Author: GT

The Russian government is allegedly behind the data breach affecting the U.S. court filing system known as PACER, according to The New York Times. Citing anonymous sources, the newspaper said Russia “is at least in part responsible” for the cyberattack, without saying what part of the Russian government is behind the hack. The hackers searched for “midlevel criminal cases in the New York City area and several other jurisdictions, with some cases involving people with Russian and Eastern European surnames,” per the article.  Last week, Politico reported that hackers had broken into the federal judiciary’s electronic case filing system, potentially…

Sam Altman is in the process of co-founding a new brain-to-computer interface startup called Merge Labs and raising funds for it with the capital possibly coming largely from OpenAI’s ventures team, unnamed sources told the Financial Times. The startup is expected to be valued at $850 million. A source familiar with the deal tells TechCrunch that talks are still early and OpenAI has not yet committed to participation, so terms could change. Merge Labs is also reportedly working with Alex Blania, who runs Tools for Humanity (formerly World) — Altman’s eye-scanning digital ID project that “allows anyone to verify their humanness,”…

When OpenAI launched GPT-5 last week, the company said the model would simplify the ChatGPT experience. OpenAI hoped GPT-5 would act as a sort of “one size fits all” AI model with a router that would automatically decide how to best answer user questions. The company said this unified approach would eliminate the need for users to navigate its model picker — a long, complicated menu of AI options that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has publicly said he hates. But it looks like GPT-5 is not the unified AI model OpenAI hoped it would be. Altman said in a post…

When Bill Dally joined Nvidia’s research lab in 2009, it employed only about a dozen people and was focused on ray tracing, a rendering technique used in computer graphics. That once-small research lab now employs more than 400 people, who have helped transform Nvidia from a video game GPU startup in the nineties to a $4 trillion-dollar company fueling the artificial intelligence boom.Now, the company’s research lab has its sights set on developing the tech needed to power robotics and AI. And some of that lab work is already showing up in products. The company unveiled Monday a new set…

Epic Games has just secured a win in its crusade against Apple and Google’s app store policies: The Federal Court of Australia on Tuesday ruled that Apple and Google engaged in anti-competitive conduct when it came to their respective app stores, ABC News reported. While Judge Jonathan Beach found that the two tech giants had abused their dominant position in the market for app distribution to limit competition, he rejected Epic’s claims that the companies had engaged in “unconscionable conduct.” Epic Games has been fighting Apple and Google’s fee structure for in-app purchases in various jurisdictions around the planet. The…

Self-driving truck maker Waabi has hired autonomous vehicle industry veteran and Uber Freight CEO Lior Ron to step in as chief operating officer, as the startup looks to scale its commercial operations ahead of its planned launch of driverless trucks on public highways later this year. Rebecca Tinucci, who previously spent six years building Tesla’s charging network before the automaker gutted its charging staff last year, will take over as head of Uber Freight. Ron will stay on as Uber Freight’s chairman. “[Ron] will lead the go-to-market strategy, expanding key partnerships, and really bringing Waabi from the phase that we’ve been…

Google is rolling out a new feature called “Preferred Sources” in the U.S. and India, which allows users to select their preferred choice of news sites and blogs to be shown in the Top Stories section of Google’s search results. Enabling this feature means you will see more content from the sites you like, the company says. When users search for a particular topic, they will see a “star” icon next to the Top Stories section. They can tap on that icon and start adding sources by searching for them. Once you select the sources, you can refresh the results…

Anduril has officially brought its high-volume solid rocket motor (SRM) factory online in Mississippi as it races to fulfill America’s demand for space and defense missions and challenge a decades-long duopoly between two major defense contractors.  The Mississippi factory will be able to produce 6,000 tactical motors a year by the end of 2026, enough volume to position Anduril as the United States’ “third” SRM supplier. More than 700 motors have already passed static test firing. These motors are used for a range of kinetic weapons, like missile interceptors, and even deep-space probes. A handful of promising startups are pushing…

Longing for the nostalgia of watching home movies, like in the VHS days, but stuck with all your personal videos saved on an iPhone? Sure, you can AirPlay them to the TV, but the experience is not the same. This struggle inspired developer Devin Davies to create Cassette, a new iOS app that plays back videos in a format similar to VHS, making your iPhone videos feel more like old home recordings. To use the app, you virtually “load” one of the tapes laid out across the screen by selecting the year’s videos you want to view. The videos are…

Just a week after OpenAI announced it would offer ChatGPT Enterprise to the entire federal executive branch workforce at $1 per year per agency, Anthropic has raised the stakes. The AI giant said Tuesday it would also offer its Claude models to government agencies for just $1 — but not only to the executive branch. Anthropic is targeting “all three branches” of the U.S. government, including the legislative and judiciary branches.  The package will be available for one year, says Anthropic. The move comes after OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google DeepMind were added to the General Services Administration’s list of approved…