Author: Jason

WhatsApp is adding new features including creating new stickers from selfies, sharing sticker packs, and adding new camera effects. Stickers and camera effects are good engagement ploys to keep users interacting with their contacts. The chat app added the ability to create custom stickers from photos last year. Now, the company is adding an option… Read more

OpenAI has quietly removed language endorsing “politically unbiased” AI from one of its recently published policy documents. In the original draft of its “economic blueprint” for the AI industry in the U.S., OpenAI said that AI models “should aim to be politically unbiased by default.” A new draft, made available Monday, deletes that phrasing. When… Read more

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang may have said that “very useful quantum computers” are probably still 20 years away, but his company is also hedging its bets beyond classical chips with investments and partnerships in that very space. Now one of the companies that Nvidia partners with in quantum development is announcing funding. SEEQC, a quantum… Read more

Data centers are expected to continue growing at a breakneck pace, doubling their power demand by 2029, according to a new report from JLL. The industry’s expansion, fueled by the rapid growth of AI alongside the continued expansion of cloud-based services, is testing the limits of the energy sector. Some experts think that half of… Read more

Aurora Innovation is taking federal safety regulators to court in a case that could have far-reaching implications for self-driving truck companies operating in a regulatory environment designed around humans. The fight centers around the rather commonplace practice of placing physical warning triangles around semi trucks stopped along highways. The court denied Aurora’s request to be… Read more

The FBI says it was authorized to mass-remove “PlugX” malware from more than 4,000 compromised machines in the United States © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Read more

It’s not an easy time to raise money for an electric vehicle startup, especially given how many have failed or are close to failing. But Los Angeles-based Harbinger has pulled it off by taking a hyper-focused approach to electrifying commercial trucking.  The reward is a $100 million Series B, co-led by early Tesla investor Capricorn… Read more

Pixelfed, a decentralized alternative to Instagram, has launched its official mobile apps. The service today runs on the same ActivityPub protocol that powers open source X alternative Mastodon, YouTube competitor PeerTube, and other decentralized social apps, now including Meta’s Threads and Flipboard (plus its newer app, Surf), that are part of a growing push toward… Read more

Senatory Ed Markey (D-Mass.) is planning to introduce legislation to extend the TikTok ban deadline by 270 days. TikTok has warned of a looming shutdown in just five days, but the new legislation, officially called the Extend the TikTok Deadline Act, would give TikTok more time to divest from its Chinese parent company ByteDance, if approved by Congress. TikTok… Read more

Shortly after OpenAI released o1, its first “reasoning” AI model, people began noting a curious phenomenon. The model would sometimes begin “thinking” in Chinese, Persian, or some other language — even when asked a question in English. Given a problem to sort out — e.g. “How many R’s are in the word ‘strawberry?’” — o1… Read more