Category: Enterprise
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Meet the soft robots that can amputate limbs and fuse with other robots
Roboticists at The Faboratory at Yale University have developed a way for soft robots to replicate some of the more unsettling things that animals and insects can accomplish — say, a reptile self-amputating a limb, or ants building bridges by temporarily fusing their bodies. In one demo video, we see a soft quadruped robot crawling…
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Wikipedia’s mobile website finally gets a dark mode — here’s how to turn it on
If you visited the Wikipedia website on mobile this week, you might have seen a pop-up indicating that dark mode is ready for prime time. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Half a decade ago, a ton of apps started to implement a dark mode. This included YouTube, Twitter, Facebook,…
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Archer’s vision of an air taxi network could benefit from Southwest customer data
Archer Aviation and Southwest Airlines are teaming up to figure out what it will take to build out a network of electric air taxis at California airports. Southwest’s customer data is at the heart of it. The two companies signed a memorandum of understanding Friday, which sets the foundation for Archer to tap Southwest’s customer…
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From Ethan Choi to Spencer Peterson, venture capitalists continue to play musical chairs
When Keith Rabois announced he was leaving Founders Fund to return to Khosla Ventures in January, it came as a shock to many in the venture capital ecosystem — and not just because Rabois is a big name in the industry. It was surprising because unlike in many other fields, venture capitalists don’t traditionally move…
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New Senate bill seeks to protect artists’ and journalists’ content from AI use
A bipartisan group of senators has introduced a new bill that seeks to protect artists, songwriters and journalists from having their content used to train AI models or generate AI content without their consent. The bill, called the Content Origin Protection and Integrity from Edited and Deepfaked Media Act (COPIED Act), also seeks to make…
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HeadSpin, whose founder is in prison for fraud, sold to PE firm in fire sale, sources say
In total, HeadSpin raised $117 million since its 2015 inception and was last valued at $1.1 billion in 2020. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Canadian private equity firm PartnerOne has acquired HeadSpin in a fire sale, TechCrunch has learned exclusively. And most of its former employees received nothing for…
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Experiment finds AI boosts creativity individually — but lowers it collectively
A new study examines whether AI could be an automated helpmeet in creative tasks, with mixed results: It appeared to help less naturally creative people write more original short stories — but dampened the creativity of the group as a whole. It’s a trade-off that may be increasingly common as AI tools impinge on creative…
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A VC told Keely Cat-Wells to get a male, non-disabled co-founder — she balked, nabbed a $2M pre-seed round
Cat-Wells said she started this platform because traditional hiring processes are exclusionary and often overlook skilled, talented disabled people. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Talent acquisition platform Making Space, founded in 2023 by noted disability activist Keely Cat-Wells, announced today that it has closed on an oversubscribed $2 million…
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Defending Russia’s EU neighbors
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. This week we’re looking at an AI startup that wants to help people get creative with video; Kudos, which raised $3 million to help get rid…
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Waymo cameras capture footage of person charged in alleged robotaxi tire slashings
A Castro Valley resident was charged Thursday for allegedly slashing the tires of 17 Waymo robotaxis in San Francisco between June 24 and June 26, according to the city’s district attorney. Prosecutors say the tire slashings were captured by cameras installed on the exterior of Waymo’s robotaxis. This is the latest incident of Waymo vandalism…