In the summer of 2005, Alexis Ohanian, a tech entrepreneur, sent an email to his colleague Steve Huffman with an ominous subject line: “Meet the enemy.” The body of the email contained just one line — a link to Digg, a community-focused social message board where people shared and discussed news articles and links to … Read more
In 1977, Andrew Barto, as a researcher at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, began exploring a new theory that neurons behaved like hedonists. The basic idea was that the human brain was driven by billions of nerve cells that were each trying to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. A year later, he was joined by … Read more
In November, Elon Musk asked a federal court to block OpenAI’s plan to transform itself from a nonprofit into a purely for-profit company. On Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco denied Mr. Musk’s request, calling it “extraordinary.” But the court allowed Mr. Musk to proceed with other aspects of a lawsuit he filed last … Read more
In November, Elon Musk asked a federal court to block OpenAI’s plan to transform itself from a nonprofit into a purely for-profit company. On Tuesday, a federal judge in San Francisco denied Mr. Musk’s request, calling it “extraordinary.” But the court allowed Mr. Musk to proceed with other aspects of a lawsuit he filed last … Read more
Seven Tesla charging stations were intentionally set on fire on Monday at a shopping center outside Boston, the police said, the latest in a series of attacks against the electric vehicle company since its owner, Elon Musk, built a deep partnership with President Trump. The charging stations were set on fire around 1:10 a.m. at … Read more
The crypto market gives and takes: After President Trump’s plan for a national crypto reserve drew backlash from both Republicans and investors, the prices of digital tokens that would be involved soared higher — and then tumbled. (Bitcoin was trading at about $83,800 early on Tuesday, down nearly $10,000 from a day ago.) The plan … Read more
The artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic said on Monday that it had completed a new fund-raising deal that valued the company at $61.5 billion, up from about $16 billion a little more than a year ago. Led by the venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, the new round will pump an additional $3.5 billion into the … Read more
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world’s largest chip manufacturer, intends to spend $100 billion in the United States over the next four years to expand its production capacity and bring its most advanced semiconductor processes to its operations in Arizona. C.C. Wei, TSMC’s chief executive, is expected to unveil the investment and production plans on … Read more
In 2010, a woman in Sakura, Japan, posted photos of her well-manicured Shiba Inu to her digital journal. The dog, Kabosu, shot her owner a wide-eyed glance, a comic image that quickly jumped from Tumblr to Twitter to Facebook and to the rest of the internet. A meme legend was born. Someone on Reddit called … Read more
The moon will be a busy place this year. There are three robotic spacecraft in space right now that are aiming to set down on the moon’s surface. The first of those to arrive — the Blue Ghost lunar lander, built by Firefly Aerospace of Austin, Texas — will attempt to land early Sunday. When … Read more