Month: January 2025
Neko Health’s unicorn-sized Series B is larger than some Series C rounds
Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week was supposed to be a short one in the U.S., as it started with a holiday. But Inauguration Day kept some founders busy, and the … Read more
The EU wants to talk to US tech companies ahead of Germany’s upcoming election
The European Union will give tech and social media companies a “stress test” to see how they handle misinformation ahead of Germany’s election next month. European Commission officials have invited tech companies, including: X, Meta, Snap, TikTok, Google, Microsoft, and LinkedIn, to a meeting on January 31, according to multiple news outlets. During this meeting, … Read more
Ellipsoid Algorithms as a Tool Against Predictable Opponents
:::info Authors: (1) Avrim Blum, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA; (2) Melissa Dutz, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA. ::: Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Setting and 2.1 Models of behaviorally-biased opponents 3 Preliminaries and Intuition 4.1 Myopic Best Responder and 4.2 Gambler’s Fallacy Opponent 4.3 Win-Stay, Lose-Shift Opponent … Read more
The AI industry’s pace has researchers stressed
To outside observers, AI researchers are in an enviable position. They’re sought after by tech giants. They’re taking home eye-popping salaries. And they’re in the hottest industry of the moment. But all this comes with intense pressure. More than half a dozen researchers TechCrunch spoke with, some of whom requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, … Read more
ECB member doubles down on digital euro after Trump’s crypto EO: Report
Piero Cipollone reportedly said Donald Trump’s executive order affecting stablecoins could potentially influence people considering abandoning big banks.
As Ethereum Stagnates, MetaMask Expands to Bitcoin and Beyond
MetaMask is making a multi-chain push, expanding beyond Ethereum as users increasingly explore a broader range of crypto ecosystems.
People are benchmarking AI by having it make balls bounce in rotating shapes
The list of informal, weird AI benchmarks keeps growing. Over the past few days, some in the AI community on X have become obsessed with a test of how different AI models, particularly so-called reasoning models, handle prompts like this: “Write a Python script for a bouncing yellow ball within a shape. Make the shape … Read more
US users dumped RedNote after Trump paused the TikTok ban
In the days leading up to the TikTok ban in the U.S. on Sunday, U.S. users flooded the Chinese app RedNote, which offered a similar experience to their favorite short-form video app. The app, which is listed in the U.S. App Store under its Chinese name Xiaohongshu, quickly became the No. 1 free app in … Read more
French e-bike startup Angell nears bankruptcy
Angell, a French smart electric bike startup, has announced in an email to customers that the company is declaring insolvency and approaching a court to ask for judicial liquidation. “It’s over for Angell,” said company co-founder and CEO Marc Simoncini on Instagram. (He also happens to be a judge on the French version of “Shark … Read more
Mark Zuckerberg wants you to know he has a big AI data center, too
Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg expects to spend as much as $65 billion on AI in 2025 as part of a “massive effort” to further the company’s AI ambitions. Part of the plan includes a Louisiana data center that Zuckerberg says “is so large it would cover a … Read more
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Meta’s censoring of abortion information is nothing new
Illustration: Nick Barclay / The Verge Earlier this week, several posts on the Instagram page of Aid Access, an abortion pill provider, were inaccessible to the public. Some images were blurred out, with no option to click through and view the post. Others appeared simply as a gray square with nondescript alt text, as if … Read more
Crypto czar David Sacks likens Trump’s memecoin to a ‘baseball card’
President Trump’s controversial memecoin took the crypto world by storm, but not everyone thinks it’s a good idea.
Threads is offically getting ads
Illustration: The Verge Your Threads feed will soon have ads. On Friday, Meta announced that it’s rolling out a “limited, early test of ads in Threads,” and the test will happen with a “handful of brands in the US and Japan,” according to Instagram boss Adam Mosseri. Image: Meta Ads on Threads will appear as … Read more
Kodiak has made its first driverless truck deliveries to customer Atlas Energy
Kodiak Robotics has officially handed off two autonomous trucks to customer Atlas Energy Solutions, marking the startup’s first commercial launch. Atlas, a provider of proppant (i.e., sand) and oilfield logistics, received its first Kodiak-equipped trucks in December and began driverless operations in an off-road environment in West Texas’s remote Permian Basin shortly after. The company … Read more
Threads is testing ads in the U.S. and Japan
Meta’s X rival Threads said Friday that it is now testing ads with select brands in the U.S. and Japan. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that the company will listen to feedback before expanding this experiment in other markets. “We know there will be plenty of feedback about how we should approach ads, and we … Read more
The Ram 1500 Rev’s 500-mile battery option is reportedly canceled
Image: Ram Stellantis is reportedly canceling the 500-mile range version of the upcoming Ram 1500 Rev, leaving the electric truck with only one option that maxes out at an estimated 350 miles on a single charge. The news comes from Mopar Insiders, which got hold of internal emails telling suppliers to stop working on truck … Read more
Sam Altman’s World now wants to link AI agents to your digital identity
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman took the technology world by surprise on Thursday with the release of Operator, his company’s first AI agent that can act autonomously on the web. But OpenAI is not Altman’s only venture that’s trying to capitalize on the popularity of AI agents. Altman’s World project now wants to create tools that … Read more
Security best practices to consider while fine-tuning models in Amazon Bedrock
Amazon Bedrock has emerged as the preferred choice for tens of thousands of customers seeking to build their generative AI strategy. It offers a straightforward, fast, and secure way to develop advanced generative AI applications and experiences to drive innovation. With the comprehensive capabilities of Amazon Bedrock, you have access to a diverse range of … Read more
Understanding Bias-Driven Opponent Models in Competitive Gameplay
:::info Authors: (1) Avrim Blum, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA; (2) Melissa Dutz, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA. ::: Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Setting and 2.1 Models of behaviorally-biased opponents 3 Preliminaries and Intuition 4.1 Myopic Best Responder and 4.2 Gambler’s Fallacy Opponent 4.3 Win-Stay, Lose-Shift Opponent … Read more
Ways to Counter Limited-History Opponents with Algorithmic Tools
:::info Authors: (1) Avrim Blum, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA; (2) Melissa Dutz, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA. ::: Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Setting and 2.1 Models of behaviorally-biased opponents 3 Preliminaries and Intuition 4.1 Myopic Best Responder and 4.2 Gambler’s Fallacy Opponent 4.3 Win-Stay, Lose-Shift Opponent … Read more
Future Directions for Exploiting Behavioral Biases in Games
:::info Authors: (1) Avrim Blum, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA; (2) Melissa Dutz, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA. ::: Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Setting and 2.1 Models of behaviorally-biased opponents 3 Preliminaries and Intuition 4.1 Myopic Best Responder and 4.2 Gambler’s Fallacy Opponent 4.3 Win-Stay, Lose-Shift Opponent … Read more
Broader Insights into Exploitable Strategies in Zero-Sum Games
:::info Authors: (1) Avrim Blum, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA; (2) Melissa Dutz, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA. ::: Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Setting and 2.1 Models of behaviorally-biased opponents 3 Preliminaries and Intuition 4.1 Myopic Best Responder and 4.2 Gambler’s Fallacy Opponent 4.3 Win-Stay, Lose-Shift Opponent … Read more
How Behavioral Biases Shape Gameplay Without Payoff Visibility
:::info Authors: (1) Avrim Blum, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA; (2) Melissa Dutz, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA. ::: Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Setting and 2.1 Models of behaviorally-biased opponents 3 Preliminaries and Intuition Strategies for Beating Behaviorally Biased Opponents 4.1 Myopic Best Responder and 4.2 Gambler’s … Read more
Methods for Decoding Opponent Actions and Optimizing Responses
:::info Authors: (1) Avrim Blum, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA; (2) Melissa Dutz, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA. ::: Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Setting and 2.1 Models of behaviorally-biased opponents 3 Preliminaries and Intuition 4.1 Myopic Best Responder and 4.2 Gambler’s Fallacy Opponent 4.3 Win-Stay, Lose-Shift Opponent … Read more
The Key to Defeating Win-Stay, Lose-Shift Opponent Variants
:::info Authors: (1) Avrim Blum, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA; (2) Melissa Dutz, Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago, IL, USA. ::: Table of Links Abstract and 1 Introduction 2 Setting and 2.1 Models of behaviorally-biased opponents 3 Preliminaries and Intuition 4.1 Myopic Best Responder and 4.2 Gambler’s Fallacy Opponent 4.3 Win-Stay, Lose-Shift Opponent … Read more
Hydra Achieves 1 Million TPS, Validating Cardano as the Fastest Blockchain
The Hydra Doom Tournament is a high-stakes gaming event, held both online and live, that highlights the classic game Doom while demonstrating the scalability and capabilities of the Hydra solution on the Cardano blockchain. The first stages of the tournament have delivered decisive results, with Cardano being crowned the fastest blockchain, achieving an unprecedented 1 … Read more