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  • These tech companies are donating to LA wildfire relief efforts

    Numerous tech companies have pledged millions in donations to help LA recover from wildfires that caused widespread devastation and forced thousands to evacuate the region. Those offering aid include YouTube/Google, Meta, Snap, Amazon, Netflix, and Sony.  Here’s an overview of what each company is doing to aid relief efforts in the region: YouTube and Google:…

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  • Loft Orbital lands a fresh $170M after logging over $500M of bookings

    Loft Orbital has raised $170 million in Series C funding to grow its satellite and space missions as a service. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

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  • TikTok owner ByteDance powered an e-reader’s unhinged AI assistant

    The AI embedded in a popular e-reader was spouting Chinese propaganda. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

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  • OpenAI is bankrolling Axios’ expansion into four new markets

    OpenAI is getting into the local news game. Newsletter-based media organization Axios announced a partnership with OpenAI on Wednesday. As part of this three-year deal, the AI giant will fund Axios’ expansion of its local newsletters into four new cities: Pittsburgh; Kansas City, Missouri; Boulder, Colorado; and Huntsville, Alabama. While OpenAI has inked content-sharing and…

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  • Tesla to split $100M award for electric truck charging corridor in Illinois

    Tesla, along with three other industry partners, quietly backed an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency application that won $100 million in funding to build electric truck charging stations across the state, TechCrunch has learned. The award was the biggest given out by the Biden Administration’s Federal Highway Administration last week in the second round of what’s…

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  • Biden administration adds 14 additional Chinese firms to trade blacklist

    Days after pushing for sweeping AI chip export restriction, the Biden administration has added an additional 14 Chinese companies to its restricted trade list. This brings the full list up to 25 names, according to reporting from The Associate Press. Sophgo is, perhaps, the highest profile addition. An entity of Bitmain, the firm sparked international…

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  • How to stream Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day 2025

    Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office on Monday in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., once again. The event takes place at noon ET and is expected to attract considerable attention from both supporters and opponents. How to stream Trump’s inauguration You can watch the inauguration live with cable or…

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  • AI researcher François Chollet founds a new AI lab focused on AGI

    François Chollet, an influential AI researcher, is launching a new startup that aims to build frontier AI systems with novel designs. The startup, Ndea, will consist of an AI research and science lab. It’s looking to “develop and operationalize” AGI. AGI, which stands for “artificial general intelligence,” typically refers to AI that can perform any…

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  • Trump’s DOT pick wants EV owners to pay to use roads

    Sean Duffy, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Transportation, thinks owners of electric vehicles should pay to use roads.  “How to do that, I think, is a little more challenging,” Duffy said at his confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee.  The former Republican lawmaker is correct that it would…

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  • This Week in AI: Will Biden’s AI actions survive the Trump era?

    Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week was something of a swan song for the Biden administration. On Monday, the White House announced sweeping new restrictions on exporting AI chips — restrictions that tech giants, including Nvidia, loudly criticized. (Nvidia’s business…

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