Author: TechBrunch

Uber will use Cosmos, Nvidia's new generative world model simulation tool, and DGX Cloud, a cloud-based AI supercomputing platform, to support the development of self-driving car technology, the companies announced at CES 2025. Cosmos is sold to robotics and self-driving companies as a tool to generate physically-based videos from a variety of inputs. It contains 9,000 trillion tokens generated from 20 million hours of (presumably copyrighted) video and can be used for realistic industrial and driving simulations. environment. Nvidia DGX Cloud provides Uber and other companies with access to high-performance AI infrastructure to train, fine-tune, and deploy AI self-driving models.…

3D design app Rooms has raised more funding. Launched in beta in 2023, the app was created by a former Google employee and allows users to build and code interactive 3D rooms and minigames using a library of over 10,000 items, using the programming language Lua. You can use it for further editing. Now, Google itself has invested $1 million into the app as part of a partnership deal, and Rooms will also be given early access to Google's Gemini AI. Founded by former Googlers with experience in AR/VR, gaming, and YouTube, including Jason Toff, Bruno Oliveira, and Nick Kluge,…

3D design app Rooms has raised more funding. Launched in beta in 2023, the app was created by a former Google employee and allows users to build and code interactive 3D rooms and minigames using a library of over 10,000 items, using the programming language Lua. You can use it for further editing. Now, Google itself has invested $1 million into the app as part of a partnership deal, and Rooms will also be given early access to Google's Gemini AI. Founded by former Googlers with experience in AR/VR, gaming, and YouTube, including Jason Toff, Bruno Oliveira, and Nick Kluge,…

The U.S. government announced Tuesday that it will launch a long-awaited cybersecurity labeling program for consumer internet-connected devices in 2025. The Biden administration first introduced the U.S. Cybertrust Mark in June 2023, a voluntary labeling program to help Americans make informed decisions about the security of the devices they purchase and connect them to the internet. He said it would “raise the bar” for devices. The initiative was originally scheduled to begin in late 2024, but the White House confirmed that the program would be “open for business” this year. Although the exact launch date was not disclosed, the announcement…

President-elect Donald Trump announced that Hussein Sajwani, the Emirati billionaire businessman who founded real estate development giant DAMAC Properties, will invest $20 billion in new data centers across the United States. The first phase of the multi-year investment will fund data centers in Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas, Trump said at a news conference Tuesday at his Mar-a-Lago home. The data center mainly supports AI and cloud technology. “We have been waiting for years to increase our investment in the United States,” Sajwani said. “We are looking to invest $20 billion, [potentially] More than that. ”…

According to The Information, Employer.com has offered to acquire Level, a fintech startup that abruptly shut down last week after failing to find a buyer. But Revel is still mulling over the proposal, Matt Charney, the company's Employer.com CMO, told TechCrunch. “It's a legal thing,” he said. UPDATE: Sources close to the deal say other details beyond the legal are currently being worked out. Founded in 2018 by early Square employee Paul Aaron, Level is known to have raised $30.8 million in funding from prominent investors such as Lightspeed Venture Partners and Khosla Ventures. In April 2021, the startup announced…

As Peacock continues to lag behind entertainment industry giants like Netflix, TikTok and YouTube, the streaming service is adopting a similar strategy to its rivals with two new initiatives: mini-games and short-form vertical video feeds. I'm doing it. The company announced these experiments Monday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Peacock will begin piloting the new feature on its iOS and Android apps this month, followed by a broader rollout later this spring. A company spokesperson told TechCrunch during early testing that some users will see both games and vertical video playlists, some will see one or the…

The UK is moving forward with plans to make the creation of sexually explicit “deepfake” images a specific crime. Deepfakes refer to manipulated media (often video or audio) created using AI to make it appear as if someone is saying or doing something they did not actually do. Britain already criminalized the sharing and threat of sharing sexually explicit deepfake content under its Online Safety Act, which came into force last year. However, content creation itself is not covered. That's why the Ministry of Justice today announced plans to make existing rules more comprehensive, including those who make them, regardless…

Nvidia Founder and CEO Jensen Huang gave a wide-ranging talk at CES 2025, detailing everything from Nvidia's next set of GPUs, plans to embrace the next era of robotics and automotive innovation, and the launch of its own AI world model. I explained. And before ending his keynote, Huang had one more thing to reveal about Project Digits. Nvidia has scaled down its Grace Blackwell hardware platform to fit into consumer devices, making research and data science-oriented chips more accessible to students and researchers. You'll still have to pay $3,000 for these machines, but they'll be available from “top partners”…

At CES 2025, German Bionic unveiled Apogee Ultra, a new robotic exoskeleton that the company claims is “the world's strongest.” What did the system do to earn such a prestigious title? It provides dynamic lift assist of up to 80 pounds. This means that a 70 pound payload will feel like 9 to 11 pounds to the lifter's hips. In addition to lift assistance, Apogee Ultra also provides walking assistance, making a 10-mile trip feel like 8 miles. The company is targeting industries such as baggage handling and construction, as well as nursing care, which require workers to get up…