Technology
AI labs just can’t get their employees to stay put. Yesterday’s big AI news was the abrupt and seemingly acrimonious departure of three top executives at Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines lab. All three were quickly snapped up by OpenAI, and now it seems they won’t be the last to leave. Alex Heath is reporting that…
After months of rumors the Trump administration was going to impose tariffs on semiconductors, a tariff has been announced for some chips. The tariff only applies to certain semiconductors, including the Nvidia H200 advanced AI chips set to ship to China. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Wednesday that entailed a 25% tariff on…
Microsoft has signed a deal with Indian startup Varaha to buy more than 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal credits over the next three years, through 2029, expanding its portfolio of carbon removal projects as the tech giant scales up AI and cloud operations. The project will turn cotton crop waste, which is often burned…
Former OpenAI exec Mira Murati’s startup, Thinking Machines Lab, is saying goodbye to two of its co-founders, both of whom are headed back to OpenAI. Another former OpenAI staffer who went to work for Murati’s startup is also headed back to the company. On social media on Wednesday, Murati announced the departure of Barret Zoph,…
The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday it has finalized an order that bans General Motors and its OnStar telematics service from sharing certain consumer data with consumer reporting agencies. The finalized order, which comes a year after the agency reached a proposed settlement with GM, also requires the automaker to be more transparent with its…
Over the weekend, Neel Somani, who is a software engineer, former quant researcher, and a startup founder, was testing the math skills of OpenAI’s new model when he made an unexpected discovery. After pasting the problem into ChatGPT and letting it think for 15 minutes, he came back to a full solution. He evaluated the…
Nicholas Leonard and Derek Caneja wanted to build AI voice agents, but when they went to build the product, they felt many of these voice agents had design flaws. Some of these agents were being built with no-code tools, meaning shipping to production was fast, but the quality of the product was often low. Other…
Shortly after Google announced its new Universal Commerce Protocol for AI-powered shopping agents, a consumer economics watchdog sounded the alarm. In a now viral post on X viewed nearly 400,000 times, Lindsay Owens on Sunday wrote, “Big/bad news for consumers. Google is out today with an announcement of how they plan to integrate shopping into…
New York Governor Kathy Hochul plans to introduce legislation that would effectively legalize robotaxis in the state — except for its most populous metropolis: New York City. Hochul, who made the comments Tuesday during her State of the State address, said the legislation would advance the next phase of the state’s autonomous vehicle pilot program. …
Although public backlash against data centers has been intense over the past 12 months, all of the tech industry’s biggest companies have promised additional buildouts of AI infrastructure in the coming year. That includes OpenAI partner Microsoft, which, on Tuesday, announced what it calls a “community-first” approach to AI Infrastructure. Microsoft’s announcement, which comes only…
