February 7, 2025

These documents are influencing the DOGE-sphere’s agenda

Reports from the US Government Accountability Office on improper federal payments in recent years are circulating on X and elsewhere online, and they seem to be a big influence on Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency and its supporters as the group pursues cost-cutting measures across the federal government.  The payment reports have been…

Technology

The Download: greener cement, and the biggest tech stories of 2023

January 3, 2024
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. How electricity could help tackle a surprising climate villain Cement hides in plain sight—it’s used to build everything from roads and buildings to dams and basement floors. But it’s also a climate threat.…

How electricity could help tackle a surprising climate villain

January 3, 2024
Cement hides in plain sight—it’s used to build everything from roads and buildings to dams and basement floors. But there’s a climate threat lurking in those ubiquitous gray slabs. Cement production accounts for more than 7% of global carbon dioxide emissions—more than sectors like aviation, shipping, or landfills. Humans have been making cement, in one…

Why Puma is sticking to its web3 bets as crypto shakes off a long-held winter

January 2, 2024

While some brands moved away from web3 in 2023 during a long crypto winter, Puma stayed the course and its head of emerging technology Ivan Dashkov told TechCrunch+ it has no intentions of leaving. After two years working with web3, Puma’s tech revenues remain modest, but the sportswear manufacturer intends to be ready for a more […]

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OpenAI moves to shrink regulatory risk in EU around data privacy

January 2, 2024

While most of Europe was still knuckle deep in the holiday chocolate selection box late last month, ChatGPT maker OpenAI was busy firing out an email with details of an incoming update to its terms that looks intended to shrink its regulatory risk in the European Union. The AI giant’s technology has come under early […]

© 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Download: solving the mystery of hunger, and the climate-tech boom

January 2, 2024
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. We’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change. When you’re starving, hunger is like a demon. It awakens the most ancient and primitive parts of the brain, then commandeers…

We’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change.

January 2, 2024
You haven’t seen hungry until you’ve seen Brad Lowell’s mice.  A few years ago, Lowell—a Harvard University neuro­scientist—and a postdoc, Mike Krashes, figured out how to turn up the volume on the drive for food as high as it can go. They did it by stimulating a bundle of neurons in the hypothalamus, an area…

How machine learning might unlock earthquake prediction

December 29, 2023
In September 2017, about two minutes before a magnitude 8.2 earthquake struck Mexico City, blaring sirens alerted residents that a quake was coming. Such alerts, which are now available in the United States, Japan, Turkey, Italy, and Romania, among other countries, have changed the way we think about the threat of earthquakes. They no longer…