December 23, 2024

Will we ever trust robots?

The world might seem to be on the brink of a humanoid-robot heyday. New breakthroughs in artificial intelligence promise the type of capable, general-purpose robots previously seen only in science fiction—robots that can do things like assemble cars, care for patients, or tidy our homes, all without being given specialized instructions.  It’s an idea that…

Threads nears its one-year anniversary with more than 175M monthly active users

July 3, 2024

Meta’s Threads now has more than 175 million monthly active users, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Wednesday. The announcement comes two days away from Threads’ first anniversary. Zuckerberg revealed back in April that Threads had more than 150 million monthly active users, up from the 130 million reported in February. Threads launched on July 3, 2023, at […]

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Granza Bio grabs $7M seed from Felicis and YC to advance delivery of cancer treatments

July 3, 2024

Ashwin Nandakumar and Ashwin Jainarayanan were working on their doctorates at adjacent departments in Oxford, but they didn’t know each other. Nandakumar, who was studying oncology, one day stumbled across a curious dataset for prostate cancer, with which he needed sequencing help. “I reached out to a few friends asking to help me analyze this […]

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From burritos to biotech: How robotics startup Cartken found its AV niche

July 3, 2024

Cartken and its diminutive sidewalk delivery robots first rolled into the world with a narrow charter: carrying everything from burritos and bento boxes to pizza and pad thai that last mile to hungry customers.  But the vision — thanks to the startup’s approach to autonomous vehicle technology — was always broader, according to Cartken co-founder […]

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LG acquires smart home platform Athom to bring third-party connectivity to its ThinQ ecosytem

July 3, 2024

LG has acquired an 80% stake in Athom, a Dutch smart home company and maker of the Homey smart home hub. According to LG’s announcement, it will purchase the remaining 20% of Athom within the next three years. However, the financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. LG plans to integrate Athom’s Homey platform, […]

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Fisker asks bankruptcy court to sell its EVs at average of $14,000 each

July 3, 2024

Fisker has a willing buyer for its remaining inventory of all-electric Ocean SUVs, and has asked the Delaware Bankruptcy Court judge overseeing its Chapter 11 case to approve the sale. If approved by the judge, Fisker would be able to offload 3,321 finished EVs to a New York-based vehicle leasing company for $46.25 million. That […]

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The Download: listening robots, and Google’s AI emissions

July 3, 2024
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 way to let robots learn by listening will make them more useful Most AI-powered robots today use cameras to understand their surroundings and learn new tasks, but it’s becoming easier to train…

CoinDCX acquires BitOasis in international expansion push

July 3, 2024

CoinDCX, India’s leading cryptocurrency exchange, is expanding internationally through the acquisition of BitOasis, a digital asset platform in the Middle East and North Africa, the companies said Wednesday. The Bengaluru-based startup said BitOasis’s team is joining CoinDCX, with the original leadership continuing to manage the exchange, which offers trading in more than 60 tokens. BitOasis […]

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A way to let robots learn by listening will make them more useful

July 3, 2024
Most AI-powered robots today use cameras to understand their surroundings and learn new tasks, but it’s becoming easier to train robots with sound too, helping them adapt to tasks and environments where visibility is limited.  Though sight is important, for some of our daily tasks, sound is actually more helpful, like listening to onions sizzling…