Stoke Space raises another billion to rival SpaceX at re-flying rockets
Stoke has “completed the initial closing” of a $1B Series E round intended to help it reach orbit and prepare a new, larger rocket for operations.
The Download: AI doomers, whistleblowing agents, and de-aged livers
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. The AI industry has taken a doomer turn. What now? AI chiefs Dario Amodei, Sam Altman, Elon Musk, and Demis Hassabis are suddenly all in agreement: the latest generation of LLMs…
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This founder is teaching chips how to recycle (their energy)
Throughout the history of the computer chip, engineers have treated waste heat as an inevitable cost of a calculation. Hannah Earley, however, thinks it’s a design choice. Earley, 31, is cofounder and chief technology officer of Vaire Computing, a startup building chips that recycle energy usually thrown away as heat—a strategy known as reversible computing.…
This AI entrepreneur is developing agents that can plan ahead for the unexpected
Danijar Hafner’s office in San Francisco’s SoMa district sits mostly empty. His brand-new startup is still in stealth mode and doesn’t even have its name on the door. On the day I visit, there’s only one other person there, and little in the way of furniture. But what it lacks in decor, it makes up…
This founder is making cheaper, cleaner steel
The steel industry isn’t exactly known for innovation. Very little has changed about purifying iron ore since the process was invented and commercialized in the 1850s. The majority of steelmakers melt solid iron ore at dizzyingly high temperatures inside blast furnaces, where the material reacts with gases to trigger chemical reactions that remove oxygen. It…
This geneticist’s age-reversal tech could help restore sight
Yuancheng (Ryan) Lu is obsessed with aging. And with eyes. As he steps outside the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, his aviator glasses darken automatically in the sun. Age-related blindness runs in his family. A great-aunt in China, the story goes, was killed crossing a road because she couldn’t see oncoming traffic. And Lu’s own…
Eric Wu’s newest company, out of stealth since May, is going after construction’s labor crunch
Eric Wu, who built and ran Opendoor before stepping away in 2022, has had his new company, NavigateAI, out of stealth since May — building AI copilots that give construction workers real-time, hands-free guidance through smartphones and Meta’s AI glasses, backed by $25 million from Elad Gil, Khosla Ventures, and Lennar to tackle a labor shortage severe enough that data center projects alone now need 4,000 to 5,000 workers apiece.
Your Search Engine Footprint Has Real Financial Value. Here’s What Most CEOs Miss.
Learn what your digital brand is worth before it’s too late.
AI Is Moving Faster Than Higher Education. Here’s Who Can Close the Gap.
AI has already replaced the skills we’re teaching students. The capability a degree certifies now has a half-life measured in years, not decades, and no policy closes that distance fast enough.
AI Can Build Your Next Feature in Hours. Should You Join In?
AI makes software development faster and cheaper, but speed alone does not create better products.
A secret new Elizabeth Holmes documentary stuns Telluride
Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim’s secret Elizabeth Holmes documentary, “You Can See Everything,” stunned Telluride audiences Sunday night with its generous access to the Theranos founder.