Author: TechBrunch
CES 2025 starts on January 7th. The annual event in Las Vegas sets the tone for the consumer electronics and automotive industries that year. As always, TechCrunch is there to sniff out stories from the most exciting startups and tech giants. If you really want to watch some of the action without paying for a hotel or flight, many of the event's biggest keynotes will be streamed. The show will officially run from January 7th to 10th, but most of the big news will be announced before the show through in-person press events. These are mainly set for the “Press…
The list of flagship AI models that have missed their promised launch window continues to grow. Last summer, billionaire Elon Musk, founder and CEO of AI company xAI, said xAI's next major AI model, Grok 3, would arrive by the “end of the year” in 2024. Grok is xAI's answer to models like OpenAI's GPT-4o and Google's Gemini can analyze images and respond to questions, powering many of the features of X, Musk's social network . “The end of Grok 3 should be really special after training on 100,000 H100s,” Musk said in a July post about X, referring to…
One person was killed and seven others were injured when a Tesla Cybertruck burst into flames just outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD). Investigators have named Matthew Alan Reiblesberger, 37, an active-duty U.S. Army Green Beret from Colorado Springs, as the prime suspect. Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill revealed new details during a media briefing Thursday, saying Lieselberger's military ID, credit cards and passport were found in the Cybertruck. Libersberger was also identified as the person who rented the Cybertruck, and videos from various…
Spotify on Thursday announced the launch of a new “partner program” that will allow popular podcast hosts to monetize their video content. Spotify's new program gives eligible creators on the platform the opportunity to earn additional income beyond ad revenue, including video payments. The program was first announced in November and was officially available in the US, UK, Canada and Australia starting Thursday. The program is expected to boost Spotify's video podcast library, and is likely aimed at competing with YouTube, which currently dominates the entire video space. According to Spotify, more than 65% of eligible podcast shows have already…
AI fundamentally relies on data, but the vast majority of medical data is not used for understandable reasons, primarily patient privacy, regulation, and intellectual property protection. “This is the fundamental problem” in building AI solutions for life sciences, pharmaceuticals and related fields, said German entrepreneur Robin Rehm. That's not all. Collaboration can be difficult when it comes to sensitive data. ROHM startup Apheris aims to address this problem through federated computing. This means taking a decentralized approach so that data can be accessed securely without moving it to train AI models. The company says its customers include Roche and several…
A lot can change in a few months. The world of climate change technology hasn't completely turned upside down, but it's certainly more tilted than it was in the summer. The outcome of the US federal election could jeopardize startup-friendly anti-inflation laws and could hurt the business plans of many companies. But at the same time, the surge in AI-driven computing needs has data center operators scouring the earth for power sources, with increased interest in a variety of power sources including nuclear, renewables, batteries, and even fusion. . As 2025 dawns, it's a good time to take note of…
Telegram has rolled out its first update of the year, adding new third-party account verification methods, new message search filters, and the ability to convert gifts to NFTs. The chat app already had a program to authenticate celebrities and organizations on its platform, but now it's launching a new project that allows already certified third parties, such as food quality regulators and education consortiums, to authenticate accounts. I launched it. Accounts verified by a third party will have a new logo next to their name instead of a blue checkmark. “This decentralized platform for additional verification helps prevent fraud and…
Chinese government hackers reportedly targeted the highly sensitive sanctions division of the U.S. Treasury Department in a December cyberattack. According to the Washington Post, state-sponsored hackers have targeted the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), a government department that imposes economic and trade sanctions on countries and individuals, in a move that the U.S. government may be considering. Aimed at the possibility of accessing information from Chinese organizations. Designation of financial sanctions. A Chinese-backed hacker group broke into the U.S. Treasury Department in December, gaining access to employee workstations and confidential documents, and also breached the Treasury Department's Financial Investigation…
OpenAI announced in May that it was developing a tool that would allow creators to specify how their work is included or excluded from AI training data. But after seven months, this feature still hasn't seen the light of day. The tool, called Media Manager, “identifies copyrighted text, images, audio, and video” and reflects creators' preferences “across multiple sources,” OpenAI said at the time. This was intended to fend off some of the company's fiercest critics and potentially shield OpenAI from intellectual property-related legal challenges. But sources told TechCrunch that the tool was hardly considered a major announcement within the…
For several years, engineers have been sounding the alarm about the potential for advanced AI systems to wreak havoc on humanity. But in 2024, those voices of alarm have been drowned out by the tech industry’s push for a practical and thriving vision of generative AI – a vision that also benefits their wallets. Those who warn of the catastrophic risks of AI are often referred to as “AI doomers,” but that is not the name they prefer. They fear that AI systems could make decisions to kill people, be used by those in power to oppress the masses, or…