Technology

The Download: space exploration, and why we’re hooked on hybrid cars

December 22, 2022
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. What’s next in space in 2023 We’re going back to the moon—again—in 2023. Multiple uncrewed landings are planned for the next 12 months, spurred on by a renewed effort in the US to…

A brief history of diffusion, the tech at the heart of modern image-generating AI

December 22, 2022

Text-to-image AI exploded this year as technical advances greatly enhanced the fidelity of art that AI systems could create. Controversial as systems like Stable Diffusion and OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 are, platforms including DeviantArt and Canva have adopted them to power creative tools, personalize branding and even ideate new products. But the tech at the heart […]

A brief history of diffusion, the tech at the heart of modern image-generating AI by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Why EVs won’t replace hybrid cars anytime soon

December 22, 2022
The end could be coming soon for cars as we know them. To limit global warming to 1.5 °C, the 2015 international Paris climate agreement set 2050 as a worldwide deadline to reach net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions. That means gas-powered vehicles will need to be largely off the road by then. And since cars typically have…

The US Postal Service is finally getting EVs

December 22, 2022
This article is from The Spark, MIT Technology Review’s weekly climate newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. The US Postal Service is finally going electric. The USPS announced Tuesday that it plans to acquire at least 66,000 electric delivery vehicles between now and 2028, and all purchases after 2026 will…

What’s next in space in 2023

December 22, 2022
We’re going back to the moon—again—in 2023. Multiple uncrewed landings are planned for the next 12 months, spurred on by a renewed effort in the US to return humans to the lunar surface later this decade. Both private space companies and national agencies are set to make the 240,000-mile trek to our celestial neighbor, where…

Twitter now displays stock and cryptocurrency prices directly in search results

December 22, 2022

Amid all the chaos, Twitter rolled out a useful feature that lets you search for listed company stocks and cryptocurrency prices. To do this, users have to just type the dollar symbol followed by the relevant ticker symbol, e.g. “$GOOG” or “$ETH” (minus the quote marks), in the search bar and Twitter will display the […]

Twitter now displays stock and cryptocurrency prices directly in search results by Ivan Mehta originally published on TechCrunch

Self-driving truck company TuSimple to lay off 25% of workforce

December 21, 2022

Well, we knew it was coming. Self-driving trucking technology company TuSimple confirmed Wednesday it plans to lay off 25% of its total workforce as part of a broader restructuring plan designed to keep the company running. The layoffs come a couple of weeks after TuSimple and Navistar ended their deal to co-develop purpose-built autonomous semi […]

Self-driving truck company TuSimple to lay off 25% of workforce by Rebecca Bellan originally published on TechCrunch

Kickstarter shut down the campaign for AI porn group Unstable Diffusion amid changing guidelines

December 21, 2022

The group trying to monetize AI porn generation, Unstable Diffusion, raised more than $56,000 on Kickstarter from 867 backers. Now, as Kickstarter changes its thinking about what kind of AI-based projects it will allow, the crowdfunding platform has shut down Unstable Diffusion’s campaign. Since Kickstarter runs an all-or-nothing model and the campaign had not yet […]

Kickstarter shut down the campaign for AI porn group Unstable Diffusion amid changing guidelines by Amanda Silberling originally published on TechCrunch

Quora launches Poe, a way to talk to AI chatbots like ChatGPT

December 21, 2022

Signaling its interest in text-generating AI systems like ChatGPT, Quora this week launched a platform called Poe that lets people ask questions, get instant answers and have a back-and-forth dialogue with AI. Short for “Platform for Open Exploration,” Poe — which is invite-only and currently only available on iOS — is “designed to be a […]

Quora launches Poe, a way to talk to AI chatbots like ChatGPT by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

South Park creators’ deepfake video startup Deep Voodoo conjures $20M in new funding

December 21, 2022

Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park and various other media over the years, have raised $20 million to continue work on their professional deepfake studio for creators, Deep Voodoo. The company got its start during the media shutdown of 2020, when the pandemic prevented most travel and on-set productions. Parker and Stone […]

South Park creators’ deepfake video startup Deep Voodoo conjures $20M in new funding by Devin Coldewey originally published on TechCrunch