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1 week ago | 
semafor.com | Rachyl Jones
The NAACP is planning to sue Elon Musk’s xAI over environmental concerns related to its Tennessee supercomputer facility, the group said in a letter shared online and sent to xAI Tuesday. The civil rights group said air pollution related to at least 35 combustion turbines at the facility — operating without proper permits — negatively impacts nearby Black communities.
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2 weeks ago | 
semafor.com | Reed Albergotti |Rachyl Jones
The flood of AI news, product releases, and missteps has landed on us with the dizzying chaos of the tornado scene that begins The Wizard of Oz.As their core competencies, market advantages and overall philosophies begin to solidify, the “lanes” in the AI game are appearing, but they’re still somewhat faint and, at times, confusing.
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2 weeks ago | 
semafor.com | Rachyl Jones
Tech startup AIM Intelligent Machines, which retrofits heavy construction equipment to operate autonomously, has raised $50 million, the company exclusively told Semafor. Participants include Khosla Ventures, General Catalyst, and Human Capital. AIM plans to use the funds to grow its 40-headcount workforce and expand to a new Washington state facility, said CEO Adam Sadilek, a veteran of Waymo and Google Brain. The company did not disclose its valuation.
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3 weeks ago | 
semafor.com | Rachyl Jones
The long, acrimonious fight between payroll software companies Deel and Rippling has taken another turn. On Tuesday, Deel accused its rival in a lawsuit of corporate espionage by directing an employee to pose as a Deel customer and collect information on the company — including pricing data, benefits policies, and templates for hiring and paying international workers.
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3 weeks ago | 
semafor.com | Rachyl Jones
In almost every way, Leo Paz is following a well-worn path to Silicon Valley success. The 27-year-old Canadian earned a degree in software engineering, co-founded a startup that was accepted into the vaunted Y Combinator accelerator program, and moved to San Francisco to build it. But in another way, he’s unlike any of his predecessors: Since landing in the world capital of software development, he’s let AI do all the typing.
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3 weeks ago | 
share.google | Rachyl Jones
In almost every way, Leo Paz is following a well-worn path to Silicon Valley success. The 27-year-old Canadian earned a degree in software engineering, co-founded a startup that was accepted into the vaunted Y Combinator accelerator program, and moved to San Francisco to build it. But in another way, he’s unlike any of his predecessors: Since landing in the world capital of software development, he’s let AI do all the coding.
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4 weeks ago | 
semafor.com | Rachyl Jones
Conquering agentic memory has proven difficult, and AI companies are all pedaling in their own lanes to reach the finish line first. It’s a tricky balancing act of giving their agents enough memory to complete tasks efficiently but not so much that they fall into old patterns. Developers largely agree it should look similar to human memory — short- and long-term recollection, broad context, precision when it matters, the ability to prioritize certain experiences and “forget” irrelevant ones.
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1 month ago | 
semafor.com | Rachyl Jones
Amjad Masad, CEO of AI coding startup Replit, said many companies may be mere months away from being able to develop and operate software without an engineering team. Speaking at a Semafor Tech event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Masad said startups at Y Combinator are vibe coding their products with tools like Replit.
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1 month ago | 
yahoo.com | Rachyl Jones
The NewsFei-Fei Li, the leading Stanford University researcher nicknamed the “godmother of AI,” emphasized the risks of cutting research funding and international student visas to the US as it faces an increasingly competitive global tech race. “The public sector, especially higher education, has been a pivotal, central part of America’s innovation ecosystem [and] a critical part of our economic growth,” she said at a Semafor Tech event in San Francisco on Wednesday.
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1 month ago | 
semafor.com | Rachyl Jones
Fei-Fei Li, the leading Stanford University researcher nicknamed the “godmother of AI,” emphasized the risks of cutting research funding and international student visas to the US as it faces an increasingly competitive global tech race. “The public sector, especially higher education, has been a pivotal, central part of America’s innovation ecosystem [and] a critical part of our economic growth,” she said at a Semafor Tech event in San Francisco on Wednesday.
