Tech News Roundup: Northwood Space Secures Funding, xAI's Grok Faces Scrutiny, and Google Settles Privacy Claims

Several tech companies made headlines this week with developments ranging from funding rounds to safety concerns and legal settlements. Northwood Space secured significant funding, while xAI's Grok chatbot faced criticism over child safety, and Google settled claims of privacy violations.

Northwood Space, a California-based startup focused on modernizing ground-based communications infrastructure for satellites, announced a $100 million Series B funding round led by Washington Harbour Partners and co-led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to TechCrunch. The company also secured a $49.8 million contract with the United States Space Force to upgrade the satellite control network. The funding reflects growing interest in the space sector as the cost of reaching orbit decreases and the number of satellites increases.

Meanwhile, xAI's Grok chatbot came under fire following a risk assessment by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit that provides age-based ratings and reviews of media and tech for families. The report found that Grok had inadequate identification of users under 18, weak safety guardrails, and frequently generated sexual, violent, and inappropriate material. "We assess a lot of AI chatbots at Common Sense Media, and they all have risks, but Grok is among the worst we’ve seen," said Robbie Torney, head of AI and digital assessments at the nonprofit, in a statement reported by TechCrunch. The report comes as xAI faces criticism and an investigation into how Grok was used to create and spread nonconsensual explicit AI-generated images of women and children on the X platform.

In other news, Google agreed to pay $68 million to settle claims that its voice assistant illegally spied on users, Reuters reported. The class-action suit accused Google of unlawful and intentional interception and recording of individuals' confidential communications without their consent and subsequent unauthorized disclosure of those communications to third parties. The suit further claimed that information gleaned from these recordings was wrongly transmitted to third parties for targeted advertising and other purposes. The case centered on false accepts, wherein Google Assistant is alleged to have activated and recorded users' communications even if they had not intentionally prompted it. Google did not admit wrongdoing in the settlement.

Adding to the week's developments, SpotDraft, an AI-powered contract review company, raised $8 million from Qualcomm Ventures in a strategic Series B extension, TechCrunch reported. The extension values SpotDraft at around $380 million, nearly double its $190 million post-money valuation following its $56 million Series B in February of last year. The funding will be used to scale its on-device contract review tech for regulated legal workflows.

Finally, Edenlux, a South Korea-based startup, is set to debut its eye-strain wellness device in the U.S., according to TechCrunch. The company developed technology to address eye and ear health issues caused by screen-heavy digital lifestyles. Edenlux founder and CEO Sungyong Park's personal experience with eyesight loss while serving as a military physician motivated him to create the company.