• Figma CEO Dylan Field forfeits ~$46M in stock awards to revive investor confidence amid AI disruption fears; FIG is down ~77% from its peak more than a year ago (Brody Ford/Bloomberg)
• Scientists trained AI on genetic sequences to design viruses not found in nature, yielding viable viruses that can infect bacteria but pose no threat to humans (Carl Zimmer/New York Times)
• Sources: Panthalassa, which aims to power data centers in the ocean using energy generated by waves, is raising $225M at a ~$2B valuation, up from $1B in May (Julia Hornstein/The Information)
• Sources: Nscale told potential backers it generated $100M+ in Q2 revenue, up from $37M in Q1, and has $51B in contracts, ahead of a possible September US IPO (Bailey Lipschultz/Bloomberg)
• Suno plans to adopt new watermarking and fingerprinting tech, transparency tools, and a new download policy to limit the spread of spammy AI tracks (Terrence O'Brien/The Verge)
• Google and data: hackers used phone calls, phishing websites, and "meticulous" tactics to target dozens of US PE firms and other businesses over the past month (Reuters)
• OpenAI updates the default model for free users to GPT-5.6 Luna, adds unlimited text chats for free users, rolls out an improved GPT-5.6 Sol version, and more (Herb Scribner/Axios)
• OpenAI introduces Agent Plugins, an open standard for bundling skills and MCP servers, and says its steering committee includes Amazon, Microsoft, and Vercel (Zac Hall/9to5Mac)
• Western Digital falls 10%+ after issuing guidance that didn't quite match those of Seagate; Q4 revenue rose 44% YoY to $3.75B, above a $3.7B estimate (Nate Wolf/Barron's Online)
• Google DeepMind says its WeatherNext model can accurately predict a storm's track and intensity using lower-resolution weather data, and open sources the model (Victoria Turk/Wired)
• Sources: Nvidia is considering lower-memory versions of its Rubin Ultra GPU due to potential issues securing enough HBM, and has tested at least three versions (The Information)
• Sources: Stripe recently entered exclusive talks to buy OpenRouter in a cash-and-stock deal that would value the startup for close to $10B (The Information)
• Demis Hassabis stepping down as Google DeepMind CEO may weaken the UK tech scene, marking an end for Hassabis' effort to keep his native UK as an AI stronghold (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)
• Datadog drops 15%+ after forecasting weaker full-year sales due to reduced usage from its largest client, a leading AI company; Q2 revenue rises 36% to $1.12B (Katherine Hamilton/Wall Street Journal)
• WindBorne, which deploys weather balloons to collect data for its AI weather forecasting models, raised a $37M Series B at a $250M post-money valuation (Tim Fernholz/TechCrunch)
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• OpenAI Didn’t Notice Its AI Agents Using a Message Board to Plan Their Hacking Spree
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• Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery
• Google’s Top AI Brains Are Leaving to Launch Discovery Loop
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