Meanwhile, the Trump family’s crypto empire continues to expand. In late March, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., the president’s sons, announced a new bitcoin mining venture. Shortly before that, the parent company of Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform, entered an agreement to launch a series of crypto-exchange-traded funds. President Trump himself has previously…
All of the 400 exposed AI systems found by UpGuard have one thing in common: They use the open source AI framework called llama.cpp. This software allows people to relatively easily deploy open source AI models on their own systems or servers. However, if it is not set up properly, it can inadvertently expose prompts…
Denza was originally founded in 2010 as a joint venture between BYD and Mercedes-Benz, launching its first car into the Chinese market in 2014. Now wholly owned by BYD, it went through a significant rebrand in 2021, with Wolfgang Egger—who previously led design teams at Audi and Lamborghini—joining at the helm as chief designer. The…
Stanford’s report shows Chinese AI is on the rise overall, with models from Chinese companies scoring similar to their US counterparts on the LMSYS benchmark. It notes that China publishes more AI papers and files more AI-related patents than the US, although it does not assess the quality of either. The US, in contrast, produces…
Known as the de minimis exemption, it has been used by the Chinese shopping giants Shein and Temu to send millions of packages to the US each year duty-free, helping keep the prices of their products low for Americans. But the exemption is also important for marketplaces like eBay and Etsy that allow people in…
On Tuesday, US district judge Beryl Howell effectively allowed the transfer of the headquarters building of the United States Institute of Peace to the General Services Administration. In fact, the building—and all of the property inside it—had already been transferred on Saturday, according to Howell’s ruling. “The deal is no longer merely ‘proposed’ but done,”…
Elon Musk’s xAI is facing a potential trademark dispute over the name of its chatbot, Grok. The company’s trademark application with the US Patent and Trademark Office has been suspended after the agency argued the name could be confused with that of two other companies, AI chipmaker Groq and software provider Grokstream. Now, a third…
This week on Uncanny Valley, our hosts ask what impact religion will have on Silicon Valley.
Genetic testing company 23andMe, once a Silicon Valley darling valued at $6 billion, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late Sunday as it prepares for a sale of the business. CEO Anne Wojcicki, who cofounded the company in 2006, has also stepped down after months of failed attempts to take the firm private. As uncertainty…
Dave Cottlehuber, the founder of SkunkWerks, a small tech infrastructure firm in Austria, says he has been moving the company’s few servers and databases away from US providers to European services since the start of the year. “First and foremost, it’s about values,” Cottlehuber says. “For me, privacy is a right not a privilege.” Cottlehuber…