Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

All good things come to those who wait. The first StrictlyVC of the year is headed to San Francisco in less than a month, on April 30, at the Sentro Filipino Cultural Center. And you won’t want to miss out on another lineup of stellar speakers to punctuate the night’s networking and mingling. AI innovators and founders in search of funding will be particularly well-served by the event’s discussions. Who’s taking the stage You can get a ticket right now, but for those who haven’t been to a StrictlyVC event in the past and already clicked that link, let’s dive…

Ask not what your company can do for you — ask what your vibe-coded AI agent can do for your company. Loading audio narration… -JFK (probably)The best way to show your value at work these days? Let AI do the talking.Meta, Google, and JPMorgan have thrown down the gauntlet over AI usage. Their approaches might differ — sometimes it’s a carrot, sometimes it’s a stick — but the message is the same: use AI, or else.The push makes sense given the money companies are investing in AI. As those bills pile up, you can bet they want their employees to…

AI apps that let users digitally undress people in photos are using TikTok to find new customers. Loading audio narration… An investigation by the AI content detection service Copyleaks, shared exclusively with Business Insider, found that TikTok hosted more than 50 sexually suggestive ads for apps and websites that promoted the ability for users to create deepfake images.Collectively, the ads generated tens of thousands of views, based on public view counts during Copyleaks’ analysis between December 2025 and February 2026.Business Insider in March also independently observed more than a dozen of these TikTok ads from apps that promoted the creation…

Apple marks the 50th anniversary of its founding on April 1.The tech giant is one of the world’s most valuable companies, known for innovative products like the iMac, iPhone, and iPod. Its storied past is one of incredible highs, including a $4 trillion market cap, and alarming lows, like its series of stumbles in the 1990s.It’s had many leaders over the years — most notably Steve Jobs, who put the company on the map with his lofty ideas and unique leadership style. After Jobs stepped down from the position to focus on his health, Tim Cook took over as CEO…

Meta is building a team of elite AI researchers to optimize the powerful algorithms that keep people’s eyeballs glued to Facebook and Instagram, according to job listings and LinkedIn posts. Loading audio narration… The team, MRS Research, is part of Meta Recommendation Systems, which runs the home feeds in Meta’s apps, and the unit has already drawn talent from TikTok and Amazon. MRS builds the algorithms that determine what kinds of content people see and works closely with the company’s Ads division.MRS Research formed as part of an October reorganization within MRS to bring relevant teams together, a Meta spokesperson…

Companies have spent billions to crack AI. Getting employees to use it is vital to seeing those investments pay off. Enter: Ramped up goals and performance reviews. Loading audio narration… In recent weeks, Business Insider has exclusively reported on the carrots and sticks companies from Big Tech to Wall Street are using to push workers to boost their productivity with AI.Meta set goals for engineers and formed AI “pods,” while Google managers can mandate the use of assistants and agents. At JPMorgan Chase, internal dashboards track usage of AI tools, labeling workers as light, heavy, or non-users.As Mark Zuckerberg told…

ChatGPT can code and tutor. Now, project documents obtained by Business Insider show how contractors working on an OpenAI project are helping the system to become ever more specialized in niche areas like animal husbandry, agriculture, music composition, and even commercial flying. Loading audio narration… Under Project Stagecraft, as it is internally known at data-labeling startup Handshake AI, freelancers are being paid at least $50 an hour to create materials that will be used by ChatGPT to understand various occupations, one contractor told Business Insider.Business Insider reviewed dozens of pages of documents for the project, including step-by-step instructions for contractors.…

Rival developers just gained insight into how Anthropic built its popular AI-powered coding assistant tool, Claude Code. Loading audio narration… The company accidentally leaked part of the internal source code for Claude Code during a release, a spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider on Tuesday.”Earlier today, a Claude Code release included some internal source code. No sensitive customer data or credentials were involved or exposed,” an Anthropic spokesperson said in a statement. “This was a release packaging issue caused by human error, not a security breach. We’re rolling out measures to prevent this from happening again.”An X post with a link…

Mercor, a popular AI recruiting startup, has confirmed a security incident linked to a supply chain attack involving the open-source project LiteLLM. The AI startup told TechCrunch on Tuesday that it was “one of thousands of companies” affected by a recent compromise of LiteLLM’s project, which was linked to a hacking group called TeamPCP. Confirmation of the incident comes as extortion hacking group Lapsus$ claimed it had targeted Mercor and gained access to its data. It’s not immediately clear how the Lapsus$ gang obtained the stolen data from Mercor as part of TeamPCP’s cyberattack. Founded in 2023, Mercor works with…

Anthropic has built its public identity around the winning idea that it’s the careful AI company. It publishes detailed work on AI risk, employs some of the best researchers in the field, and has been vocal about the responsibilities that come with building such powerful technology — so vocal, of course, that it’s right now battling it out with the Department of Defense. On Tuesday, alas, someone there forgot to check a box. It is, notably, the second time in a week. Last Thursday, Fortune reported that Anthropic had accidentally made nearly 3,000 internal files publicly available, including a draft…