Max Q: The Thanksgiving edition
For my American readers, I hope you had a restful Thanksgiving with loved ones. In this issue: Venturi Astrolab's first moon rover mission, news from OneWeb India and more. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreThis virtual garage sale lets you haggle with AIs to buy Tesla stock, a PS5 or a toilet magazine
Cyber Monday is upon us, but the hottest deals in town are at the AI Garage Sale, where you can try to convince an AI to sell you some worthless junk (or, a PS5) for any given price. AI Garage Sale is a surprisingly functional internet gag from Brain, a
Read moreUkraine detains Victor Zhora, former top government cyber official
Last week, the Ukrainian government fired two of its top cybersecurity officials, who are accused of embezzlement. Now, one of them has been detained. Ukraine’s senior cabinet official Taras Melnychuk announced the firings in a public post on Telegram last week. The two officials are Yurii Shchyhol, head of Ukraine’s
Read moreReddit might once again be flirting with an IPO
Social media giant Reddit is once again reportedly testing the IPO waters. Bloomberg reported on Monday that Reddit “is holding talks with potential investors for an initial public offering.” The San Francisco-based company, co-founded by Steve Huffman, Aaron Swartz and Alexis Ohanian in 2005, is considering going public as early
Read moreMeta turned a blind eye to kids on its platforms for years, unredacted lawsuit alleges
A newly unredacted version of the multi-state lawsuit against Meta alleges a troubling pattern of deception and minimization in how the company handles kids under 13 on its platforms. Internal documents appear to show that the company’s approach to this ostensibly forbidden demographic is far more laissez-faire than it has
Read moreChris’ Corner: Good & Useful Ideas
I was ogling the idea of Exit Animations recently, that is, a recent proposal for (something like) @exit-style which could allow us to animate elements as we remove them from the DOM. That is largely just a proposal at the moment, with many challenges ahead. But there is new tech
Read moreWith AI chatbots, will Elon Musk and the ultra-rich replace the masses?
Elon Musk is hyping the imminent release of his ChatGPT competitor Grok, yet another example of how his entire personality is just itself a biological LLM made by ingesting all of Reddit and 4chan. Grok already seems patterned in many ways off of the worst of Elon’s indulgences, with the
Read moreCanada, U.S. sign international guidelines for safe AI development
Eighteen countries, including Canada, the U.S. and the U.K., today agreed on recommended guidelines to developers in their nations for the secure design, development, deployment, and operation of artificial intelligent systems. It’s the latest in a series of voluntary guardrails that nations are urging their public and private sectors to
Read moreContrary to reports, OpenAI probably isn’t building humanity-threatening AI
Has OpenAI invented an AI technology with the potential to “threaten humanity”? From some of the recent headlines, you might be inclined to think so. Reuters and The Information first reported last week that several OpenAI staff members had, in a letter to the AI startup’s board of directors, flagged
Read morePrefab home builder Veev reportedly shutting down after reaching unicorn status last year
Veev, a real estate developer turned tech-enabled homebuilder, is on the verge of shutting down after reaching unicorn status last year, according to multiple reports. Calcalist reported on Sunday that the company – which raised $600 million in total, $400 million of which was secured in March of 2022 –
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