Author: GT

Austin Russell, who became a billionaire after his lidar startup Luminar went public, appears to be out as CEO, according to the company’s board. Luminar’s board announced Wednesday — the same day of its first-quarter earnings report — it had replaced Russell and appointed Paul Ricci to the role. Ricci is the former chairman and CEO of Nuance. The press release states that Russell resigned as president and CEO and as the chairperson of the board, effective immediately. The board said in the press release the resignation followed a code of business conduct and ethics inquiry for the audit committee…

Legal tech startup Harvey is in discussions to raise more than $250 million in a funding round led by Kleiner Perkins and Coatue that would value it at $5 billion, Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources. Sequoia Capital, which led the startup’s $300 million Series D just three months ago, is also expected to invest in this new round, Reuters reported, adding that investors are mostly drawn to the startup’s quick traction in the market. Harvey has enjoyed fast growth as lawyers and legal firms around the world find ways to use generative AI tech to simplify research, documentation, and quickly…

The Department of Commerce (DOC) has slammed the brakes on the sweeping “AI Diffusion Rule,” yanking it just a day before it was due to bite. Meanwhile, officials have laid down the gauntlet with stricter measures to control semiconductor exports.The AI Diffusion Rule, a piece of regulation cooked up under the Biden administration, was staring down a compliance deadline of May 15th. According to the folks at the DOC, letting this rule roll out would have been like throwing a spanner in the works of American innovation.DOC officials argue the rule would have saddled tech firms with “burdensome new regulatory…

People are using AI video generation tools to contribute to an unexpected new viral trend: podcasts featuring AI-generated talking babies. And one of the companies helping artists do this is Hedra. The startup, launched in 2023, offers a web-based video generation and editing suite powered by its Character-3 model, which lets users make videos with an AI-generated character as the focus, as well as transfer styles across images and audio. This is what people are using to make podcast videos like this one, in which an AI-generated dog talks about what it’s like to live with a new baby in…

Donald Trump speaks alongside Apple CEO Tim Cook (L) during the first meeting of the American Workforce Policy Advisory Board in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, March 6, 2019.Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty ImagesU.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he told Apple CEO Tim Cook that he doesn’t want the tech giant to build its products in India, taking shots at the company’s moves to diversify production away from China and urging him to pivot Stateside.”I had a little problem with Tim Cook yesterday,” Trump said. “I said to him, ‘my friend,…

South Korea has once again postponed a decision on whether to approve Google’s request to transfer high-precision map data on the country’s geography to its international servers. In February, Google had requested approval from the Korean National Geographic Information Institute to deploy a 1:5,000 scale map on its app in the country and also transfer that data to its servers abroad, a spokesperson for the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport confirmed to TechCrunch. The government was supposed to finalize its decision within 60 days, by mid-May, but the deadline has now been moved to August 11 as…

LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators accused TikTok on Thursday of breaching digital safety rules because of shortcomings in the video sharing app’s online ad database. TikTok’s ad repository isn’t up to the standards required by the bloc’s Digital Services Act, known as the DSA, the 27-nation EU’s executive Commission said in preliminary findings from its investigation. The Commission said ad databases are vital for researchers to detect scam ads as well as so-called hybrid threat campaigns, coordinated information operations and fake ads, “including in the context of elections.”The DSA is a wide-ranging rulebook that aims to clean up social…

The Persian Gulf Star gas condensate refinery in Bandar Abbas, Iran, on Jan. 9, 2019.Ali Mohammadi | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesOil prices fell sharply on Thursday on expectations that the U.S. and Iran may soon reach a deal over Tehran’s nuclear program.International benchmark Brent crude futures with July expiry were last seen trading 3.6% lower at $63.67 a barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures stood at $60.64, down 4% for the session.Speaking in Doha, Qatar during his Middle East trip, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. was getting close to securing a nuclear deal with Iran.”We’re in very…

The Alibaba office building in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, China, on Aug. 28, 2024.CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty ImagesAlibaba shares fell on Thursday after the Chinese e-commerce giant missed earnings expectations for its fiscal fourth quarter on both the top and bottom line.Shares were down 5% in premarket trade in the U.S. at 6:02 a.m. ET.Here’s how Alibaba did in its fiscal fourth quarter ended March versus LSEG estimates:Revenue: 236.5 billion Chinese yuan ($32.6 Billion), versus 237.2 billion yuan expectedNet income: 12.4 billion yuan, compared 24.7 billion expected.While falling short of analyst expectations, revenue was nevertheless up 7% year-on-year.Alibaba’s net…

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has missed a self-imposed deadline to publish a finalized AI safety framework, as noted by watchdog group The Midas Project. xAI isn’t exactly known for its strong commitments to AI safety as it’s commonly understood. A recent report found that the company’s AI chatbot, Grok, would undress photos of women when asked. Grok can also be considerably more crass than chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT, cursing without much restraint to speak of. Nonetheless, in February at the AI Seoul Summit, a global gathering of AI leaders and stakeholders, xAI published a draft framework outlining the company’s…