NBC News:
US judge refuses xAI's request to stop a Minnesota law banning “nudify” apps, noting the request came only three days before the law was to take effect  —  The ruling clears the way for the first-in-the-nation law to go into effect on Saturday.  —  A federal judge on Friday denied …

Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Bitcoin hardware wallet Coldcard shipped a faulty firmware build, and hackers are now draining wallets; Galaxy Research estimates $70M+ stolen  —  More than 1,000 bitcoin, worth about $70 million, was drained from 1,196 wallets in a 41-minute window on July 30, nearly double the amount reported when the theft first surfaced.

CJ Haddad / CNBC:
Trump Media's new paid data API debuts, for “a direct, licensed, real-time feed of the platform's most market-moving Truths”; Dem. senators asked SEC to probe  —  Trump Media and Technology Group's new paid data service launched on Aug. 1, providing faster access to Truth Social posts …

New York Times:
Officials: the scope of cyberattacks on US water systems now includes at least seven states and may be far wider; MN was just the first to publicly report them  —  Michigan and Minnesota are among at least seven states coping with cyberattacks aimed at disrupting water systems nationwide.

New York Times:
A look at the deluge of AI computing power set to come online in the coming years; Epoch AI expects the number of AI chips in use to double every nine months  —  The milestones for artificial intelligence keep getting grander.  —  In 2023, an A.I. system passed the bar exam.

OpenAI:
OpenAI says an internal version of Astra, its next big model, produced results for 10 problems in math, quantum complexity, and theoretical computer science  —  Read the paper(opens in a new window)Read the reasoning walkthroughs(opens in a new window)  —  We want to empower scientists …

Kim Zetter / Wired:
This year's Defcon badges include Baochip-1x, an open source chip whose security is verifiable and that can also be used as a hardware security token  —  Created by legendary hardware hacker Andrew “bunnie” Huang, the badges for this year's famed security conference aim to push the boundaries of security and transparency.

J.D. Capelouto / Semafor:
At the UN AI for Good summit, a big Chinese delegation argued Chinese open-source AI models are the future for most of the world, while US presence was muted  —  Reporter and Lead Writer, Semafor Flagship  —  THE SCENE  —  In the days before the American AI industry erupted in a bitter dispute …

New York Times:
Inside Larry Ellison's debt-fueled push to turn Oracle into an AI juggernaut by aligning with Trump, backing Project Stargate, and partnering with OpenAI  —  the first full day of the second Trump administration — Larry Ellison woke up in his 33-bedroom, 34-bathroom oceanfront mansion in Florida …

Alex Riehl / BetaKit:
Toronto-based Terminal, whose API connects insurance products and commercial fleet software with telematics data, raised a $20M Series A led by Battery Ventures  —  Toronto startup landed Fortune 500 customers with almost no sales team.  Now, it's shifting gears.

Chris Metinko / Axios:
Tel Aviv-based Bloom Security, which develops endpoint security tools for monitoring AI agents, extensions, and more, emerges from stealth with a $20M seed  —  Endpoint security startup Bloom Security emerged from stealth with a $20 million seed led by Glilot Capital Partners and Ten Eleven Ventures …

Geoff Weiss / Business Insider:
Harmony, which offers AI-powered enterprise software for handling tasks such as employee onboarding and software access, raised a $34M seed led by Lightspeed  —  - Harmony raised a $34 million seed round led by Lightspeed to automate workplace requests.  — Its cofounders sold their last startup to Cisco for $500 million.

Lily Mae Lazarus / Fortune:
Foundational Industries, which aims to build AI-run factories for physical products, starting with custom data center rack enclosures, raised a $25M seed  —  Jonathan Winer thinks the U.S. is fighting the wrong manufacturing war.  —  His startup, Foundational Industries …

Ryan Lawler / Axios:
ProphetX, a CFTC-designated sports prediction market that is also building a B2B business to sell its exchange infrastructure to other companies, raised $35M  —  ProphetX, a CFTC-designated sports prediction market, raised $35 million in new funding, CEO Dean Sisun tells Axios Pro exclusively.

Kyle Alspach / CRN:
ThreatLocker raised a $190M Series F led by Elephant as it looks to extend its zero-trust enterprise security platform to protect against AI-related risks  —  The cybersecurity vendor is planning to extend its zero trust security platform to provide enhanced protections for AI- and agentic-related risks …