Not every former top FTX executive is heading to prison. Gary Wang, former FTX chief technical officer, was spared prison time by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan today. Judge Kaplan praised Wang’s cooperation with federal authorities. Wang testified against former FTX founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried at his trial last fall. Wang pleaded guilty to four felony counts of fraud and conspiracy. Former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison last year, a sentence he filed to appeal in September. Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of FTX-affiliated Alameda Research, was sentenced to two years in prison in…
Author: Olsi
A pigeon-inspired flying robot is solving avian mysteries that may help create more stable aircrafts. While birds seem to seamlessly maintain stability during turbulence, airplanes need rudders and vertical tails to avoid being rocked from side to side. Scientists have suspected that birds maintain balance by reflexively adjusting their wings and tails but this hypothesis has been hard to prove with real birds in field studies. To overcome this challenge, scientists at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), developed PigeonBot II, a robot equipped with morphing wings, pigeon-like wingtips, and even 52 real pigeon feathers. Just like…
NASA has confirmed over 5,780 worlds beyond our solar system, called exoplanets. But it’s rare to detect a juvenile, still-maturing planet, because they inhabit chaotic systems that are flush with obscuring dust and gas. By chance, this distant debris has parted, allowing researchers using the sensitive cameras aboard the space agency’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to spot such a planet. “A huge planet with a long name—IRAS 04125+2902 b—is really just a baby: only 3 million years old,” NASA recently explained. “And because such infant worlds are usually hidden inside obscuring disks of debris, it is the youngest planet…
Lawyers for The New York Times and Daily News, which are suing OpenAI for allegedly scraping their works to train its AI models without permission, say OpenAI engineers accidentally deleted data potentially relevant to the case. Earlier this fall, OpenAI agreed to provide two virtual machines so that counsel for The Times and Daily News could perform searches for their copyrighted content in its AI training sets. (Virtual machines are software-based computers that exist within another computer’s operating system, often used for the purposes of testing, backing up data, and running apps.) In a letter, attorneys for the publishers say…
This new interface aims to enhance user experience by providing a more intuitive layout and easier navigation through content. With features like personalized recommendations and a centralized library, users can now enjoy a seamless streaming experience. Streaming service and media software maker Plex on Friday introduced a redesign of its software that puts more emphasis on discovery, easily accessing your watchlist, and other personalization features — including those for home media enthusiasts who still use the app to organize their media libraries. Over the years, the company has tried to balance its history as a software maker focused on home…
The Silicon Valley dream is to build a tech startup that is such a unique idea it alters the commercial universe and turns its founders into billionaires. Participating in the Valley’s most famed startup factory, Y Combinator, is often part of that dream. Airbnb, Coinbase, and Stripe all got started there. Yet, a deep dive into the data from all of the nearly 5,000 companies YC has backed to date reveals a surprising truth: YC startups don’t have to be unique. Far from it. YC commonly accepts startups that are building similar or nearly identical products to previous YC grads.…
Despite all the talk of doom and gloom about the economy, entrepreneurship is actually on the rise in the U.S.: In 2024, an average of 430,000 new business applications were submitted every month, marking a 50% rise from 2019. But the number of accountants these new businesses will need to maintain their books, file taxes, and do related accounting work is dipping. Nearly 75% of CPAs are expected to retire in a decade, and fewer graduates are choosing accounting because it simply doesn’t pay as much as fields like technology and finance. Serial entrepreneur David Phillips sees an opportunity to…
Teleo describes itself as a construction robotics startup, but its mission is bigger than automating heavy equipment like excavators and tractors. Today, Teleo’s retrofitted machinery allows its customers to operate their existing fleets semi-autonomously. In the future, the startup sees the data it collects as a key enabler for the robotics industry to reach its “ChatGPT moment.” That isn’t an aspiration to reach the same level of hype surrounding ChatGPT. Instead, Teleo CEO Vinay Shet sees an opportunity for robotics companies—and namely the one he runs—to gather vast datasets similar to amounts used to build ChatGPT in order to make…
Crusoe, a rumored OpenAI data center vendor, has secured $686 million in new funding; filing shows that the investment will be used to expand its infrastructure and enhance its technology offerings. This significant financial backing underscores the growing demand for cloud computing services and positions Crusoe as a key player in the industry. Crusoe Energy, a startup building data centers reportedly to be leased to Oracle, Microsoft, and OpenAI, is in the process of raising $818 million, according to an SEC filing. The filing indicates that Crusoe has secured $686 million of the $818 million total that it hopes to…
Electric passenger boat startup Candela has topped off its most recent raise with another $14 million, the company announced Thursday, and has sold the first of its ferries in the U.S. — bound for Lake Tahoe. Candela makes a series of all-electric hydrofoiling watercraft, meaning the body of the boat rises above the surface of the water on fins as it gets up to speed. This looks a little precarious but is actually quite stable (I’ve piloted one myself) and helps reduce water resistance, raising range and smoothing out the ride. Earlier this year, the Swedish company raised $25 million…
