Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

The hardware world had a brutal week, with iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power Bikes all filing for bankruptcy.  Each company faces its own mix of tariff pressures, supply chain issues, and shifting markets, but together they tell a larger story about the challenges of building physical products in an era of global trade tensions and cheap overseas competition. From the Roomba maker that almost got acquired by Amazon to the e-bike company that couldn’t escape its Chinese supply chain, this week’s bankruptcies are a warning sign for hardware startups everywhere.  Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Anthony Ha, Rebecca Bellan, and Sean O’Kane discuss what went wrong for three once-promising…

Renowned AI scientist Yann LeCun confirmed on Thursday that he had launched a new startup — the worst-kept secret in the tech world — though he said he will not be running the new company as its CEO. His startup is called Advanced Machine Intelligence (AMI) and has hired Alex LeBrun, co-founder and CEO of medical transcription AI startup darling Nabla, as its CEO. Nabla disclosed LeBrun’s new job in a press release and LeCun confirmed it in a brief post on LinkedIn. “Yes, AMI Labs is my new startup. I’m the Executive Chairman. And Alex LeBrun is transitioning from…

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Just before Thanksgiving, Claudio Neves Valente checked into a Boston hotel and traveled to Brown University, where he had studied physics 25 years earlier.The drive to Providence was short, and in the days that followed, the 48-year-old Portuguese national returned to the campus again and again. On most trips, he drifted around Brown and the surrounding neighborhoods in a gray Nissan rental car with Florida plates. A custodian noticed him inside an engineering building while most students were home on the holiday break and spotted him again three days later, according to authorities.Investigators say that on…

KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — As December’s chill settled over Gaza, the family’s nylon tent offered little refuge. So each night, Eseid Abdeen covered his frail newborn son with four blankets, periodically shining a flashlight on the baby’s eyes to confirm he was all right.Until Wednesday night, when 29-day-old Saeed, his tiny body wracked by the cold, did not respond.The infant, who had been born prematurely and very underweight, became the second baby to die of hypothermia in recent days at Nasser Hospital, doctors said Thursday. They warned there could soon be others if conditions in the tent camps…

The hardware world had a brutal week, with iRobot, Luminar, and Rad Power Bikes all filing for bankruptcy.  Each company faces its own mix of tariff pressures, supply chain issues, and shifting markets, but together they tell a larger story about the challenges of building physical products in an era of global trade tensions and cheap overseas competition. From the Roomba maker that almost got acquired by Amazon to the e-bike company that couldn’t escape its Chinese supply chain, this week’s bankruptcies are a warning sign for hardware startups everywhere.  Today on TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, hosts Anthony Ha, Rebecca Bellan, and Sean O’Kane discuss what went wrong for three once-promising…

In its latest effort to address growing concerns about AI’s impact on young people, OpenAI on Thursday updated its guidelines for how its AI models should behave with users under 18, and published new AI literacy resources for teens and parents. Still, questions remain about how consistently such policies will translate into practice.  The updates come as the AI industry generally, and OpenAI in particular, faces increased scrutiny from policymakers, educators, and child-safety advocates after several teenagers allegedly died by suicide after prolonged conversations with AI chatbots.  Gen Z, which includes those born between 1997 and 2012, are the most…

Celeste Amadon and Asher Allen were working on an app that used AI to book restaurants for dates when they stumbled on a bigger idea that encourages people to meet in person. And now it’s catching on with investors. The duo created a voice-powered AI onboarding system for their app that helped them learn more about users without them having to fill out a form. What they discovered: People loved to talk, and that increased the length of the onboarding session with the app clocking 26 minutes on average. That is how San Francisco-based dating startup Known was born.  “Our…

Maxwell Kruzic said he was in such “crippling” stomach pain Oct. 5, 2023, that he had to pull off the road twice as he drove himself to the emergency room at Mercy Regional Medical Center in Durango, Colorado. “It was the worst pain of my life,” he said.Kruzic was seen immediately because hospital staff members were pretty sure he had appendicitis. They inserted an IV, called a surgeon and sent him off for a scan to confirm the diagnosis.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. But the scan showed a…

I just had a most eventful week.I watched in horror as a terrible storm in the Mediterranean dashed a ship against a rocky coast, forcing its crew and passengers into a desperate attempt to save themselves and rescue their cargo.Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. I soared with the birds among snow-covered peaks in the Rockies, marveling at the many shades of white and blue.And I joined picnickers on a serene hillside along the Hudson River, where I watched the sunlight and clouds play above a sheep pasture and…

It’s all hands on deck at Meta, as the company develops new AI models under its superintelligence lab led by Scale AI co-founder, Alexandr Wang. The company is now working on an image and video model codenamed “Mango” along with a new text-based model internally known as “Avocado,” The Wall Street Journal reported. The tech giant plans to release the new models in the first half of 2026, the publication said, citing an internal Q&A at Meta on Thursday, where Wang and chief product officer Chris Cox unveiled the new roadmap. Wang had said Meta aims to make the text-based…