Tech

Anonymous messaging app NGL announced on Friday that it has been acquired by Mode Mobile, a smartphone rewards company that makes money by flooding its users with ads. NGL quickly climbed the App Store charts after its launch in late 2021, joining a group of similar apps popular among teens …

The Delaware Supreme Court has reinstated Elon Musk’s $56 billion Tesla pay package from 2018, overturning last year’s ruling by the state’s Chancery Court, according to an opinion published Friday. In a unanimous ruling, the judges on the highest court in Delaware said that canceling Musk’s package left him “uncompensated …

ChatGPT users can now tweak the chatbot’s warmth, enthusiasm, and emoji use, according to a social media post from OpenAI. These options (as well as similar adjustments to ChatGPT’s use of headers and lists) now appear in the Personalization menu and can be set to More, Less, or Default. They …

When iRobot filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Sunday, it marked the end of an era for one of America’s most beloved robotics companies. The Roomba maker, which had sold over 50 million robots since its 2002 launch, had survived 35 years of near-death experiences and technical challenges only to …

Law firms representing Google and Apple have warned that employees who need a visa stamp to re-enter the United States should avoid leaving the country due to longer-than-usual visa processing times, according to Business Insider. BI says it has viewed memos from BAL Immigration Law (which represents Google) and Fragomen …

Governor Kathy Hochul has signed the RAISE Act, positioning New York as the second U.S. state to enact major AI safety legislation. State lawmakers passed RAISE Act in June, but following lobbying from the tech industry, Hochul proposed changes to scale the bill back. The New York Times reports that …

AI coding assistant Cursor announced that it has acquired Graphite, a startup that uses AI to review and debug code. Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, Axios reported that Cursor paid “way over” Graphite’s last valuation of $290 million, which was set when the five-year-old company raised …

Former Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario is resigning from her position on Rivian’s board of directors, according to a Friday afternoon stock exchange filing. Rivian wrote in the filing that Marcario’s last day will be on January 1, and that she is leaving “to focus on other commitments.” Rivian’s board will …

Building in regulated industries adds a massive hurdle to the already challenging journey of building a startup. And this week on Build Mode, Startup Battlefield editor Isabelle Johannessen spoke to two founders who are working to make progress  in industries ripe for disruption, despite the regulatory headaches that might have deterred many other people.   In this episode, we’re talking about life and death and how regulatory …

Rocket Lab has won an $816 million contract — its largest to date — with the U.S. Space Development Agency as the company continues to diversify beyond its “rocket company” label. The company said Friday that its subsidiary, Rocket Lab USA, was awarded a prime contract by the Space Development …