Welcome back to your daily memorandum talking tech, business, AI, markets, and more. 🗞️

In today’s edition, we are tackling the following:

🔓 Ultrahuman says hackers accessed customer wellness data.
🎬 Martin Scorsese faces backlash for endorsing AI he calls "creatively freeing".
🧐 Amazon faces a class action lawsuit over Ring's facial recognition feature.
🏛️ U.S. House votes to end the Iran war, dealing Trump a blow.
👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Trump administration again separated dozens of children from their parents.

TECHNOLOGY

• Ultrahuman says hackers accessed customer wellness data through a stolen employee credential (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: The Verge, Yahoo!, Inc42}}

  • Ultrahuman said hackers accessed customers' wellness data after stealing an employee's credentials through malware.

  • The breach occurred on March 27 on an internal analytics system that the company detected and took offline.

  • Founded in 2019, the smart-ring maker said the attack affected the wellness data of about 0.1% of its users.

• Martin Scorsese faces backlash for endorsing AI he calls "creatively freeing" (BBC)
  ^{_{More: NY Times, TechCrunch, Variety}}

  • Scorsese became an adviser to AI firm Black Forest Labs, calling its tool "creatively freeing" during pre-production.

  • The company released a video of him using AI to instantly generate storyboard images of characters and scenes.

  • The 83-year-old Oscar winner faced criticism from industry figures who fear AI's impact on creativity and jobs.

• Microsoft launches Scout, an AI assistant inspired by OpenClaw for Microsoft 365 (The Verge)
  ^{_{More: TechCrunch, MSN, WIRED}}

  • Microsoft launched Scout, an AI assistant that brings OpenClaw's power and flexibility to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

  • Built on the OpenClaw framework, Scout is a persistent assistant that users name and provide ongoing feedback on.

  • Scout is available through Microsoft's Frontier program for early adopters and requires a GitHub Copilot subscription.

BUSINESS

• Amazon faces a class action lawsuit over Ring's facial recognition feature (CNET)
  ^{_{More: CBS, Mashable, TechCrunch}}

  • Amazon was sued Monday over Ring doorbells; the suit says Familiar Faces stores passersby's images without consent.

  • Virginia resident Charles Sigwalt filed the Seattle class action over the feature, which launched in December despite pushback.

  • Familiar Faces uses AI facial recognition to identify regular visitors, but passersby never consented to being scanned.

• SpaceX sets stage for a record $75B IPO valuing it at $1.77T (CNN)
  ^{_{More: CNBC, NY Times, Yahoo!}}

  • SpaceX plans to raise $75B in an IPO, valuing it at nearly $1.77T, potentially making Musk the first trillionaire.

  • The company will sell 555.6M shares at $135 each, a single price reflecting the hot IPO market.

  • Musk would control 82.4% of the voting power, and the IPO would surpass Saudi Aramco's 2019 record of $ 29.4 B.

• U.S. House votes to end the Iran war, dealing Trump a blow (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: NBC, The Hill, Detroit News}}

  • The U.S. House, led by Republicans, approved a resolution Wednesday to block Trump from continuing the Iran war.

  • The chamber voted 215 to 208, with four Republicans joining Democrats to order U.S. troops withdrawn from Iran.

  • The largely symbolic vote reflects growing concern within Trump's own party over the ongoing conflict with Iran.

MARKETS

WORLD

• Trump administration again separated dozens of children from their parents (AP)
  ^{_{More: NBC, Yahoo!, Arab News}}

  • An Associated Press investigation found the government again separated dozens of children, despite a settlement protecting families.

  • Some parents were detained for months, while others were deported despite being legally protected from removal.

  • Ederson, separated from his mother in 2018, was taken again last June before a judge ordered their return.

• Israel & Lebanon agree to ceasefire, boosting hopes for broader Iran deal (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Bloomberg, Korea Times}}

  • Israel and Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire, the Trump administration said, boosting hopes for a broader Iran deal.

  • Tehran, which tied a U.S. deal to ending the fighting, struck Kuwait, injuring dozens and damaging its airport.

  • The U.S. military struck near the Strait of Hormuz, which remains largely closed, pushing oil up nearly 2%.

• Europe unveils tech sovereignty package amid concerns over reliance on U.S. tech (The Guardian)
  ^{_{More: NY Times, CNBC, Fortune}}

  • The European Commission proposed rules on Wednesday to strengthen homegrown chips, AI, and cloud services across the bloc.

  • The push aims to cut reliance on the U.S. and China and remove any cloud provider's "kill switch."

  • All 27 member states must approve the proposals, which include measures to boost chip manufacturing and cloud computing.

FUTURISM

• Google's Dreambeans app turns your personal Google data into animated cartoon stories (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Google, Tech Buzz}}

  • Google Labs launched Dreambeans, an AI-powered iOS and Android app that turns your daily life into animated stories.

  • It uses your Google data to generate AI-illustrated lifestyle stories, like places to visit and topics to explore.

  • With permission, it connects Gmail, Calendar, Photos, YouTube, and Search History to curate daily stories.

• Security robodogs will help patrol World Cup venues in the U.S. (Axios)
  ^{_{More: Futurism, BBC}}

  • Hyundai and Boston Dynamics built four robot dogs, all named Spot, to help with World Cup security.

  • Two will be stationed at the International Broadcast Center in Dallas and two at New Jersey's MetLife Stadium.

  • The robots use cameras to protect assets and flag risks, while over 30 agencies coordinate the safety plan.

• Everand bundles e-books, audiobooks & book clubs to challenge Amazon's dominance (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: Yahoo!, MSN}}

  • Scribd-owned Everand launched a combined subscription merging its 1.5M audiobooks and e-books with social book club app Fable.

  • The plan reaches 5M readers with 1.5M titles plus Fable's nearly 200k book clubs, synced across both apps.

  • Everand says it holds licensing agreements with all five major U.S. publishing houses and other large distributors.

• Hunting for AI roles eats hours across careers pages, internal referrals, group chats, and a dozen overlapping boards*

  • The Athyna AI Job Board does the watching for you and matches openings to your profile in the background.

  • When a role hits a 75% matching index or higher, we notify you with details and a direct apply link.

CONTENT

• Uber CEO discusses AI, autonomous vehicles & the future of transportation (Invest Like The Best)

  • Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joined Invest Like the Best to discuss AI, autonomous vehicles, and Uber's next chapter.

  • He said Uber leads with supply and partners across the AV ecosystem to aggregate demand for physical services.

  • He believes autonomous transportation could unlock another $1T market, sharing lessons from rebuilding Uber and learning from mentors.

• OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar on its IPO & $100B+ compute spending plans (All-In Podcast)

  • OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar joined the show to discuss the company's IPO timeline and the AI arms race.

  • She addressed the rivalry among OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, plus the compute crunch and a new device preview.

  • Friar also covered OpenAI's economics, its push into chips and the cloud, and its growing advertising strategy.

• Reimagining biotech with Strand Therapeutics CEO Jake Becraft (Tim Ferriss)

  • Jake Becraft leads Strand Therapeutics, building one of biotech's most advanced programmable genetic medicine platforms.

  • Strand is redefining RNA medicines by enabling targeting of specific cells and delivering therapeutic payloads inside the body.

  • The episode debuts Tim's Founder Kitchen, a format tracking a founder brainstorm from early talks to real results.

EXTRAS

• Uber will deploy 500 sensor-equipped vehicles globally to collect driving data (TechCrunch)
  ^{_{More: AOL, Reuters, How-To-Geek}}

  • Uber unveiled a sensor-equipped Hyundai Ioniq 5 to gather real-world driving data for partners like Waymo and WeRide.

  • It is the first car Uber has built since selling its autonomous vehicle division to Aurora in 2020.

  • The fleet will collect 2M miles of high-fidelity data monthly, with 50 vehicles expected on the roads by summer.

• Bitcoin's most committed holders turn sellers as its price hits new lows (CNBC)
  ^{_{More: MSN, Crypto Briefing}}

  • Over the past two days, Bitcoin's most committed holders sold about $2.4B worth of the cryptocurrency.

  • Of all Bitcoin sold in the past 30 days, 26% came from investors who had bought above $90k.

  • Compass Point analyst Ed Engel said this selling by top buyers signals that Bitcoin's bear market is nearly over.

• Delhi to crack down on fire safety violations after blaze kills 21 (Reuters)
  ^{_{More: Straits Times, Bangkok Post, Business Standard}}

  • The blaze, Delhi's deadliest since 2022, hit a Malviya Nagar hotel popular with nearby hospital patients and relatives.

  • Police lodged a criminal case and arrested the building's owner, as the city announced a fire safety crackdown.

  • Premises violating fire norms will be sealed; foreign nationals killed included people from Bangladesh, Nigeria, Mozambique, and Liberia.

AND MORE

• Microsoft gives developers a better way to control AI agent behavior.

• Wall Street inches toward new records, driven by booming AI stocks.

• Roko’s Basilisk skips the buzz words and cuts straight to what moves markets, products, and careers.*

• U.K. orders Google to let publishers opt out of AI search scraping.

• Google rolls out fake call detection to fight AI deepfake impersonation scams.

• "Love my woke pope": how Pope Leo's first encyclical went viral.

• Uber found thousands of odd items, from Squishmallows to dentures, in robotaxis.