Tootfinder

lol fun news day https://www.techmeme.com/260415/p43#a260415p43

Sources: Apple plans to send ~200 people from its Siri team, a group internally known as a laggard, to an AI coding bootcamp
From The Information. View the full context on Techmeme.

Akamai acquires Israeli cybersecurity startup LayerX Security, which develops a browser-based platform to secure employee use of AI tools, for ~$205M in cash (Meir Orbach/CTech)
https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/byinuqxkme

Akamai acquires Israeli AI browser security startup LayerX for $205 million in cash
Deal expands Zero Trust strategy as enterprises struggle to control AI use. 

wait what? https://www.techmeme.com/260415/p24#a260415p24

Shoe company Allbirds, which sold last week for $39M after its valuation fell from $4B+ in 2021, says it aims to become an AI compute provider; BIRD jumps 800%+
By Bryce Elder / Financial Times. View the full context on Techmeme.

Sources: a Snap-Perplexity AI search deal calling for Perplexity to pay Snap $400M has fallen apart; Snap is set to announce significant layoffs on Wednesday (Alex Heath/Sources)
https://sources.news/p/snap-crucible-moment

Snap's crucible moment
Mass layoffs land tomorrow, the Perplexity deal is dead, and Specs are launching soon. Also: OpenAI has a cyber model too, Apple can tell Elon what to do, and Anthropic expands its unusual board.

Standard Kernel, which is making AI-powered GPU optimization software, raised a $20M seed led by Jump Capital, with General Catalyst and others participating (Clinton Nwachukwu/Ventureburn)
https://ventureburn.com/standard-kernel-raises-20m/

Standard Kernel Raises $20M to Automate GPU Software Optimisation
Standard Kernel Raises $20M to automate GPU kernel generation, maximising performance and efficiency across AI workloads.

The NIST narrows its National Vulnerability Database priorities to CVEs in CISA's known exploited catalog, to deal with a backlog after its 2024 funding lapse (Matt Kapko/CyberScoop)
https://cyberscoop.com/nist-narrows-cve-analysis-nvd/

NIST narrows scope of CVE analysis to keep up with rising tide of vulnerabilities
The National Vulnerability Database will now only analyze vulnerabilities in critical software, systems used in the federal government and those under active exploitation.

Google DeepMind introduces Gemini Robotics-ER 1.6 robotic reasoning model, says it shows significant spatial and physical reasoning improvements over ER 1.5 (Google DeepMind)
https://deepmind.google/blog/gemini-robotics-er-1-6/

Gemini Robotics ER 1.6: Enhanced Embodied Reasoning
Gemini Robotics ER 1.6 upgrades spatial reasoning and multi-view understanding, unlocking new capabilities like instrument reading for autonomous robots.

ByteDance says it "respects IP rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance" and it plans to "strengthen" safeguards, after Disney's legal threats (Osmond Chia/BBC)
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c93wq6xqgy1o

Seedance: ByteDance to curb AI app after Disney legal threat
Videos featuring Spider-Man and other characters which are Disney's intellectual property have gone viral since Seedance's update.

Apple acquires MotionVFX, a Polish company that develops plugins, visual effects, and motion graphics tools for Final Cut Pro (Hartley Charlton/MacRumors)
https://www.macrumors.com/2026/03/16/apple-acquires-motionvfx/

Apple Acquires Final Cut Pro Plugin Company MotionVFX
Apple today acquired MotionVFX, a major developer of plugins, visual effects, and motion graphics tools for Final Cut Pro. MotionVFX is a Polish...

In a policy paper, Anthropic urges the US and allies to enforce export controls, curb distillation attacks, and export US AI to hold the lead over China by 2028 (Anthropic)
https://www.anthropic.com/research/2028-ai-leadership

2028: Two scenarios for global AI leadership
Our views on the AI competition between the US and China.