Hi there!

This is your daily dose of ☕️ Techpresso, where you get the latest tech news of the day effortlessly.


Here's the latest tech news from the last 24 hours:

🚫 Cruise robotaxis suspended after accident
☀️ Solar power farms in space commercially viable, study proves
🐦 Pebble, the new-era Twitter alternative, announces shutdown
📱 Qualcomm brings on-device AI to mobile and PC
🤖 Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI announce fund for AI safety

🚫 Cruise robotaxis suspended after accidentLINK

Cruise, a US company that provides driverless taxi services, had its license revoked by the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) for withholding video evidence related to an investigation of a pedestrian injury.

The suspension by the DMV comes after a Cruise's car was involved in an incident where it ran over, then dragged a pedestrian; the company failed to provide full footage of the event upon initial request.

Despite the immediate suspension, Cruise is permitted to operate vehicles in driverless mode, provided there is a safety driver onboard. The company disputes claims of withholding footage and has paused autonomous operations in San Francisco following the incident.

☀️ Solar power farms in space commercially viable, study provesLINK

A recent experiment proved that commercial space solar farms could be a realistic prospect, with solar panels able to endure challenging space conditions.

The panels, made from cadmium telluride, signify a leap towards cost-effective, robust and large solar power stations in space that could deliver clean energy back to Earth.

A hurdle remains in the transportation of generated energy back to Earth, but scientists have recently shown it may be possible via microwaves.

🐦 Pebble, the new-era Twitter alternative, announces shutdownLINK

Pebble, a social media platform created by ex-Twitter employees, is shutting down due to failure to attract sufficient growth and investment.

Existing users have been given time to download their personal archives before the platform is completely closed; there's a potential for its reinvention in the future.

The shutdown came just five weeks after its rebranding from its former name T2 Social, indicating its strategies to become a "public town square" did not work.

📱 Qualcomm brings on-device AI to mobile and PCLINK

li>Qualcomm has announced the introduction of on-device AI to mobile devices and Windows 11 PCs through its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and X Elite chips, which are built to support a range of large language and vision models offline.

The Qualcomm AI Engine can handle up to 45 TOPS (trillions of operations per second), allowing users to run extensive models and work with voice, text, and image inputs directly on their device.

Having an AI system on your device offers various advantages, including real-time personalization and reduced latency compared to cloud-based processing.

🤖 Anthropic, Google, Microsoft and OpenAI announce fund for AI safetyLINK

The Frontier Model Forum, with backing from Anthropic, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and other tech figures has introduced a $10 million AI Safety Fund.

This fund is dedicated to supporting independent global researchers in AI safety research.

Its main goal is to devise new evaluation approaches and 'red teaming' strategies for frontier AI systems to uncover and address potential risks.

Other news you might like

Sam Bankman-Fried to testify in hopes of avoiding life in prison.LINK

University issues warning to students to avoid food delivery robots following a prank bomb threat.LINK

Snapchat's user base has surged to 400 million, adding 9 million new users last quarter, aided by effective cost-cutting and innovative product features.LINK

Microsoft's Generative AI business expands with GitHub Copilot users surpassing one million; largely benefiting organizations' productivity and Microsoft's Azure revenue growth.LINK

The US Senate explores AI as a potential tool to counter robocalls, which are responsible for an estimated $39 billion loss in 2022.LINK

Adobe's $20 billion acquisition deal with Figma in the UK faces further scrutiny as regulatory probe deadline gets extended. LINK

AWS is developing a 'European Sovereign Cloud', offering heightened data residency controls to cater to Europe's regulatory environment and industries' data concerns; independent from other AWS regions, it starts with a Germany-based dedicated region.LINK

Want to get the latest news differently? Find us on:

See you tomorrow for a new dose of ☕️ Techpresso!