Welcome to Startups Weekly, a nuanced take on this week’s startup news and trends by Senior Reporter and Equity co-host Natasha Mascarenhas. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here . Sometimes, due to the nature of the startup game, we over index on “the new.” Companies want to build for the pain point you never dreamed to disrupt; VCs want to invest in an emerging trend before it becomes a household name; and those breaking into tech are told to lean into their earnestness, be ...read more

Former VMware CEO and longtime Microsoft executive Paul Maritz is a major investor in True, a social app that vows not to sell or monetize user data. (Photo courtesy True) Veteran computer scientist and business leader Paul Maritz is perhaps best known for his work in PC and server operating systems, cloud computing, and enterprise infrastructure technology. But he also has a longstanding interest in the intersection of technology and personal data, as reflected in his founding in 2003 of ...read more

TechSpot is about to celebrate its 25th anniversary. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. WTF?! Russia appears to be following in China's footsteps by tightening its control over the video games industry. The country wants to protect its youth from the "negative influence" of games, and hopes to create a banned list of popular titles that use "hidden inserts" to "affect the conscious and subconscious mind." Russian publication Kommersant (via PCGamer) reports that the Russ ...read more

from the and-then-this-happened dept Five Years Ago This week in 2018, the FCC was backing off its plans to weaken the definition of broadband, but still couldn’t admit that limited competition is a problem, and was apparently hoping that some phony dedication to rural broadband would distract people from how it just killed net neutrality. The State of Montana announced that it wouldn’t do business with ISPs that violate net neutrality, while a new bill in congress aimed to prevent Comc ...read more

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant and supporters during a news conference this week announcing her call for legislation to ban caste discrimination in Seattle. (Twitter Photo via @cmkshama) When Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant introduced legislation this week to ban caste discrimination in Seattle, her supporters included tech workers who say the system of bias and oppression has followed them from South Asia to the U.S. and Seattle. Sawant’s proposed legislation would be ...read more

Hey, party people, it’s Kyle, continuing to step in for Greg to write Week in Review as he spends time with his newborn. Dunno about y’all, but it’s been a week. I’m dead tired and thankful it’s over. But because the news never sleeps, I’m rallying with the help of a fourth cup of coffee. Wish me luck. I’ve talked your ears off about it at this point, but I’m under contractual obligation (not really, but still) to mention TechCrunch’s upcoming Early Stage 2023 event in Boston ...read more

A student in the University of Washington’s Suzzallo Library in Seattle. (UW Photo) The sudden rise of ChatGPT — the AI-powered chatbot released by OpenAI last fall — has educators across the country rethinking how they teach and assess student work. The University of Washington is among them, providing guidance to its faculty on how to navigate technology’s latest impact on education. The UW’s Center for Teaching and Learning, which supports the advancement of the school’s tea ...read more

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.IEEE RO-MAN 2023: 28–31 August 2023, BUSAN, KOREARoboCup 2023: 4–10 July 2023, BORDEAUX, FRANCECLAWAR 2023: 2–4 October 2023, FLORIANOPOLIS, BRAZILRSS 2023: 10–14 July 2023, DAEGU, KOREAICRA 2023: 29 May–2 June 2023, LONDONRobotics Summit & Expo ...read more

RxPass smartphone interface. (Amazon Photo) Amazon is offering a new healthcare service, RxPass, that lets Amazon Prime members access multiple generic medications for a flat monthly fee of $5. The fee is in addition to the $139 yearly or $14.99 monthly cost of Amazon Prime, the membership plan that provides expedited delivery of goods and other perks at the online retail giant. Delivery of medications under RxPass, part of Amazon Pharmacy, is free of charge. The new service, available in 4 ...read more

Welcome back to Chain Reaction, a podcast diving deep into stories, backgrounds and the latest news with the biggest names in crypto. For this week’s episode, I sat down with Mo Shaikh, co-founder and CEO of the layer-1 blockchain Aptos. Shaikh is a three-time founder with over a decade of experience in financial services as well as blockchain technology and crypto. He also worked on blockchain strategic partnerships for Novi, Meta’s wallet, and was the strategy director at ConsenSys. ...read more