OpenAI on Tuesday said it had completed its recapitalization, splitting the AI lab into a for-profit corporation nested inside a non-profit foundation. It’s the end result of a complex legal process that had been strenuously resisted by its estranged co-founder, Elon Musk. Under the new structure, the non-profit OpenAI Foundation will have legal control over…
Amazon said on Tuesday that it plans to reduce its corporate workforce by 14,000 jobs as it seeks to reduce bureaucracy, remove layers and invest more in its AI strategy. This marks the e-commerce giant’s second-largest job cuts since it slashed 22,000 jobs in 2022. Amazon had nearly 1.2 million employees as of October 31,…
Adobe said on Tuesday that it is launching the latest iteration of its image generation model, Firefly Image 5. The company is also adding more features to the Firefly website, support for more third-party models, the ability to generate speech and soundtracks. Notably, the update allows artists to come up with their own image models…
Paypal said on Tuesday that it is adopting a protocol in combination with OpenAI’s “Instant Checkout” feature to let users pay for their shopping directly within ChatGPT, starting in 2026. Paypal is adopting the Agentic Commerce Protocol (ACP), an open-source specification developed by OpenAI that lets merchants make their products available within AI apps, consequently…
Waymo is currently the robotaxi leader in the United States, and that status has put the company’s vehicles in the crosshairs of vandals multiple times over the last year — most recently this past weekend in Los Angeles. On the sidelines of TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said vandalism against Waymo’s robotaxis is “not…
Waymo’s co-CEO, Tekedra Mawakana, had a clear message during her interview on the TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 stage Monday: “It is imperative that we scale.” Mawakana was speaking in the context of how Waymo balances fundraising (and burning through that money) with eventually achieving profitability. But she was also clear in the interview that she believes…
Pytho AI is coming out of stealth with an ambitious pitch to the Department of Defense: turn mission planning that takes warfighters days into a process measured in minutes. The startup was founded by Michael Mearn, a former Marine human-intelligence officer whose teams located insurgents, IEDs, weapons, and other intel. The idea for the company…
OpenAI is offering its ChatGPT Go plan available free of charge for one year to users in India who sign up during a limited promotional period starting November 4, as the company looks to expand in one of its top markets. On Tuesday, OpenAI announced the promotion but did not specify how long the offer…
Even before a building accepts its first occupant, it has racked up a steep carbon debt. Worldwide, the materials and construction required to erect buildings contributes 11% of global carbon emissions, according to the World Green Building Council. Some places have begun experimenting with multistory timber buildings, and while they’ve recently reached new heights, timber…
Plastic recycling has fallen short. Only about 9% of all plastic is recycled globally, which sounds pretty bad until you compare it with textiles. Only 0.5% of those are recycled. One of the biggest challenges is that textiles are seldom one material. Buttons and zippers complicate matters, but spandex is even worse. Novel synthetic blends…
