Author: GT

The AI era is giving fracking a second act, a surprising twist for an industry that, even during its early 2010s boom years, was blamed by climate advocates for poisoned water tables, man-made earthquakes, and the stubborn persistence of fossil fuels. AI companies are building massive data centers near major gas-production sites, often generating their own power by tapping directly into fossil fuels. It’s a trend that’s been overshadowed by headlines about the intersection of AI and healthcare (and solving climate change), but it’s one that could reshape — and raise difficult questions for — the communities that host these…

Senate Republicans shared a deepfake video of Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, designed to make it seem like Democrats are celebrating the ongoing government shutdown, which has lasted 16 days.   In the deepfake, an AI-generated Schumer repeats the phrase “every day gets better for us,” an actual quote taken out of context from a Punchbowl News article. In the original story, Schumer discussed the Democrats’ healthcare-focused shutdown strategy, and said they were not going to back away from Republicans’ playbook of threats and “bambooz[ling].”  The shutdown is happening because Democrats and Republicans cannot agree to pass a bill…

Silicon Valley leaders including White House AI & Crypto Czar David Sacks and OpenAI Chief Strategy Officer Jason Kwon caused a stir online this week for their comments about groups promoting AI safety. In separate instances, they alleged that certain advocates of AI safety are not as virtuous as they appear, and are either acting in the interest of themselves or billionaire puppet masters behind the scenes. AI safety groups that spoke with TechCrunch say the allegations from Sacks and OpenAI are Silicon Valley’s latest attempt to intimidate its critics, but certainly not the first. In 2024, some venture capital…

Francesco Vitali will be the first to admit that when his co-founder Chris Siametis first pitched him on Rent a Cyber Friend, he didn’t quite get the idea. “Who’s going to pay somebody to speak with somebody?” Vitali told TechCrunch. “But Chris was insistent. Chris is a millennial, and I’m Gen X, so it wasn’t easy for me to understand his vision.” Vitali had worked with Siametis for about two decades; they ran 48FILM, an international short film festival (Vitali is also a film producer). So he took a leap of faith to trust his collaborator on the idea he…

Energy startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems (CFS) said Thursday it’s working with Google’s DeepMind division to fine tune — and even improve — the operation of its forthcoming Sparc reactor using AI. The companies’ plan will simulate the plasma that will burn inside CFS’s reactor using specialized DeepMind software known as Torax. They also plan on pairing Torax with AI models to help CFS figure out how best to achieve fusion power. Fusion power promises to deliver massive amounts of electricity with zero emissions from a near limitless source of fuel: water. AI-related companies have been bullish on fusion startups as…

Meta is shutting down Messenger’s stand-alone desktop apps for Windows and Mac on December 15, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. Starting December 15, users will no longer be able to log into the apps and will be automatically redirected to the Facebook website to access Messenger. “If you’re using the Messenger desktop apps, you’ll get an in-app notification once the deprecation process begins,” a Messenger help page reads. “You will have 60 days to use the Mac Messenger app before it is fully deprecated. Once the 60 days are over, you’ll be blocked from using the Mac Messenger…

Amazon’s surveillance camera maker Ring announced a partnership on Thursday with Flock, a maker of AI-powered surveillance cameras that share footage with law enforcement. Now agencies that use Flock can request that Ring doorbell users share footage to help with “evidence collection and investigative work.” Flock cameras work by scanning the license plates and other identifying information about cars they see. Flock’s government and police customers can also make natural language searches of their video footage to find people who match specific descriptions. However, AI-powered technology used by law enforcement has been proven to exacerbate racial biases. On the same…

For one week this summer, Taylor and her roommate wore GoPro cameras strapped to their foreheads as they painted, sculpted, and did household chores. They were training an AI vision model, carefully syncing their footage so the system could get multiple angles on the same behavior. It was difficult work in many ways, but they were well paid for it — and it allowed Taylor to spend most of her day making art.  “We woke up, did our regular routine, and then strapped the cameras on our head and synced the times together,” she told me. “Then we would make…

Travel search engine Kayak will now allow users to research trips ahead of booking using AI. The company this week launched an “AI Mode” feature that lets users ask travel-related questions as well as compare and book flights, hotels, and cars, through an AI chatbot integrated on the company’s website. The feature is currently available across both desktop and mobile web, and takes advantage of Kayak’s integration with ChatGPT to deliver contextual results. The rollout follows the company’s April launch of Kayak.ai, built as a testing ground for working with AI technology. That site also combined Kayak’s data and tools…

Digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Trump administration over the government’s alleged social media monitoring of people who are lawfully living in the United States. The suit contends that the government is using AI and other methods to watch the social media posts of virtually every single non-citizen who is in the United States legally and on a valid visa, as well as many people who have obtained permanent resident status. The U.S. government is, according to these allegations, looking for posts that express views that the current government disfavors. The…