A company with an innovative line of cosmetic products caught the attention of Oprah’s lifestyle magazine and beauty bloggers. Now the CIA is involved, too.
The CIA’s Venture-Capital Firm, Like Its Sponsor, Operates in the Shadows
In-Q-Tel, a nonprofit venture-capital firm that invests taxpayer money in startups developing technology useful to the CIA, provides only limited information about its investments, and some of its trustees have ties to funded companies.
The CIA Is Investing in Firms That Mine Your Tweets and Instagram Photos
Among 38 undisclosed companies receiving funding from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital arm, several are developing tools to mine data from social media.
Breakout Ventures eyes neuroscience and AI with new fund
The venture capital firm has $114 million to invest
Meet the AI OnlyFans: How one startup raised millions to build an ‘erotic companions’ platform | Kai Nicol-Schwarz
Meet the AI OnlyFans: How one startup raised millions to build an ‘erotic companions’ platform --- When AI erotic companion startup Oh raised a $4.5m funding round in January, it had something few in the shadowy new sector could boast. A roster of named investors, publicly backing the company. VCs are often bound by “vice clauses”, which prohibit firms from investing in controversial products like pornography or weapons. As a result, startups working on ethically contentious products often rely on angel investors and family offices to stay afloat. But Oh, which generates NSFW adult content and conversations with both fictional characters as well as bots based on real people, has tapped into a group of seemingly less squeamish investors: crypto VCs. It’s drawn backing from the likes of Tangent, Kosmos Ventures, Big Brain Holdings, Bodhi Ventures and Tagus Capital. “Raising money for a business like this from non-crypto VCs is very difficult,” says Oh founder and CEO Nic Young, who positions the startup as a “decentralised platform” and offers payments via crypto. “A lot of crypto VCs don’t have vice clauses — it’s more liberal and free.” Oh wants to use those fresh funds to build the “AI OnlyFans”, with plans to roll out autonomous scantily clad bots that can market themselves on social media and direct message users with spicy conversation starters. The biggest challenge? Convincing enough users it’s not that weird turning to AI when you’re looking for romance. https://lnkd.in/eRF7a5Dn
Surveillance Watch: They Know Who You Are
Surveillance Watch is an interactive map revealing the intricate connections between surveillance companies, their funding sources and affiliations.
Anthropic Forges $1.5 Billion AI Alliance With Blackstone (BX) and Goldman Sachs (GS) - MoneyCheck
Anthropic partners with Blackstone (BX) and Goldman Sachs (GS) in a $1.5B venture to deploy Claude AI across private equity portfolios worldwide.
Exposing AdFection: How Discover-Tech Turned Targeted Ads Into a Pipeline for Zero-Click Mercenary Spyware - The Citizen Lab
This is the first-ever public confirmation of zero-click mercenary spyware delivered via targeted ads. We call the technique AdFection, and show how it was used to infect devices at Al Jazeera with Candiru’s spyware. We also uncover Discover-Tech, and show how the company helps mercenary surveillance vendors track and hack devices around the world.
Crypto Venture Linked to Men Sanctioned in Scam-Ring Probe Partnered With Trump Firm
The Trump family crypto company’s stablecoin, USD1, is deployed on the AB blockchain network, and a planned AB resort in East Timor had been led by two men sanctioned for alleged work with a U.S.-designated transnational crime organization.
Anthropic Launches Enterprise AI Firm With Wall Street Giants | PYMNTS.com
Anthropic is launching a new venture focused on selling AI tools to enterprise companies. This effort is being launched in partnership with Goldman Sachs,
An AI model from Meta also hacked another company during testing | CNN Business
Add Meta to the list of companies with AI agents going rogue. An AI model from the parent company of Facebook and Instagram hacked into another company’s systems during cybersecurity testing, a spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.
An AI model from Meta also hacked another company during testing | CNN Business
Add Meta to the list of companies with AI agents going rogue. An AI model from the parent company of Facebook and Instagram hacked into another company’s systems during cybersecurity testing, a spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.
Venture Capital Status
Verified information detailing the global impacts of Silcon Valley, United States venture capital and their global tech fascist projects: The Network State, ZEDEs, military weapons start-ups, medical experimentation, eugenics, venture capital crypto, venture capital and Israeli zionism, venture cap
Mercor, a $10 billion AI startup, confirms it was caught up in a major security incident | Fortune
The high-flying startup that provides AI training data to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta confirms it was hit by a “supply-chain attack.”
The Sovereign Tech Agency is doing something special: we invest in and support the open digital infrastructure that modern economies and societies rely on. We’re currently #hiring for several roles: - HR Generalist - Program Manager #SovereignTechFund - Executive Assistant #digitalsovereignty 1/2
