The hosts of the popular business and technology podcast Acquired are raising a new fund to invest in growth-stage tech companies. GeekWire spotted a new SEC filing today that revealed the fund. Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, the longtime techies and hosts of Acquired, already do personal investing in companies they know from their work on the podcast. Now they’re creating a more formal mechanism to do so. “The fund is just a vehicle with a small set of LPs that lets us fully utilize those allocations when they’re offered to us,” Gilbert told GeekWire via email Wednesday. Gilbert and Rosenthal… Read More
[This story originally appeared on Real Estate News.] SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — When looking toward Zillow’s future, CEO and co-founder Rich Barton emphasized the company’s tech-influenced past — and tech-heavy present — while speaking at the T3 Leadership Summit. “Our roots, our genes are back at Microsoft,” he told the audience, referring to his early experience working at the software giant during the ’90s. “So we know and love the super geeky people, and we know how to create an environment where they thrive.” A digital, integrated Zillow — with an agent focus Barton discussed Zillow’s efforts to expand its digital offerings… Read More
LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman — the entrepreneur, author, podcaster, venture capitalist and Microsoft board member — is on the front lines of the artificial intelligence revolution. Even as a pioneer in the AI field, it was a bit unusual (yet informative) today to see Hoffman sit down for a 14-minute interview with a virtual AI twin of himself — informed by a customized GPT trained on 20 years of Hoffman’s podcasts, speeches and books. Call it Hoffman on Hoffman. In the second half of the interview, the real Reid Hoffman addressed a number of topics presented by his AI twin — regulation, ethics,… Read More
The Washington State Department of Transportation is warning Good to Go! customers to be on the lookout for fraudulent emails or texts seeking payment for past due toll bills. In an email to customers on Wednesday, WSDOT said scammers are claiming to be from a collections agency working on behalf of Good To Go!, the program that allows drivers to automatically pay fees for toll roads in Washington, such as SR 520. “We would like to reassure you that under no circumstances do we disclose individual customer information for use by marketing firms,” WSDOT said. “All Good To Go! customer information, including name,… Read More
Like it or not, the Federal Trade Commission’s ban on non-competition agreements could force a change in mindset inside the companies that use them — ultimately improving their ability to hire and retain talented employees. That’s one take from critics of non-compete deals after the FTC announced a new rule Tuesday that prohibits companies from using the clauses in new employment contracts, and invalidates many existing agreements. Companies will need to keep employees “by giving them the best jobs, and helping them realize their personal aspirations, as well as helping the company realize its aspirations,” said Brian Hall, a longtime… Read More
Washington leaders on Tuesday announced a $45 million program aiming to make electric vehicles more affordable for the state’s low-income residents. The Washington EV Instant Rebates Program will provide rebates at the time of purchase for eligible consumers who buy or lease a new or used EV. The deal applies to residents earning up to $45,180 a year for a single person or $93,600 for a family of four. The state’s Department of Commerce, which is managing the program, estimated potential lease terms for lower-priced EVs, concluding that the new rebates combined with federal government incentives and deals from automakers… Read More
Seattle-based Radical says it has raised $4.5 million to support the development of solar-powered, autonomous airplanes that can beam down connectivity and imagery during long-duration, high-altitude flights. The seed funding round was led by Scout Ventures, with additional funding from other investors including Inflection Mercury Fund and Y Combinator. According to Pitchbook, Radical previously received $500,000 in pre-seed funding from Y Combinator. Radical’s co-founders are CEO James Thomas and chief technology officer Cyriel Notteboom. Both founders are veterans of Prime Air, Amazon’s effort to field a fleet of delivery drones. They left Amazon in mid-2022 to found Radical — and… Read More
Seattle-based digital healthcare startup 98point6 has conducted a new round of layoffs, the company confirmed Tuesday. 98point6 did not provide details on the number of employees affected. A number of posts from affected workers began showing up on LinkedIn last week. One affected employee told GeekWire that a majority of staff was let go. Another worker who joined the company more than six years ago called her layoff an “unplanned departure.” The company has around 100 employees in the U.S., according to LinkedIn. In a statement to GeekWire, 98point6 called the workforce reduction “part of a larger action at the… Read More
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A Tennessee free-market nonprofit group on Wednesday joined the ranks of organizations challenging a new Biden administration labor rule that changes the criteria for classifying workers as independent contractors or employees. The Beacon Center of Tennessee filed its federal lawsuit in Nashville on behalf of two freelance journalists, Margaret Littman and […]
The Biden administration is wading into a contentious debate about whether the most powerful artificial intelligence systems should be “open-source” or closed. The White House said Wednesday it is seeking public comment on the risks and benefits of having an AI system’s key components publicly available for anyone to use and modify. The inquiry is […]
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Ruby Franke, a Utah mother of six who gave parenting advice to millions via a once-popular a YouTube channel, shared a tearful apology to her children for physically and emotionally abusing them before a judge delivered a sentence that could put her in prison for years, if not decades. Franke […]
POMPANO BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Retired Army Col. Farrell Patrick taught computer science at West Point during the 1970s and then at two private universities through the 1990s, so he isn’t surprised by the progress technology has made over the decades. But when the 91-year-old got his first virtual reality experience recently, he was stunned. […]
If you are battling a video game goblin who speaks with a Cockney accent, or asking a gruff Scottish blacksmith to forge a virtual sword, you might be hearing the voice of actor Andy Magee. Except it’s not quite Magee’s voice. It’s a synthetic voice clone generated by artificial intelligence. As video game worlds get […]
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. lawmakers are raising alarms about what they see as America’s failure to compete with China in biotechnology, warning of the risks to U.S. national security and commercial interests. But as the two countries’ rivalry expands into the biotech industry, some say that shutting out Chinese companies would only hurt the U.S. […]
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The 19-year-old son of a former YouTube executive died last week at the UC Berkeley campus where he resided, officials and a relative said. The university confirmed that Marco Troper, a Berkeley freshman, was found unresponsive Tuesday afternoon at the university’s Clark Kerr Campus. Troper was later pronounced dead by emergency […]
Some state governments and federal regulators were already moving to keep individuals’ reproductive health information private when a U.S. senator’s report last week offered a new jolt, describing how cellphone location data was used to send millions of anti-abortion ads to people who visited Planned Parenthood offices. Federal law bars medical providers from sharing health […]
SCOTTVILLE, Mich. (AP) — A 21-year-old Tennessee man traveled to Michigan and tried to enroll at a high school after meeting a minor online, authorities said. A suspicious staff member at Mason County Central alerted a sheriff’s deputy who interviewed the young man Tuesday and learned that he wasn’t a teenager as claimed, the sheriff’s […]
NEW YORK (AP) — The maker of ChatGPT is now diving into AI-generated video. Meet Sora — OpenAI’s new text-to-video generator. The tool, which the San Francisco company unveiled Thursday, uses generative artificial intelligence to instantly create short videos based on written commands. Sora isn’t the first to demonstrate this kind of technology. But industry […]
President Joe Biden’s campaign is embracing TikTok to court younger voters ahead of the presidential elections, but U.S. adults have mixed views about whether the video-sharing app should even operate in the country. A new poll by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds a three-way split when it comes to […]
New York City, its schools and public hospital system announced a lawsuit Wednesday against the tech giants that run Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube, blaming their “addictive and dangerous” social media platforms for fueling a childhood mental health crisis that is disrupting learning and draining resources. Children and adolescents are especially susceptible to harm […]
PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — Joaquin “Guac” Oliver died in the 2018 Parkland, Florida, high school massacre, but federal lawmakers who oppose tighter gun regulations began getting phone calls in his voice on Wednesday, lambasting them for their position. The families of Oliver and five others killed with guns are using artificial intelligence to create messages […]
BOSTON (AP) — Microsoft said Wednesday that U.S. adversaries — chiefly Iran and North Korea and to a lesser extent Russia and China — are beginning to use generative artificial intelligence to mount or organize offensive cyber operations. The technology giant said it detected and disrupted, in collaboration with business partner OpenAI, threats that used […]
NEW YORK (AP) — A few months ago, Derek Carrier started seeing someone and became infatuated. He experienced a “ton” of romantic feelings but he also knew it was an illusion. That’s because his girlfriend was generated by artificial intelligence. Carrier wasn’t looking to develop a relationship with something that wasn’t real, nor did he […]
