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Mirantis Reinstates Old CEO as New Chief Executive

Mirantis
Mirantis, the enterprise infrastructure startup that has gone through its share of evolutionary cycles since it launched back in 1999. That has included a number of leadership changes, including a CEO swap in 2018 which saw co-founder and CEO Alex Freedland step down and co-founder Adrian Ionel taking on the CEO role (after Ionel and Freedland had first swapped CEO roles back in 2015). But now, in another twist to this story, Freeland is coming back as CEO while Ionel is stepping down effective January 11. “Once again, we are in the middle of one of the most exciting periods in the history of computing, more than ever led by open source innovation. Ionel will transition to an advisor role.

Twitch to Terminate 500 More Employees from Its Workforce

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The Amazon-owned livestreaming platform will cut 35% of its staff, or roughly 500 employees, Bloomberg reports, and will announce the reduction as early as this week. Shortly after Twitch co-founder and longtime CEO Emmett Shear handed the reigns to its now-CEO Dan Clancy, the company laid off 400 employees. Twitch faces steep operating costs to support livestream content at such a large scale. In a 2022 blog post, Clancy stated that each high-volume streamer on Twitch costs the company about $1,000 per month, citing Amazon Web Service’s interactive video rates. “Delivering high definition, low latency, always available live video to nearly every corner of the world is expensive,” Clancy wrote.

“Hyundai’s Electric Air Taxi Venture Set to Launch in 2028”

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Supernal, the advanced air mobility company under Hyundai Motor Group, took the wraps off its latest iteration of an electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft called the S-A2 that executives say is designed to shuttle passengers by 2028. The S-A2 is essentially a more fully baked version of what it intends to launch commercially and confirms that, at least for now, Hyundai is still intent on getting into the yet-to-exist electric air taxi business. Supernal has grown to a 600-person team and is also using technical and business capabilities of Hyundai Motor Group and aviation suppliers around the world as it works towards a commercial launch, according to Jaiwon Shin, Hyundai Motor Group president and CEO of Supernal. The nuts and boltsThe aircraft shown Tuesday is a V-tail with a distributed electric propulsion architecture and eight all-tilting rotors. The S-A2 is loaded with the kind of redundant components like the powertrain, flight controls and avionics — all of the safety critical systems required for commercial aviation.

“Tack One Unveils Enhanced Location Tracking System for Children and Seniors”

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Today, the company unveiled its new generation of GPS device, Tack GPS Plus, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2024. The company claims Tack GPS Plus reduces search time in high-rise cities by offering vertical distance and geographical coordinates. The Tack GPS Plus can be widely used by parents, caregivers, pet owners, and more. Tack GPS Plus follows the company’s second product, a palm-sized autonomous flood-detection device called Tack EVO FloodFinder. Tack GPS Plus is now available on the company’s official website and will then be sold on Amazon, Lazada, and Shopee around mid-January.

Report: 1.3 Million Customers’ Data Stolen by Hackers, Confirms Fidelity National Financial

Fidelity National Financial Data Breach
Real estate services giant Fidelity National Financial has confirmed hackers stole data on 1.3 million of its customers during a November cyberattack that knocked the company offline for a week. FNF spokesperson Lisa Foxworthy-Parker did not respond to TechCrunch’s email requesting further details. FNF said it “contained” the cyberattack on November 26 following a week-long outage that virtually froze all of the company and much of its subsidiaries’ operations. One of FNF’s subsidiaries described the incident as a “catastrophe” in an automated message for customers. FNF was one of several corporate victims of cyberattacks in recent weeks targeting the mortgage and loan industry, including LoanDepot and Mr. Cooper.

Will a striking design differentiate rabbit’s r1 pocket AI from a multitude of virtual assistants?

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In a sea of AI-enabled gadgets at CES, the rabbit r1 (all lowercase, they insist) stands out not just for its high-vis paint job and unique form factor, but because of its dedication to the bit. “The phone is an entertainment device, but if you’re trying to get something done it’s not the highest efficiency machine. After all, that’s what our so-called “AI assistants” have supposedly been doing for the last five or six years. Even so, even if the rabbit r1 is better or cuter, people prefer simplicity and convenience. Why would they pay money to carry a second device when their first one does most of those tasks?

VinFast’s EV expansion includes new electric pickup truck in growing production plans

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Vietnamese EV startup VinFast is trying to get into the electric pickup truck game, as it revealed a new concept called the VF Wild at CES 2024 in Las Vegas. The company announced it also plans to start selling its smallest EV, the VF3, outside of Vietnam as previously hinted. The VF3 is a plucky little EV that VinFast announced in Vietnam earlier this year. Developing a truck and globally launching a compact EV aren’t even the biggest things on VinFast’s plate. Globally, the overwhelming majority of VinFast’s EV sales have been to a taxi company owned by Vuong.

“Duolingo Embraces AI: Cuts 10% of Contractor Workforce”

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Duolingo is the latest company to cite AI as a reason for job cuts. The company confirmed it cut around 10% of its contractor workforce at the end of 2023, as it turns to AI models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 to streamline content production and translations. “The reason [Duolingo] gave is that AI can come up with content and translations, alternative translations, and pretty much anything else translators did. Duolingo also has its own proprietary AI model, “Birdbrain” that personalizes lesson content. Understandably, both the contractors and Duolingo users were upset by the job cuts, as it adds to the ever-growing fear that AI will replace human workers.

“Insights from 20 Years in the Language Learning Industry: Lessons from Babbel’s Co-Founder”

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What Babbel co-founder has learned over 20 years in the language learning industryWelcome back to Found, where we get the stories behind the startups. This week Becca and Dom are joined by Markus Witte, the co-founder of the language learning platform Babbel. Witte spoke to the duo about being early to the online language industry and how the company has survived these past 20 years of market disruption. Subscribe to Found to hear more stories from founders each week. Connect with us:On Twitter On Instagram Via email: found@techcrunch.comOr check out one of our sister podcasts:

Enhancing Business Efficiency: Leap AI streamlines AI workflow integration

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Leap AI is building a solution for these companies to easily integrate AI-powered workflows or even build their own using an easy process. It also has plans starting from $29 per month with more credits, no limit on building workflows with customer support. Why did the founders build Leap AI? Another unique aspect is that we provide the interoperability between multiple models, multiple vendors, and multiple companies,” he said. Leap AI is also working on improving context awareness of its workflows so it can leverage previously generated results.