Author: Frank Salvato

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg took the stand in a high-profile Los Angeles courtroom this week as part of an unprecedented jury trial over whether Meta’s social media platforms, particularly Instagram, were intentionally designed to addict and harm teenagers and younger children. Lawyers for the plaintiff presented internal documents suggesting that Meta once set goals to increase user time on apps and that millions of under-13s were on Instagram despite age restrictions, while questioning Zuckerberg on issues like beauty filters and age verification. Zuckerberg denied that the platforms target kids or are deliberately addictive, said age verification is challenging, and largely…

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada is taking a major step toward advanced automation by entering a robots-as-a-service agreement to bring seven Agility Robotics Digit humanoid robots onto the floor of its Woodstock, Ontario production facility later this spring. After a year-long pilot program, the Canadian arm of the Japanese automaker plans to use the bipedal machines to unload totes of parts from automated tuggers and serve as mobile logistics assistants feeding assembly lines building RAV4 crossovers. The deployment marks one of the first real industrial uses of commercially leased humanoid robots on a traditional auto-manufacturing floor, following earlier pilots with logistics…

Spotify and SeatGeek have announced a partnership that will allow users to purchase concert tickets directly within the Spotify app, marking a significant step in the evolution of music streaming platforms into broader entertainment marketplaces. The collaboration enables artists to list upcoming tour dates and provide in-app ticket purchasing powered by SeatGeek’s infrastructure, reducing friction between music discovery and live event attendance. By embedding ticketing into the listening experience, the companies aim to capitalize on fan engagement at the moment of peak interest, while also giving artists and promoters more direct access to audiences. The move reflects a growing trend…

Reporter Zoë Bernard spent months interviewing 51 individuals, including 31 gay men, for a TechCrunch article that delves into a well-known yet rarely discussed subculture in the Silicon Valley tech industry where gay men at senior levels form close professional and social networks that parallel traditional “boys’ club” power structures and influence hiring, investment, and support practices; while some sources describe these networks as supportive and beneficial, others interviewed recounted instances of unwanted advances, prompting reflections on where collegial bonding ends and inappropriate behavior begins and underscoring the complexity of discussing such networks without slipping into broad generalizations about any…

A critical security flaw in the Ravenna Hub student admissions platform allowed any logged-in user to view sensitive personal information tied to children and their families, including names, birthdates, home addresses, school details, photographs, and parents’ contact info, before the company patched the issue; the vulnerability, an insecure direct object reference (IDOR), let users access other students’ records simply by modifying a profile number in the URL, raising serious concerns about how education technology providers safeguard minors’ data and whether affected families will be notified. Sources https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/19/bug-in-student-admissions-website-exposed-childrens-personal-information/https://www.techbuzz.ai/articles/ravenna-hub-bug-exposed-thousands-of-kids-school-datahttps://www.findarticles.com/admissions-website-bug-exposes-childrens-data/ Key Takeaways • A widely used admissions platform’s basic security flaw made highly…

Amazon has abruptly discontinued its Blue Jay warehouse robotics project just months after launching the multi-armed robot designed to automate sorting and moving packages in same-day delivery facilities, redirecting the underlying technology into other automation efforts and reassigning the team to different robotics initiatives as part of a broader strategic recalibration of its warehouse automation roadmap. Sources https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/18/amazon-halts-blue-jay-robotics-project-after-less-than-six-months/https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-pulls-plug-blue-jay-warehouse-robot-2026-2https://finance.yahoo.com/news/amazon-halts-blue-jay-robotics-182710989.html Key Takeaways • Amazon discontinued the Blue Jay robotics project less than six months after its initial rollout, moving core technology and personnel to other internal robotics programs. • The multi-armed robot was developed rapidly, tested in South Carolina for same-day delivery…

Rivian has launched a new Apple Watch companion app as part of its 2026.03 software update that allows owners of R1T and R1S electric vehicles to perform key vehicle controls directly from the Apple Watch, including locking and unlocking doors, venting windows, sounding alarms, adjusting cabin temperature, and even setting a target battery charge — effectively turning the wearable into a digital key and control hub without needing to pull out a phone. Sources describe generational differences in functionality, with first-generation vehicles requiring a tap in the app to unlock while second-generation models can unlock automatically as the owner with…

Google has officially added generative music capabilities to its Gemini AI app through the integration of DeepMind’s newest model, Lyria 3, letting users create original 30-second music tracks from text descriptions, photos, or video uploads. The feature, currently in beta, produces custom songs complete with vocals, lyrics, and even bespoke cover art generated by Google’s Nano Banana model, all without requiring prior musical expertise. Tracks are watermarked with Google’s SynthID to identify them as AI-created, and the tool also offers creative controls such as tempo, style, and vocal options while operating under safeguards to avoid direct mimicry of specific artists.…

New York Governor Kathy Hochul has abruptly withdrawn a proposal aimed at amending state vehicle and traffic laws to legalize commercial robotaxi operations outside New York City, representing a significant setback for autonomous vehicle companies like Waymo that had been pursuing broader deployment across the state; the decision, attributed to insufficient legislative support and concerns from various stakeholders including taxi unions and safety advocates, effectively keeps the state’s restrictive one-hand-on-the-wheel rule in place and limits robotaxi services to current pilot testing in New York City under existing permits, while Waymo and its backers express disappointment and say they will continue…

A new analysis of the evolving role of artificial intelligence in software development reveals that AI coding tools have become a double-edged sword for open-source programs, unleashing a surge of automatically generated submissions that often lack the quality and maintainability required by serious projects; while these tools make writing new features easier than ever and can accelerate work for skilled developers, project maintainers are struggling with an overwhelming volume of low-quality merge requests that strain limited volunteer resources and threaten to fragment software ecosystems, forcing teams to reconsider contribution guidelines and adoption practices in order to protect stability, uphold quality…