Bluesky users debate plans around user data and AI training

Social network Bluesky recently published a proposal on GitHub outlining new options it could give users to indicate whether they want their posts and data to be scraped for things like generative AI training and public archiving. CEO Jay Graber discussed the proposal earlier this week, while on-stage at South by Southwest, but it attracted … Read more

Bench is charging people for services they already paid for, some customers say

After Employer.com acquired bankrupt accounting startup Bench in a fire-sale late last year, CEO Jesse Tinsley pledged on LinkedIn and elsewhere to honor past customer payments. “We’re honoring all prepaid Bench services even though we will not have the revenue from that directly ourselves,” Tinsley said in an interview with founder and investor Julian Weisser. … Read more

Republican Congressman Jim Jordan asks Big Tech if Biden tried to censor AI

On Thursday, House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) sent letters to 16 American technology firms, including Google and OpenAI, asking for past communications with the Biden administration that might suggest the former president “coerced or colluded” with companies to “censor lawful speech” in AI products. The Trump administration’s top technology advisers previously signaled it would pick … Read more

Tern AI’s low-cost GPS alternative actually works

We’ve all experienced that moment of frustration when the GPS glitches and you miss an exit on the highway. The team at Tern AI, which is building a low-cost GPS alternative, says that’s because the current technology is limited by its reliance on satellite positioning.  Tern AI says it has figured out how to locate … Read more

Kerry Washington invests in wedding marketplace Cheersy

Kerry Washington is expanding her angel investment portfolio, serving as lead investor in the pre-seed round of the wedding marketplace Cheersy.  Cheersy, which was founded in 2024 by Amy Shack Egan, helps couples find day-of service wedding coordinators and has raised a total of $550,000, from other investors including Christina Tosi, the founder of Milk … Read more

Waymo was slapped with nearly 600 parking tickets last year in SF alone

Waymo now has more than 300 driverless vehicles zipping passengers around San Francisco, but while they follow traffic laws, parking is another matter entirely. According to city records cited by the Washington Post, these rolling robots racked up 589 citations totaling $65,065 in fines last year for parking violations that ranged from blocking traffic to … Read more

10 startups to watch from Y Combinator’s W25 Demo Day

Silicon Valley’s most storied startup accelerator, Y Combinator, held its Winter 2025 Demo Day on Wednesday, showcasing its latest batch of 160 startups. Some of Silicon Valley’s most successful startups – including Stripe, Airbnb, and Reddit – started out in a YC batch. Unsurprisingly, many of the startups in this batch are focused on building … Read more

Telegram introduces trading and yield features for its self-custodial crypto wallet

Telegram’s self-custodial crypto wallet, developed by a third-party company called The Open Platform (TOP), has introduced new features for people who don’t just use Telegram as a messaging app. The updates include multi-asset trading and yield functionalities. Based on the TON blockchain, TOP launched the wallet in 2023. The company reported that over 100 million … Read more