Author: GT

A new report estimates that AI will be a larger-than-ever part of the online shopping process during Amazon’s Prime Day sale, which began Tuesday morning. Amazon’s annual sale, which this year spans four days (July 8-11), is predicted to drive $23.8 billion in online spending across U.S. e-commerce retailers, as other businesses run their own competing sales alongside the popular shopping event. Adobe, whose e-commerce division regularly releases estimates for online shopping events like Black Friday and others, offers a view into online commerce by tracking transactions online. The firm’s analysis encompasses over 1 trillion visits to U.S. retail websites,…

The U.S. Justice Department has confirmed the arrest of Chinese national Xu Zewei, an alleged prolific contract hacker who carried out cyberattacks for China. Xu was arrested in Italy at the request of U.S. prosecutors. Xu and another Chinese national, Zhang Yu, who remains at large, are accused in a nine-charge indictment of “hacking and stealing crucial COVID-19 research” from U.S. universities during February 2020. The DOJ said Xu worked for a company called Shanghai Powerock Network, which conducted hacking operations for the Chinese government. The alleged hackers are also accused of the mass hacks of Microsoft Exchange servers beginning…

Elon Musk announced this weekend that his team at xAI made improvements to their AI chatbot Grok. Days later, Grok has already gone on several blatantly antisemitic tirades such as criticizing Hollywood’s “Jewish executives” and claiming that Jews are often “spewing anti-white hate.” This isn’t exactly new behavior for Grok, an X account operated by the platform itself, which users can tag in posts when they want the AI bot to answer their questions. Grok is powered by xAI, Musk’s AI company that recently merged with X. In May, Grok espoused false claims about “white genocide” in South Africa, even…

CEO of Supermicro Charles Liang speaks during the Reuters NEXT conference in New York City, U.S., December 10, 2024. Mike Segar | ReutersPARIS — Super Micro plans to increase its investment in Europe, including ramping up manufacturing of its AI servers in the region, CEO Charles Liang told CNBC in an interview that aired on Wednesday.The company sells servers which are packed with Nvidia chips and are key for training and implementing huge AI models. It has manufacturing facilities in the Netherlands, but could expand to other places. “But because the demand in Europe is growing very fast, so I already…

LangChain, an AI infrastructure startup providing tools to build and monitor LLM-powered applications, is raising a new round of funding at an approximate $1 billion valuation led by IVP, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal.  LangChain began its life in late 2022 as an open-source project founded by Harrison Chase, who was then an engineer at machine learning startup Robust Intelligence. After generating significant developer interest, Chase transformed the project into a startup, securing a $10 million seed round from Benchmark in April 2023, That round was followed a week later by a $25 million Series A…

Frontier, the organization backed by Stripe, Google, and Meta, announced Tuesday it is paying startup Arbor Energy to remove 116,000 tons of carbon dioxide by the end of the decade. The deal gives Arbor $41 million to help it build its first commercial-scale power plant in southern Louisiana that will burn waste biomass to generate electricity for a data center. At the same time, it’ll sequester the resulting CO2, shipping it via pipeline to be buried deep underground. “We are able to market it as two products,” Arbor co-founder and CEO Brad Hartwig told TechCrunch. “We’re selling carbon-free base load…

Slate Auto, which came out of stealth mode earlier this year with a surprising — and surprisingly affordable — customizable electric truck, has raised $700 million to date. But long before the EV startup broke cover, it quietly raised a Series A round of more than $100 million in 2023. And while Jeff Bezos was involved in that round, as TechCrunch originally reported, he was not alone. A regulatory filing submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission shows as many as 16 investors were involved. Slauson & Co., a Los Angeles venture firm that launched five years ago, is one…

A U.S. Justice Department logo or seal showing Justice Department headquarters, known as “Main Justice,” is seen behind the podium in the Department’s headquarters briefing room before a news conference with the Attorney General in Washington, January 24, 2023.Kevin Lamarque | ReutersFederal prosecutors have charged two men in connection with a sprawling cryptocurrency investment scheme that defrauded victims out of more than $650 million.The indictment, unsealed in the District of Puerto Rico, accuses Michael Shannon Sims, 48, of Georgia and Florida, and Juan Carlos Reynoso, 57, of New Jersey and Florida, of operating and promoting OmegaPro, an international crypto multi-level…

The Grok logo is being displayed on a smartphone with Xai visible in the background in this photo illustration on April 1, 2024. Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesElon Musk’s Grok chatbot on Tuesday praised Adolf Hitler and made other antisemitic comments.The chatbot, built by Musk’s startup xAI, made the comments on X in response to a user’s question about the recent Texas flooding.In a conversation about the natural disaster, an X user asked Grok “which 20th century historical figure would be best suited to deal with this problem?”Grok responded that the Texas flooding “tragically killed over 100 people, including…

Carl Pei led electronics manufacturer OnePlus from being a scrappy brand for tech enthusiasts offering affordable phones to one that produces multiple lines of devices, including flagship phones that challenge Samsung and Apple. He is running a similar playbook with Nothing, a 5-year-old, venture-backed hardware startup that just launched its most ambitious device, the Phone (3), earlier this month. The phone, priced at $799, is intended to compete with devices from Samsung and Apple. While OnePlus focused on providing value-for-money specifications and experience in its early days, Nothing focused on design and software as a differentiator to stand out from…