India’s AI boom pushes firms to trade near-term revenue for users
ChatGPT and rivals are testing whether India’s massive AI user boom can translate into paying customers as free offers wind down.
The Download: an AI agent’s hit piece, and preventing lightning
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. Online harassment is entering its AI era Scott Shambaugh didn’t think twice when he denied an AI agent’s request to contribute to matplotlib, a software library he helps manage. Then things…
Nvidia challenger AI chip startup MatX raised $500M
The startup was founded by former Google TPU engineers in 2023.
Self-driving tech startup Wayve raises $1.8B from Nvidia, Uber, and three automakers
Major automakers, tech giants, AI companies, and chipmakers are all trying to get a piece of Wayve.
Spanish ‘soonicorn’ Multiverse Computing releases free compressed AI model
Spanish startup Multiverse Computing has released a new version of its HyperNova 60B model on Hugging Face that, it says, bests Mistral’s model.
Apple rolls out age verification tools worldwide to comply with growing web of child safety laws
Apple complies with new age assurance laws in the U.S. and abroad, including those that block users from downloading apps aimed at adults.
Uber engineers built an AI version of their boss
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company’s employees have gone all in on AI, going so far as to build a chatbot of him that they use to practice their pitches.
Stripe is reportedly eyeing deal to buy some or all of PayPal
Stripe might be looking to buy PayPal, or parts of it, per early reports.
Just pull a string to turn these tile patterns into useful 3D structures
MIT researchers have developed a new method for designing 3D structures that can spring up from a flat sheet of interconnected tiles with a single pull of a string. The technique could be used to make foldable bike helmets and medical devices, emergency shelters and field hospitals for disaster zones, and much more. Mina Konaković…
A retinal reboot for amblyopia
In the vision disorder amblyopia (or “lazy eye”), impaired vision in one eye early in life causes neural connections in the brain’s visual system to shift toward supporting the other eye, leaving the amblyopic eye less capable even if the original impairment is corrected. Current interventions don’t work after infancy and early childhood, when the…
A new way to rejuvenate the immune system
As people age, their immune function weakens. Owing to shrinkage of the thymus, where T cells normally mature and diversify, populations of these immune cells become smaller and can’t react to pathogens as quickly. But researchers at MIT and the Broad Institute have now found a way to overcome that decline by temporarily programming cells…