Technology

Autonomous vehicle technology startup Aurora Innovation says it has successfully launched a self-driving truck service in Texas, making it the first company to deploy driverless, heavy-duty trucks for commercial use on public roads in the U.S.  The launch comes just as Aurora hits its deadline: in October, the company delayed its planned 2024 debut to […]

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. A long-abandoned US nuclear technology is making a comeback in China China has once again beat everyone else to a clean energy milestone—its new nuclear reactor is reportedly one of the first to…

China has once again beat everyone else to a clean energy milestone—its new nuclear reactor is reportedly one of the first to use thorium instead of uranium as a fuel and the first of its kind that can be refueled while it’s running. It’s an interesting (if decidedly experimental) development out of a country that’s…

Companies of all sizes are recognizing the game-changing possibilities of AI. Despite the excitement about the new technology, most of their pilot projects don’t make it into production. Gruve.ai, a startup founded by the team behind Rahi Systems aims to help enterprises get AI solutions out of testing phase and into real-world application by using […]

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. This data set helps researchers spot harmful stereotypes in LLMs What’s new? AI models are riddled with culturally specific biases. A new data set, called SHADES, is designed to help developers combat the…

Kintsugi, a Silicon Valley-based startup that helps companies offload and automate their sales tax compliance, has raised $18 million in new funding led by global indirect tax technology solution provider Vertex. The startup plans to enable more small and medium businesses to use its AI-enabled capabilities for tax calculations and filings. The ongoing growth of […]

AI models are riddled with culturally specific biases. A new data set, called SHADES, is designed to help developers combat the problem by spotting harmful stereotypes and other kinds of discrimination that emerge in AI chatbot responses across a wide range of languages. Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at AI startup Hugging Face, led the…

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 Hype Index: AI agent cyberattacks, racing robots, and musical models Separating AI reality from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of…

Right now, despite its ubiquity, AI is seen as anything but a normal technology. There is talk of AI systems that will soon merit the term “superintelligence,” and the former CEO of Google recently suggested we control AI models the way we control uranium and other nuclear weapons materials. Anthropic is dedicating time and money…

Blink and you’ll miss it: a startup out of Finland is taking a new look at the market for prescription eyewear. Tapping into innovations in eye-tracking and liquid crystal lens technology, IXI is building low-power glasses that will invisibly, automatically adjust to account for Presbyopia (far-sightedness), for the wearer. Four years into its life, Hensinki-based […]