Axios

Another star that burned brightly during the pandemic and dimmed just as quickly is virtual event software.

Driving the news: In the past two weeks, Hopin — once valued at $7.8 billion — sold its virtual event software to RingCentral for a mere $15 million (which could grow to $50 million if it meets certain targets).

A federal cybersecurity investigatory panel will probe cloud service providers' security practices and how the government can safely use cloud technologies, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Friday.

Why it matters: The Cyber Safety Review Board's investigation will include a review of last month's suspected Chinese breach of federal Microsoft email accounts.

Thousands of hackers are spending the weekend trying to break generative AI models like ChatGPT — all with the blessing of the White House and the tech companies behind these models.

Driving the news: The DEF CON hacking conference in Las Vegas is hosting a highly anticipated Generative Red Team Challenge throughout the weekend.

A security researcher has uncovered a way to spoof at least 2 million email domain names for phishing attacks that requires little or no expertise to use, according to research shared first with Axios.

Why it matters: Phishing, which often relies on spoofed email addresses, remains one of the top entry points for malicious hackers looking to install malware or conduct social engineering campaigns.

Zoom said Friday it was further updating its terms of service to make clearer that it won't use customer conversations and other data to train its own or third party AI systems.

Why it matters: Customers have come to rely on Zoom for a wide range of internal and external meetings and changes the company made to its terms earlier this year had stoked fears that sensitive information could be exposed.

Big video game sequels are taking more years than ever to make it to players.

Driving the news: Whether it's Zelda or God of War or Assassin's Creed or Forza, new installments take more time to develop than they did a decade ago, as annual releases or two-year gaps give way to dev cycles lasting five years or more.

U.S. private equity firm KKR is cutting the Italian government in on its €23 billion preliminary bid for Telecom Italia's landline network.

Why it matters: This show of political support from Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will make it much tougher for Vivendi, Telecom Italia's largest outside shareholder, to block the deal.

The Energy Department just unveiled its biggest moves to help build the nascent market for removing carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere.

Driving the news: The agency is awarding up to $1.2 billion for two consortiums to build commercial-scale direct air capture (DAC) "hubs."

"What. How?"

That was my 10-year-old son's response upon seeing the cartoony image that appeared on the iPhone after he typed, "Show Steph Curry playing the trumpet."

Zoom in: Kidgeni is a web app that aims to offer a safe and fun way for youngsters to try out some of the key capabilities of the newest generative AI programs, including creating images or stories based on a simple text prompt.