Author: GT

DENVER (AP) — Perhaps the surest sign that artificial intelligence really is taking over the world will come the day it wins your favorite March Madness bracket pool.The day could be coming soon.In an experiment that a) was bound to happen, b) might actually make us all look smarter and c) should probably also scare the daylights out of everyone, a successful CEO-turned-disruptor is running a $1 million March Madness bracket challenge that pits his AI programmers’ picks against those belonging to one of the world’s best-known sports gamblers.“We’re not a crystal ball,” says Alan Levy, whose platform, 4C Predictions,…

The Turkish lira (TRY) fell to a record low against the dollar following the surprise arrest of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s rival and Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. The currency slumped a record of nearly 41 per U.S. dollar, a 10% slide on the day. The volatility saw a sharp rise in trading volumes in the bitcoin-lira (BTC/TRY) pair on leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Imamoglu’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) described the arrest as a coup to replace the will of the people. The party was set to hold a primary election next week, with Imamoglu widely expected to emerge as the presidential candidate.…

It’s time to make your voice heard. After receiving an overwhelming amount of applications for speakers at TechCrunch Sessions: AI, we have chosen six incredible finalists. TC Sessions: AI takes place on June 5 in Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley — and you have the power to decide who you want to take the stage to share their wisdom with 1,200 AI leaders and enthusiasts. Audience Choice voting lasts until March 21 at 11:59 p.m. PT. You can only pick one speaker, so make your vote count! Also, don’t forget to register your ticket now to save up to $210…

According to data from Amberdata in the last month of February, realized volatility on Tuesdays as of writing averaged to 82, which is higher than for all other weekdays. March 2025 is the most volatile month on average since early 2024, and on average displays a volatility of 67. The volatility comes as Bitcoin fell 30% from its all-time high, and its one-month annualized daily realized volatility approached 70, far exceeding the average 50. There have been similar spikes in the volatility of Bitcoin in the past. There were extreme swings in March 2024 after Bitcoin reached an all-time high…

LG AI Research has unveiled EXAONE Deep, a reasoning model that excels in complex problem-solving across maths, science, and coding. The company highlighted the global challenge in creating advanced reasoning models, noting that currently, only a handful of organisations with foundational models are actively pursuing this complex area. EXAONE Deep aims to compete directly with these leading models, showcasing a competitive level of reasoning ability. LG AI Research has focused its efforts on dramatically improving EXAONE Deep’s reasoning capabilities in core domains. The model also demonstrates a strong ability to understand and apply knowledge across a broader range of subjects.…

In a brief message Tuesday morning on Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company’s “open” AI model family, Llama, hit 1 billion downloads. That’s up from 650 million downloads as of early December 2024 — a ~53% increase over a roughly three-month period. Llama, which powers Meta’s AI assistant, Meta AI, across the tech giant’s various platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is a part of Meta’s yearslong bid to foster a wide-ranging AI product ecosystem. The company makes the models, as well as the tools required to fine-tune and customize them, available for free under a proprietary license.…

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Czech National Bank board member Jan Kubicek is “sceptical” about the inclusion of bitcoin among the bank’s hefty reserves, wary of legal uncertainties and concerns around volatility of the digital currency. CNB Governor Ales Michl put bitcoin up for consideration earlier this year, and the bank has begun an analysis looking into broadening the asset classes it holds in its reserves portfolio. “We will assess different classes of assets. Bitcoin is just one of them,” Kubicek said in an interview on Tuesday. “My position is rather sceptical about bitcoin.” He said bitcoin’s legal status was one concern,…

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One as he departs from Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, D.C., U.S., March 14, 2025. Kevin Lamarque | ReutersPresident Donald Trump is scheduled to meet with more than a dozen oil industry executives at the White House on Wednesday afternoon to discuss his energy agenda, a senior administration official told CNBC.Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright will also attend the meeting, the official said. Burgum leads Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council. Wright serves as vice chair of the interagency body.The 15 executives attending the White House meeting…

A man holds an Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max ahead of the launch of sales of the new iPhone 16 series smartphones in a store in Moscow, Russia September 20, 2024. Evgenia Novozhenina | ReutersEuropean Union regulators are taking steps to rein in Google and Apple on antitrust charges, even as U.S. President Donald Trump threatens to hit the bloc with tariffs for alleged “overseas extortion” of America’s tech giants.The European Commission, which is the executive body of the EU, said Wednesday that it found Google parent company Alphabet in breach of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) — a landmark law…

Arcade, an AI agent infrastructure startup founded by former Okta exec Alex Salazar and former Redis engineer Sam Partee, has raised $12 million from Laude Ventures. Laude is the new fund launched in 2024 by Perplexity co-founder Andy Konwinski, the UC Berkeley computer scientist who also co-founded Databricks. This isn’t the only check Laude has cut. But it is the first publicly announced one, Laude co-founder and general partner Pete Sonsini told TechCrunch. Sonsini is well-known for his years at NEA, where he led early investments in Databricks, Anyscale, and Perplexity. As for Salazar, he’s a repeat founder. He landed at Okta after…