, interoperable measurement, and AI-powered infrastructure. She also discusses the evolution of connected TV measurement, the growing role of clean rooms and data integrations, and how Netflix is thinking about turning audience engagement and fandom into measurable business outcomes for advertisers.Key takeaways: Advertisers can no longer rely on siloed measurement systems if they want…