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Juul Labs will pay $462 million in 6 states to settle youth-vaping lawsuit

Embattled electronic cigarette-maker Juul Labs will pay $462 million to six states and the District of Columbia, marking the largest settlement the company has reached so far for its role in the youth-vaping surge, New York Attorney General Letitia James said Wednesday.

The agreement with New York State, California, Colorado, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Washington, D.C., marks the latest in a string of recent legal settlements Juul has reached across the country with ci

The post-SVB era: These tech companies are actually on a growth path

Since the start of the year, tech companies have laid off over 150,000 employees. At the same time, the sector at large has been dealing with continual fallout from last month’s collapse of financial heavyweights including SVB and Signature Bank.

Still, even in the midst of all that negativity, there are companies delivering good news. Shekar Ayyar, the CEO of networking software startup Arrcus, saw the warning signs for months before the SVB crisis. As a result, he says, his

OpenAI will pay you up to $20,000 to find bugs in ChatGPT

Looking to make some spare cash? OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has announced a new bug bounty program that will reward bug finders up to $20,000 for spotting vulnerabilities in its software.

OpenAI says the reason it is rolling out a bug bounty program is because in highly complex software programs—such as artificial intelligence—flaws can unknowingly be introduced to the system. By initiating a cash reward program, OpenAI can incentivize the broader tech community to

Three under-the-radar gadgets I find indispensable

This story is from Fast Company’s Plugged In newsletter, a weekly roundup of tech insights, news, and trends from global technology editor Harry McCracken, delivered to your inbox every Wednesday morning. Sign up for it here.


Let’s face it: A huge percentage of tech journalism is devoted to a handful of products you already know about. That includes a fair percentage of my own work. But this week, I offer heartfelt testimonials for fo

Russia-owned rocket-maker Khrunichev Center says sanctions won’t slow production

EU sanctions imposed on Russia-owned rocket-maker Khrunichev Center will not slow rocket production, but they will impact customer demand, center chief Alexey Varochko said this week in an interview with the Russian News Agency TASS.

On February 23, the EU passed its 10th round of sanctions on Russia, which put the rocket maker on the list of prohibited entities.

Russian rocket builders

The Khrunichev Center is a Russian-owned launch manufacturer resp

Why the future of AI will be fought on a battleground of ethics

Over the last few months, layoffs have gripped the tech industry’s workforce. Facing macroeconomic challenges that are impacting revenue forecasts and financial performance, the tech giants are in unprecedented times destined for the history books.

Among the macro pressures and turbulent markets, one of glimmers of light this year has been in emerging technologies, specifically the radical growth and adoption of AI. While AI isn’t exactly new, the world hasn’t b

What is WaterTok? Why flavored water is blowing up on TikTok

An upbeat woman takes to TikTok to bring users along for her mid-morning hydration hit. She rummages through a caddy full of flavor packets, screaming “crushed pineapple” once she picks one. She grabs her cup of ice and water, then moves toward her “water bar,” which is stocked with Jordan’s Skinny Mixes brand syrups.

“Dragon fruit açai? Nah. Coconut, let’s do that,” Tonya Spanglo, who goes by @takingmylifebackat42, says t

4 steps to protect your dark data from theft and misuse

Over half of the data that companies collect is for single-use purposes. We give companies Social Security and credit card numbers, addresses and phone numbers, emails, and health data. That information, called “dark data” in internet circles, generally sits stored away, long forgotten by users. Dark data comes from many different sources: when a company declines to delete a former employee’s information, for example, or when a company is acquired but declines to wipe its

Notion AI, explained: How the generative AI tool makes note-taking easier

This article is republished with permission from Wonder Tools, a newsletter that helps you discover the most useful sites and apps. Subscribe here.

Notion AI is like a robot that has read and analyzed the entire internet. Its training enables it to make detailed suggestions based on millions of documents it has studied. It’s basically a prediction engine guessing what words will work best based on a prompt or text you’ve written. The capacity to draw instantl

Is TikTok harming our cognitive abilities?

The United States government is considering a national ban of TikTok, a social media application used by over 150 million Americans. Although the primary reason for the ban is privacy concerns, it presents an opportunity to consider other potential risks.

It is well known social media apps can negatively impact mental health outcomes, a fact even acknowledged by Facebook’s leaked internal research. The impact social media use may have on our cognitive abilities


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