Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes:
Former Mercor staffers describe “operational mishaps” at the $10B startup, including employee fraud, a security breach, and suspected North Korean infiltration  —  Founded in 2023 by 20-somethings, data labeling startup Mercor exploded to $1 billion in annualized revenue run rate in September.

Sean O'Kane / TechCrunch:
Filings: Caterpillar acquires self-driving electric tractor startup Monarch Tractor's assets, after it raised $200M+ and struggled to pivot to software services  —  Monarch Tractor's assets have been acquired by construction giant Caterpillar, after struggling to pivot to a software services business …

The Information:
Sources: Apple plans to send ~200 people from its Siri team, a group internally known as a laggard, to an AI coding bootcamp  —  Apple is sending a portion of its Siri programmers back to coding school just two months before the company is expected to unveil a major, AI-powered revamp of the voice assistant …

Jason Parham / Wired:
X users complain that the latest crackdown on bots purged secret accounts they had used for years to watch and curate their favorite porn  —  The platform's large-scale crackdown on automated accounts is also impacting people who've spent years curating niche porn on secret X accounts.

Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Objection, which aims to use AI and experts to evaluate claims in news stories, debuts with funding from Peter Thiel, Balaji Srinivasan; evaluations cost $2,000  —  After helping lead the lawsuit that bankrupted media firm Gawker, Aron D'Souza says he saw something broken in the American media system …