Seattle schools leader calls lawsuit against social media titans a ‘first step’

Seattle Public Schools sees its lawsuit against leading social media apps and their parent companies as a “first step” in addressing student mental health across the country.

• The case against TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Snap and Instagram — first revealed by GeekWire over the weekend — has parallels to cases against Juul Labs over its marketing of e-cigarettes to youth, which led to a groundswell of litigation against the company. In this case, SPS would be starting the fight on its own. (BigStock Photo) Read the latest.

A trio of former Apple engineers is leading a new data storage platform for developers building machine learning and artificial intelligence applications.

• Seattle-based XetHub emerged from stealth mode Monday and announced $7.5 million in seed funding from Madrona Venture Group. The company is led by former executives at Turi, a machine learning startup acquired by Apple in 2016 for around $200 million. Read more. 

• Kelly Breslin Wright steps down as president of Gong; Moonstone Bank’s chief legal officer Joseph Vincent departs; Nordstrom adds Intuit exec Atticus Tysen to its board; and more key personnel changes. 

• Microsoft said the deal will boost its data center infrastructure engineering teams. Read more. 

• ChatGPT could help fulfill Microsoft’s longtime dream to integrate elements of a virtual concierge or assistant into its search engine, which has long trailed Google in market share, says Mary Jo Foley, longtime journalist and Microsoft watcher who joined us on this week’s episode.

• In an opinion piece in USA Today, Barton wrote about building a “more connected, more equitable, more efficient, more inclusive and more flexible way of working.”