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Space solar startup Aetherflux raises $50M to launch first space demo in 2026

Aetherflux, the space solar startup founded by Baiju Bhatt, the billionaire co-founder of Robinhood, has raised $50 million in a Series A round as it works to launch its first low Earth orbit demonstration in 2026.  The San Carlos, California-based startup, which came out of stealth last October, aims to eventually launch a constellation of […]

OpenAI’s o3 model might be costlier to run than originally estimated

When OpenAI unveiled its o3 “reasoning” AI model in December, the company partnered with the creators of ARC-AGI, a benchmark designed to test highly capable AI, to showcase o3’s capabilities. Months later, the results have been revised, and they now look slightly less impressive than they did initially. Last week, the Arc Prize Foundation, which […]

Epic Games CEO calls Apple and Google ‘gangster-style’ businesses in need of competition

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney, whose company makes Fortnite and tools for other developers, including Unreal Engine, called out Apple and Google as “gangster-style businesses” engaged in illegal practices while speaking at a Y Combinator event on Wednesday. The executive also emphasized how the big tech companies’ practices directly affected his own business by scaring […]

You might be following Second Lady Usha Vance on Instagram now

Starting Wednesday, Meta says it will begin combining the Instagram accounts of the Second Lady of the United States, Usha Vance, and the former Second Gentleman of the United States, Doug Emhoff. As a result, the 1.2 million people who were previously following the Instagram account of Kamala Harris’s husband, @secondgentleman46archive (recently archived by the […]

OpenAI seeks to convene group to advise its nonprofit goals

As it prepares to transition from a nonprofit corporation to a for-profit, OpenAI says it’s convening a group of experts to “help OpenAI’s philanthropy understand the most urgent and intractable problems nonprofits face today.” This group, which OpenAI says will incorporate feedback from “leaders and communities” in health, science, education, and public services, particularly within […]

WordPress maker Automattic lays off 16% of staff

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, Tumblr, WooCommerce, and a range of other online services, is reducing its workforce. The layoffs will impact 16% of staff across divisions, an Automattic blog post published Wednesday reveals. Ahead of the layoffs, Automattic’s website listed 1,744 employees, which means north of 270 people may have lost their jobs. (Automattic […]

Epic Games acquires Loci to introduce automated 3D tagging

Epic Games announced on Wednesday the acquisition of Loci, an AI platform for automated tagging 3D assets. The deal will help creators with the labor-intensive process of tagging as well as to help detect potential intellectual property (IP) violations. Loci, which uses computer vision models to understand 3D content, automatically tags 3D assets, making content […]

Redwood Materials preps for expansion spree with new R&D center in San Francisco

Redwood Materials has been on an expansion tear in recent years — growth that has extended the lithium-ion battery recycling and materials startup’s footprint well beyond its Carson City, Nevada headquarters as it locked up deals with Toyota, Panasonic, and GM, started construction on a South Carolina factory, and made an acquisition in Europe. And […]

Khosla’s Keith Rabois leads $11.5M Series A for startup Roam, calls it ‘the future of the housing market’

During the COVID-19 pandemic, mortgage interest rates dropped to historic lows — as low as 2.5%. Fast-forward a few years and rates soared — to highs nearing 8% in 2023, with the national average 30-year fixed mortgage APR as of April 1 still at 6.84%.  The whiplash has left many people seeking to buy homes […]

Anthropic launches an AI chatbot plan for colleges and universities

Anthropic announced on Wednesday that it’s launching a new Claude for Education tier, an answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu plan. The new tier is aimed at higher education, and gives students, faculty, and other staff access to Anthropic’s AI chatbot, Claude, with a few additional capabilities. One piece of Claude for Education is “Learning Mode,” […]

Parasail says its fleet of on-demand GPUs is larger than Oracle’s entire cloud

Cloud infrastructure is dominated by several large industry players: AWS, Microsoft’s Azure, and Google Cloud. While to some it may look like AI is headed in a similar direction, the founders of Parasail think AI infrastructure will look very different — and are betting their company’s fate on it. Parasail works with dozens of providers to […]

Patreon signs podcast partnerships with Sony and Wondery

Patreon, a subscription platform for online creators, has signed podcasting partnerships with Sony Music Entertainment and Amazon’s Wondery, the company announced on Wednesday. Patreon says the partnerships are designed to make the site a home to fan engagement and exclusive perks for shows from major podcast networks, as the company looks to expand beyond its […]

Roblox enables parents to block experiences and friends

Roblox, the popular gaming platform geared toward preteens, has made substantial updates to its safety policy in the last year following accusations of insufficient safety measures for children, which could expose them to risks like grooming, explicit content, and violent material.  The company announced Wednesday three new parental control features, including the option for them […]
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