New tools, products, platforms, funding rounds, and company developments in AI security.
Figma is integrating OpenAI's Codex, an AI coding tool, to let users create and edit designs while working in their coding environments. The integration uses Figma's MCP (Model Context Protocol, a standardized way for AI models to access external tools and data) server to let users move easily between design files and code, allowing both engineers and designers to work more collaboratively without switching between separate applications.
Anthropic discovered and fixed security vulnerabilities in Claude (an AI assistant) that could allow attackers to silently compromise developer computers through specially crafted configuration files. Security researchers at Check Point showed how these flaws could be exploited in real-world attacks.
The article argues that the cybersecurity industry's strategy of relying on employees as a 'last line of defense' is fundamentally flawed, comparing it to asking untrained farmers to repel professional soldiers. The real human layer in security should be the trained security professionals (like CISOs and SOC analysts), not regular employees, because user reporting systems create noise that overwhelms security teams rather than improving defense.
Google API keys that were originally created as public identifiers for Google Maps became dangerous security risks when Google enabled the Gemini API on the same projects, because Gemini keys can access private files and make billable requests, yet developers were never notified of this privilege change. Truffle Security discovered nearly 3,000 exposed API keys in web archives that could access Gemini, including some belonging to Google itself, highlighting how a service upgrade unexpectedly transformed harmless public keys into secret credentials.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang argued that markets are wrong to fear AI agents will destroy software companies, saying instead that AI agents are 'tool users' that will rely on existing enterprise software tools like Excel, ServiceNow, and SAP to become more productive. Huang's comments came after Nvidia reported strong earnings and raised its revenue forecast, though some analysts warn that certain software companies could still face serious challenges as AI automates workflows and lowers barriers for new competitors.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang downplayed concerns about a dispute between the U.S. Defense Department and Anthropic, a company that makes Claude (a large language model, or LLM). The disagreement centers on whether Anthropic's AI tools can be used for autonomous weapons (weapons that make decisions without human control) and mass surveillance, with the Defense Department demanding unrestricted use while Anthropic seeks limitations.
A Chinese internet activist accidentally exposed details about coordinated political influence operations (organized campaigns to manipulate public opinion) that used ChatGPT to create negative content about Japan's Prime Minister Takaichi. The leak revealed how ChatGPT was being used as a tool to generate misleading material for political purposes.
Gushwork, an India-founded startup, is helping businesses get discovered through AI-powered search tools (systems like ChatGPT and Perplexity that use artificial intelligence to answer questions) by automatically creating search-optimized content and building backlinks (links from other websites that point to a business's site). The company raised $9 million in funding and reports that AI-driven search and chat platforms now account for about 40% of inbound leads for its customers, despite representing only 20% of website traffic.
Anthropic acquired Vercept, an AI startup that built tools for agentic tasks (AI systems that can independently perform complex actions), including a product called Vy that could control remote computers. Vercept's product will shut down on March 25, with some co-founders joining Anthropic while others, including investor Oren Etzioni, expressed disappointment about the acquisition ending the startup after just over a year.
Alphabet is folding its robotics software company Intrinsic into Google to streamline its business. Intrinsic developed Flowstate, a web-based platform that lets users build robotic applications without writing thousands of lines of code, addressing the challenge that programming robots remains extremely complex despite hardware becoming cheaper. By joining Google, Intrinsic will use Google's AI models and infrastructure to expand its industrial robotics platform for manufacturing and logistics.
Flaws have been discovered in Claude (an AI assistant) that can put developers' computers at risk when Claude is used in software development workflows. These vulnerabilities could potentially affect supply chains, which are the networks of companies and systems that work together to deliver software and products.
President Trump announced plans for major tech companies to sign a 'rate payer protection pledge' that would require them to build or pay for new electricity generation for their data centers, aiming to reduce concerns about rising electricity costs. Leaders from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, xAI, Oracle, and OpenAI are expected to attend a signing event on March 4th, though details about the pledge's requirements and enforcement mechanisms remain unclear.
Google and Samsung announced that Gemini, Google's AI assistant, will soon handle multi-step tasks on phones like ordering food or booking rides, starting with Pixel 10 and Galaxy S26 phones. This represents agentic AI features (AI that can take multiple actions toward a goal) that Apple had planned for Siri but delayed in March 2025 and hasn't yet released.
Thrive Capital, a venture capital firm (a company that invests in startups), invested about $1 billion in OpenAI at a $285 billion valuation in December 2024. OpenAI is currently finalizing a much larger funding round that could total over $100 billion and raise the company's valuation to $800 billion, with Thrive likely participating in this round as well.
Samsung's Galaxy S26 smartphone combines three AI assistants: Google's Gemini (which can now perform autonomous actions inside third-party apps), Perplexity for web searches, and an upgraded Samsung Bixby for on-device tasks. This multi-agent approach (using multiple separate AI systems together) gives Google's Gemini major market reach before Apple launches a Gemini-powered version of Siri later in 2025, with features that were originally planned for March or April now delayed to May or September.
Google announced new Gemini features for Android phones that can automate multi-step tasks like ordering food or rides, along with improvements to scam detection and search capabilities. The automation feature is currently in beta and limited to certain apps and devices in the U.S. and Korea. To prevent problems, Google added protections so automations require explicit user commands, can be monitored and stopped in real time, and run in a secure virtual environment (an isolated space on your phone) that can only access limited apps.
Google's Gemini AI can now automate tasks like booking Ubers or ordering food through DoorDash on certain Pixel 10 and Samsung Galaxy S26 phones. When you give Gemini a command like 'Get me an Uber to the Palace of Fine Arts,' it launches the app in a virtual window, completes the steps automatically, and lets you watch, pause, or take control if needed, though you must submit the final order yourself.
Hackers are compromising networks much faster in 2025, taking an average of only 29 minutes to gain full access compared to 83 minutes in 2024, with the fastest recorded time being just 27 seconds. The main reason for this acceleration is the increased use of AI tools by attackers, particularly state-sponsored and criminal groups who have boosted their activity by 89 percent, with examples including LLM-based malware (AI models trained on large amounts of text data) for automating information gathering and AI-generated scripts for extracting credentials and covering their tracks.
Large language models (LLMs, AI systems trained on text data) are very bad at generating passwords because they create predictable patterns instead of truly random ones. The study found that Claude, an LLM, always started passwords with an uppercase G followed by 7, avoided repeating characters, never used the * symbol, and repeated the same password 36% of the time across 50 attempts. This is a serious problem because autonomous AI agents (AI systems that act without human control) will need to create accounts and authenticate themselves, but the passwords they generate are weak and easy to crack.
RSA 2026 will focus on five cybersecurity trends, including AI-SOCs (security operations centers using autonomous agents to handle alert triage and incident response), CTEM (continuous threat exposure management, which gives organizations a complete view of their assets and vulnerabilities to prioritize risk), and cyber resilience (the ability to anticipate, withstand, recover from, and adapt to attacks). Security leaders should approach these trends with cautious skepticism, asking tough questions about vendor claims and ensuring strong data foundations before adopting new tools.
Fix: Google is working to revoke affected keys. Additionally, Google recommends checking your own API keys to verify none of yours are affected by this issue.
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