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Zara Khan

Zara Khan is a seasoned investigative journalist with a focus on social justice issues. She has won numerous awards for her groundbreaking reporting and has a reputation for fearlessly exposing wrongdoing.

GGV Capital Partners Split, Introducing Two New Brands

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GGV Capital announced last fall that was splitting up its team amid growing tensions between U.S. and China, though it never cited the atmosphere as the explicit driver of the move. The thinking in abandoning the GGV Capital brand, per a source familiar, was that because both teams are operating separately going forward, they felt it was best to develop new brands. Oren Yunger, the newest member of GGV Capital, also remains on team Notable. Another longtime managing director at GGV Capital, Eric Xu, who is based in Shanghai, will continue to oversee the original firm’s independently operated yuan-denominated funds. Roughly 2.5 years ago, GGV Capital announced it has raised $2.5 billion for its new funds, marking its largest family of funds ever.

Cloud vendors compelled to ease data egress charges due to market pressures.

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In recent months, the big three cloud vendors — Amazon, Microsoft and Google — have relaxed their egress fees, which are a tax of sorts that the cloud companies charge customers to move their data to another vendor. “In the original cloud world, the three major cloud vendors were really fighting to try to build what felt like walled gardens, and as long as you built on top of them, everything was great. Cloud customers looking to switch providers will need to be retained through innovative and accessible features now that the punishment of egress fees is being phased out,” Seseri said. David Linthicum, a longtime cloud consultant, says that while these recent announcements are a pleasant PR move, he warns folks to review their bills carefully because egress fees aren’t the only problem. What are we paying for the networking fees, the egress fees, all the other hidden fees that come along with what people call junk fees that come from the cloud vendors?”But this may not affect startups as much as larger enterprise customers.

“Climate Change Study Predicts Texans Could Lose Over a Month of Outdoor Leisure by 2080, According to MIT Research Tool”

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Climate change. The UK will be even better off, gaining 40 outdoor days by the end of the century. Illinois will lose more than a month of outdoor days by the 2080s as the summers grow unbearably hot. Nigeria’s summers will grow even hotter and longer, lopping off nearly two months of outdoor days. Both Nigeria and India would only lose one month of outdoor days, and more northerly regions retain some of their added outdoor days.

Exploring the Intersection of Women and AI: The Groundbreaking Work on AI and Intimacy by King’s College’s Kate Devlin

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We’ll publish several pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often goes unrecognized. Kate Devlin is a lecturer in AI and society at King’s College London. I guess it’s a two-pronged thing: we need more women in visible, top positions, and we need to tackle sexism in schools and beyond. What are some issues AI users should be aware of? Hold the companies responsible for considering things like human rights, labor, sustainability and social impact in their AI supply chain.

“Creating a Transparent Data Landscape: How Space and Time’s Web3 Startup Can Revolutionize the World of AI”

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The AI world needs more data transparency and web3 startup Space and Time says it can helpAs AI proliferates and things on the internet are easier to manipulate, there’s a need more than ever to make sure data and brands are verifiable, said Scott Dykstra, CTO and co-founder of Space and Time, on TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction podcast. Dykstra thinks the answer is through verification of data and zero-knowledge proofs (ZK proofs), which are cryptographic actions used to prove something about a piece of information — without revealing the origin data itself. “It has a lot to do with whether there’s an incentive for bad actors to want to manipulate things,” Dykstra said. Anytime there’s a higher incentive, where people would want to manipulate data, prices, the books, finances or more, ZK proofs can be used to verify and retrieve the data. Dykstra’s most recent concern is that AI data isn’t really verifiable.

“Closing the FTX Saga: Sam Bankman-Fried Receives Sentencing”

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After a lengthy trial and conviction, we finally learned how long former crypto baron Sam Bankman-Fried will be behind bars: up to 25 years. It’s a lengthy sentence, but one that given the scale of the crimes he was convicted of, doesn’t come as a shock. For the crypto industry, it’s also the final page in a chapter that many may want firmly behind them. After all, we’re out of the last crypto winter and are back in a period of rising token prices, growing trading volume, and hints of the prior excitement that web3 commanded during the last asset bubble. Still, before we fully wrap up our coverage of SBF and his erstwhile empire, it’s worth taking one last trip down memory lane to cement in our minds how we wound up with a former venture and political darling not in the dock, but behind bars.

Apple Rejects Comparison to Microsoft’s Monopoly

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Indeed, with numbers hovering around 20% globally, it’s difficult to make the case that the company is dominating the competition the way Microsoft did Apple a quarter-century ago. Apple suggests, however, that the DOJ’s suggestion that its “share of the entire U.S. smartphone market exceeds 65%” is misleading, as it refers to revenue rather than units sold. It’s here the DOJ suggests that Apple commands 70% of the “performance” smartphone market. Today, only Samsung and Google remain as meaningful competitors in the U.S. performance smartphone market. Even Cupertino’s highly paid legal team would struggle to make the case that Apple Watch owners aren’t hamstrung by its iOS exclusivity.

Screenshots reveal X’s exploration of NSFW adult communities

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The platform, formerly Twitter, is working on an addition to its Communities feature that would let X users create groups for X-rated material, according to app researchers. pic.twitter.com/Sou18ze7Va — Nima Owji (@nima_owji) February 28, 2024Twitter introduced its Communities feature in 2021. So, the platform’s more-lenient policy on adult content is critical for online sex workers to grow their businesses. Adult creators are allowed to post explicit content on X, though they can’t monetize it on the platform. Even though X seems to be working on this NSFW Communities feature, that doesn’t mean it’ll come to fruition.

SBF Convicted, Worldcoin Faces Yet Another Ban, and Web3 Pre-Seed Funding Sees a Revival

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SBF sentenced, Worldcoin hit with another ban order and big web3 pre-seed rounds are backWelcome to TechCrunch Crypto, formerly known as Chain Reaction. This week in web3Crunching numbersThis week the crypto market prices were a bit more chipper, with the top cryptocurrencies being green on the week. The second-largest crypto, ether, increased 2.6% on the week to $3,550, according to CoinMarketCap data. Zero-knowledge proofs are a cryptographic action used to prove something about a piece of data, without revealing the origin data itself. Scott and I discuss Space and Time’s origin story, how data warehouses work in Web 2.0 versus web3 and the importance of data transparency.

“Rising Costs of Children’s Apparel: Discovering Kidsy’s Revolutionized Discount Solution”

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Kids’ clothing and gear is more expensive than ever. Kidsy has a sustainable solution for discountsAll parents know that raising kids is expensive. Enter Kidsy, a new Chicago-based e-commerce startup which aims to give consumers greater access to discounted baby and kids products by partnering with large brands, retailers and liquidation companies for their overstock and returns inventory. At the same time, it says, it can help prevent overstock and liquidation items – such as kids’ clothing – from ending up in landfills, which is obviously not good for the environment. Kids’ clothing: A massive marketTandon’s road to founding Kidsy started when she founded her own media production company after working as a journalist for Bloomberg TV and ABC News.