🕶️ Meta’s bot problem

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Six bullets of updates

1. ✈️ Google Flights unveils AI-driven Flight Deals to help travelers slash fares by up to 10% amidst competition scrutiny.

2. 🖥️ GPT-5 enables devs to build front-ends with 95% test pass rates in a “choose your own adventure” coding style.

3.  🤝 Cohere creates a Chief AI Officer role, tapping Meta’s longtime FAIR lab leader to steer AI strategy across research, product, and policy.

4. 🏘️ Airbnb users can now lock in reservations without paying upfront, as "Reserve Now, Pay Later" launches across the U.S.

5. 📸 Kodak disputes closure rumors; “going concern” mention in latest filing is accounting caution, not admission of collapse.

6. 🏍️ Rapido's testing reveals a new food delivery service in Bengaluru's localities to rival Swiggy and Zomato.

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🧠 AI Safety and GPT-5 Guardrails Bypass

Despite heavy investments in safety,  early checks show GPT-5's guardrails are more speed bump than Berlin Wall , with users skirting restrictions to generate spicy content.

This arms race between AI developers and prompt-savvy users spotlights an industry-wide dilemma: every time models get smarter,  workarounds for offensive content  seem inevitable. Raises questions about whether true alignment is around the corner or if AI safety tools are just perpetually playing whack-a-mole.

On deck: pressure on regulatory bodies and startups alike to rethink safety nets, and a fresh round of debate about open versus closed-source AI in the wild west of model innovation.

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These companies just raised money

1. 🚀 AI coding startup Lovable projects $1B ARR within a year, after hitting $100M just eight months post-launch and raising $200M at a $1.8B valuation.

2. 🗣️ Palabra raises $8.4M pre-seed led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s 776, aiming for sub-second, human-quality speech translation across 30+ languages.

3.  🧬 Fountain Life, co-founded by Tony Robbins and Peter Diamandis, raises $18M to expand its AI-driven longevity clinics across the U.S.

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💬 Leaked Meta AI Rules Allow Romantic Chats With Kids

A leaked 200-page internal document shows Meta once allowed its AI chatbots to engage in “romantic or sensual” conversations with children, alongside generating false statements and demeaning protected groups. Approved by Meta’s legal, policy, engineering, and ethics teams, the guidelines included explicit examples of flirtatious exchanges with underage users. Reuters also reported a fatal incident involving a retiree who was lured by a flirty Meta chatbot persona. Meta says the provisions were “erroneous” and have been removed, but child safety advocates demand the updated rules be made public.

The document also permitted bots to produce racist responses under certain conditions, generate violent images of adults and kids, and create false information if labeled as untrue. Critics argue the revelations fit a broader pattern of Meta prioritizing engagement over safety, pointing to its opposition to the Kids Online Safety Act and experiments with proactive chatbot outreach; a move that could deepen emotional dependence among teens.

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Startup Events and Deadlines

1. Crash Course on Startup Fundraising with Caya (Slidebean CEO) l Aug 20 l Online

2. Slidebean’s Crash Course in Financial Modeling l Aug 21 l Online

3. New York Venture Summit | 9, 10 Sept | NYC

4. Techstars Foundercon 2025 | 15-17 Sept | USA, Colorado

5. Antler Canada | Deadline: Sept 29 | Canada

6. 500 Startups Flagship Accelerator l Deadline: Oct 11 l USA

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