Category: Uncategorized

FinSMEs: Germany-based Sastrify, which operates a marketplace for buying and managing SaaS subscriptions, raised a $32M Series B, bringing its total funding to $55.2M  —  Sastrify, a Cologne, Germany-based provider of a platform for buying and managing SaaS subscriptions, raised $32M in Series B funding.

The Verge: A California jury finds Google’s products infringed on a Sonos smart speaker patent and orders Google to pay $32.5M, or $2.30 for each of the 14M+ devices sold  —  Google has been ordered to pay Sonos $32.5 million for infringing on the company’s smart speaker patent.

The brain implant company Neuralink, founded by Elon Musk among others, previously tested implants in pigs and monkeys. Now it has approval for human trials

A trick for asking questions using capital letters seems to baffle artificial intelligences like ChatGPT, while humans can easily give the right answer

The US actors’ union will negotiate with Hollywood studios over the rights to use AI to create “digital twins” of actors, and the results could determine the viability of acting as a career

MIT undergraduates Rupert Li and Audrey Xie have been selected to receive Barry Goldwater Scholarships for the 2023-24 academic year. From an estimated pool of more than 5,000 college sophomores and juniors, nearly 1,300 students were nominated by 427 academic institutions to compete for the scholarship, with Li and Xie representing two of only 413 […]

How might AI breakthroughs change the larger systems we operate within?

The “interdisciplinary approach” is something that has been lauded for decades for its ability to break down silos and create new integrated approaches to research. For Munther Dahleh, founding director of the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), showing the community that data science and statistics can transcend individual disciplines and form a […]

Leaders should focus less on automation and more on innovation.

A new set of principles to encourage responsibility, legitimacy, accountability, and transparency.

Scientists are “watching with bated breath” to see if ice will return to normal levels. The planetary consequences could be huge.

Wondering where to start during this weekend’s sales bonanza? Right here.

What better way to kick off the summer than with an upgrade to TV, camera, headphones, and more?

Emma Roth / The Verge: German newspaper Handelsblatt: a Tesla whistleblower leaked 100GB of data on customer FSD complaints from 2015 to 2022, including 2,400 self-acceleration issues  —  A Tesla whistleblower has leaked 100GB of data to the German outlet Handelsblatt containing thousands of customer complaints …

Reuters: The UK CMA says Meta has offered to limit use of other businesses’ ad data for Facebook Marketplace to address the regulator’s competition concerns  —  UK’s competition watchdog on Friday said social media giant Meta Platforms Inc had offered to limit the use of other businesses’ advertising data in order to address its concerns.

Wired: An interview with Pitchfork EIC Puja Patel on how AI is infiltrating every single aspect of music, AI-generated music’s ownership and money concerns, and more  —  We talk to Puja Patel, editor in chief of Pitchfork and cohost of The Pitchfork Review, about how AI is taking over our feeds and where it goes […]

The coinventor of “bcrypt” is reflecting on the ubiquitous function’s 25 years and channeling cybersecurity’s core themes into electronic dance music.

A few years ago, humanoid robots were clumsy and awkward. Now several startups claim to have models almost ready to go to work in warehouses and factories.

From Swan Song to CODA, here’s everything you should be watching on Apple’s streaming service.

Bloomberg: DCG is shutting down its institutional crypto trading platform TradeBlock, citing the crypto winter and regulatory uncertainties, effective May 31, 2023  —  Digital Currency Group, the digital-asset conglomerate that is negotiating with creditors of its bankrupt lending business …

Hugh Son / CNBC: Filing: JPMorgan Chase is working on a ChatGPT-like software service dubbed IndexGPT that uses AI to analyze and select investments tailored to customer needs  —  – JPMorgan Chase is developing a ChatGPT-like software service that leans on a disruptive form of artificial intelligence …

Akriti Sharma / Reuters: Neuralink says it received US FDA approval to launch its first-in-human clinical study of brain implants  —  Elon Musk’s brain-implant company Neuralink on Thursday said it had received U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval to launch first-in-human clinical study.

A fluxonium qubit can keep its most useful quantum properties for about 1.48 milliseconds, drastically longer than similar qubits currently favoured by the quantum computing industry

Kelsey Merrill ’22, MEng ’23, a master’s of engineering student in electrical engineering and computer science, has been recognized by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge (ALL IN) for her outstanding efforts to advance nonpartisan democratic engagement at MIT. She joins 175 students nationwide named to the ALL IN Student Voting Honor Roll for promoting […]

If we could rewind the tape of species evolution around the world and play it forward over hundreds of millions of years to the present day, we would see biodiversity clustering around regions of tectonic turmoil. Tectonically active regions such as the Himalayan and Andean mountains are especially rich in flora and fauna due to […]

When staff in MIT’s Department of Facilities would visualize energy use and carbon-associated emissions by campus buildings, Building 46 always stood out — attributed to its energy intensity, which accounted for 8 percent of MIT’s total campus energy use. This high energy draw was not surprising, as the building is home of the Brain and […]

Conversations with experts about the imminent tradeoffs facing senior leaders.

How to overcome the limitations of our self-serving biases.

It’s critical to schedule time for simulated exercises and “scrimmages.”

Access Now: Pegasus was used in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict to target a government worker, a UN official, and others in 2021 and 2022, the first known use in a war  —  The Armenia spyware victims include a former Human Rights Defender of the Republic of Armenia (the Ombudsperson) …

A security review describes how attackers exploited mistakes to steal millions of dollars worth of bitcoin.

The sun is out, the flowers are budding, and it’s time to revel in your new running shoes and sleeping pads.

The internet has led to the rise of a ‘hyper-modern’ pan-Asian beauty ideal.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Starling Bank CEO Anne Boden steps down, replaced by COO John Mountain as interim CEO; Starling, which has raised over $1B, reports £453M in FY2023 revenue  —  Anne Boden nearly lost a grip on Starling Bank years ago when the neobank was in the middle of a coup effort led by […]

Financial Times: Sam Altman says he has “many concerns” about the EU’s proposed AI Act and OpenAI “will try to comply, but if we can’t comply we will cease operating”  —  ChatGPT chief Sam Altman voices ‘many concerns’ over bloc’s planned legislation

Every three to five days, all of the cells lining the human intestine are replaced. That constant replenishment of cells helps the intestinal lining withstand the damage caused by food passing through the digestive tract. This rapid turnover of cells relies on intestinal stem cells, which give rise to all of the other types of […]

A fluxonium qubit can keep its most useful quantum properties for about 1.48 milliseconds, drastically longer than similar qubits currently favoured by the quantum computing industry

On a stop in London, the OpenAI CEO called for balanced regulation and warned of the risks of deepfake disinformation.

Researchers say the state-sponsored espionage operation may also lay the groundwork for disruptive cyberattacks.

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Elementl, which offers data orchestration services based on Dagster, raised a $33M Series B led by Georgian, bringing its total funding to $48.8M  —  Elementl, a startup that is building a data platform based on the popular Dagster orchestrator, today announced that it has raised a $33 million Series B round […]

Become a jack of nearly all trades with the right multi-tool in your glove box or pocket.

The Verge: Sony announces a handheld device, known as Project Q, with an 8-inch screen for streaming games from a PS5 via Remote Play over Wi-Fi, launching later in 2023  —  Sony has officially confirmed it’s working on a PlayStation handheld to make it easier to play your PS5 games.

Kevin Breuninger / CNBC: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement on Twitter Spaces suffers crashes, feedback glitches, and audio failures  —  – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement plans evening were derailed by massive technical glitches on Twitter that prevented him from declaring his candidacy.

Existing solar cells are normally only used on flat, static surfaces to avoid them cracking, but now there is a flexible alternative with the same energy-generating efficiency

Imagine you’re enjoying a picnic by a riverbank on a windy day. A gust of wind accidentally catches your paper napkin and lands on the water’s surface, quickly drifting away from you. You grab a nearby stick and carefully agitate the water to retrieve it, creating a series of small waves. These waves eventually push […]

On April 24, MIT celebrated outstanding students and employees at the annual Change-Maker Awards for their diligent work to eradicate sexual misconduct and support survivors. These architects of positive change exemplify one of MIT’s core values: striving to make our community a more humane and welcoming place where all can thrive. Hosted by MIT Violence […]

Five criteria to determine when — and to what degree — to democratize data.

Is AI the future of the Web?

Big isn’t categorically bad, but it should invite public suspicion and scrutiny.

Conversation around generative AI tends to focus on whether its development is open or closed. It’s more responsible to envision releases along a gradient.