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

Microsoft brings the new AI-powered Bing to mobile and Skype, gives it a voice

February 22, 2023

Barely two weeks after launching the new AI-enabled Bing on desktop (and a few ups and downs during that time), Microsoft today announced that the new Bing is now also available in the Bing mobile app and through Microsoft’s Edge browser for Android and iOS. With that, you can now also use voice input to […]

Microsoft brings the new AI-powered Bing to mobile and Skype, gives it a voice by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

EV batteries are the next point of tension between China and the US

February 22, 2023
China Report is MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology developments in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. It’s the perfect moment to talk about EV batteries and China: yesterday, I published a story unpacking the country’s two decades of investment into becoming a world leader in the EV industry. It’s about how…

If design is everything, is it anything?

February 22, 2023
Good design has a habit of making things simple—sometimes too simple. You may look at the first iPod, for example, and marvel at its minimalist elegance without having to consider who designed it, where it was made and by whom, what materials it required, or even how long it would work.  The ease of use…

Why the definition of design might need a change

February 22, 2023
It was drawing, or disegno, as deployed in the making of Italian buildings during the Renaissance, that gave us the word “design”—or such was the enthusiastic explanation I received as an architecture student at the end of the 1990s. History, of course, tells a more complex story. Though there was indeed a key shift in…

Meta Verified won’t let you change name, username or profile photo for now

February 22, 2023

After looking at Twitter’s struggle with impersonation problems when Elon Musk relaunched Twitter Blue, Mark Zuckerberg is putting guardrails before launching Meta Verified. Earlier this week, the company announced its subscription plan, which is set to be available for users in New Zealand and Australia in the next few days. If you pay for Meta […]

Meta Verified won’t let you change name, username or profile photo for now by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

European VC firms Amadeus and Apex partner for €80m early-stage ‘deep tech’ fund

February 22, 2023

U.K.-based Amadeus Capital Partners and Austria’s Apex Ventures are pooling their collective venture capital (VC) resources for a new fund specifically targeted at early-stage deep tech startups.  The duo have raised an initial €28 million ($30 million) for the Amadeus Apex Technology Fund, with plans to close it out at €80 million ($85 million). The […]

European VC firms Amadeus and Apex partner for €80m early-stage ‘deep tech’ fund by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

Twitter will send a notification when a tweet you replied to or retweeted gets a Community Note

February 22, 2023

Blindingly amplifying views or posts on social media is one of the key reasons for the rapid spread of misinformation. Over the years, prominent figures have posted or retweeted false information on Twitter. The social network is now giving a chance to withdraw a retweet for such instances through a new Community Notes — its […]

Twitter will send a notification when a tweet you replied to or retweeted gets a Community Note by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

OpenAI’s Foundry will let customers buy dedicated compute to run its AI models

February 22, 2023

OpenAI is quietly launching a new developer platform that lets customers run the company’s newer machine learning models, like GPT-3.5, on dedicated capacity. In screenshots of documentation published to Twitter by users with early access, OpenAI describes the forthcoming offering, called Foundry, as “designed for cutting-edge customers running larger workloads.” “[Foundry allows] inference at scale […]

OpenAI’s Foundry will let customers buy dedicated compute to run its AI models by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Tackling Earth’s tremors and cancerous tumors

February 22, 2023
Forecasting earthquakes is complex, relying on specialized analysis of minute signals from the Earth’s crust. Cancer treatment is also a highly complex field, involving thousands of researchers and billions of dollars worldwide. Either would be enough to fill the waking hours of any scientist. But the work of Jie Zhang, PhD ’97, a geophysicist and…

Elon Musk suggests Twitter could open source its algorithm ‘next week’

February 21, 2023

A new tweet by Twitter owner Elon Musk suggests the company is preparing to open source its algorithm as soon as next week — unless, of course, it’s all a joke. (One never knows these days!) However, Musk has been a longtime proponent of the idea that Twitter’s recommendation algorithm should be open sourced, having […]

Elon Musk suggests Twitter could open source its algorithm ‘next week’ by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch