Author: GT

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman speaks next to SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son after U.S. President Donald Trump delivered remarks on AI infrastructure at the Roosevelt Room in the White House in Washington on Jan. 21, 2025.Carlos Barria | ReutersOpenAI said last week that it would restructure in a format that allows its non-profit entity to retain ultimate control, a plan that on Tuesday received the blessing of one of the U.S. artificial intelligence startup’s biggest backers — Japanese giant SoftBank.The endorsement of SoftBank — the first time the company has publicly green lit the plan — is key because the Japanese…

AllTrails, the hiking and biking companion that was named 2023’s iPhone App of the Year, is launching a new premium membership called “Peak” that includes an upgraded feature set. This $80-per-year subscription will introduce AI tools to build custom routes and provide real-time trail condition forecasts, trail traffic heatmaps, and a feature that lets you identify trees and plants using your phone’s camera. The new option will initially roll out in the next few weeks to select members and will be available globally to all users by June. AllTrails users can sign up for early access on its website. A…

An analysis by Epoch AI, a nonprofit AI research institute, suggests the AI industry may not be able to eke massive performance gains out of reasoning AI models for much longer. As soon as within a year, progress from reasoning models could slow down, according to the report’s findings. Reasoning models such as OpenAI’s o3 have led to substantial gains on AI benchmarks in recent months, particularly benchmarks measuring math and programming skills. The models can apply more computing to problems, which can improve their performance, with the downside being that they take longer than conventional models to complete tasks.…

Hungry to learn more about Anthropic, directly from Anthropic? You aren’t alone if so, which is why we’re so delighted to announce that Anthropic co-founder and Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan is joining the main stage at TechCrunch Sessions: AI on June 5 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. And TechCrunch Sessions: AI is right around the corner! To celebrate the chance to broaden the AI community, we’re offering a limited-time discount on our tickets. For just $292 you can get access to our entire day of programming and networking — and if you bring a friend, that second ticket will be…

SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son delivers remarks next to U.S. President Donald Trump at an ‘Investing in America’ event in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 30, 2025. Leah Millis | ReutersSoftbank’s Vision Fund business on Tuesday posted a loss in the fiscal year ended March as it booked slowing gains at its massive tech investment arm.SoftBank said it notched a gain on investment at its Vision Funds of 434.9 billion yen in the fiscal year, a 40% fall from the 724.3 billion yen booked in the previous year. The Vision Fund segment overall logged a pretax loss of 115.02 billion yen ($777.7…

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is using his olive oil inefficiently in an “offense to horticulture,” the Financial Times humorously reports. For its “Lunch with the FT” series, the paper joined Altman in his kitchen. He prepared a garlicky pasta and salad, taking a rare break from his demanding job of advocating for the disruption of American copyright law. Altman uses Graza olive oil, which comes in beautifully branded squeeze bottles that are popular on social media (he is a millennial, after all). But Altman’s preference for over-priced, “trendy” oil is not the crime — the crime is that he appears…

On Monday, Google announced the launch of its AI Futures Fund, a new initiative that seeks to invest in startups that are building with the latest AI tools from Google DeepMind, the company’s AI R&D lab.  The fund will back startups from seed to late stage and will offer varying degrees of support, including allowing founders to have early access to Google AI models from DeepMind, the ability to work with Google experts from DeepMind and Google Labs, and Google Cloud credits. Some startups will also have the opportunity to receive direct investment from Google.  “The AI Futures Fund doesn’t…

Mercury co-founder and CEO Immad Akhund today announced the launch of a $26 million fund to back early-stage startups, a move that formalizes his extensive history of angel investing. Axios first reported this in February. Akhund has been an active angel investor since 2016, backing over 350 startups at their earliest stages. His portfolio includes companies such as Airtable, Applied Intuition, Decagon, Gecko Robotics, Linear, and Substack, among others. “I love supporting entrepreneurs – whether it’s through building Mercury or investing. It gives me energy, perspective, and deep satisfaction to help ambitious founders build the future. A dedicated fund allows…

The United States population is older than it has ever been. Today, the country’s median age is 38.9, which is nearly a decade older than it was in 1980. And the number of adults older than 65 is expected to balloon from 58 million to 82 million by 2050. The challenge of caring for the elderly, amid shortages in care workers, rising health care costs, and evolving family structures, is an increasingly urgent societal issue.To help address the eldercare challenge, a team of MIT engineers is looking to robotics. They have built and tested the Elderly Bodily Assistance Robot, or…

Rep. Gerald Connolly, ranking member of the U.S. House Oversight Committee, has initiated an investigation into whether expense management startup Ramp is receiving preferential treatment in its bid for a $25 million government contract. Connolly sent a letter to General Services Administration (GSA) Acting Administrator Stephen Ehikian demanding information and documents related to the GSA’s reported plans to award a contract for a pilot program to Ramp. News of the probe was first reported by ProPublica. Among Connolly’s biggest concerns are that Ramp allegedly has “zero federal contracting experience” and its investors include a number of Trump allies and supporters.…