Google has developed a new AI tool to help marine biologists better understand coral reef ecosystems and their health, which can aid in conversation efforts.
The project began by inviting the public to listen to reef sounds via the web.
By crowdsourcing this activity, Google was able to create a library of new fish sounds that were used to fine-tune the AI tool, SurfPerch.
Although bird sounds and reef recordings are very different, there were common patterns between bird songs and fish sounds that the model was able to learn from, they found.
The project continues today, as new audio is added to the Calling in Our Corals website, which will help to further train the AI model, Google says.
Fisker temporarily lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments as it scaled up deliveries, leading to an internal audit that started in December and took months to complete, TechCrunch has learned.
The EV startup was ultimately able to track down a majority of those payments or request new ones from customers whose payment methods had expired.
Red flags raisedFisker has warned investors since last year about problems with its internal accounting practices.
Fisker’s poor internal procedures have created problems beyond keeping track of payments.
Fisker hired contractors in February to help resolve the title and registration problems, but the backlog was immense, according to the people.
Intuitive Machines’ second moon mission is still on track to launch before the end of this year, after the company only had to make minor adjustments to the lunar lander design, executives said during an earnings call Thursday.
That same lander class, which the company calls Nova-C, will be returning to the moon later this year in that second mission.
The Intuitive Machines team identified just “a handful of adjustments” that will be implemented on the second lander, CEO Steve Altemus said during the earnings call.
Intuitive Machines ended the fourth quarter of 2023 with $30.6 million in revenue and a cash balance of just $4.5 million.
Beyond the second moon mission, 2024 will likely be a pivotal year for the company, which is awaiting the decision on NASA awards that could be extremely lucrative.
Plenty of major corporations have announced net-zero emissions targets.
Those are the companies Greenly has targeted.
It takes that information and, coupled with its own data and algorithms, calculates carbon emissions by category and scope for customers.
It came into the round with an advantage: it’s applying SaaS to climate tech, and SaaS a business model that’s well understood.
But it does suggest that venture investors are warming to climate tech more broadly, proving that there’s a market for businesses focused on sustainability.
In enterprise software-as-a-service (SaaS), usage-based pricing, a pricing model in which customers are charged only when they use a product or service, is gaining ground.
According to a report from VC firm OpenView, ~60% of SaaS businesses offer some form of usage-based pricing today.
But while usage-based pricing has its advantages, it can be tougher to keep tabs on from a billing perspective.
There, he ran into blockers collecting usage-based pricing data from different providers and infrastructure and aggregating and analyzing this usage together.
“Competitors in the usage-based space only cater to the revenue teams with a closed-source, billing-first approach,” he said.
In 2021, the company says it used 214 million or so pounds of single-use plastic in its packaging.
Nonprofit ocean conservation firm Oceana, on the other hand, put that figure at approximately ~700 million pounds.
Take for example, its ongoing efforts to reduce package weights and replace plastics with paper products.
The first is a robot that is primarily deployed in recycling facilities to sort through different materials.
We’ve also received a pretty significant grant from the Michigan Department of Environment for further deployments of our technology.
Polestar secured a $950 million loan from a dozen banks, critical funds needed to keep its EV plans moving forward following Volvo’s decision to pull back its financial support of the electric automaker.
Polestar, which has cut 10% of jobs since mid-2023, said it plans to make another 15% cut this year.
Polestar currently produces the Polestar 2, Polestar 3, which recently started production in China, and the Polestar 4.
The company said it has successfully completed test production runs for the Polestar 3 at its factory in South Carolina.
The $950 million loan follows Volvo Cars’ decision last month to reduce its 48% holding in Polestar and let parent company Geely take over financial responsibility.
Instagram is developing an opt-in “Friend Map” feature that would allow users to see their friends’ locations in real time, a Meta spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday.
Instagram would also be coming for Apple and its “Find My” map feature that lets users see where their friends and family are currently located.
According to screenshots posted on Threads by Paluzzi, Instagram’s Friend Map would allow users to choose who can see their location.
Post by @alex193a View on ThreadsThe Friend Map would allow users to leave short messages, or “Notes,” on the map for others to see.
After cutting into one of Google’s core businesses, Instagram may now be looking to take on Snapchat and Apple with its Friend Map.
Long COVID is the strongest ‘why now’ slide — and it has shone a light on all these other conditions,” says Leeming in an interview with TechCrunch.
Trying it outAs someone who suffers from long COVID myself, I tried its solution out as I was at CES in Las Vegas earlier this year.
“We aim to take fitness, wellness and illness into account with our tracker.
No longer a mere risk assessment tool, Visible’s “illness tracker” has evolved into a personal assistant for health maintenance and a symbol of empowerment for patients.
Even at this initial stage, it certainly seems that Visible is starting to illuminate a new way forward for chronic illness sufferers.
As more than $1 trillion flows into climate tech, incentive-tracking apps find firm footing Websites, apps and startups are rushing to track government incentives for climate techSpend some time with people in the climate tech world and you’ll soon learn that a lot of them share something in common: They’re not used to having a lot of money.
That’s because for years, climate represented a cost for many businesses, not an opportunity.
Investment in climate tech has been gathering pace over the past five years or so.
The IRA alone might yield more than that since many of the tax credits are uncapped; Goldman Sachs estimates the law’s climate provisions might pay out $1.2 trillion in incentives, spurring some $3 trillion in private investment.
Making sense of it all“Unfortunately, there’s no comprehensive database out there for all of these rebates and incentives,” said Thomas Stephens, co-founder of Upfront, a startup that’s cataloging incentives for merchants.
