Michael O’Boyle / Bloomberg:
The valuation of Kavak, a Mexico City-based online used car dealer and LATAM’s most valuable startup, was cut by $6.5B to $2.2B in a $127M equity round in March — The valuation for Latin America’s most valuable startup was cut, by $6.5 billion, to $2.2 billion in its most recent funding round.
Bloomberg:
A 2018 email from Mark Zuckerberg explored spinning off Instagram; he testified his thinking at the time took into account where politics seemed to be going — Mark Zuckerberg considered spinning off Instagram into a separate company in 2018 as he increasingly became concerned that the photo …
Ben Sherry / Inc:
Anthropic’s Claude adds Research, capable of searching the web and internal documents to give comprehensive answers, in beta for Max, Team, Enterprise plans — The integration should make Claude even more effective as a virtual assistant. Plus, there’s a new ‘Research’ mode.
Maxwell Zeff / TechCrunch:
Anthropic says Claude now integrates with Google Workspace for access to Gmail, Calendar, and Google Docs, coming first to Max, Team, Enterprise, and Pro plans — Anthropic announced on Tuesday that its AI chatbot, Claude, now integrates with Google Workspace, allowing it to search and reference …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google rolls out its text-to-video AI model Veo 2 to Gemini Advanced subscribers and makes its Whisk Animate tool available for Google One AI Premium users — A new Whisk Animate tool is coming to Google One AI Premium users, as well. … Google is letting Gemini Advanced subscribers try out Veo 2 …
Jenna McLaughlin / NPR:
Whistleblower: at NLRB, DOGE staff disabled monitoring tools, deleted logs, one worked on “NxGenBdoorExtract”; one DOGE account tried to log in via a Russian IP — In the first days of March, a team of advisers from President Trump’s new Department of Government Efficiency initiative arrived …
Bloomberg:
Source: Anthropic could launch a “voice mode” feature for Claude as soon as this month, which will initially roll out on a limited basis — Anthropic is nearing the launch of a new voice assistant product for its Claude chatbot, nearly a year after rival OpenAI began rolling out a similar option for ChatGPT users.
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
China Outs US Hackers for Attack, a New Frontier in Spy Games — Authorities in Beijing usually reluctant to discuss breaches — Trade war, ongoing cyberattacks are motivation, analysts say — China’s outing of alleged US National Security Agency hackers marks a major escalation …
Bloomberg:
FTC v. Meta: Mark Zuckerberg testified about his acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, including a 2012 email exchange rationalizing the apps’ acquisition — – Meta CEO asked in email if deal may ‘neutralize a competitor’ — FTC claims acquisitions created a social networking monopoly
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Mark Zuckerberg’s $1B Instagram and $19B WhatsApp deals, central to the FTC’s antitrust case, were mocked at the time, and the trial hinges on hypotheticals — Meta’s antitrust trial, in which the government contends the company killed competition by buying young rivals …
