Catch up quick: Co-founders Guinevere de la Mare and Laura Gluhanich launched the Silent Book Club in San Francisco more than a decade ago.
What began as two friends reading at a bar has grown into more than 2,000 chapters in 62 countries. (Find your local chapter here.)
By the numbers: Eventbrite says silent book club events in the U.S. are up 44% from last year.
What they're saying: "It became this really lovely little escape pod where you could put down your devices, and you could focus on books and human interaction," de la Mare tells Axios.
Apple's new passport-based Digital ID is rolling out on iPhone and Apple Watch — giving travelers a new way to clear TSA security lines with just their device.
Why it matters: It's the biggest step yet in the tech giant's push to make the Apple Wallet app a digital replacement for everything in your pocket — from credit cards to car keys to IDs.
A bipartisan group says the government will need to establish a larger footprint in the private sector to shore up America's AI and other technology sectors — or put national security at risk.
Why it matters: It is the new consensus among some business leaders and former Trump and Biden-era economic officials.
Without government intervention, the group says the nation risks potential exploitation by China and other adversaries.
OpenAI is updating ChatGPT to have a more conversational tone, while also making it work faster for simple tasks and harder and longer for complex ones.
Why it matters: Users have formed strong attachments to ChatGPT's personality and have openly rebelled when it changes.
Google filed a lawsuit today against alleged China-based operators behind "Lighthouse," a phishing platform it says fuels the toll-payment text scam flooding U.S. phones.
Why it matters: Scam networks now operate like global tech firms, forcing companies and investigators to use creative legal and technical tactics to fight them.
Private equity once again has prevailed over U.S. antitrust regulators, as a federal judge ruled that GTCR can proceed with its $627 million takeover of medical coatings company Surmodics.
Carbon, a Redwood City, Calif.-based 3D printing company whose tech is used to make NFL helmets, tells Axios that it's raised $60 million led by existing investors Sequoia Capital and Silver Lake.
Why it matters: This is one of the largest additive manufacturing deals in years, as the once-hot sector was cooled by Desktop Metal's bankruptcy and Markforged's fire sale.
Kevin Reilly, the longtime Hollywood executive who helped launch hits like "The Sopranos," "The Office" and "Glee," has joined Beverly Hills-based AI creative consultancy Kartel as CEO, he exclusively tells Axios.
Why it matters: The hiring underscores the maturing of generative AI as more companies, including the creative community, seek to reap the benefits.
Artificial intelligence is going to "change the status quo," including by democratizing, scaling and accelerating one's ability to "extract information out of satellite data," Planet CEO Will Marshall told Axios in an interview.
Why he matters: His company's raison d'être, he told Axios, "is helping us to take care of this spacecraft — one spacecraft — called the Earth."
Marshall was previously a systems engineer on the lunar orbiter mission LADEE and a member of the science team for the lunar impactor mission LCROSS.
The U.S. must stomach the risks of artificial intelligence to ensure Western primacy and reap its long-term benefits, Palantir Technologies CEO Alex Karp said on "The Axios Show."
Why it matters: The U.S. and China are wrestling for geopolitical pole position. That competition colors everything from shipbuilding to cyber to microelectronics to munitions stockpiles.
And, of course, Karp and his big-tech compatriots have every incentive to argue moving too slow is more dangerous than moving too fast.
The U.S. Air Force is mullinga future anti-air weapon that should cost less than $500,000 when mass produced.
The big picture: While the Counter-Air Missile Program is very much in its infancy, the service has identified a need to "trade exquisite capabilities for affordability and producibility."
A new digital awakening is unfolding in churches, where pastors and prayer apps are turning to artificial intelligence to reach worshippers, personalize sermons, and power chatbots that resemble God.
Why it matters: AI is helping some churches stay relevant in the face of shrinking staff, empty pews and growing online audiences. But the practice raises new questions about who, or what, is guiding the flock.
Too Good To Go is expanding its partnership with Whole Foods Market, offering a wider variety of discounted food bags at all of the chain's stores, the company exclusively told Axios.
