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What Drives the Belief That We Live in a Computer Sim Universe?
<div>If we grasp the psychological role that the belief that we live in a sim universe plays, it’s easier to see why it persists in the absence of evidence.
<p><a href="https://mindmatters.ai/2024/05/what-drives-the-belief-that-we-live-in-a-computer-sim-universe/" rel="nofollow">Source</a></p></div>
OpenAI and Google lay out their competing AI visions
<div><p>Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review. This week had two major events from OpenAI and Google. OpenAI’s spring update event saw the reveal of its new model, GPT-4o, which has voice and vision capabilities that can turn ChatGPT into a virtual assistant seemingly aspiring to be “Her.” Hot off OpenAI’s tail, Google’s I/O conference […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
Chinese Police Raids Illegal $1.9B USDT Banking Operation: Report
The Chinese police forces have burst a large underground banking operation using the popular stablecoin Tether (USDT) to facilitate transfers of up to 13.8 billion yuan ($1.9 billion).
According to a report from local media house Weixin, the Public Security Bureau of Chengdu Municipal arrested 193 suspects linked to the case and froze 149 million yuan ($20.6 million) after raiding the operation’s location.
A $1.9B Underground Banking Operation
Investigations conducted by the police force since 2
Expedia says two execs dismissed after ‘violation of company policy’
<div><p>Expedia says Rathi Murthy and Sreenivas Rachamadugu, respectively its CTO and senior vice president of core services product & engineering, are no longer employed at the travel booking company. In a statement shared with Bloomberg and elsewhere, Expedia said Murthy and Rachamadugu are “no longer employed at Expedia Group” due to an unspecified “violation of […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
With AI startups booming, nap pods and Silicon Valley hustle culture are back
<div><p>When Jeffrey Wang posted to X asking if anyone wanted to go in on an order of fancy-but-affordable office nap pods, he didn’t expect the post to go viral.</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
The Most Outrageous Ripple (XRP) Price Predictions This Year
TL;DR
XRP trades around $0.52, with some analysts predicting potential rises to $5.85, $18.22, and even up to $100, although extreme targets are unlikely.
The ongoing lawsuit between Ripple and the SEC significantly affects the asset’s price, with the company’s partial court wins boosting optimism for a potential bull run.
The Odds of a Ridiculous XRP Rally
Despite a brief price surge above $0.70 in mid-March, Ripple’s XRP has not positioned itself among the best-performing cryptocurrencies t
This is How Much Bitcoin (BTC) El Salvador Has Mined Using Volcanic Energy: Report
Since 2021 when El Salvador began validating Bitcoin blocks with volcanic energy, the Central American country has mined 474 BTC worth approximately $29.6 million at current prices.
According to a Reuters report, El Salvador mined the cryptocurrencies using a geothermal power plant fueled by the Tecapa volcano in the nation’s east central region.
El Salvador Mines 474 BTC With Volcano
The energy generated from the Tecapa volcano is relatively small, but it powers 300 mining processors installed
OpenAI created a team to control ‘superintelligent’ AI — then let it wither, source says
<div><p>OpenAI’s Superalignment team, responsible for developing ways to govern and steer “superintelligent” AI systems, was promised 20% of the company’s compute resources, according to a person from that team. But requests for a fraction of that compute were often denied, blocking the team from doing their work. That issue, among others, pushed several team members […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
What happened to OpenAI’s long-term AI risk team?
Enlarge (credit: Benj Edwards)
In July last year, OpenAI announced the formation of a new research team that would prepare for the advent of supersmart artificial intelligence capable of outwitting and overpowering its creators. Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist and one of the company’s co-founders, was named as the co-lead of this new team. OpenAI said the team would receive 20 percent of its computing power.
Now OpenAI’s “superalignment team” is no more, the company
Crypto Price Analysis May-18: ETH, XRP, ADA, SHIB, and DOT
This week, we take a closer look at Ethereum, Ripple, Cardano, Shiba Inu, and Polkadot.
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum finally woke up this week after testing the support at $2,800 and closed with a 7% price increase. Nevertheless, ETH made a new yearly low against Bitcoin.
The resistance is at $3,350 and if this momentum continues, it could be tested by the bulls in the coming days. Ideally, Ethereum will break higher soon and return on an uptrend.
Looking ahead, ETH could be making a local bottom at
Jace Hall wants to talk about how to celebrate gamers and their big achievements
Jace Hall, the CEO of Twin Galaxies, has a big idea to bring attention to gamers and their achievements.Read More
VCs and the military are fueling self-driving startups that don’t need roads
<div><p>A new crop of early-stage startups — along with some recent VC investments — illustrates a niche emerging in the autonomous vehicle technology sector. Unlike the companies bringing robotaxis to city streets, these startups are taking their tech off-road. Two recent entrants — Seattle-based Overland AI and New Brunswick-based Potential — are poised to get […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
Top 10 NFT-Related Cryptocurrencies by Development Activity: Details
TL;DR
Santiment reports that Decentraland (MANA) leads in development activity among NFT-linked tokens.
Although interest is returning, assets like Axie Infinity (AXS) remain well below their historical peak values, highlighting the ongoing volatility in the NFT market.
Here are the Leaders
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and cryptocurrencies related to them were a huge trend a few years ago. During the 2022-2023 bear market, their popularity declined, but recently, they started capturing the att
Deal Dive: Sagetap looks to bring enterprise software sales into the 21st century
<div><p>When the founders of Sagetap, Sahil Khanna and Kevin Hughes, started working at early-stage enterprise software startups, they were surprised to find that the companies they worked at were trying to sell their innovative tech through old-school methods like repeated cold emails and calls. Khanna, a former product marketer, and Hughes, a former sales manager, […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
Razer Fujin Pro Gaming Chair Review: Giving My Back an Extra Life
<div>I’ve spent years struggling to find a chair that conforms to my back, rather than the other way around. My search might be over.</div>
TON Outperforms Bitcoin by 118% in 2024, Setting Itself Apart from Other Layer 1s
TON has emerged as one of the top-performing Layer 1 blockchains in 2024, according to the latest analysis by CryptoQuant.
Demonstrating a remarkable 118% outperformance over Bitcoin since the beginning of the year, TON has stood out in stark contrast to other popular Layer 1 chains, which have struggled to gain momentum.
Among major blockchains, only TON and BNB have significantly outpaced Bitcoin in this period, as per the intelligence resource. This relative strength, combined with the robust
This Week in AI: OpenAI moves away from safety
<div><p>Keeping up with an industry as fast-moving as AI is a tall order. So until an AI can do it for you, here’s a handy roundup of recent stories in the world of machine learning, along with notable research and experiments we didn’t cover on their own. By the way, TechCrunch plans to launch an AI newsletter […]</p>
<p>© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.</p></div>
How to Remove Annoying News Widgets From Windows 11
<div>Good news! Microsoft has finally made it possible to use the Widget Board on Windows 11 without being subjected to an onslaught of clickbait news articles.</div>
Apple Makes It Easier to Stare at Your Phone in the Car
<div>Plus: Sony Music tries to keep its catalog out of the clutches of AI, there’s a towering new Lord of the Rings Lego set, and Google’s new AI features march onto the web.</div>
7 Reasons Dogecoin (DOGE) Could Flip Ripple’s XRP in 2024
Dogecoin’s total market capitalization was $19.8 billion at the time of writing, with the hash work-powered meme currency trading at $0.145.
Meanwhile, Ripple XRP price moved markets at $0.5 per token, and its market cap stood at $27 billion, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
The Ripple lawsuit versus the US SEC could be over as soon as this summer, according to one legal expert. That would be the end of an ongoing headwind for XRP and portend a rise in its fortunes.
But here are seven reaso