Anthony Levandowski buys Elon Musk’s vision for the future
Anthony Levandowski, the engineer who co-founded Google’s self-driving car program (now known as Waymo) and has gone on to start an off-road AV startup, hopped on the phone with me after Tesla’s big robotaxi reveal to share his thoughts. And he is bullish on Elon Musk’s vision for Tesla’s and the
Read moreSequoia Capital, US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and Tidelift take the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
In today’s software ecosystem, open source code has become the backbone of innovation and digital infrastructure, playing a pivotal role in everything from startups to major enterprises. The collaborative nature of open source software has unlocked incredible potential for businesses, allowing rapid development and agility. But with this openness comes
Read moreAktiia trained AI on 11 billion data points of blood pressure, and now a clinically certified app is coming
As well as being a major cause of premature death worldwide, hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a major risk factor for stroke, coronary artery disease, heart failure, and a contributing factor to dementia. It also affects an estimated 1.3 billion people, while up to 95% of cases
Read moreTriangles to Triangles
The set of functions of the form f(z) = (az + b)/(cz + d) with ad ≠ bc are called bilinear transformations or Möbius transformations. These functions have three degrees of freedom—there are four parameters, but multiplying all parameters by a constant defines the same function—and so you can uniquely
Read moreHow SpaceX became the MyPillow of government contractors
Contractors gone wild. | Photo by Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images It really has been something to watch Elon Musk turn SpaceX into the MyPillow of rocket companies, hasn’t it? Christ, I guess I have to list off all the depressing stuff from the past few months: the
Read moreHow AI-generated content is upping the workload for Wikipedia editors
As AI-generated slop takes over increasing swathes of the user-generated Internet thanks to the rise of large language models (LLMs) like OpenAI’s GPT, spare a thought for Wikipedia editors. In addition to their usual job of grubbing out bad human edits, they’re having to spend an increasing proportion of their
Read moreApple Intelligence features can also summarize breakup texts for you
When Nick Spreen installed the beta of iOS 18.1 to try out upcoming Apple Intelligence features, he probably didn’t expect to receive an AI-generated summary of breakup texts from his then girlfriend. “No longer in a relationship; wants belongings from the apartment,” the AI summarized. After sharing a screenshot of
Read moreUK neobank Monzo hits $5.9B valuation with secondary market sale
Monzo is now valued at $5.9 billion after the U.K.-based challenger bank confirmed a secondary market share sale to provide liquidity for its employees. The transaction, first rumored yesterday, saw existing investors such as Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund (GIC) and StepStone Group procuring additional shares in the London-based fintech. A
Read moreIs this the real life? Training autonomous cars with simulations
Ben Popper interviews Vladislav Voroninski, CEO of Helm.ai, about unsupervised learning and the future of AI in autonomous driving. They discuss GenAI’s role in bridging the gap between simulation and reality, the challenges of scaling autonomous driving systems, the commercial potential of partial autonomy, and why software is emerging as
Read moreElon Musk unveils the Robovan: the biggest surprise from Tesla’s We, Robot event
Elon Musk unveiled a prototype of Tesla’s Robovan on Thursday night during the company’s We, Robot event in Los Angeles. The Robovan will be an electric, autonomous vehicle roughly the size of a bus, designed for transporting people around high density areas. It will carry up to 20 people at
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