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Intelligence for the New World Economy

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Intelligence for the New World Economy
Semafor World Economy
Rachyl Jones

Rachyl Jones

Tech Reporter

Email Rachyl@RachylJones

AI fuels a social media marketing scam

In what appears to be a new dropshipping scam flooding Instagram and TikTok, accounts are posting AI-generated videos depicting teens getting bullied for trying to sell Christian apparel alongside links to buy the goods.
Screenshots of the AI generated videos.
Instagram

OpenAI’s Brockman says distillation is a technical problem

Brockman said OpenAI has systems in place to prevent distillation.
Brockman at CES 2026. Steve Marcus/Reuters.

AI agents are hitting the pageant stage

Samantha Smitte, 37, who worked at IBM for a decade, spent about $150 on AI agents to train for the Miss New York USA pageant next week, she told Semafor.
Samantha Smitte.
Samantha Smitte.

AI companies move to protect teens

“The principle here is to avoid the mistakes that were made before us,” Lauren Jonas, OpenAI’s head of youth well-being, told Semafor.
Teenagers pose for a picture while looking at a phone, in Bonn, Germany, February 20, 2026.
Jana Rodenbusch/Reuters

Dating apps add friction back into romance

Tech’s ambition is to work so well that it fades into the background of our day-to-day, but removing friction in some of the most personal aspects of life may not actually improve an experience.
A promotional image of Hinge’s new feature.
Courtesy of Hinge

Zoetis to acquire medical imaging company in latest push to build AI

VitalRADS’ database of more than 30 million images will help Zoetis create radiology AI models.
A woman looking at scans
Courtesy of Zoetis

DeepSeek takes control of its hardware: report

DeepSeek is developing its own AI chip for inference, Reuters reported.

Trump’s ‘sober’ approach to quantum

Government officials pushed the importance of domestic supply chain security at a quantum event Tuesday.

Apptronik turns robot simulations into reality

The company will share findings with Google DeepMind and integrate data into Gemini robots.

Gavin Newsom treads the line

As politicians attempt to rein in the power of the tech companies, they’re increasingly relying on AI products.

Meta cashes in on its excesses

Meta is building a cloud computing business and plans to sell excess compute to its competitors.

New Cooley platform provides AI legal help for startups

Built with legal AI startup Legora and trained on Cooley’s data, the platform will roll out to the summer batch of Y Combinator startups first.

Qualcomm plans new chip architecture for phones

The company is in discussions with manufacturers of smartphones, personal computers, and cars about an aspect of its new data center chip technology.

Coding finds new screens

A world is coming into view where employees dump their laptops and navigate the workday with nothing but a pair of smart glasses.

Jack Clark: AI itself can stem cognitive decline

Claude has started asking users clarifying questions about their prompts, which Clark described as “forcing a person to engage their brain more and claim some agency back.”

Quantum EOs leave much to be desired

Quantum companies are already competing to deliver a quantum computer and say the executive order hasn’t materially changed how they’re operating.

The tech behind agentic commerce

CHEQ’s platform can figure out whether a website visitor is a bot or agent and identify what their intent is.

SpaceX wins big with Cursor

It’s likely xAI will want to develop Cursor into a full-blown harness that competes with Codex, Claude Cowork, and Google’s Antigravity.