Hashkey takes aim at XRP ETF in Asia with new fund backed by Ripple

Hong Kong-based crypto investment firm HashKey Capital announced the launch of an XRP fund, with plans to convert it into an exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the future. According to an April 18 announcement, the fund, officially titled the HashKey XRP Tracker Fund, is reportedly “the first investment fund in Asia designed to track the performance…

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Apple’s new research robot takes a page from Pixar’s playbook

Last month, Apple offered up more insight into its consumer robotics work via a research paper that argues that traits like expressive movements are key to optimizing human-robot interaction. “Like most animals,” starts the report, “humans are highly sensitive to motion and subtle changes in movement.” To illustrate its point, Apple pays homage to Pixar,…

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Tony Fadell takes a shot at Sam Altman in TechCrunch Disrupt interview

iPod creator, Nest Labs founder, and investor Tony Fadell took a shot at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday during a spirited interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco. Speaking about his understanding of the longer history of AI development before the LLM craze and the serious issues with LLM hallucinations, he said, “I’ve…

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Sonair takes a cue from dolphins to build autonomous 3D vision sans LIDAR

Ultrasound is perhaps best known as the technology that enables non-invasive body scans, underwater communication, and to help us park our cars. A young startup called Sonair out of Norway wants to employ it for something else: 3D computer vision used in autonomous hardware applications.  Sonair’s founder and CEO Knut Sandven believes the company’s application…

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The US finally takes aim at truck bloat

This week, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) stunned safety advocates by proposing new vehicle rules that it says will help reduce pedestrian deaths in America. The new rules appear aimed directly at the trend of increasingly massive SUVs and trucks, which have been shown to be more deadly to pedestrians than smaller…

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Procreate takes a stand against generative AI, vows to never incorporate the tech into its products

Popular iPad design app Procreate is coming out against generative AI, and has vowed never to introduce generative AI features into its products. The company said on its website that although machine learning is a “compelling technology with a lot of merit,” the current path that generative AI is on is wrong for its platform. …

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OpenAI co-founder Schulman leaves for Anthropic, Brockman takes extended leave

John Schulman, one of the co-founders of OpenAI, has left the company for rival AI startup Anthropic. In addition, OpenAI president and co-founder Greg Brockman is taking an extended leave — through the end of the year — after nine years at the company to “relax and recharge,” the company confirmed. I’m taking a sabbatical…

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Generative AI takes robots a step closer to general purpose

Most coverage of humanoid robotics has understandably focused on hardware design. Given the frequency with which their developers toss around the phrase “general purpose humanoids,” more attention ought to be paid to the first bit. After decades of single-purpose systems, the jump to more generalized systems will be a big one. We’re just not there…

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