Author: TechBrunch

AI is everywhere. And it is increasingly being described as a defense technology. This week, the Equity Pod gang (including newcomers Max Zeff, Margaux McCall, and Kirsten Kolosek) noticed a new trend: the worlds of AI and defense technology are colliding. It's important for several reasons. One is that venture capital is flowing into both AI and defense technology. Dual use will continue for a while. AI is also attracting attention from lawmakers and defense experts who are concerned about the impact of China and the United States maintaining their leading positions as developers of the technology. Listen to the…

There's a new venture fund in town. Swizzle Ventures, founded by Jessica Kamada, former COO of marketing agency Bamboo, has raised just over $5 million for Fund I, according to an SEC filing. There was no fundraising target. The company, quietly founded in 2023, is an early-stage company that aims to invest in companies that address the most pressing concerns facing women, including caregiving, health and finances. According to PitchBook, the company has invested in at least one company, mental health care platform Mavida Health. Kamata did not respond to a request for comment. A year ago, Kamata posted that…

There's a new venture fund in town. Swizzle Fund, founded by Jessica Kamada, former COO of marketing agency Bamboo, has raised just over $5 million for Fund I, according to an SEC filing. There was no fundraising target. Quietly founded in 2023, the company is an early-stage company that aims to invest in companies that address some of the most pressing concerns facing women, including caregiving, health and wellness, and finances. According to PitchBook, the company has invested in at least one company, mental health care platform Mavida Health. Kamata did not respond to a request for comment. A year…

The newest online-only school authorized by the Arizona Charter School Commission has a twist. The academic curriculum will be taught entirely by AI. Charter schools are independently operated but publicly funded, and typically have greater autonomy than traditional public schools in how subjects are taught. But Unbound Academy's application proposes an “AI-driven adaptive learning technology” that “condenses academic instruction into a two-hour window,” a first for this model. (Unbound's founders are running a similar program at an “upscale private school” in Texas, which appears to be in-person.) Unbound's approach relies on education technology platforms like IXL and Khan Academy, where…

A May ransomware attack on Ascension, a U.S. health care giant with more than 140 hospitals and dozens of senior living facilities, allowed hackers to attack 5.6 million patients, according to a new filing with the Maine attorney general. They were able to steal personal information and confidential medical information. The cyber attack caused widespread disruption across the hospital system, with some staff saying it resulted in dire medical consequences, including delayed or lost test results and medication errors. The Black Busta gang was blamed for the attack, and the group stole patients' medical information, including clinic dates, lab tests,…

According to Forbes, U.S. Vice President and then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris' cyber security was compromised before the election after a tool designed to detect spyware on iPhones reported anomalies on two devices belonging to campaign staffers. The security team has asked Apple for help. According to Forbes, Apple has refused to allow forensic analysis of the phone. The company's response comes as no surprise to digital defenders who work with at-risk populations who are often targeted by spyware. In recent years, Apple has sent notifications to targets and victims of government spyware, warning them they may have been hacked and…

What happens when a chemical engineer who previously developed hydrogen-powered drones becomes a venture capitalist? Energy Revolution Ventures, that's it. The company has now closed an $18 million seed and Series A fund to invest in deep technologies such as energy storage, carbon capture, and, of course, hydrogen technology. Marcus Clover, co-founder and partner at ERV, told TechCrunch: I ended up being hired as the first employee at an aerospace startup. We were building hydrogen-powered drones for communications applications. ” After doing that for five years, he joined another company that puts hydrogen fuel cells into heavy-duty vehicles. I realized…

While most students were stumbling back from bars over the weekend, Songye Yoon was rushing across campus in South Korea. When dinner time came around, she ran some programs on the university's supercomputer and waited sleeplessly in her dorm for the computer to run the programs at high speed. “I woke up at 2 or 3 a.m. and walked around campus because I wanted to know the results,” she said. She was such an oddity on campus that a writer used her as inspiration for a TV show about her college. “The idea was never to create a character based…

Social network Bluesky has released a new update to its app that includes a separate mentions tab in notifications, protection against username squatting, and new controls for sorting replies. The company announced that with the v1.96 rollout, it will add a new mentions tab, allowing you to view these posts individually. Previously, all notifications were under one tab. Bluesky also adds protection against username squatting by reserving the original Bluesky username (.bsky.social suffix) when changing the username to a custom domain. The platform said it only reserves the most recent Bluesky usernames and there is no expiration date. Recent incidents…

AI poses a dilemma for businesses. If you don't implement it yet, you could be missing out on productivity gains and other potential benefits. But if done incorrectly, it can expose your business and customers to unmitigated risks. This is where a new wave of “security for AI” startups arrives, assuming that threats such as jailbreaks and prompt injections cannot be ignored. Mindgard, a spin-off from a British university, is one of them, as is Israeli startup Noma and US-based competitors Hidden Layer and Protect AI. “AI is still software, so all the cyber risks you've probably heard apply to…