Author: GT

Lithium-ion batteries have dropped in cost by 75% over the past decade, a marvel of research and development that isn’t the result of a singular breakthrough but of myriad incremental improvements. Few know that better than Chaitanya Sharma, founder of the stealthy Nascent Materials. Sharma spent a little over two years working at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada and another two leading iM3NY, a lithium-ion manufacturer in New York. Since leaving iM3NY in November 2023, he’s been working on a new way to process cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries — one of those small improvements that promises to continue driving down…

Dating app Bumble announced on Wednesday that it’s laying off 30% of its workforce, impacting around 240 positions. The company said in a securities filing that the cuts are part of its plans to realign its “operating structure to optimize execution on its strategic priorities.” Bumble anticipates saving $40 million per year as a result of the workforce reduction and plans to reinvest most of this money into product and technology development. The company said it will incur approximately $13 million to $18 million of nonrecurring charges, mainly related to severance, benefits, and associated costs for affected employees in the…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge sided with Facebook parent Meta Platforms in dismissing a copyright infringement lawsuit from a group of authors who accused the company of stealing their works to train its artificial intelligence technology.The Wednesday ruling from U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria was the second in a week from San Francisco’s federal court to dismiss major copyright claims from book authors against the rapidly developing AI industry. Chhabria found that 13 authors who sued Meta “made the wrong arguments” and tossed the case. But the judge also said that the ruling is limited to the authors…

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg makes a keynote speech during the Meta Connect annual event, at the company’s headquarters in Menlo Park, California, on Sept. 25, 2024.Manuel Orbegozo | ReutersMeta on Wednesday prevailed against a group of 13 authors in a major copyright case involving the company’s Llama artificial intelligence model, but the judge made clear his ruling was limited to this case.U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria sided with Meta’s argument that the company’s use of books to train its large language models, or LLMs, is protected under the fair use doctrine of U.S. copyright law.Lawyers representing the plaintiffs, including Sarah…

AI-native startups are rewriting the rules of what early traction looks like — and too often, investors are still playing by the old ones. At TechCrunch All Stage, happening in Boston on July 15, Kleida Martiro, partner at Glasswing Ventures, will lead a breakout that cuts straight to the core of this disconnect. Her session, Winning Capital in a Competitive Market: How to Fund Your AI-Native Startup, on the Foundation Stage, explores how early-stage AI founders can frame their growth story in a way that resonates with forward-thinking investors — and filter out the ones still stuck in SaaS-era metrics.…

Wind power has run into some headwinds, and not the kind that spin its turbines.  Recently, President Trump has decided to wage war against the technology, an unwelcome bit of friction that coincides with rising costs in recent years. Onshore wind power went for $61 per megawatt-hour last year, according to Lazard, bucking a decade-long downward trend. “We have a lot of headwinds,” acknowledges Neal Rickner, CEO of wind startup Airloom Energy. But he also argues that his company, which takes a different tack, could emerge a winner if it can weather the next five years.  “People are feeling the…

The Apple Sports app, launched last year, is introducing tennis coverage ahead of Wimbledon, along with a redesigned home screen experience, Apple announced on Wednesday. Users will now be able to access live tennis scores for Grand Slam and 1000-level tournaments and can track every point across all men’s and women’s singles matches. Fans can also stay updated on a player’s progress throughout tournaments and get results from every match from the first round through the finals. Apple says the revamped home screen experience is designed to make it easier for fans to follow their favorite teams and leagues. Events…

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Online dating platform Bumble plans to lay off about 240 employees, or roughly 30% of its global workforce.In a securities filing, Bumble disclosed that its board approved the cuts this week as it “realigns its operating structure to optimize execution on its strategic priorities.” The Austin, Texas-based company expects to see $40 million in annual cost savings spanning from the workforce reductions, much of which it says it will invest in product and technology development.“These decisions were not made lightly, and we are deeply grateful for the contributions of every employee impacted,” Bumble said in a statement…

In a landmark shift for the U.S. housing finance system, the Federal Housing Finance Agency has issued a directive ordering Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to formally consider cryptocurrency as an asset in single-family mortgage loan risk assessments.The move, signed by FHFA Director William J. Pulte on Wednesday, signals a new era of crypto integration into traditional financial infrastructure — this time within the core of American home lending.The order directs both housing finance giants to develop proposals that include digital assets — without requiring borrowers to liquidate them into U.S. dollars prior to a loan closing.Pulte said in a…

Can AI improve the dating app market? A new dating app called Sitch aims to find out by leveraging human expertise in matchmaking to power its AI model. Today’s dating apps bank on the speed of onboarding and having millions of options. Users create profiles within seconds by uploading photos and answering simple questions. The apps then rely on basic info and feedback from users’ swipes to find them potential matches. Sitch aims to take a more thoughtful approach with its onboarding process and uses large language models (LLMs) to bring a human matchmaker’s expertise to the dating app experience,…