Lightmatter’s photonic AI hardware is ready to shine with $154M in new funding

Photonic computing startup Lightmatter is taking its big shot at the rapidly growing AI computation market with a hardware-software combo it claims will help the industry level up — and save a lot of electricity to boot. Lightmatter’s chips basically use optical flow to solve...

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Amazon settles with FTC for $25M after ‘flouting’ kids’ privacy and deletion requests

Amazon will pay the FTC a $25 million penalty as well as “overhaul its deletion practices and implement stringent privacy safeguards” to avoid charges of violating the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act to spruce up its AI. Amazon’s voice interface Alexa has been in use in homes across the globe for years, and any parent who has one knows that...

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Toyota adds $2.1B to its US battery factory expansion plans

Toyota will spend an additional $2.1 billion to build a new battery plant in North Carolina, the latest sign that the automaker is attempting to catch up with an industry that has embraced the move to electric vehicles. The Japanese automaker also announced Wednesday it will build its first U.S.-made electric SUV at its Kentucky factory, starting from...

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While parents worry, teens are bullying Snapchat AI

While parents fret over Snapchat’s chatbot corrupting their children, Snapchat users have been gaslighting, degrading and emotionally tormenting the app’s new AI companion.  “I am at your service, senpai,” the chatbot told one TikTok user after being trained to whimper on command. “Please have mercy, alpha.”  In a more lighthearted video,...

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Instagram tests new user control for recommended posts, transparency tool for creators

Instagram announced today that it’s testing a new feature that gives users more control over what they see on the social network, along with a new transparency tool for creators. Now, when users see recommended posts, they can select a new “Interested” button that will inform the app that they want to see more of that type of content. The new...

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SellerX acquires US e-commerce roll-up rival Elevate Brands in an all-share deal, raises $64M+

E-commerce aggregators have collectively raised hundreds of millions of dollars over the last several years to push ahead on strategies to consolidate a number of smaller online retailers. Now, the aggregators themselves are the ones getting swallowed up. Today, SellerX, a Berlin-based roll-up play that has raised nearly $900 million in equity and...

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Pluton Biosciences takes its carbon-fixing microbes to market with a fresh $16.6M

Pluton Biosciences is hard at work identifying beneficial microorganisms and putting them to work in agriculture, and just raised a $16.5 million A round to commercialize its most promising finds. The company raised its $6.6 million seed round in 2021, and I reported then about its approach of identifying and isolating microbes and bacteria that perform...

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Instacart’s new feature lets you ‘favorite’ shoppers to have future orders fulfilled by them

Instacart announced today that it’s introducing a new feature that lets you “favorite” repeat shoppers you trust to have your future orders fulfilled by them. The company is testing the feature in the coming weeks with select customers in some regions, including New York City,...

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OpenAI’s Altman and other AI giants back warning of advanced AI as ‘extinction’ risk

Make way for yet another headline-grabbing AI policy intervention: Hundreds of AI scientists, academics, tech CEOs and public figures — from OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis to veteran AI computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton, MIT’s Max Tegmark and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn to Grimes the musician and populist podcaster Sam Harris,...

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Portal’s Mac app helps users focus with immersive backgrounds and audio

Productivity-enhancing app Portal has launched a Mac app. The company helps users regain focus and become more productive with immersive backgrounds and natural sounds. The service has been available through an iOS app since 2019 — the desktop and mobile apps have similar objectives....

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Wellplaece wants to put a smile on dentists’ face with new supply procurement marketplace

There are nearly 186,000 dentist businesses in the U.S., and at any given time, they are replenishing supplies. The process of doing so was traditionally fragmented, with offices relying on between three and seven suppliers, on average. This means someone sits at the computer...

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Amazon is testing dine-in payments in India

After shutting down its food delivery business last year, Amazon India is now experimenting with dine-in payments. The company has initiated a limited introduction of bill payments at restaurants using Amazon Pay. The facility is currently active in select areas of Bengaluru...

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A popular Android app began secretly spying on its users months after it was approved on Google Play

A cybersecurity firm says a popular Android screen recording app that racked up tens of thousands of downloads on Google’s app store subsequently began spying on its users, including by stealing microphone recordings and other documents from the user’s phone. Research by ESET...

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Max Q: Galactic

Hello and welcome back to Max Q! Happy Memorial Day everyone. In this issue: Astranis’ novel approach to GEO satellites Virgin Galactic’s return to the skies News from SpaceX, and more Astranis’ novel approach to internet satellites is starting to pay off Astranis, a satellite...

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