Blue Origin successfully launches its first crewed mission since 2022

Blue Origin has successfully completed its NS-25 mission, resuming crewed flights for the first time in nearly two years. The mission brought six tourist crew members to the edge of space, including artist and former Air Force Captain Ed Dwight. In 1961, Dwight was selected by President John F. Kennedy to be the country’s first […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on Blue Origin successfully launches its first crewed mission since 2022

Hollywood agency CAA aims to help stars manage their own AI likenesses

Creative Artists Agency (CAA), one of the top entertainment and sports talent agencies, is hoping to be at the forefront of AI protection services for celebrities in Hollywood. With many stars having their digital likeness used without permission, CAA has built a virtual media storage system for A-list talent — actors, athletes, comedians, directors, musicians, […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on Hollywood agency CAA aims to help stars manage their own AI likenesses

Microsoft set to unveil its vision for AI PCs at Build developer conference

Microsoft Build 2024 starts Tuesday, and the company is expected to talk about how Windows will power new “AI PCs.”

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on Microsoft set to unveil its vision for AI PCs at Build developer conference

‘WienerAI’ Raises Over $2 Million in Crypto Presale – Best Meme Coin to Buy Now?

The crypto community has witnessed the appearance of yet another meme coin, and this one has a rather peculiar name – WienerAI. This new meme coin has managed to raise over $2 million in its ongoing crypto presale within just a few weeks of its launch.
This milestone highlights the continued interest and enthusiasm surrounding meme coins in this bull run, as we all remember what happened earlier this year with BONK, WIF, PEPE or most recently Slothana.
WienerAI – Best Meme Coin to Invest in 2024?
At the time of writing, 1 $WAI token is priced at $0.000708 during the presale, with the price expected to increase in just over a day. The project has already raised over $2.1 million.
WienerAI is a meme coin inspired by the popular internet culture of dog memes and sausage jokes. However, it aims to be beyond than just a meme token – it also incorporates AI technology to provide utility as a trading bot and automated trading platform.

🌭🤖2 MILLION WIENERS!!!!🌭🤖
🌭🤖🌭🤖🌭🤖🌭🤖🌭🤖🌭🤖 pic.twitter.com/gOQKIlihTq
— WienerAI (@WienerDogAI) May 17, 2024

Key Features:
AI Trading Bot: WienerAI’s core feature is an AI-powered trading bot that aims to provide users with an “unfair advantage” in crypto trading by leveraging advanced AI capabilities. The bot can analyze market data and execute trades automatically.
Staking Rewards: WienerAI offers lucrative staking rewards with an annual percentage yield (APY) of around 454% for early stakers, at the time of writing. This APY is expected to decrease as more users stake their tokens. Currently, 2,280,216,527 WAI tokens are already staked.

WienerAI is an ERC-20 token built on the Ethereum blockchain. You can buy WAI token via their official presale website with ETH, USDT or credit card.
How Does WienerAI Work?
WienerAI combines meme appeal with AI-driven utility in the following ways:
Meme Branding: The project embraces dog and sausage memes in its branding, marketing, and community-building efforts, aiming to attract meme coin enthusiasts and leverage the popularity of such internet culture.
AI Trading Platform: Behind the meme facade, WienerAI claims to offer a “revolutionary AI trading platform” with “unparalleled capabilities” powered by its AI trading bot technology. Users can supposedly leverage this AI for automated trading strategies.
Token Utility: The WAI token is used for staking to earn rewards, providing liquidity on exchanges, and potentially accessing the AI trading features of the platform in the future.
Marketing Efforts
WienerAI has been actively promoting its project, with several YouTubers posting positive videos about the meme coin, likely part of a marketing deal with the team.
For instance, ClayBro, a YouTuber with over 129k subscribers, highlighted WienerAI’s staking feature, emphasizing the high annualized interest rates (454%), options for passive income through staking, and the absence of fees associated with transactions and Mev bot protection.

Furthermore, WienerAI’s official X account is highly active, posting daily updates about the presale progress, development activity, and more.
The account boasts over 9k followers. Additionally, their Telegram group has garnered a following of 6k members, indicative of a growing community around the project.
Conclusion
While meme coins often attract skepticism and criticism from some corners of the crypto community, their success this year suggest there is still an appetite for these speculative cryptos. WienerAI is a potentially next meme coin to watch, particularly when combined with the promise of utility and novel features.
Related

14 Best Meme Coins to Buy in 2024 – WienerAI ranks 3rd

The post ‘WienerAI’ Raises Over $2 Million in Crypto Presale – Best Meme Coin to Buy Now? appeared first on ReadWrite.

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on ‘WienerAI’ Raises Over $2 Million in Crypto Presale – Best Meme Coin to Buy Now?

OpenAI and Google lay out their competing AI visions

Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review. This week had two major events from OpenAI and Google. OpenAI’s spring update event saw the reveal of its new model, GPT-4o, which has voice and vision capabilities that can turn ChatGPT into a virtual assistant seemingly aspiring to be “Her.” Hot off OpenAI’s tail, Google’s I/O conference […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on OpenAI and Google lay out their competing AI visions

Expedia says two execs dismissed after ‘violation of company policy’

Expedia says Rathi Murthy and Sreenivas Rachamadugu, respectively its CTO and senior vice president of core services product & engineering, are no longer employed at the travel booking company. In a statement shared with Bloomberg and elsewhere, Expedia said Murthy and Rachamadugu are “no longer employed at Expedia Group” due to an unspecified “violation of […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on Expedia says two execs dismissed after ‘violation of company policy’

With AI startups booming, nap pods and Silicon Valley hustle culture are back

When Jeffrey Wang posted to X asking if anyone wanted to go in on an order of fancy-but-affordable office nap pods, he didn’t expect the post to go viral.
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on With AI startups booming, nap pods and Silicon Valley hustle culture are back

TikTok eyes 60-minute video uploads, drawing ‘mini YouTube’ criticism

It’s official. TikTok is going longform. The application, which is facing a potential ban in the U.S., confirmed to TechCrunch on May 16 that it was testing the ability for users to upload 60-minute videos. Purportedly, this feature is available to a limited group of users, as the platform confirmed to the outlet that it won’t be making the feature widely available anytime soon.
The feature was first discovered by social media consultant Matt Navarra. When TikTok first came out, it had a 15-second limit. This soon turned to 30, then 1 minute, then 3 minutes, and now, at present, TikToks can be up to 10 minutes long. This expanded timescale has been in place since February 2022, and people are certainly taking advantage of it.
Now, people are watching full TV shows and movies on TikTok, with NBCUniversal even uploading full episodes of Peacock sitcom Killing It to the platform (albeit, split into five full parts).
But some creators and experts aren’t so sure about this switch to longer-form content.
A ‘mini-YouTube’
“I feel like there are so many creators out there who came to TikTok because it was the short-form video app,” creator Nikki Apostolou said in an interview with CNN. “And now they want to be like ‘mini YouTube,’ and I feel like it leaves out creators who came there for the short-form content.”
Krysten Stein, a digital culture scholar at the University of Illinois-Chicago, told the outlet why she thinks TikTok is evolving into longer-form content.
“The model of the short-form video was really useful when TikTok first launched, they could get people really quickly on the platform, it’s continuous scrolling and it goes fast,” she said.
“I think TikTok is now [thinking], ‘We need to show [advertisers] that we can keep people staying on one video longer,’” Stein said. “But I’m interested to see how viewers are going to respond because what has kept people on the app is that the videos were short.”
 Image generated by Ideogram
The post TikTok eyes 60-minute video uploads, drawing ‘mini YouTube’ criticism appeared first on ReadWrite.

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on TikTok eyes 60-minute video uploads, drawing ‘mini YouTube’ criticism

Zenni Optical launches stylish colorful blue light protection for gamers with Blokz+ Tints range

The world’s leading online eyewear retailer has launched a range of blue light glasses with gamers and the screen-obsessed in mind.
The Blokz+ Tintz range is aimed at content creators who need to look good on their platforms, as well as students, gamers, working progressions, and basically anybody who spends their days stuck in front of screens.
According to Zenni the new Blokz+ Tints provide advanced protection against the harmful effects of blue light compared to standard lenses. They are specifically designed to target blue light up to 455 nm, where the majority of harmful blue light emitted by digital devices peaks, Blokz+ Tints block up to 92% of blue light energy in the HEV 2 range (400-455 nm).
“We understand that individuals spend extended periods in front of screens, which is why we engineered these lenses with their needs in mind. Blokz+ Tints lenses are our solution for safeguarding against the harmful effects of blue light emitted by digital screens.,” shared David Ting, General Manager and Chief Technology Officer at Zenni Optical.
“At Zenni, we pride ourselves on innovation, and our Blokz+ Tints go above and beyond. They block more blue light than the leading competitor, ensuring our customers have the best protection possible. But what sets us apart even further is our commitment to personalization. While others offer only standard yellow lenses, we provide a spectrum of vibrant colors, allowing our customers to express their style while safeguarding their eyes.”
Zenni sent us a selection of Bloks+Tints to take a look at and we can vouch for the fact that the tints definitely seem to help with eye strain caused by a long day of gaming. They also come in a large range of colors, frames, and styles so you will have no problems finding something you like that may just elevate those Insta photos to the next level
Blokz+ Tints are available at the Zenni website and can be purchased either as non-prescription, single vision, or progressive lens options.

What is blue light?
Blue light is a portion of the visible light spectrum that has a relatively short wavelength and high energy. It is emitted by the sun, as well as by artificial light sources such as LED lights, fluorescent lights, and digital screens like those on smartphones, computers, and tablets.
It is believed excessive exposure to artificial blue light, particularly from digital screens, can have negative consequences for sleep, eye health, and overall well-being. Taking steps to reduce blue light exposure, such as using blue light filtering glasses, can help mitigate these risks.
The post Zenni Optical launches stylish colorful blue light protection for gamers with Blokz+ Tints range appeared first on ReadWrite.

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on Zenni Optical launches stylish colorful blue light protection for gamers with Blokz+ Tints range

VCs and the military are fueling self-driving startups that don’t need roads

A new crop of early-stage startups — along with some recent VC investments — illustrates a niche emerging in the autonomous vehicle technology sector. Unlike the companies bringing robotaxis to city streets, these startups are taking their tech off-road.  Two recent entrants — Seattle-based Overland AI and New Brunswick-based Potential — are poised to get […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Posted in Tech | Tagged | Comments Off on VCs and the military are fueling self-driving startups that don’t need roads