Author: GT

Launched in February of this year, the MIT Generative AI Impact Consortium (MGAIC), a presidential initiative led by MIT’s Office of Innovation and Strategy and administered by the MIT Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing, issued a call for proposals, inviting researchers from across MIT to submit ideas for innovative projects studying high-impact uses of generative AI models.The call received 180 submissions from nearly 250 faculty members, spanning all of MIT’s five schools and the college. The overwhelming response across the Institute exemplifies the growing interest in AI and follows in the wake of MIT’s Generative AI Week and call…

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Some startups accrued value at lightning speed this week, and we got confirmation that defense tech is red hot. Most interesting startup stories from the week Image Credits:Kelly Sullivan / Getty Images Many startup stories this week occurred in Y Combinator’s orbit in some way. Also, Israel once again lived up to its “Start-Up Nation” reputation. That was fast: No-code website-building platform Wix acquired 6-month-old, bootstrapped vibe-coding startup Base44 — both Israeli…

Meta approached artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI about a potential takeover bid before ultimately investing $14.3 billion into Scale AI, CNBC confirmed on Friday.The two companies did not finalize a deal, according to two people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because of the confidential nature of the negotiations.One person familiar with the talks said it was “mutually dissolved,” while another person familiar with the matter said Perplexity walked away from a potential deal.Bloomberg earlier reported the talks between Meta and Perplexity. Perplexity declined to comment. Meta did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.Meta’s…

Early-stage micromobility has shifted over the last few years. The cowboy antics of e-scooter companies causing chaos in a bid to scale has faded along with those fat venture checks that are now flowing to AI startups. Tighter capital combined with an existential need to create sustainable business models has produced a new crop of micromobility startups. This week, I attended Micromobility Europe in Brussels, where I toured the conference’s so-called “Startup Arena” to get a sense of what Europe’s early-stage micromobility ecosystem was bringing to the table. Many of the companies I spoke to are trying to fill the…

CAIRO (AP) — A breakdown in communications networks in central and southern Gaza has cut many Palestinians off from the outside world for the past week, further straining aid efforts and emergency services amid continuing Israeli bombardment. Israeli strikes damaged a main connection, cutting off communications in large areas of the strip since Tuesday, according to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The telecom company Paltel said Friday that internet and landline services were restored in some areas in southern Gaza, including Khan Younis, with repairs ongoing in other southern and central areas. Paltel warned in…

Snap has acquired Saturn, a calendar app that helps students manage their school schedules and share them with others, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Friday. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Saturn will continue to operate as a standalone app. The news was first reported by Engadget. Snap says almost the entire Saturn team is joining Snap as part of the acquisition, with just under 30 full-time employees coming on board. Although Snap didn’t share much about its plans for the acquisition, a spokesperson for the company told TechCrunch in an email that Snap will bring…

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers at cybersecurity outlet Cybernews say that billions of login credentials have been leaked and compiled into datasets online, giving criminals “unprecedented access” to accounts consumers use each day.According to a report published this week, Cybernews researchers have recently discovered 30 exposed datasets that each contain a vast amount of login information — amounting to a total of 16 billion compromised credentials. That includes user passwords for a range of popular platforms including Google, Facebook and Apple.Sixteen billion is roughly double the amount of people on Earth today, signaling that impacted consumers may have had credentials…

Tesla Inc. Megapack batteries at the Victorian Big Battery site operated by Neoen SA in Moorabool, Victoria, Australia, on Friday, Feb. 3, 2023. Elon Musk helped accelerate a transformation of Australias electricity grid to replace fossil fuels with clean power now it’s a testing ground for global climate action. Photographer: Carla Gottgens/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesBloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesTesla has inked its first deal to build a grid-scale battery power plant in China amid a strained trading relationship between Beijing and Washington.The U.S. company posted on the Chinese social media service Weibo that the project would be the largest…

When Joe Kinvi joined Touchtech Payments in 2017 as head of finance, the Irish startup couldn’t afford his full salary. So he negotiated for stock to make up the difference. Eighteen months later, Stripe acquired the company, and that equity converted into Stripe shares, enough to let Kinvi leave his job, bootstrap a side project, and eventually found a startup. That startup, Borderless, is now helping Africans in the diaspora collectively invest in startups and real estate back home. Since launching in beta last year, the U.K.-based platform has processed over $500,000 in transactions. “The diaspora sends billions of dollars…

No company has capitalized on the AI revolution more dramatically than Nvidia. Its revenue, profitability, and cash reserves have skyrocketed since the introduction of ChatGPT over two years ago — and the many competitive generative AI services that have launched since. And its stock price soared.  During that period, the world’s leading high-performance GPU maker has used its ballooning fortunes to significantly increase investments in all sorts of startups but particularly in AI startups. The chip giant ramped up its venture capital activity in 2024, participating in 49 funding rounds for AI companies, a sharp increase from 34 in 2023,…