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How an over-the-air update made Quilt’s heat pumps more powerful

Hardware /

Software might be eating the world, but it’s taking some industries longer than others to realize its full potential. From iPhones to Teslas, people have grown accustomed to software updates improving the stuff they already own. But outside consumer electronics and automobiles, over-the-air updates aren’t commonplace yet. Yet that’s beginning to change, starting with an […]

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How Bill Gates’s fellowship program is adapting to global uncertainty

Fundraising /

There’s plenty of uncertainty to go around this year, including a global trade war, shifting policy priorities, and an economy that’s starting to stumble. Breakthrough Energy, a climate tech organization founded by Bill Gates, has also been shifting in response. The group always placed long bets, though it appears to be reappraising some of them.

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AI gaming startup Born raises $15M to build ‘social’ AI companions that combat loneliness

Gaming /

Fabian Kamberi, CEO and co-founder of the Berlin-based AI gaming startup Born, thinks the current AI companions on the market are designed to be exploitative and geared towards isolating users through one-to-one relationships with AI chatbots.  “It feels like it fuels the loneliness epidemic, instead of making it more fun and giving users the opportunity

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Ex-Google X trio wants their AI to be your second brain — and they just raised $6M to make it happen

Apps /

Three former Google X scientists aim to give you a second brain virtually — not in the sci-fi or chip-in-your-head sense — but through an AI-powered app that gains context by listening to everything you say in the background. Their startup, TwinMind, has raised $5.7 million in seed funding and released an Android version, along

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Geothermal is too expensive, but Dig Energy’s impossibly small drill rig might fix that

Climate /

On a farm near Manchester, New Hampshire, I was recently treated to a gusher of dirty water, not exactly the sort of thing that most startups will show a reporter. But for Dig Energy, the mud is a feature, not a bug, of its compact drilling rig.  The startup, which has been operating in stealth

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OpenAI reorganizes research team behind ChatGPT’s personality

AI /

OpenAI is reorganizing its Model Behavior team, a small but influential group of researchers that shape how the company’s AI models interact with people, TechCrunch has learned. In an August memo to staff seen by TechCrunch, OpenAI’s Chief Research Officer Mark Chen said the Model Behavior team — which consists of roughly 14 researchers —

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Snapchat’s new Lens lets you create AI images using text prompts

Apps /

Snapchat is launching a new Lens that lets users create and edit images using a text-to-image AI generator, the company told TechCrunch exclusively. The new “Imagine Lens” is available to Snapchat+ Platinum and Lens+ subscribers. Imagine Lens allows users to create, edit, and recreate Snaps by entering their own prompts. They can then share the

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CoreWeave acquires agent-training startup OpenPipe

AI /

CoreWeave, which provides cloud servers to large companies training AI models, has struck an agreement to acquire OpenPipe, a 2-year-old Y Combinator-backed startup that helps enterprises develop customized AI agents with reinforcement learning, the companies announced on Wednesday. “Reinforcement learning is emerging as a pivotal force to strengthen model performance on agentic and reasoning tasks,”

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Lovable’s CEO isn’t too worried about the vibe-coding competition

AI /

Every seat in Copenhagen’s Bella Center was full as Anton Osika, the co-founder of the vibe coding app Lovable, took the stage at this year’s TechBBQ conference. Lovable specializes in helping people build apps and websites, especially people with no coding experience. It’s one of the standouts in the popular AI category known as vibe-coding,

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