Tags: San Francisco

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman issued a blog post on Friday night addressing a recent Molotov cocktail incident at his San Francisco home and a probing New Yorker feature that questioned his trustworthiness. Police say a suspect was arrested after threatening to set fire to OpenAI headquarters. Altman linked the timing of the attack to the publication of the lengthy investigative piece by Ronan Farrow and Andrew Marantz, acknowledging mistakes in his leadership and urging more measured debate around artificial intelligence. Weiterlesen

Physical Intelligence, a San Francisco robotics startup, is reportedly in early-stage discussions to raise about $1 billion at a valuation exceeding $11 billion. The prospective round could involve Founders Fund, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and existing investors Thrive Capital and Lux Capital. The company, founded two years ago, focuses on building general-purpose AI models that enable robots to perform a wide range of tasks, from laundry folding to vegetable peeling. Co-founders Sergey Levine and Lachy Groom emphasize an unlimited compute approach and have no set commercialization timeline, a stance that appears acceptable to their backers. Weiterlesen

A journalist signed up for RentAHuman, a new marketplace where AI agents hire humans for real‑world tasks. After linking a crypto wallet and lowering hourly rates, the reporter received no job offers and found the listed gigs to be low‑pay marketing stunts, such as posting social‑media comments or delivering flowers for an AI startup. Attempts to complete a flyer‑hanging gig were thwarted by miscommunication and empty locations. Interviews with a founder of an AI developer community highlighted the platform’s hype‑driven design and lack of functional demand, leaving the reporter convinced that RentAHuman is more a publicity tool than a viable gig platform. Weiterlesen

San Francisco startup Logical Intelligence, with Yann LeCun on its board, has introduced Kona 1.0, an energy‑based reasoning model that operates on a single GPU and solves tasks such as sudoku far faster than leading large language models. The company argues that its approach reduces compute needs, eliminates hallucinations, and can be applied to critical domains like energy grid management, drug discovery, and chip manufacturing. Logical Intelligence plans to work alongside LeCun’s Paris‑based AMI Labs, which focuses on world‑model AI, while keeping its model closed‑source for safety reasons. Weiterlesen

San Francisco‑based startup Known has built a voice‑powered AI onboarding system that lets users describe themselves without filling out forms. The approach yields longer, more personal onboarding sessions and helps the app match users to dates that lead to real‑world meetings. Early testing showed a high rate of in‑person dates, and the company has secured funding from investors including Forerunner, NFX, Pear VC and Coelius Capital. Weiterlesen

Zoox, the Amazon‑owned self‑driving company, announced that it will deploy a handful of retrofitted Toyota Highlanders with safety drivers in Washington, D.C. The move adds a ninth testing market to the company’s growing footprint, which already includes the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Seattle, Miami, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin. Zoox said the capital’s complex street layout, high pedestrian and bicycle traffic, and varied weather present a rigorous environment for evaluating its autonomous technology. Waymo is also testing in the district, underscoring D.C.’s importance as a major ride‑hailing market. Weiterlesen

Waymo has introduced Waymo for Business, an enterprise transportation program that gives companies broader access to its autonomous vehicle fleet. The service, available at launch in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Phoenix, lets firms set up commuter programs, event transport and other corporate travel options through a dedicated portal that includes budget and ride‑activity metrics. While still in early stages, Waymo expects the offering to evolve based on customer feedback. The rollout comes amid a busy year for Waymo, which also debuted a teen account option, plans tests in ten new cities, and eyes expansion to Nashville in 2026. Weiterlesen

TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 will feature Alphabet’s X chief Astro Teller as a keynote speaker. The three‑day event runs October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Teller, known for leading moonshot projects such as Waymo, Wing and Loon, will share insights on embracing failure, scaling bold ideas and the impact of AI and innovation. Attendees can lock in discounted passes before prices rise on September 26. Weiterlesen