Flock Safety and one of its long-time VCs, Bedrock Capital, announced Thursday that the startup raised a fresh $275 million at a $7.5 billion valuation. Flock makes computer vision-enabled video surveillance technology used by law enforcement as well as businesses, property management companies, and so on. It’s best known for its automatic license plate recognition […]
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Google announced on Thursday that Android phones will soon support Auracast, a new Bluetooth technology that uses a phone to enable a direct connection from hearing aids to audio broadcasts in noisy environments. With Auracast, compatible hearing aids and earbuds can receive direct audio streams, such as a PA system at a train station or […]
© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
Gemini Robotics uses Google’s top language model to make robots more useful
The news: Google DeepMind has released a new model, Gemini Robotics, that combines its best large language model with robotics. Plugging in the LLM seems to give robots the ability to be more dexterous, work from natural-language commands, and generalize across tasks. All three are things that robots have struggled to do until now.
Why it matters: The team hopes their work could usher in an era of robots that are far more useful and require less detailed training for each task. Incorporating LLMs into robotics is part of a growing trend, and this may be the most impressive example yet. Read the full story.
—Scott J Mulligan
If you’re interested in how researchers are making robots more useful, why not take a look at these stories:
+ The robot race is fueling a fight for training data. AI is upending the way robots learn, leaving companies and researchers with a need for more data. Read the full story.
+ It’s becoming easier to train robots with sound, which helps them adapt to tasks and environments where visibility is limited. Read the full story.
+ To be more useful, robots need to become lazier. Smarter data processing could make machines more helpful and energy-efficient in the real world. A good way to test this principle is to make robots play soccer.
+ Gen AI models aren’t just good for creating pictures—they can be fine-tuned to generate useful robot training data, too. Read the full story.
MIT Technology Review Narrated: How the Ukraine-Russia war is reshaping the tech sector in Eastern Europe
Startups in Latvia and other nearby countries see the mobilization of Ukraine as a warning and as inspiration. They are now changing consumer products—from scooters to recreational drones—for use on the battlefield.
This is our latest story to be turned into a MIT Technology Review Narrated podcast, which
we’re publishing each week on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Just navigate to MIT Technology Review Narrated on either platform, and follow us to get all our new content as it’s released.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 The European Union is pushing back against Donald Trump’s tariffs
By slapping the US with its own levies. (WP $)
+ Its measure could affect up to €26bn of American-made goods. (FT $)
2 What does ‘waste’ mean to Elon Musk?
DOGE’s crude calculation of what is—and isn’t—valuable doesn’t make sense. (The Atlantic $)
+ Musk seems to be testing the limits of Trump’s patience. (FT $)
+ He’s admitted he’s struggling to balance his DOGE commitments with his work. (Insider $)
+ Can AI help DOGE slash government budgets? It’s complex. (MIT Technology Review)
3 Big Tech is calling for new nuclear power stations
With the notable exception of Microsoft. (FT $)
+ Interest in nuclear power is surging. Is it enough to build new reactors? (MIT Technology Review)
4 BYD is rapidly gaining on Tesla 
It’s undercutting the EV maker in 10 major non-Western markets. (Rest of World)
+ Mercedes-Benz is turning its attention to solid-state batteries. (IEEE Spectrum)
+ Where it all went wrong for Europe’s EV battery darling. (Bloomberg $)
+ BYD is one of MIT Technology Review’s 15 climate tech companies to watch. (MIT Technology Review)
5 Intel’s future is hanging in the balance
Shares are down, jobs are being cut, and competition is heating up. (The Guardian)
6 North Korean hackers snuck spyware onto the Google Play app store
The malicious software can take control of a device’s audio and camera systems. (TechCrunch)
7 Things aren’t looking good for iRobot
Its future seems increasingly precarious. (The Verge)
+ The company is undergoing a strategic review to see if it can be salvaged. (Bloomberg $)
+ A Roomba recorded a woman on the toilet. How did screenshots end up on Facebook? (MIT Technology Review)
8 Spotify has removed Andrew Tate’s misogynistic courses
Following complaints from its own employees. (404 Media)
9 An arbitrator has instructed a former Meta employee to stop promoting her new book
The new memoir details alleged claims of misconduct at the company. (The Verge)
10 How to decide where to hunt for alien life
Top tip: search for the cosmic shoreline. (Quanta Magazine)
Quote of the day
“The President is basically a car salesman now.”
—Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky accuses Donald Trump of acting like a showroom salesman after he urged Americans to buy Tesla electric cars, MSNBC reports.
The big story
What the future holds for those born today
August 2024
Happy birthday, baby.
You have been born into an era of intelligent machines. They have watched over you almost since your conception. They let your parents listen in on your tiny heartbeat, track your gestation on an app, and post your sonogram on social media. Well before you were born, you were known to the algorithm.
Your arrival coincided with the 125th anniversary of this magazine. With a bit of luck and the right genes, you might see the next 125 years. How will you and the next generation of machines grow up together? We asked more than a dozen experts to imagine your future. Read what they prophesied.
—Kara Platoni
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)
+ These indigenous heavy metal bands are tackling climate change, one devastating riff at a time.
+ Eating asparagus raw is a thing, apparently.
+ How our culture’s monsters have evolved over time, and what they tell us about ourselves.
+ There are few animals more fascinating than the Greenland shark.
Yes, the top prize is a ticket to Mars.
The latest app download stats, and insights into app trends.
The U.S. Government is closing in on a deal to keep TikTok in operation for Americans.
The real-life meet-ups offer networking and educational opportunities for YouTube creators.
New insights on how to maximize your opportunities with SMBs.
Crypto trading volumes and dwindling digital asset prices are flashing signs of trader exhaustion and potentially weaker market momentum, according to analysts.
Crypto-wide trading volume has been dropping since it peaked in February amid dip-buying opportunities. According to CoinGecko data, daily trading volume hit its highest level this year in early February when it reached $440 billion. It has since sunk by 63% to $163 billion on March 12.
Market data firm CoinMarketCap has slightly lower figures but they show the same trend — that volume peaked in 2025 in early March before falling back 52% to current levels.
Analytics firm Santiment said on X on March 13 that this decline in volume suggests that trader enthusiasm for the asset class is diminishing.
“When trading volume for major cryptocurrencies consistently drops, even during slight price recoveries, it typically points toward diminishing trader enthusiasm.”
Santiment added that trader behavior “indicates a mix of exhaustion, hopelessness, and capitulation” following further market capitalization declines over the past fortnight.
Declining crypto trading volume. Source: Santiment
Total market capitalization has declined almost 25% since the beginning of February, shrinking by $900 billion as the crypto market correction deepens.
Those declines have accelerated over the past 10 days when markets have lost 15% as fears of a recession in the United States increased amid escalating global trade tensions.
Santiment stated that traders are becoming cautious, suggesting they might not believe that the current upward price movements will last. “Essentially, reduced trading activity reflects uncertainty, as fewer traders are convinced that buying at current levels will yield profitable outcomes,” the analysts added.
Weakening trading volume amid minor price bounces can serve as an “early warning sign of weakening market momentum,” Santiment reported, adding that without robust buying participation, price gains can quickly lose steam, “as there simply isn’t enough underlying support to sustain the upward trend.”
“This leads to the possibility that any rebound could be temporary, with prices vulnerable to another downturn.”
Related: Bitcoin high-entry buyers are driving sell pressure, price may ‘floor’ at $70K
However, shrinking volume during minor rebounds isn’t necessarily a direct bearish signal, it said, adding that volume is a metric that measures participation from both retail and institutional traders and it needs to start rising before prices do.
“To signal a healthier and more sustainable recovery, bulls generally will want to see both rising prices and rising volumes simultaneously.”
Crypto market capitalization is currently around $2.8 trillion, which is where it was this time last year before seven months of consolidation followed.
Meanwhile, the Crypto Fear & Greed Index remains in “fear” territory, below 50, where it has been since Feb. 21.
Magazine: Mystery celeb memecoin scam factory, HK firm dumps Bitcoin: Asia Express
A crypto trader fell victim to a sandwich attack while making a $220,764 stablecoin transfer on March 12 — losing almost 98% of its value to a Maximum Extractable Value (MEV) bot.
$220,764 worth of the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin was swapped to $5,271 of Tether (USDT) in eight seconds as the MEV bot successfully front-ran the transaction, banking over $215,500.
Data from Ethereum block explorer shows the MEV attack occurred on decentralized exchange Uniswap v3’s USDC-USDT liquidity pool, where $19.8 million worth of value is locked.
Details of the sandwich attack transaction. Source: Etherscan
The MEV bot front-ran the transaction by swapping all the USDC liquidity out of the Uniswap v3 USDC-USDT pool and then put it back in after the transaction was executed, according to founder of The DeFi Report Michael Nadeau.
The attacker tipped Ethereum block builder “bob-the-builder.eth” $200,000 from the $220,764 swap and profited $8,000 themselves, Nadeau said.
DeFi researcher “DeFiac” speculates the same trader using different wallets has fallen victim to a total of six sandwich attacks, citing “internal tools.” They pointed out that all funds traveled from borrowing and lending protocol Aave before being deposited on Uniswap.
Two of the wallets fell victim to an MEV bot sandwich attack on March 12 at around 9:00 am UTC. Ethereum wallet addresses “0xDDe…42a6D” and “0x999…1D215” were sandwich attacked for $138,838 and $128,003 in transactions that occurred three to four minutes earlier.
Both transactors made the same swap in the Uniswap v3 liquidity pool as the trader who made the $220,762 transfer.
Others speculate the trades could be attempts at money laundering.
“If you have NK illicit funds you could construct a very mev-able tx, then privately send it to a mev bot and have them arb it in a bundle,” said founder of crypto data dashboard DefiLlama, 0xngmi.
“That way you wash all the money with close to 0 losses.”
Related: THORChain at crossroads: Decentralization clashes with illicit activity
While initially criticizing Uniswap, Nadeau later acknowledged that the transactions didn’t come from Uniswap’s front end, which has MEV protection and default slippage settings.
Nadeau backtracked on those criticisms after Uniswap CEO Hayden Adams and others clarified the protections Uniswap has in place to fight against sandwich attacks.
Source: Hayden Adams
Magazine: Crypto fans are obsessed with longevity and biohacking: Here’s why