Author: GT

Norway is the world’s largest producer of farmed Atlantic salmon and a top exporter of seafood, while the United States remains the largest importer of these products, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. Two MIT students recently traveled to Trondheim, Norway to explore the cutting-edge technologies being developed and deployed in offshore aquaculture. Beckett Devoe, a senior in artificial intelligence and decision-making, and Tony Tang, a junior in mechanical engineering, first worked with MIT Sea Grant through the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP). They contributed to projects focusing on wave generator design and machine learning applications for analyzing oyster larvae…

Instagram has installed a new privacy setting which will default all new and existing underage accounts to an automatic private mode.Brandon Bell | Getty ImagesInstagram will require U.S.-based employees to work five days a week in an office, Meta confirmed on Monday.The new return-to-office policy will take effect on Feb. 2 and is intended to foster a more creative and collaborative working environment, according to a report by the Sources newsletter that cited an employee memo by Instagram chief Adam Mosseri.The report also noted that Mosseri aims to reduce the number of meetings at the photo-sharing unit and wants employees…

OpenAI is taking an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, whose parent company is one of the AI giant’s major investors, Thrive Capital.  Thrive Holdings operates like a private equity firm for AI, rolling up companies that it believes could benefit from the tech in sectors like accounting and IT services.  Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal, but it will involve OpenAI sending employees from its engineering, research, and product teams to work within Thrive’s companies to accelerate AI adoption and boost efficiency. If those companies succeed, OpenAI’s stake will grow, and it will get compensated for its services,…

Thomas Trutschel | Getty ImagesShopify was hit with an outage on Cyber Monday, leaving some businesses unable to manage transactions during one of the biggest shopping days of the year.In an update to its status page, the Canadian e-commerce company said select merchants were experiencing issues logging into Shopify, while others were unable to access point-of-sale systems, a critical portal used to manage transactions and other backend processes.”We are still investigating and applying mitigations for the admin and login issues,” the company wrote on its status page around 12:20 p.m. EST.A Shopify spokesperson pointed CNBC to its status page when…

German AI lab Black Forest Labs said on Monday that it has raised $300 million in a Series B funding round that values the company at $3.25 billion. The round was co-led by Salesforce Ventures and Anjney Midha (AMP), and saw participation from a16z, NVIDIA, Northzone, Creandum, Earlybird VC, BroadLight Capital, General Catalyst, Temasek, Bain Capital Ventures, Air Street Capital, Visionaries Club, Canva, and Figma Ventures. The startup said it would use the funds for research and development. Black Forest Labs, which makes foundation AI models for generating and editing images, has risen to fame quickly since its launch in…

American figure skater Andrew Torgashev was at an invitation-only camp organized by U.S. Figure Skating not long ago, a chance for elite athletes preparing for the high-level Grand Prix season to work out any flaws in their performances.He tried a quad toe loop, a four-revolution jump where skaters launch from the back outside edge of their blade with the help of a toe pick from the other foot. The jump itself is the easiest of skating’s six primary jumps, but four revolutions ups the difficulty.To the naked eye, Torgashev landed it perfectly. To the camera watching him, Torgashev landed a…

Wall Street analysts are bullish on Beta Technologies , even though the electric airplane manufacturer’s stock has tumbled nearly 30% since its Nov. 4 debut on the New York Stock Exchange . Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America have initiated coverage of Beta with a buy rating. Citi views the stock as high risk but high reward with a target of $41 per share, suggesting 50% upside. “We believe BETA is best positioned, and the recent selloff provides an attractive entry point,” Goldman analysts led by Anthony Valentini told clients in a Nov. 30 note. Beta is working…

With AI igniting an investor frenzy, every month, more startups obtain unicorn status. Using data from Crunchbase and PitchBook, TechCrunch tracked down the VC-backed startups that became unicorns so far this year. While most are AI-related, a surprising number are focused in other industries like satellite space companies Loft Orbital and blockchain-based trading site Kalshi.   This list will be updated throughout the year, so check back and see the latest powerhouse startups that are now worth over $1 billion. November Genspark — $1.25nbsp;billion: This company builds AI agents to help automate tasks. It raised a $275 million Series B, giving…

Bitcoin and companies tied to cryptocurrencies extended a nearly two-month swoon Monday, tracking with a broader market sell-off in technology companies that many see as overvalued.Bitcoin, which soared to a record $126,210.50 on Oct. 6 according to crypto trading platform Coinbase, slid 11.8% to below $85,000. That’s a decline of about 33% in just eight weeks. Stocks across the crypto industry tumbled, with Coinbase Global sinking 5.1% and online trading platform Robinhood Markets losing 5.2%. Bitcoin mining company Riot Platforms dropped 5.4%.Strategy, the biggest of the so-called crypto treasury companies that raises money just to buy bitcoin, tumbled 10.3%. The…

Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, attends the annual Allen and Co. Sun Valley Media and Technology Conference at the Sun Valley Resort in Sun Valley, Idaho, on July 8, 2025.David A. Grogan | CNBCOpenAI on Monday announced it is taking an ownership stake in Thrive Holdings, a company that was launched by one of its major investors, Thrive Capital, in April. The startup said it will embed engineering, research and product teams within Thrive Holdings’ companies to help accelerate their AI adoption and boost cost efficiency. Thrive Holdings buys, owns and runs companies that it believes could benefit from technologies…