The startup launched an invite-only version of its first app, Tangle, in November. Now the Financial Times has pieced together more details from comments made by Stone and Sharp, as well as from regulatory filings and job listings. Sharp ' the company's CEO ' described West Co as emerging from the question, 'What could I build that might help address just some of the terrible devastation of the human mind and heart that we've wrought the last 15 years'' The answer, at least in its initial form, is an app that asks users, 'What's your intention for today'' Users can share their goals with friends, hopefully helping them 'plan with intention, capture the reality of their days, and see the deeper threads that shape their life.' Plan ahead for the 2026 StrictlyVC events. Hear straight-from-the-source candid insights in on-stage fireside sessions and meet the builders and backers shaping the industry. Join the waitlist to get first access to the lowest-priced tickets and important updates....

This isn't news to creators ' Patreon CEO Jack Conte has ardently banged this drum for years ' but throughout the year, the industry at large has reacted to this phenomenon in different ways, from the influencers to the streamers. According to the executives that TechCrunch spoke to about the near future of the creator economy, creators are finding new ways to harness and cultivate their relationships with their followers ' some acting as a salve to AI slop, while others are flooding the zone with a new form of slop themselves. Box's company, LTK, connects creators with brands through affiliate marketing, where creators earn commissions on products they recommend. The business model depends entirely on audiences retaining trust in individual creators. Given concerns about fragmentation in the creator-audience relationship, this could pose an existential threat to the company. 'If you asked me at the beginning of 2025, 'Hey, is trust in creators going to go up or down'' I would have probably said down, because people understand it's an industry ' they understand how it's working,' she said. 'But actually, AI pushed people to kind of rotate trust to real humans that they know have real life experiences.'...

New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill this week that will require social media platforms to show warning labels to younger users before they're exposed to features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling. State legislators passed the bill ' S4505/A5346 ' back in June, with text calling for mental health warnings on 'addictive social media platforms,' which are defined as platforms offering 'an addictive feed, push notifications, autoplay, infinite scroll, and/or like counts as a significant part' of their services, though exception can be made if the attorney general determines those features are used for 'a valid purpose unrelated to prolonging use of such platform.' The announcement from Hochul's office said these platforms will have to display warnings 'when a young user initially uses the predatory feature and periodically thereafter.' Those users would not be able to bypass the warnings. The announcement compares the proposed warning labels to those that have been added to products such as tobacco, alcohol, and media with flashing lights. Then-Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said last year that social media platforms should add warning labels....

Chinese tech giant ByteDance has signed an agreement to sell a majority stake in its video platform TikTok to a group of U.S. investors. President Donald Trump announced a preliminary agreement for the sale on Sept. 19, 2025, following his negotiation with Chinese leader Xi Jinping. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew told employees in a memo obtained by news organizations that the company is working to close the deal by Jan. 22, 2026. Chinese and U.S. authorities will also need to approve the deal. The deal creates a new U.S.-only version of the app, bringing it into compliance with a law signed by President Joe Biden on April 23, 2024, and upheld by the Supreme Court on Jan. 17, 2025. Specifics of the deal remain to be hammered out, but some details are emerging. These include what will happen to the video-sharing app's core algorithm ' and what that means for TikTok's millions of U.S. users. The Chinese government has indicated it will not permit ByteDance to sell the algorithm, because it is classified as a controlled technology export, per Chinese law. Meanwhile, U.S. tech industry executives and some lawmakers say compliance with the law requires the algorithm to be under American control. The deal as proposed includes licensing the algorithm so that it remains Chinese intellectual property while the U.S. version of the app continues to use the technology....