[ad_1] Tech companies, data center developers, and power utilities have been panicking over the prospect of runaway demand for electricity in the U.S. in the face of unprecedented growth in AI. Amidst all the hand wringing, a new paper published this week suggests the situation might not be so dire if data center operators and other heavy electricity users curtail their use ever so slightly. By limiting power drawn from
[ad_1] In his annual letter, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan dubbed AI one of the company’s four “big bets” for 2025. The executive pointed to the company’s investments in AI tools for creators, including ones for video ideas, thumbnails, and language translation. The latter feature will roll out to all creators in YouTube’s Partner Program this month, the company said, while another AI feature will identify users’ ages to customize appropriate
[ad_1] A number of startups are racing to make vehicle inspections faster, easier, and cheaper. Self Inspection, a startup based in San Diego, thinks it has them all beat with its AI-powered service — and now it has convinced outside investors. Self Inspection, founded in 2021, is set to announce Thursday it’s raised $3 million in a seed round co-led by Costanoa Ventures and DVx Ventures, the firm run by
[ad_1] Tech companies may be vocal about their love of advanced nuclear power — the flashy trend that’s been sweeping the energy sector — but they continue to add renewable capacity. Meta recently signed a deal with Spanish renewable developer Zelestra for 595 megawatts of solar power in Texas, just two weeks after signing a separate solar deal with utility company Engie. It’s a significant purchase for the tech company,
[ad_1] Apple released new software updates on Monday, including iOS 18.3, which automatically opts users into Apple Intelligence, at least for newer devices. Unlike what the tech industry seems to think, or wants to believe, not everyone wants generative AI features enabled by default on their devices. You may want to switch off the new AI features because you are concerned about the AI industry’s impact on the environment or
[ad_1] Tim Barat loved being a lineman at an electric company in Australia, where he grew up, even in the chaos of the Black Saturday brushfires in 2009 that torched over 1 million acres and left many without power or homes. But when he moved to the U.S. in 2013, his wife was less enthusiastic about him continuing down that path. “My wife didn’t want me working on high voltage
[ad_1] A lot can change in a few months. The climate tech world hasn’t exactly been turned upside down, but it’s definitely more askew than it was in the summer. The U.S. federal election results may have imperiled the startup-friendly Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), likely throwing a wrench into many companies’ business plans. Yet at the same time, AI’s skyrocketing computing needs have driven data center operators scouring the earth
[ad_1] For some, AI fatigue is real. But clearly venture investors haven’t grown tired of the category. AI deals continued to dominate venture funding during the third quarter. AI companies raised $19 billion in Q3, according to Crunchbase data. That figure represents 28% of all venture funding. The fourth quarter of 2024 has been no less busy for these outsized rounds. Elon Musk’s xAI raised a behemoth $6 billion round,
[ad_1] World models, also known as world simulators, are being touted by some as the next big thing in AI. AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs has raised $230 million to build “large world models,” and DeepMind hired one of the creators of OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, to work on “world simulators.” (Sora was released on Monday; here are some early impressions.) But what the heck are these things? World
[ad_1] After famed investor Marc Andreessen met with government officials about the future of tech last May, he was “very scared” and described the meetings as “absolutely horrifying.” These meetings played a key role on why he endorsed Trump, he told journalist Bari Weiss this week on her podcast. What scared him most was what some said about the government’s role in AI, and what he described as a young
