​[[{“value”:” Indie bookstore backer Bookshop.org launched an e-book platform on Tuesday, making it easier for readers to buy e-books without padding Jeff Bezos’s pockets. For years, Amazon’s chokehold and sway in the publishing industry have been so strong that authors and booksellers have accused the company of operating a monopoly. Amazon is dominant in the sale […] © 2024 TechCrunch….

​[[{“value”:” Barely a week after DeepSeek released its R1 “reasoning” AI model — which sent markets into a tizzy — researchers at Hugging Face are trying to replicate the model from scratch in what they’re calling a pursuit of “open knowledge.” Hugging Face head of research Leandro von Werra and several company engineers have launched Open-R1, a […] © 2024 TechCrunch….

​[[{“value”:” Openvibe’s clever app that integrates multiple open social networks including Bluesky, Mastodon, Nostr, and Threads, just got a boost toward its future development. The company on Tuesday announced that it has received outside investment of $800,000 in a round led by Czech Founders VC, which includes backing from WordPress.com and Tumblr parent company, Automattic, as […] © 2024 TechCrunch….

​[[{“value”:” Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt called for the United States to ramp up open-source AI efforts to address the rise of DeepSeek in a Washington Post op-ed published Tuesday. Just last year, Schmidt said America was two or three years ahead of China. But DeepSeek’s rise marks “a turning point” for the global AI race, […] © 2024 TechCrunch….

​[[{“value”:” DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab, has Silicon Valley reeling with its R1 reasoning model, which it claims uses far less computing power than those of American AI leaders — and, it’s open source. The DeepSeek app has shot to the top of the App Store charts this week, dethroning ChatGPT. But who is Liang Wenfeng, […] © 2024 TechCrunch….

​[[{“value”:” Alphabet-owned autonomous vehicle company Waymo might be planning to test a feature that will allow robotaxi riders to add a “tip” that will go to the charity of their choice after a ride. Jane Manchun Wong, a security researcher who recently hacked the display dome on top of a Waymo vehicle, found the new tip […] © 2024 TechCrunch….

​[[{“value”:” UC Berkeley spinout Ambi Robotics announced Tuesday the arrival of AmbiStack, a novel system that automates pallet packing. The system features an industrial robotic arm mounted above a conveyer belt that moves along the X and Y axes and lifts boxes up via suction cups mounted to a gripper. Once lifted from the conveyer belt, […] © 2024 TechCrunch….

​[[{“value”:” U.K. documents show that the U.K.’s Department of Business and Trade spent five years convincing Andreessen Horowitz to create a presence in London, only for the U.S. firm to leave 18 months after launching an office, according to government documents obtained by Sifted.  In 2023, a16z launched a crypto office in London, deeming the crypto […] © 2024 TechCrunch….

​[[{“value”:” Geek Ventures is raising a Fund II, according to a recent SEC filing.  The firm, founded in 2021 by Ihar Mahaniok, focuses on investing in early-stage immigrant founders. Mahaniok immigrated to the U.S. from Belarus and spoke to TechCrunch a few years ago about how hard the venture ecosystem can be for immigrants.  “Talent is […] © 2024 TechCrunch….

​[[{“value”:” Amazon announced Monday it has picked the North England town of Darlington as the first site for its planned U.K. drone-delivery expansion. Amazon was expected to expand Prime Air to the U.K. and Italy in 2024. After missing that initial target, the company opted to not share a timeline for this latest launch. Instead, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch….