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The Trade Desk is testing whether advertisers can build campaigns on its platform using generative AI.Speaking at Marketecture Live in New York City on Wednesday, CEO Jeff Green said the company is running a closed beta that allows some advertisers to create campaigns through Anthropic’s Claude—offering an early glimpse at how the company is exploring large language models to potentially reshape programmatic ad buying. Green stopped short of sharing further details about the test.The effort follows The Trade Desk’s earnings last month, when Green hinted the company plans to launch an agentic AI framework for partners in 2026. At the…
India’s neobank Fi is discontinuing banking services on its platform more than four years after launching them in partnership with Federal Bank, directing customers to access their savings accounts through the bank’s mobile app as it winds down the Fi interface. Founded in 2019 by former Google Pay India executives Sujith Narayanan and Sumit Gwalani, Fi launched its app-based banking service in partnership with Federal Bank in 2021 to offer digital savings accounts and money management tools aimed at younger users. The Bengaluru-based startup says it has served more than 3.5 million customers and completed over a billion transactions through…
A large measles outbreak in South Carolina is finally showing signs of slowing down as the total number of cases in the state nears 1,000.For several weeks now, the state has experienced a downward trend in new infections, with approximately 10 cases being reported per week. At its peak in mid-January, the state was reporting around 200 new cases a week.The South Carolina outbreak is the largest measles outbreak in the US in more than 30 years, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC has confirmed 1,281 measles cases across the country this year,…
In a sea of massive valuations for early-stage AI startups, today we have a bit of rare news: a jumbo round and valuation step-up for an e-commerce company. Quince announced on Wednesday that it raised a $500 million Series E round at a $10.1 billion valuation. The round was led by previous investor Iconiq, which also led Quince’s $200 million Series D in early 2025 at a reported $4.5 billion valuation. That’s more than double the valuation in less than a year. Quince rose to fame on Instagram with its $50 cashmere sweater, but has since amassed a wider range…
Superhuman, the tech company behind the writing software Grammarly, is facing a class action lawsuit over an AI tool that presented editing suggestions as if they came from established authors and academics—none of whom consented to have their names appear within the product.Julia Angwin, an award-winning investigative journalist who founded The Markup, a nonprofit news organization that covers the impact of technology on society, is the only named plaintiff in the suit, which does not call for a specific amount in damages but argues that damages across the plaintiff class are in excess of $5 million. She was among the…
Two drivers involved in fatal crashes in 2024 while using Ford’s BlueCruise hands-free driving system were likely distracted in the moments before impact, according to new information released Wednesday by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). The safety board released documents for each crash and announced it will hold a public hearing on March 31 in Washington, D.C., where it will discuss the findings and likely issue recommendations to Ford. The NTSB is an independent federal agency that investigates transportation accidents but doesn’t regulate the industry. The agency is expected to release a final report in the weeks following the…
Looking for a Bluetooth speaker that’ll turn your next backyard get-together into a proper party? Amazon has the Ultimate Ears Boom 4 marked down to $125 in all four colors: black, blue, lilac, and red. It’s the perfect pairing for grilling and chilling, with a design that’s built to last and features that will keep the party going.What makes this the perfect speaker to break out the next time you have friends over? The Boom 4 is wrapped in 360 degrees of speakers, allowing this little cylinder of sound to cover your patio in sound in a way that other…
Vibe-coding sensation Replit has hit another funding milestone. The company announced Wednesday that it raised a $400 million Series D at a $9 billion valuation, led by previous investor Georgian Partners. Other participating investors include G Squared, Prysm Capital, Coatue, Andreessen Horowitz, Craft Ventures, Y Combinator, Accenture Ventures, Okta Ventures, and Databricks Ventures. Founder and CEO Amjad Masad also said in a post on X that backers include angel investors Shaquille O’Neal and Jared Leto. This follows the $3 billion valuation the startup hit in September, when it raised a $250 million round. At that time, Replit said it was…
Major US technology companies have been named as potential targets as the war between Iran, Israel, and the United States begins to spill into the digital infrastructure that powers modern economies.Iranian state-linked media this week published a list of offices and infrastructure run by US companies with Israeli links whose technology has been used for military applications. According to Al Jazeera, the companies include Google, Microsoft, Palantir, IBM, Nvidia, and Oracle.Many of these companies operate regional offices, cloud infrastructure, or data-center operations across the Gulf, including in the United Arab Emirates. None have released public statements on this development.The list…
As CMO of Suntory Beverage & Food Europe (SBFE), François Bazini shaped some of the region’s biggest beverage brands, from Schweppes to Ribena. Now, after 11 years working in various roles across seven countries for the business, he’s leaving to write, teach, and support startups. Bazini joined sister business Beam Suntory in 2014 as vp of marketing for the company’s global spirits division, overseeing brands such as Jim Beam before rising to international CMO and then global managing director of Scotch, gin, and Irish whiskey. He took on his most recent role in 2022, helping revive sales of legacy brands,…
Breakout Ventures has closed a $114 million Fund III to back AI-focused early-stage startups working in scientific fields such as biology and chemistry. The firm has already written checks to three companies and plans to invest in at least 20 companies through this fund, with average check sizes ranging from $500,000 to $5 million. Lindy Fishburne, managing director of Breakout Ventures, told TechCrunch the firm was looking for companies focused on “unlocking the complexity of science with AI.” Breakout spun out of a grant program from the Thiel Foundation, and officially launched in 2016. It has previously raised two funds:…
Assuming it works, the Fort would be the most attractive and easy-to-use velocity tracker on the market by far. “We use the IMU sensors to detect which exercise the user is performing and identify the period engaging in concentric, eccentric, or isometric hold,” says Nover, demonstrating as best she can within the confines of a Zoom screen. (These are the three main types of lifting exercises; you might know them as contracting, lengthening, or static exercises.)The Fort uses the wrist as a proxy for bar velocity. Common sense would suggest this might not produce accurate results—after all, your wrists move…
NBC News’ Today created some major separation from ABC News’ Good Morning America, giving the newscast its seventh consecutive win for the week of March 2.NBC News pulled ahead of ABC News in total viewers, adding 267,000 viewers, while remaining America’s No. 1 morning show in both total viewers and the Adults 25-54 demo.The busy international news cycle, which was dominated by unrest in the Middle East, favored Today, as more people tuned in during the first week of March.Meanwhile, GMA finished the week as the only morning newscast to see declines in both measured categories.NOTE: CBS Mornings and Today…
An unidentified foreign hacker broke into the FBI’s field office in New York in 2023 and compromised files related to the bureau’s investigation into the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to Reuters. The newswire cited a source familiar with the breach, as well as court documents, and reported that the hack took advantage of a server at the Child Exploitation Forensic Lab in the FBI’s New York Field Office that was left inadvertently vulnerable by an FBI special agent working on the case. The breach “included combing through certain files pertaining to the Epstein investigation,” according to a court document. …
I think its product has a profound democratizing effect. In theory, a kid sitting in a provincial town in rural Brazil should be able to receive the same responsive interaction with the Efekta AI teacher as someone living in Mayfair.Is anything lost by the introduction of AI to the classroom? Will we end up with a generation of students who use chatbots as a crutch—to draft essays, solve problems, and so on?They’ll do that, anyway. Trying to shut out AI from schools is senseless. It’s about how you incorporate AI into education. Bad teachers will use it badly, and good…
Horizon Media, among the world’s largest independent ad agencies, underwent a round of layoffs this week, cutting 50 roles out of a headcount of over 2,000 globally as part of a broader restructuring. In a company-wide email sent Monday evening, obtained by ADWEEK, CEO Bill Koenigsberg said that the layoffs were “part of a skills optimization effort and broader realignment across the agency.” The cuts affected various departments across the organization, according to a source familiar with the matter who spoke under the condition of anonymity. Horizon declined to specify which departments were impacted.The reorganization came as a surprise to many, according…