Author: GT

A group of ex-OpenAI employees on Friday filed a proposed amicus brief in support of Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, opposing OpenAI’s planned conversion from a nonprofit to a for-profit corporation. The brief, filed by Harvard law professor and Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig, names 12 former OpenAI employees: Steven Adler, Rosemary Campbell, Neil Chowdhury, Jacob Hilton, Daniel Kokotajlo, Gretchen Krueger, Todor Markov, Richard Ngo, Girish Sastry, William Saunders, Carrol Wainwright, and Jeffrey Wu. It makes the case that, if OpenAI’s non-profit ceded control of the organization’s business operations, it would “fundamentally violate its mission.” Several of the…

A new shipbuilding startup called Blue Water Autonomy has emerged from stealth with the promise of developing captain-less naval ships. The Boston, Massachusetts-based company has raised a $14 million seed round from Eclipse, Riot, and Impatient Ventures. The startup was founded in 2024 by former members of the U.S. Navy, leaders of Amazon Robotics, and iRobot. Blue Water Autonomy joins an ever-growing list of startups that are taking advantage of a splurge in defense investment. Defense tech funding set a new record in 2024, led by Anduril’s $1.5 billion Series F round and Saronic — another autonomous maritime startup that…

A court hearing on the sale of bankrupt electric truck startup Nikola’s assets to Lucid Motors was going smoothly on Friday. No objections had been filed to the transaction, and Delaware bankruptcy judge Thomas Horan verbally approved it without hesitation. Until, that is, a lawyer piped up on the Zoom call toward the end of the hearing. The lawyer said his client “has some concerns” about the way the auction process was run. Those could be addressed at a later date, he said, but he stressed he didn’t want his client’s silence to “be held against us in the future.”…

The price of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has plunged by nearly 20% so far this year. In 2024, BTC surpassed the $100,000 mark several times. Recently, BTC has traded below $80,000. Many investors believe more pain is on the way. But the statistics below suggest bullishness, especially for longterm holders. Bitcoin has long been a speculative asset held by those bullish on crypto. It took years for this popular cryptocurrency to gain credibility outside these circles. That was largely due to the difficulties around how to buy Bitcoin, particularly in areas related to self-custody and tax implications. The launch of several…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs. If there is one certainty in this uncertain moment, it’s this: U.S. tariff policy is likely to change again. As of Friday morning, there is a 90-day pause on “reciprocal” tariffs placed on most countries. However, 10% base tariffs remain and President Trump has ratcheted up tariffs against China to about 145%.  Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives slashed his price targets for Apple and Tesla because tariffs threaten to…

OSAKA, Japan (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, speaking at Saturday’s opening ceremony for the Osaka expo, expressed his hope that the event will help restore global unity in a world plagued by conflicts and trade wars. “The world, having overcome the coronavirus pandemic, is now threatened by an array of divisions,” Ishiba said. “At a time like this, it is extremely meaningful that people from around the world gather here and discuss the theme of life and experience cutting-edge technology, diverse ideas and culture.” Expo 2025 Osaka officially opens Sunday, with the theme of life, world and the…

While campaigning for the presidency in 2024, Donald Trump promised to become the “crypto president.” But since he began his second term in January, cryptocurrency values have crashed. Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) saw its price fall from over $100,000 on Inauguration Day to $81,000 as of this writing. It’s worth pointing out that broader financial markets have declined as well, with the S&P 500 down about 12% since President Trump took office. But the current sell-off could be an opportunity for cryptocurrency investors, particularly those interested in Bitcoin. That’s because the policies Trump has put in place could ultimately benefit Bitcoin,…

Small businesses could be crushed under President Trump’s increased tariffs, according to an open letter by 38 female consumer product founders. While Trump paused his tariff increases for 90 days for various countries — setting the rate at 10% for now — China’s was raised to 145%, which includes the previous 20% levy. In the letter, published Thursday, these founders urged Trump and Congress to back off the tariff increases, at least until small businesses can find affordable supply chain alternatives. Short of that, they want exemptions for small businesses. The letter was written by Allison Luvera, founder of Juliet Wine,…

A group of professors specializing in copyright law has filed an amicus brief in support of authors suing Meta for allegedly training its Llama AI models on e-books without permission. The brief, filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division, calls Meta’s fair use defense “a breathtaking request for greater legal privileges than courts have ever granted human authors.” “The use of copyrighted works to train generative models is not ‘transformative,’ because using works for that purpose is not relevantly different from using them to educate human authors, which is a…

Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) used to be similarly valued cryptocurrencies. But Shiba Inu has been underperforming its rival meme coin over the past year, which appears to have gotten a boost from the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agency Elon Musk is behind — its acronym is the same as the symbol for Dogecoin. Given its more modest valuation, however, Shiba Inu’s coin may be in a more favorable position to rally from here on out, relative to its rival. But can it catch up to Dogecoin? Shiba Inu launched its Layer-2 blockchain, Shibarium, in August…