Orbital Composites and Virtus Solis team up for space-based solar power mission

February 1, 2024

Advanced manufacturing startup Orbital Composites is teaming up with Virtus Solis Technologies to conduct a space-based solar power demonstration as soon as 2027. The two companies say the mission will be a precursor to an in-space “megawatt-class” solar power installation by 2030, which could mark “a new chapter in renewable energy.” Space-based solar power (SBSP) is […]

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Threads now reaches more 130 million monthly users, says Meta, up 30M from Q3

February 1, 2024

Instagram Threads now has more 130 million monthly active users, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings today. The text-based social networking app is one of the many new projects that have sprung up in the wake of Elon Musk’s 2022 acquisition of Twitter, now called X, where it competes with various […]

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Amazon debuts ‘Rufus,’ an AI shopping assistant in its mobile app

February 1, 2024

Amazon announced today the launch of an AI-powered shopping assistant it’s calling Rufus that’s been trained on the e-commerce giant’s product catalog as well as information from around the web. The company says the new tool will launch to a subset of U.S. customers in beta, starting today, before expanding to more users in the […]

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Google Maps experiments with generative AI to improve discovery

February 1, 2024

Google Maps is introducing a generative AI feature to help you discover new places, the company announced today. Using large language models (LLMs), the new feature analyzes the over 250 million locations on Google Maps and contributions from over 300 million Local Guides to pull up suggestions based on what you’re looking for. For instance, […]

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