One-time hot insurance tech Ethos poised to be first tech IPO of the year

Ethos was backed by a who’s who of VCs and celebs through 2021. It is currently profitable, it says.

ICE becomes one of the most-blocked accounts on Bluesky after its verification

ICE has been verified on Bluesky, and quickly becomes one of the top most-blocked accounts.

Netflix is rolling out a live voting feature

Netflix said it the feature will be available globally and it will tally votes in real-time

Well, there goes the metaverse!

The metaverse is on its last legs as VR is eclipsed by AI. But that’s not the only thing that went wrong for Meta’s VR ambitions.

Who gets to inherit the stars? A space ethicist on what we’re not talking about

While it’s easy to romanticize space as an escape to a pristine frontier where people will float weightlessly among the stars, it’s worth remembering there are no oceans or mountains or chirpy birds in space. It’s “not nice up there,” said Rubenstein. …

Musk wants up to $134B in OpenAI lawsuit, despite $700B fortune

Musk’s legal team argues he should be compensated as an early startup investor who sees returns “many orders of magnitude greater” than his initial investment.

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Digg launches its new Reddit rival to the public

Digg, a reboot of an earlier social news site, is now relaunching as a Reddit competitor focused on communities.

A consumer watchdog issued a warning about Google’s AI agent shopping protocol — Google says she’s wrong

A consumer economics watchdog says Google’s new Universal Commerce Protocol is ripe for misuse where consumers could pay more for items. Google denies this.

Ring founder details the camera company’s ‘intelligent assistant’ era

AI is ushering in Ring’s next chapter, as the Amazon-owned video doorbell maker shifts toward becoming an “intelligent assistant.”

Superorganism raises $25M to back biodiversity startups

Superorganism launched in 2023 as what it claims is the first venture capital firm focused on biodiversity, aiming to serve as the conservationist on the cap table for nature-friendly startups. Now, the firm has closed its first fund, securing $25.9 mi…