Federal prosecutors have indicted the founder and former CEO of the once-celebrated education technology company AllHere, accusing her of defrauding investors of nearly $10 million as the startup that made AI chatbots for schools fell into bankruptcy. Joanna Smith-Griffin, a Forbes “30 Under 30” recipient and Harvard graduate, was arrested at her home in Raleigh,...

Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed documents from the bankruptcy of failed education technology company AllHere, a once-lauded startup that boasted $12 million in venture capital and a $6 million contract with Los Angeles schools to build a buzzy AI chatbot. The U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York served the grand jury subpoena...

The education technology company behind Los Angeles schools’ failed $6 million foray into artificial intelligence was in a Delaware bankruptcy court Tuesday seeking relief from its creditors and to sell off its meager assets before shutting down entirely. The latest chapter in AllHere’s dizzying collapse revealed more information about the once-lauded company’s finances and its...

This story was published in partnership with The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom dedicated to reporting on gun violence. You can sign up for its newsletters here. In a video posted to YouTube, 24-year-old school shooting survivor David Hogg points to a whiteboard and outlines a five-step plan to reshape America. Ever since Hogg survived the...

Earlier this summer, leaders at the ed tech company AllHere, contracted by Los Angeles schools to build a heavily hyped $6 million AI chatbot, offered assurances to one of its investors. At the time, principals with Boston Impact Initiative were finalizing the firm’s annual impact assessment of AllHere, a 2016 startup that offered a tech-driven...

Independent Los Angeles school district investigators have opened an inquiry into claims that its $6 million AI chatbot — an animated sun named “Ed” celebrated as an unprecedented learning acceleration tool until the company that built it collapsed and the district was forced to pull the plug — put students’ personal information in peril. Investigators with the...

Just weeks before the implosion of AllHere, an education technology company that had been showered with cash from venture capitalists and featured in glowing profiles by the business press, America’s second-largest school district was warned about problems with AllHere’s product. As the eight-year-old startup rolled out Los Angeles Unified School District’s flashy new AI-driven chatbot...

On the same day that millions of sensitive records purportedly stolen from the Los Angeles school district were posted for sale on the dark web, the Federal Communications Commission approved a $200 million pilot program to help K-12 schools and libraries nationwide fight an onslaught of cyberattacks.  A Los Angeles Unified School District spokesperson confirmed...

During a hostile Senate hearing Wednesday that sometimes devolved into bickering, lawmakers from across the political spectrum accused social media companies of failing to protect young people online and pushed rules that would hold Big Tech accountable for youth suicides and child sexual exploitation. The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., was the latest...

More than 1 in 10 schools with a regular police presence removed officers from their roles in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of a Minneapolis cop, new federal data on campus crime and safety suggest. Nearly 44% of public K-12 schools were staffed with school resource officers at least once a...