Why Apple sends spyware victims to this nonprofit security lab

Before the elections, the cybersecurity team of U.S. vice president and then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris reached out to Apple asking for help, according to Forbes, after a tool that’s designed to detect spyware on iPhones flagged anomalies on two devices belonging to campaign staffers. Apple declined to forensically analyze the …...Read More

Energy Revolution Ventures' $18M fund lays a bet on 'new chemistry' startups in energy and hydrogen

What happens when a chemical engineer, who’s previously built a hydrogen-powered drone, becomes a venture capitalist? Energy Revolution Ventures (ERV), that’s what. The VC has now closed an $18 million seed and Series A fund to invest in deep tech, such as energy storage, carbon capture, and, yes, hydrogen technologies. …...Read More

'Genius Girl' goes from inspiring a Korean TV show character to raising a $100 million AI fund

On the weekend, as most students were stumbling back from the bars, Songyee Yoon was rushing across her South Korean campus. Around dinner time, she would run some programs on her college’s supercomputer and then, as the computer chugged through her program, she’d wait sleepless in her dorm. “I woke …...Read More

Sam Altman once owned some equity in OpenAI through Sequoia

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sat before Congress in 2023 to testify about the dangers of AI. He told American lawmakers at the time that he owns no equity in OpenAI, something he’s said many times, claiming he just runs the company because he loves it. However, Altman recently said he …...Read More

Meet the robot with two Guinness World Records for basketball

A team of engineers at Toyota have spent years iterating on CUE6, the basketball-shooting robot. CUE6 uses machine learning to adjust his posture and arm movement in order to take the perfect shot nearly every time. The robot holds the Guinness World Record for most consecutive basketball free throws by …...Read More

Boon raises $20.5M to build agentic AI tools for fleets

Logistics is the name of the game during the holiday season: Companies that can seal the deal and get people and things to the places they need to be, on time, rake it in this time of year. But behind that demand lies a huge amount of inefficiency and fragmentation. …...Read More

A bad experience with an accounting firm spurred this founder to start Aiwyn

Accounting firms are struggling to adopt high-tech solutions. That’s according to a survey earlier this year from Rightsworks, which found that, while 88% of firms believe tech has had a positive impact on their efficiency, 60% are suffering from disconnected systems, inconsistent processes, and a lack of standardized workflows. Startups …...Read More

TuSimple pivot from self-driving to AI animation is complete with CreateAI rebrand

TuSimple has completed its pivot away from autonomous trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The company shall henceforth be known as CreateAI. The rebrand comes as TuSimple is embroiled in controversy over the company’s plans to move its remaining U.S. assets to China to fund the new …...Read More

Ex-Twitch CEO Emmett Shear is founding an AI startup backed by a16z

Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, is launching a new AI startup, TechCrunch has learned. The startup, called Stem AI, is currently in stealth. But public documents show it was incorporated in June 2023, and filed for a trademark in August 2023. Shear is listed as CEO on an …...Read More

In just 4 months AI coding assistant Cursor raised another $100M at a $2.5B valuation led by Thrive, sources say

Anysphere, the developer of AI-powered coding assistant Cursor, raised $100 million Series B at a post-money valuation of $2.6 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. The round is being led by returning investor Thrive Capital, the person said. This new funding comes just four months after Anysphere …...Read More