Author: Benjamin Clarke

A prototype for Radical’s Evenstar stratospheric solar-powered airplane flies over its Oregon take a look at vary. (Radical Picture) Seattle-based Radical says it has put a full-size prototype for a solar-powered drone by means of its first flight, marking one low-altitude step within the startup’s marketing campaign to ship robo-planes into the stratosphere for long-duration navy and business missions. “It’s a 120-foot-wingspan plane that solely weighs 240 kilos,” Radical CEO James Thomas advised GeekWire. “We’re speaking about one thing that has a wingspan only a bit greater than a Boeing 737, nevertheless it solely weighs slightly bit greater than an…

TestSprite founders Yunhao Jiao (left) and Rui Li. (TestSprite Photograph) Within the period of AI-generated software program, builders nonetheless want to verify their code is clear. That’s the place TestSprite needs to assist. The Seattle startup introduced $6.7 million in seed funding to develop its platform that routinely assessments and displays code written by AI instruments equivalent to GitHub Copilot, Cursor, and Windsurf. TestSprite’s autonomous agent integrates instantly into growth environments, operating assessments all through the coding course of moderately than as a separate step after deployment. “As AI writes extra code, validation turns into the bottleneck,” stated CEO Yunhao…

GeekWire File Photograph Amazon will lay off 2,303 company staff in Washington state, primarily in its Seattle and Bellevue places of work, in accordance with a submitting with the state Employment Safety Division that gives the primary geographic breakdown of the corporate’s 14,000 global job cuts. A detailed list included with the state submitting exhibits a big selection of impacted roles, together with software program engineers, program managers, product managers, and designers, in addition to a major variety of recruiters and human sources employees.  Senior and principal-level roles are amongst these being lower, aligning with a company-wide push to make…

Amazon’s headquarters campus in Seattle. (GeekWire Photograph / Kurt Schlosser) Response to a huge round of layoffs rippled throughout Amazon and past on Tuesday because the Seattle-based tech large confirmed that it was slashing 14,000 company and tech jobs. We’ve rounded up a few of what’s being mentioned on-line and/or shared with GeekWire: ‘By no means been laid off earlier than’ A megathread on Reddit served as a group of feedback by impacted workers who posted about their degree, location, org and years of service at Amazon. Employees throughout adverts, recruitment, robotics, retail, Prime Video, Amazon Video games, enterprise growth,…

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, deaths attributable to drug overdose amongst adolescents greater than doubled, primarily pushed by the synthetic opioid, fentanyl. Nationwide survey knowledge present that whereas the % of adolescents (ages 12-17) with a previous yr substance use dysfunction decreased from 2021 to 2024, the share of adolescents with a previous yr opioid use dysfunction remained steady over the identical interval. Moreover, lower than one-third of adolescents with a previous yr opioid use dysfunction reported receiving any remedy. In recent times, many colleges have integrated measures to deal with the fentanyl crisis. Additional, almost 7 in 10 adolescents…

Cipher govt editor Amy Tougher and Invoice Gates on the Breakthrough Power Summit in Seattle on Oct. 19, 2022. (GeekWire Picture / Lisa Stiffler) Lower than two weeks forward of the United Nations local weather convention, Invoice Gates posted a memo on his private weblog encouraging of us to only relax about local weather change. “Though local weather change can have severe penalties — significantly for folks within the poorest international locations — it won’t result in humanity’s demise. Individuals will be capable to stay and thrive in most locations on Earth for the foreseeable future,” Gates wrote. The missive…

Sam Altman and OpenAI introduced a brand new cope with Microsoft, setting revised phrases for future AI improvement. (GeekWire File Picture / Todd Bishop) Microsoft and OpenAI introduced the long-awaited particulars of their new partnership settlement Tuesday morning — with concessions on each side that hold the businesses aligned however not in lockstep as they transfer into their subsequent phases of AI improvement. Beneath the association, Microsoft will get a 27% fairness stake in OpenAI’s new for-profit entity, the OpenAI Group PBC (Public Profit Company), a stake valued at roughly $135 billion. That’s a lower from 32.5% fairness however not…

The opening panel at Seattle AI Week 2025, from left: Randa Minkarah, WTIA chief working government; Joe Nguyen, Washington commerce director; Rep. Cindy Ryu; Nathan Lambert, Allen Institute for AI; and Brittany Jarnot, Salesforce. (GeekWire Picture / Taylor Soper) Seattle is trying to have fun and speed up its management in synthetic intelligence on the very second the primary wave of the AI financial system is crashing down on the area’s tech workforce. That distinction was exhausting to overlook Monday night on the opening reception for Seattle AI Week 2025 at Pier 70. On stage, panels supplied a wholesome dose…

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson speaks at Seattle AI Week, on the AI Home on Pier 70 alongside the town’s waterfront. (GeekWire Picture / Todd Bishop) Washington state Gov. Bob Ferguson is threading the needle on the subject of synthetic intelligence. Ferguson made a short look on the opening reception for Seattle AI Week on Monday night, talking at AI Home on Pier 70 about his strategy to governing the consequential expertise. “I view my job as maximizing the advantages and minimizing harms,” stated Ferguson, who took workplace earlier this yr. Ferguson referred to as AI one of many “prime 5…

Stacks of pallets containing energy models that ship huge pulses of power to Helion’s Polaris fusion generator. (Helion Picture) EVERETT, Wash. — In an industrial stretch of Everett is a boxy, windowless constructing referred to as Ursa. Inside that constructing is a vault constructed from concrete blocks as much as 5 toes thick with a further layer of radiation-absorbing plastic. Inside that vault is Polaris, a machine that might change the world. Helion Energy is making an attempt to duplicate the physics that gas the solar and the celebrities — therefore the celestial naming theme — to supply almost limitless…