Author: GT

GE Aerospace is taking a sizable stake in electric aviation company Beta Technologies, with the pair teaming up to build a hybrid-electric turbogenerator for next-gen aircraft. GE will also invest $300 million, pending regulatory approval, under a strategic deal announced Thursday. The new partnership comes as hybrid solutions gain momentum in the advanced air mobility (AAM) space, a catch-all term to describe the next generation of aviation concepts like eVTOL, hydrogen, and so on. Aircraft makers are increasingly turning to engine hybrids, combining traditional turbines with electric power, to extend flight time or increase potential payload. It’s an interesting partnership:…

Warner Bros. is suing artificial intelligence company Midjourney for copyright infringement, alleging that the startup enables its millions of subscribers to create AI-generated images and videos of copyrighted characters like Superman and Bugs Bunny.It’s the third big Hollywood studio to sue Midjourney in Los Angeles federal court after Disney and Universal filed a joint lawsuit in June.Midjourney, based in San Francisco, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.The lawsuit alleges Midjourney trained its AI system on “illegal copies” of Warner Bros. works and encourages its users to pick iconic characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, Scooby-Doo or the Powerpuff Girls…

After recently being spotted testing a way to share longer text, Threads, Meta’s X competitor, is now officially rolling out the feature that allows users to attach up to 10,000 characters of text to their post. The addition has been designed with the needs of creators in mind, as it supports linking out to content outside of Threads, like newsletters, blogs, podcasts, and more. Before this update, Threads supported 500 characters — which is already far more than the 280 characters offered to X’s unverified users. However, X in 2023 introduced a way for its paid subscribers to post up…

A group of Swiss institutions has released a new open AI model, designed to serve as a foundation for future research and applications. Built by EPFL, ETH Zurich, and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), the model is called Apertus – Latin for “open.” The name reflects its core principle: every part of its design and training process is accessible to the public.Developers and organisations can use Apertus to create chatbots, translation tools, or education-focused applications. It can be downloaded directly from Hugging Face or accessed through Swisscom, a strategic partner of the initiative. Two versions are available – an…

Apple is hosting its new hardware event on September 9 at 10 a.m. PT. The company is expected to release its iPhone 17 lineup, along with updates for the Apple Watch and AirPods.  As always, there are many rumors circulating, including bigger screens and improved cameras for the iPhone 17 models and the introduction of an ultra-thin iPhone Air that could replace the Plus model. More broadly, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that this will be the first of three planned years of major iPhone redesigns, with a foldable iPhone coming in 2026. iPhone 17, 17 Pro, and 17 Pro Max…

ABOARD LIFTBOAT ROBERT, North Atlantic (AP) — It turns out the Continental Shelf has been holding a secret from the ages. Beneath the sea floor off the U.S. northeast lies an enormous reserve of fresh water whose existence was long unknown, then was suspected and now is confirmed. The first global expedition to drill systematically for undersea fresh water has come away with thousands of samples of it. And this comes as rising sea levels and other harms from a warming climate threaten freshwater supplies on land. The Liftboat Robert platform is visible from the departing Gaspee, a crew transport…

We’re excited to announce that Roelof Botha, managing partner of Sequoia Capital and one of the most influential voices in venture capital, will join us live onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. For more than two decades, Botha has helped shape some of the world’s most iconic companies — and his perspective has never been more important. Why this session matters The venture ecosystem is in flux: Venture firms are evolving into broader investment powerhouses. Secondary markets are moving from the sidelines to the center stage. Founder–VC dynamics are shifting in…

ABOARD LIFTBOAT ROBERT, North Atlantic (AP) — Deep in Earth’s past, an icy landscape became a seascape as the ice melted and the oceans rose off what is now the northeastern United States. Nearly 50 years ago, a U.S. government ship searching for minerals and hydrocarbons in the area drilled into the seafloor to see what it could find.It found, of all things, drops to drink under the briny deeps — fresh water. This summer, a first-of-its-kind global research expedition followed up on that surprise. Drilling for fresh water under the salt water off Cape Cod, Expedition 501 extracted thousands…

Waymo has been cleared to serve its first airport in California: San Jose Mineta International. The company announced Thursday that it will start testing its robotaxis there in the coming months, and that it plans to start offering commercial rides by the end of the year. The company has spent years working toward serving airports in its home state. Waymo was going back-and-forth with officials at San Francisco’s airport back in 2023 but was rebuffed. Earlier this year, though, Waymo was granted a permit to start manually mapping the major airport as a first step toward launching a commercial service…

Having built and sold e-commerce shipping startup Deliverr to Shopify for $2.1 billion in 2022, co-founder and CEO Harish Abbott knows the logistics industry well. Abbott felt that many manual tasks in logistics could be automated using AI. That’s why last year he launched Augment, which offers an AI assistant called “Augie” that can take over tedious and repetitive work performed by freight shippers, carriers, and brokers. On Thursday, Augment announced that it raised an $85 million Series A led by Redpoint, with participation from 8VC, Autotech Ventures, and others. The massive round comes just five months after the startup…