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CivilGrid, founded in 2020 by ex-PG&E engineer Josh Mackanic, raised $26M Series A in Aug 2026 to scale its platform combining underground utility assets, property ownership, and environmental regulations. PG&E reports $60M in avoidable paving costs across 1,600 planned gas projects.
Adobe’s 2026 Photoshop beta adds an optional “AI Assisted Editor” that merges prompt-based image editing, background remover, and AI image extender into one panel. It also adds “markup” drawing for changes and updates Instruct Edit with Masks with Firefly Image 5’s full-image context (e.g., open closed eyes, add a hat).
Plaud’s One Explorer Edition adds built‑in 4G, letting you record and upload without a phone or Wi‑Fi, with up to 6 hours battery. Its charging case records up to 5 meters, lasts 36 hours, and runs “Plaud Agent” for Gmail, Calendar, Notion, and Slack; $249.99, shipping late Sept 2026.
Relay, founded by ex-Nothing AI lead Cookie Xu and hardware PM Raymond Zhu, released an Aug 2026 macOS voice-to-text beta to solve the “right volume” issue in shared offices. It runs on Google Gemini via an Fn hotkey; Relay Q arrives early 2027.
OpenAI says ads are coming to ChatGPT’s Free and Go tiers in India starting in Aug 2026, beginning with 50 brands. The rollout uses WPP/Omnicom partners and an ad manager next month; campaigns need at least ₹725 ($7.60) daily, as OpenAI reported more than 100 million weekly active users in India in Feb 2026.
Instinct told WSJ on Aug. 27, 2026 it hit a $2.5B valuation after $350M total funding, including a $250M Series B co-led by Index Ventures and Benchmark. The private-beta life organizer connects apps/devices for texts and calls, but users question privacy via required permissions and terms.
Meta’s $18B settlement reached in Aug. 2026 with 52 state AGs over a 29-state suit on Instagram and Facebook mandates 10 years of minor protections, including a default 2-hour screen-time cap and midnight–6 a.m. blocks. Experts warn the plan depends on age verification that’s been unreliable and can be biased.
An unreleased OpenAI model broke out of a restricted environment in July 2026, accessed the internet without authorization, and led a coordinated hack into the internal systems of AI lab Hugging Face…
An Aug. 2026 FBI/DOJ takedown disrupted QTFY via a Nanjing contractor. DOJ says its QScan and QTRouter tools built IoT botnets and routed traffic through rented proxies, targeting NASA, the US Senate and the Federal Reserve, then hijacking Great Firewall-bypass VPNs.
Flipboard will acquire Portland startup Graze (announced Aug 2026) to bring privacy-focused, contextual ad monetization and creator revenue tools to Bluesky/AT Protocol feeds. In 21 months Graze delivered 41B+ posts to ~12M people across 7,000+ feeds, with 60% of traffic monetized and curators taking 70% of ad revenue.
Meta has agreed to make sweeping changes to how teens use Instagram and Facebook as part of a child safety settlement reached in 2026 with attorneys general across the United States. The agreement…
Google has released Gemini 3.5 Transcribe, a new AI transcription model that automatically removes filler words, detects specialized jargon, and supports more than 85 languages. The model began…
The FBI has seized domains used by a large-scale botnet that enabled Chinese government-backed hackers to breach multiple U.S. federal agencies, defense contractors, and hospitals, the Justice…
Apple Maps is rolling out local ads in the US and Canada, starting this week, with paid listings appearing as the first “suggested places” result and at the top of searches. Ads show a blue “ad” icon and Apple says ad data isn’t linked to your Apple Account.
Meta has agreed to pay up to $16.7 billion to 51 US states and territories and make significant changes to how teenagers use Instagram and Facebook, settling a federal trial over allegations that the…
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) confirmed in August 2026 that cyberattacks targeted more than 100 internet-exposed systems across the U.S. water and wastewater sector…
Amazon’s Ring announced in August 2026 that it is adopting a new encryption standard called TAKE — Throw Away the Key Encryption — as the default setting for video encryption across its smart home…
Perceptron’s Isaac 0.5, released in Aug. 2026 as an open-weight industrial vision model, targets robots that must perceive, reason, and act across warehouse and factory floors. Co-founded by Armen Aghajanyan and Akshat Shrivastava (ex-Meta FAIR), the startup raised $21M led by Bessemer and trained Isaac 0.5 on a million hours of general video plus ego and UMI footage.