Several robotics companies are tackling one of the toughest problems in AI: building basic models capable of executing tasks they were never explicitly trained to perform. Their approaches run the gamut: from studying millions of web videos and running computer simulations to collecting motion data from humans performing tasks while wearing gloves with embedded sensors.
World, the online verification startup co-founded by OpenAI’s Sam Altman, has raised $52.5 million through a crypto token sale to strategic investors. Participating investors joined a 12-month locked sale of the global token, WLD. Lock-up periods prevent asset buyers from selling or trading their tokens for a set period of time. The one-year lockup demonstrates
Dora Palfi comes from a family of teachers. So naturally, “it was instilled in me that education is something that can completely alter the trajectory of your life,” he told TechCrunch. In 2018, she and Beatrice Ionascu launched Imagi, a company that helps provide K-12 students and teachers with the tools to teach and develop
Darren Aronofsky has shown the work his new AI studio, Primordial Soup, can do. Now he wants more money to do it. The company revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission last week that it was looking to raise $15 million in cash in exchange for shares in the studio. The filing
As social media has evolved from a place to connect with friends to full-scale entertainment platforms, a startup called Yope is quietly building what it believes will be the future of online connection: social networks without algorithms, without ads, and without public content. Yope’s app, now backed by a $12.3 million round led by Northzone,
Travis Kalanick’s robotics company Atoms has raised $1.7 billion in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Ben Horowitz will join the company’s board of directors following the investment. Bain Capital, Fifth Wall and others participated in the round. Perhaps most notably, Uber also joined the funding round, reconnecting Kalanick with the company he founded,
