December 2, 2025

The Download: AI’s impact on the economy, and DeepSeek strikes again

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. The State of AI: Welcome to the economic singularity —David Rotman and Richard Waters Any far-reaching new technology is always uneven in its adoption, but few have been more uneven than generative AI.…

Pudgy Penguin’s $9M seed round could point to a growing NFT industry

May 11, 2023

Welcome back to Chain Reaction. Earlier this week, Pudgy Penguins, an NFT collection that also doubles as a web3 IP company, raised $9 million for its seed round. Why does this matter? Pudgy Penguins isn’t the first NFT-focused company or collection to raise money. However, its seed round is another indication of the growing digital […]

Pudgy Penguin’s $9M seed round could point to a growing NFT industry by Jacquelyn Melinek originally published on TechCrunch

Keepon, carry on

May 11, 2023

I’m back in the South Bay this week, banging away at an introduction in the hotel lobby a few minutes before our crew heads to Shoreline for Google I/O. There’s a guy behind in a business suit and sockless loafers, taking a loud business meeting on his AirPods. It’s good to be home. I’ve got […]

Keepon, carry on by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

TuSimple continues its slide into the ether with new delisting warning

May 11, 2023

It wasn’t that long ago that self-driving trucks company TuSimple was on a tear — raising funds, locking in partnerships and hitting some development milestones that seemed to push to it to the front of the AV pack. A string of internal scandals and executive upheaval that resulted in the ousting of co-founder Xiaodi Huo, […]

TuSimple continues its slide into the ether with new delisting warning by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

VanMoof updates its last-gen e-bikes with simplified X4 and S4 models

May 11, 2023

Dutch e-bike maker VanMoof is refreshing its entry level lineup with a pair of new bikes available in some very springy colors. The X4 and S4, out this month, retain the frame and philosophy of VanMoof’s previous X3 and S3 e-bikes while trimming some of the complexities that made those models notably high-tech but less […]

VanMoof updates its last-gen e-bikes with simplified X4 and S4 models by Taylor Hatmaker originally published on TechCrunch

That wasn’t Google I/O — it was Google AI

May 11, 2023
Things got weird at yesterday’s Google I/O conference right from the jump, when the duck hit the stage.   The day began with a musical performance described as a “generative AI experiment featuring Dan Deacon and Google’s MusicLM, Phenaki, and Bard AI tools.” It wasn’t clear exactly how much of it was machine-made and how much…