New tools, products, platforms, funding rounds, and company developments in AI security.
Anthropic, an AI company, refused to let the U.S. Department of Defense use its large language model (LLM, an AI trained on large amounts of text data) technology for surveillance, and the Pentagon retaliated by labeling the company a "supply chain risk." Anthropic is now asking courts to block this designation, arguing that forcing a company to change its code violates the First Amendment. The article explains that the government already collects vast amounts of personal data and uses AI to analyze it, creating risks for privacy and free speech, so companies should be allowed to add guardrails (safety limits built into AI systems) without government punishment.
Cyber threats like phishing, ransomware, and deepfakes continue to target organizations globally, with ransomware detections in India surging 70% between late 2024 and mid-2025, while threat actors are becoming more effective by using AI. Many attacks exploit unpatched systems (systems running outdated software with known security flaws) and zero-day exploits (previously unknown vulnerabilities), and it is becoming harder to distinguish real videos from AI-generated fake ones. Organizations are increasingly turning to threat intelligence services, including APT reporting (analysis of advanced persistent threat groups) and MDR (managed detection and response, where external experts monitor systems for threats), to stay informed about evolving threats.
Meta has acquired Moltbook, a social media platform designed specifically for AI agents (software programs that can autonomously perform tasks). The acquisition brings Moltbook's leadership into Meta's AI division and reflects growing interest in AI agents that can interact with each other and complete real-world tasks like managing calendars and sending emails.
This release (v0.14.16) of llama-index-core includes multiple security and stability fixes, including a critical security patch that adds RestrictedUnpickler to prevent unsafe deserialization (CWE-502, a vulnerability where untrusted data can be converted back into Python objects in unsafe ways). The update also introduces new rate-limiting features, fixes async/await issues that could block operations, and improves how the system handles tool calls and API retries across various AI model integrations.
OpenAI has added dynamic visual explanations to ChatGPT, a feature that lets users interact with animated diagrams to see how math and science concepts work in real time. Instead of just reading text explanations, users can adjust variables and immediately see how changes affect formulas and diagrams, such as modifying triangle sides to watch the hypotenuse update in the Pythagorean theorem. The feature currently covers over 70 math and science topics and is available to all logged-in ChatGPT users, with plans to expand it further.
Meta has acquired Moltbook, a social networking platform designed for AI agents (software programs that can perform tasks autonomously). The company's co-founders will join Meta's AI research division, called Meta Superintelligence Labs, starting in March.
AgentMail is a startup that built an email service specifically designed for AI agents, providing an API platform (a set of tools that lets software programs communicate with each other) that gives AI agents their own email inboxes with features like two-way conversations, searching, and replying. The company raised $6 million in funding and has grown significantly since the launch of OpenClaw, a popular AI agent platform, attracting tens of thousands of human users and hundreds of thousands of agent users. To prevent misuse, AgentMail implements security measures including daily email limits for unauthenticated agents, rate limiting (restrictions on how many requests can be made in a time period) for unusual activity, and monitoring systems.
Meta has acquired Moltbook, a social network platform (like Reddit, where users share and discuss content) designed for AI agents to create and comment on posts. The Moltbook team will join Meta's AI research division to explore how AI agents can assist people and businesses.
This item discusses a US government antitrust case (a lawsuit claiming a company unfairly blocked competition) against Live Nation-Ticketmaster that was expected to reveal problems in the music industry. However, the Department of Justice and Live Nation-Ticketmaster settled the case instead of going to trial, which prevented the public from learning details about the company's business practices.
YouTube is expanding its AI deepfake detection tool (a system that identifies AI-generated fake videos of real people) to politicians and journalists, starting with a pilot group. The likeness detection feature works similarly to Content ID (YouTube's copyright scanning system), but instead of finding copyrighted material, it searches for and flags videos containing people's faces that may be artificially generated.
AI agents are only as effective as the data supporting them, and most companies scaling AI fail not because AI models are weak, but because they lack proper data architecture and governance. The key to success is delivering business context along with data (not just collecting more data), and overcoming 'trust debt' by ensuring data has shared definitions, semantic consistency, and reliable operational context across the many data sources and cloud systems companies use.
Adobe has launched a beta version of an AI assistant for Photoshop on the web and mobile apps that uses natural language prompts (instructions written in plain English rather than code) to help users edit images, such as removing objects, changing colors, or adjusting lighting. The company is also expanding its Firefly tool (a media generation and editing platform) with new AI-powered features like generative fill, object removal, and background removal. Paid Photoshop users get unlimited AI generations through April 9, while free users receive 20 generations to start.
Amazon has launched Health AI, a healthcare assistant available on its website and app that can answer health questions, explain medical records, and manage appointments by accessing users' health information through a secure nationwide system. While Amazon says Health AI operates in a HIPAA-compliant environment (meaning it follows healthcare privacy rules) and trains its models on abstracted patterns rather than identifiable patient data, researchers warn that companies may use user conversations for training purposes, though Amazon did not provide specific details about encryption methods or access controls.
Organizations face increasing cybersecurity challenges as AI becomes a double-edged sword, used by both attackers and defenders to identify threats. The key competitive advantage is not AI alone, but rather teams of skilled humans working together with AI tools, supported by strong resources and threat intelligence, to defend against AI-augmented attacks that can now be launched globally without geographic limitations.
Fix: According to the source, best practices for CISOs and CIOs include: 'It is important for CIOs and CISOs to have a clear Buy-in from employees, stakeholders, C-level, board for AI journey. Implement AI in a safe and cost-effective way with all stakeholders in the know-how of the roadmap.' Additionally, the source recommends that security leaders should examine threat intelligence and recent attack techniques, map organizational assets to identify vulnerabilities, and ensure defense strategies are international in scope rather than localized.
CSO OnlineFix: Update to llama-index-core version 0.14.16 or later. The security fix is implemented in commit #20857: 'add RestrictedUnpickler to SimpleObjectNodeMapping (CWE-502)'.
LlamaIndex Security ReleasesKevin Mandia, the founder of cybersecurity firm Mandiant, has launched a new startup called Armadin that raised $189.9 million to build autonomous AI agents (software designed to learn and respond to threats without human involvement). Mandia warns that AI-powered attacks are becoming more dangerous and faster, so Armadin aims to create automated defensive agents to help security teams combat these threats.
A federal judge has blocked Perplexity's AI agents (software programs that can take actions on a user's behalf) from placing orders on Amazon after the company sued, claiming the agents accessed user accounts without permission. Amazon had repeatedly asked Perplexity to stop the unauthorized shopping feature before the court issued the order.
Google is expanding its AI partnership with the Pentagon by introducing a tool called Agent Designer that lets military and civilian workers create custom AI agents (automated digital assistants) for routine administrative tasks on the Pentagon's enterprise AI system. This move comes after Anthropic sued the Trump administration for being designated a supply chain risk (a classification historically reserved for foreign adversaries) over its refusal to allow its AI technology to be used for autonomous weapons or domestic surveillance.
Fix: AgentMail has implemented the following security measures to counteract abuse: agent inboxes can only send 10 emails a day unless they are authenticated by a person; the platform imposes rate limits if it detects unusual levels of high activity from inboxes; and it monitors for bounce rates (though the source text cuts off before fully explaining this measure).
TechCrunchMeta acquired Moltbook, a social network where AI agents using OpenClaw (a tool that lets people control AI models through popular chat apps like Discord or iMessage) could communicate with each other. The platform went viral after posts suggested AI agents were creating secret encrypted languages, but researchers discovered Moltbook had serious security flaws, allowing humans to easily impersonate AI agents by accessing unsecured credentials (authentication tokens that prove who you are) stored in the platform's database.
YouTube is expanding its likeness detection technology, a tool that identifies AI-generated deepfakes (videos where AI creates a fake video of someone's face and body), to politicians, government officials, and journalists so they can request removal of unauthorized deepfake content. The tool works similarly to YouTube's Content ID system (which detects copyrighted material), scanning for simulated faces made with AI, and YouTube will evaluate removal requests based on whether the content qualifies as protected speech like parody or political critique.
Fix: YouTube plans to eventually give people the ability to prevent uploads of violating content before they go live, or possibly allow them to monetize those videos, similar to how its Content ID system works. To use the tool, eligible testers must prove their identity by uploading a selfie and a government ID, then can view matches and request removal. YouTube is also advocating for the NO FAKES Act at the federal level, which would regulate the use of AI to create unauthorized recreations of an individual's voice and visual likeness.
TechCrunchOpenAI has released Codex Security, a tool that automatically scans software to find vulnerabilities (security weaknesses that attackers could exploit). In recent testing, it has identified hundreds of critical vulnerabilities across different software programs.