Amazon cancels Blue Jay robotics project after less than 6 months
Amazon has hundreds of thousands of robots in its warehouses, but that doesn’t mean all of its robot efforts are success stories. As first reported by Business Insider and confirmed by TechCrunch, the e-commerce giant has canceled its Blue Jay warehouse robot project just months after announcing the technology. Blue Jay, a multi-armed robot designed […]
This former Microsoft chancellor thinks he can defeat CyberArk within 18 months
The current Internet has permission issues. As non-humans (chatbots, AI agents, automated systems) proliferate on the web, so does the need to provide them with credentials, permissions, and identity. This is one of the main reasons identity and access management startups that help manage this new kind of digital workforce are attracting venture capital funding. […]
OpenAI moves into higher education as India looks to expand AI skills
OpenAI is expanding its footprint in India and entering the country’s higher education system through partnerships with leading academic institutions. The move comes as the South Asian country seeks to expand AI skills and build domestic capacity in one of the world’s largest talent markets. OpenAI announced on Wednesday that it is partnering with six […]
World Labs raises $200 million from Autodesk to bring world models to 3D workflows
Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs has secured a $200 million investment from software design giant Autodesk. Through this partnership, the two companies will work together to study how World Labs’ models – AI systems that can generate and infer immersive 3D environments – can work with Autodesk’s tools and vice versa, with a focus on entertainment […]
US court bans use of OpenAI’s ‘Cameo’
A federal district court in Northern California has ruled in favor of Cameo, a platform that allows users to get personalized video messages from celebrities, and ordered OpenAI to stop using Cameo in its products and features. OpenAI used the name “Cameo” for its AI-powered video generation app Sora 2. Users could use the feature […]
Tesla avoids 30-day suspension in California by removing Autopilot
The California Department of Transportation will not suspend Tesla’s sales and manufacturing license for 30 days because the EV maker has stopped using the term “Autopilot” in marketing its vehicles in the state. The decision, issued late Tuesday, means Tesla can continue selling EVs in California without interruption and officially settles a lawsuit that has […]
Meta’s own research finds that parental supervision doesn’t actually help curb compulsive social media use in teens
Meta’s internal research study, called Project MYST, created in partnership with the University of Chicago, found that parental supervision and control, such as time limits and access restrictions, had little impact on children’s compulsive social media use. The study also found that children who experienced stressful life events were more likely to lack the ability […]
Apple is reportedly developing three AI wearables
Late last month, The Information reported that Apple was developing an AI wearable, an AirTag-sized pendant with a camera that could be pinned to a user’s shirt. Now, Bloomberg writes that development of such a device, along with two other AI-powered products, is accelerating as Apple seeks to stay competitive with other tech giants competing […]
Thrive raises $10 billion in new funding, its largest funding to date
Thrive Capital just raised $10 billion for a new fund. This is the largest fund the company has raised to date, nearly double the size of its previous fund. The company said $1 billion of this will be earmarked for early-stage investments and the rest for growth-stage investments. Thrive told Bloomberg that the fundraiser was […]
Climactic launches hybrid fund to help startups overcome the “valley of death”
This is a challenge that all startups face. You’ve created a prototype and proven it works, but now you must produce enough to sell your product and overcome the “valley of death” that wipes out many companies. “It’s a chicken-and-egg situation,” Josh Felser, co-founder and managing partner of early-stage venture firm Climactic, told TechCrunch. The […]