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

Mercedes-Benz partners with Canadian mining company for CO2-neutral lithium hydroxide for EVs

October 20, 2022

Mercedes-Benz AG will source carbon-neutral lithium hydroxide to build batteries for electric vehicles from a Vancouver-based mining startup. Starting in 2026, the agreement with Rock Tech Lithium will provide Mercedes-Benz AG with an average of 10,000 tons of battery-grade lithium hydroxide per year — enough for around 150,000 electric vehicles. Mercedes-Benz, which sells about two […]

Mercedes-Benz partners with Canadian mining company for CO2-neutral lithium hydroxide for EVs by Jaclyn Trop originally published on TechCrunch

Ambr wants to solve the billion-dollar burnout problem by tracking employees’ working habits

October 20, 2022

Worker burnout is real. Reports suggest that work-related chronic stress could be costing businesses up to $190 billion annually in reduced output and sick days, not to mention the much-discussed “Great Resignation” where workers are jumping ship in search of a greater work-life balance. In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared burnout an “occupational […]

Ambr wants to solve the billion-dollar burnout problem by tracking employees’ working habits by Paul Sawers originally published on TechCrunch

The Download: Bill Gates’s new climate plans, and an AI bug bounty

October 20, 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. Bill Gates’s energy venture fund is plowing more money into climate adaptation The news: Bill Gates’s climate-oriented venture capital fund is expanding its mission, adding adaptation to its investment categories and establishing a…

A bias bounty for AI will help to catch unfair algorithms faster

October 20, 2022
AI systems are deployed all the time, but it can take months or even years until it becomes clear whether, and how, they’re biased.  The stakes are often sky-high: unfair AI systems can cause innocent people to be arrested, and they can deny people housing, jobs, and basic services.   Today a group of AI and…

Banyan raises $43M to grow its network of item-level purchase data

October 20, 2022

Banyan, a platform for product purchase data that allows customers such as banks, fintechs, hotels and merchants to automate expense management and more, today announced that it raised $43 million in a Series A funding round — $28 million in equity and $15 million in debt — led by Fin Capital with participation from M13, […]

Banyan raises $43M to grow its network of item-level purchase data by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

GlobalFair secures new cash to simplify procuring construction materials

October 20, 2022

The construction materials market is fragmented, according to GlobalFair CEO Shaily Garg, because it involves layers of both supply chain and logistics complexities. In a 2021 survey for the National Association of Home Builders and Wells Fargo, the vast majority of builders said that the time it takes to obtain materials — and the cost […]

GlobalFair secures new cash to simplify procuring construction materials by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

Bill Gates’s energy venture fund is expanding into climate adaptation and later-stage investments

October 20, 2022
Bill Gates’s climate-oriented venture capital fund is expanding its mission, adding adaptation to its investment categories and establishing a later-stage fund to help clean-tech startups begin building plants and scaling up their technologies. The announcement came at the end of the firm’s Breakthrough Energy Summit in Seattle on Wednesday. To date, Breakthrough has been focused…

Why scientists want to help plants capture more carbon dioxide

October 20, 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. Hello hello!  This week in The Spark, we’re taking a look back at one of my favorite sessions from our ClimateTech conference last week, from a chapter we called “Cleaning Your Plate.”  In…

Survey finds 67% of European women in tech feel under-paid compared to men, half experience sexism

October 20, 2022

Last month, on International Equal Pay Day, the International Labour (ILO) Organization revealed that on average, women globally are paid about 20 percent less than men. This pay gap is even bigger for Black and Hispanic women, where Black women were found to earn over 63% less than white men, and Hispanic or Latina women […]

Survey finds 67% of European women in tech feel under-paid compared to men, half experience sexism by Mike Butcher originally published on TechCrunch