Amazon-owned Ring has canceled its planned partnership with Flock Safety, the license-plate-recognition company, amid broader scrutiny of the potential for home security cameras to be used as tools for neighborhood monitoring and law enforcement.
Helion heats up: The high-profile Seattle-area startup just cranked its fusion machine to 150 million degrees Celsius and ran tests with tritium — new milestones as the company aims to bring a commercial plant online by 2028. Read more.
After a guest column published this week warning Seattle not to become “the next Cleveland,” the city’s mayor jumped into the discussion. On a bonus episode of the GeekWire Podcast, we hear from Mayor Justin Bibb, who said Seattle should be paying attention to Cleveland for different reasons than the column suggested. Listen here and read more.
Enough with the Seattle doom talk. That’s the message from Jacob Colker, managing director at the AI2 Incubator, who pushed back on what he describes as a “breathless narrative” that Seattle’s tech ecosystem is one tax bill away from decline. Read more.
- What’s missing from the debate over taxes: Guest columnist Alex Murray criticizes Washington’s piecemeal approach to tax policy and calls for a comprehensive tax strategy — one that defines the state’s competitive positioning and long-term economic vision. Read more.
Startup Radar: Founders from the Seattle area are building software for AI coding agents, music streaming, video editing, and more. Meet six early stage companies.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. calls weed-zapping lasers “the light at the end of the tunnel” for farmers looking to get away from chemical herbicides. The Health and Human Services secretary touted technology from Seattle ag-tech startup Carbon Robotics during an appearance on the Theo Von podcast “This Past Weekend.” Read more.
Hot Links:
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Anthropic raised $30 billion in one of the largest private capital raises in the AI industry to date, boosting its valuation to $380 billion. Microsoft and NVIDIA are among the backers. (Anthropic)
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The FTC has intensified its antitrust investigation into Microsoft, issuing subpoenas to at least six rival companies to determine if the tech giant is using its dominance in cloud and business software to unfairly stifle competition in AI. (Bloomberg)
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AWS CEO Matt Garman said AI is a disruptive force — but he thinks the “SaaS apocalypse” fears are overblown. (CNBC)
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An 85-year-old woman living alone on the Washington coast relies on an AI robot as a "roommate" to combat isolation and help her forge new human connections. (The New York Times)
Thanks for subscribing to the GeekWire newsletter and have a great weekend. — GeekWire editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com; co-founder Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com; and reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com. 
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