After rockets and spacecraft, Rocket Lab’s next frontier could be applications
Rocket Lab is exploring possible applications for a satellite constellation that they would build, launch and operate in-house, similar to SpaceX’s Starlink business, as a way of generating recurring revenue, an executive said this week. “If you look to where we ultimately want to go, in a lot of ways
Read moreOpenAI’s Sora video-generating model can render video games, too
OpenAI’s new — and first! — video-generating model, Sora, can pull off some genuinely impressive cinematographic feats. But the model’s even more capable than OpenAI initially made it out to be, at least judging by a technical paper published this evening. The paper, titled “Video generation models as world simulators,”
Read moreFTC seeks to modify rule to combat deepfakes
Spurred by the growing threat of deepfakes, the FTC is seeking to modify an existing rule that bans the impersonation of businesses or government agencies to cover all consumers. The revised rule — depending on the final language, and the public comments that the FTC receives — might also make
Read moreCoinbase cites stablecoins, Base as key 2024 priorities after crushing Q4 estimates
After disclosing better-than-expected financial results in its fourth quarter earnings report, U.S.-based Coinbase has big plans. The second largest crypto exchange told its investors that intends to lean heavily on its work with the popular USDC stablecoin this year, lever its recently launched layer-2 blockchain Base as a way to
Read moreI read comics on Apple’s Vision Pro . . . It was fine
Few joys in this cold world can match cracking open a new comic on a lazy Sunday morning. Nothing to do, nowhere to be — just you, a mug of coffee and some sequential art. Not much has fundamentally changed about the American comic book since publishers began collecting newspaper
Read moreThis German nonprofit is building an open voice assistant that anyone can use
There’s been many attempts at open source AI-powered voice assistants (see Rhasspy, Mycroft and Jasper, to name a few) — all established with the goal of creating privacy-preserving, offline experiences that don’t compromise on functionality. But development’s proven to be extraordinarily slow. That’s because, in addition to all the usual
Read moreNo ‘GPT’ trademark for OpenAI
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has denied OpenAI’s attempt to trademark “GPT,” ruling that the term is “merely descriptive” and therefore unable to be registered. It’s a blow to OpenAI’s branding, but don’t expect its competitors to start releasing their own version of the ubiquitous chatbot. ChatGPT is certainly
Read moreLawmakers revise Kids Online Safety Act to address LGBTQ advocates’ concerns
The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is getting closer to becoming a law, which would make social platforms significantly more responsible for protecting children who use their products. With 62 Senators backing the bill, KOSA seems poised to clear the Senate and progress to the House. KOSA creates a duty
Read moreCrypto VC exits were low in Q4 2023, Phantom MAU’s reach new highs and spot bitcoin ETF volumes are still rising
Welcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. This is our fifth edition with of course, regularly scheduled news bits, but also some recurring segments and features. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreOpenAI’s newest model Sora can generate videos — and they look decent
OpenAI, following in the footsteps of startups like Runway and tech giants like Google and Meta, is getting into video generation. OpenAI today unveiled Sora, a GenAI model that creates video from text. Given a brief — or detailed — description or a still image, Sora can generate 1080p movie-like
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