February 9, 2025

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman admits that AI’s benefits may not be widely distributed

In a new essay on his personal blog, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is open to a “compute budget,” among other “strange-sounding” ideas, to “enable everyone on Earth to use a lot of AI” and ensure the benefits of the technology are widely distributed. “The historical impact of technological progress suggests that most […]

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Technology

IBM sells The Weather Company assets to Francisco Partners

August 22, 2023
Following rumors that it was exploring the sale of its weather business as part of a move to streamline operations, IBM says that it’s found a buyer for The Weather Company, the weather forecasting and information company it acquired in 2015. Francisco Partners, the private equity firm, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire The […]

Not a traditional founder? Learn how to use it to your advantage at TC Disrupt 2023

August 22, 2023
The list of reasons why venture investors don’t fund diverse startups is long, legion and ludicrous, to put it politely. Nontraditional founders still face a ridiculous uphill slog. Here’s some good news: If you don’t fit the “pale, male from Yale” stereotype, you can use your experience to your benefit. We’re excited to share a […]

Swedish EV battery maker raises $1.2B to expand to North America

August 22, 2023
Northvolt, a Swedish producer of lithium-ion batteries, has raised around $1.2 billion from BlackRock and various Canadian pension plans to build new factories in North America and Europe, according to report from Reuters. Tuesday’s announcement signals the first time Northvolt has shared concrete plans to build in North America. If Northvolt builds in the U.S., […]

Meta releases an AI model that can transcribe and translate close to 100 languages

August 22, 2023
In its quest to develop AI that can understand a range of different dialects, Meta has created an AI model, SeamlessM4T, that can translate and transcribe close to 100 languages across text and speech. Available in open source along with SeamlessAlign, a new translation data set, Meta claims that SeamlessM4T represents a “significant breakthrough” in […]

Former Bose employees are resurrecting Sleepbuds

August 22, 2023
I can’t recall a piece of hardware of recent vintage that I wanted to like more than Bose Sleepbuds. That made them all the more frustrating. In recent years, I’ve been on a kind of mini-quest to find a suitable pair of sleeping headphones. As a terrible sleeper, I love the idea, but the reality […]

Sidus Space acquires Exo-Space to ramp up on orbit data offerings

August 22, 2023
Sidus Space is taking another step toward full vertical integration with the acquisition of California-based Exo-Space, a startup that offers edge computing on orbit. While the exact financial details were not disclosed, Sidus is paying cash for 15% of Exo-Space, in return for the startup’s contract revenues. The remainder of the acquisition is being paid […]

The Download: spying keyboard software, and why boring AI is best

August 22, 2023
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 ubiquitous keyboard software puts hundreds of millions of Chinese users at risk For millions of Chinese people, the first software they download onto devices is always the same: a keyboard app. Yet…

Grip Security raises $41M to help enterprises manage their SaaS identity risk

August 22, 2023
Grip Security, which provides businesses with the tools to protect their SaaS applications and describes itself as the “industry’s first SaaS security control plane,” today announced that it has raised a $41 million Series B funding round led by Third Point Ventures. Previous investors YL Ventures, Intel Capital and The Syndicate Group also participated in […]