Author: Benjamin Clarke
(GeekWire File Picture / Todd Bishop) Microsoft is creating a brand new inner mechanism for workers to report considerations about how its know-how is developed and used — making the method just like how staff already flag incidents of office misbehavior, safety points, or authorized considerations. In a message to workers Wednesday morning, firm President Brad Smith stated Microsoft was increasing its inner “Integrity Portal” to let staff elevate points associated to the event and deployment of its know-how. The brand new function, known as “Trusted Expertise Overview,” will permit workers to report info or considerations about potential coverage violations.…
Shyam Gollakota, co-founder of Hearvana. (UW Picture) Hearvana, a Seattle startup utilizing AI to create “superhuman listening to capabilities,” raised $6 million in pre-seed funding. The corporate was launched this spring by College of Washington laptop science researchers, together with co-founder Shyam Gollakota, a famend tech inventor. Gollakota beforehand advised GeekWire that Hearvana is “creating AI breakthroughs which might be shaping the way forward for sound” on-device, utilizing the expertise to shortly course of audio with out requiring massive quantities of energy or computing. He predicted the tech can be a part of billions of earbuds, listening to aids and smartphones.…
Picture of antibodies created from scratch. (UW Institute for Protein Design / Ian C. Haydon Graphic) Researchers from Nobel Laureate David Baker’s lab and the College of Washington’s Institute for Protein Design (IPD) have used synthetic intelligence to design antibodies from scratch — notching one other game-changing breakthrough for the scientists and their discipline of analysis. “It was actually a grand problem — a pipe dream,” mentioned Andrew Borst, head of electron microscopy R&D at IPD. Now that they’ve hit the milestone of engineering antibodies that efficiently bind to their targets, the analysis “can go on and it will probably…
This Amazon video, launched Wednesday morning, reveals how the method works. Amazon this morning provided the first official glimpse of a brand new “retailer inside a retailer” idea it’s testing to convey name-brand objects to Entire Meals Market with out sullying the grocery store’s signature natural vibe. The method, first reported a number of days in the past by The Wall Avenue Journal, places screens on the cabinets that allow buyers scan a QR code to browse a wider Amazon choice within the app — choosing objects like Kraft Mac & Cheese, Tide Pods, or Pepsi for fast pickup at…
Romi Mahajan, CEO of ExoFusion. (LinkedIn Photograph) Clear power startup ExoFusion at this time introduced it has obtained funding from the U.S. Division of Vitality via its Fusion Revolutionary Analysis Engine (FIRE) program. The FIRE award will assist analysis into the usage of liquid metallic partitions in fusion turbines and will likely be led by Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory with ExoFusion co-founder and chief science officer Michael Kotschenreuther spearheading one of many venture’s initiatives. ExoFusion launched in 2022 and is collectively primarily based in Bellevue, Wash., and Austin, Texas, and payments itself as a boutique fusion firm supporting the rising…
Microsoft President Brad Smith speaks on the firm’s headquarters campus final month to unveil a brand new initiative to offer AI software program to educators and college students throughout its residence state. (GeekWire Picture / Taylor Soper) Editor’s notice: This column was written by Robert Trumbull, a Seattle-based writer who writes in regards to the ethics of tech. It’s clear that Amazon and Microsoft are working from the identical playbook. Whereas certainly quite a lot of components are at play right here for each, it’s equally clear their current layoffs are, at the least partly, a direct consequence of their…
An artist’s conception exhibits Portal’s Starburst spacecraft within the foreground with its Supernova area automobile (and Earth) within the background. (Portal Area Methods Illustration) Bothell, Wash.-based Portal Space Systems has added one other spacecraft to its product line: a rapid-maneuverability automobile referred to as Starburst, which takes benefit of applied sciences which are being developed for its extra highly effective Supernova satellite tv for pc platform. Starburst-1 is because of star in Portal’s first free-flying area mission with stay payloads a 12 months from now, beginning with a launch on SpaceX’s Transporter-18 satellite rideshare mission. Portal says the mission will…
Seattle-based Zuper introduced Zuper Glass, AI-powered good glasses for trades professionals akin to roofers and plumbers. (Zuper Photograph) Seattle-based Zuper, which gives software program for corporations with subject employees, is entering into the smart-glasses sport with the discharge of Zuper Glass, an AI-powered product constructed for expert tradespeople. Zuper Glass is designed for a spread of execs, together with roofers, electricians and plumbers. The voice-activated glasses use AI to assist employees seize photographs or report video, carry out inspections, and talk safely whereas conserving their arms free. The glasses are built-in with Zuper’s cell app, syncing in actual time to Zuper’s software…
(GeekWire File Picture / Kurt Schlosser) Voters in Seattle have overwhelmingly permitted Proposition 2, which is able to reshape the town’s enterprise and occupation (B&O) tax that applies to gross income. It can affect each small startups and huge tech corporations akin to Amazon. The poll measure garnered a 67.7% approval in King County’s unofficial election results posted Tuesday night. The initiative will briefly get rid of B&O taxes for small- and medium-sized companies — together with tech startups — with gross receipts of $2 million or much less. To offset the income loss for the town, massive corporations would see…
From high left, clockwise: Boop CEO Nancy Li Smith, Dotted CEO Eric Neuman, FurFriends CEO Avery Morton, and AceRocket CEO Dong Zhang. Our newest highlight on up-and-coming startups in Seattle covers numerous floor — dog-influenced connections, shareable journey itineraries, customized examination prep, and streamlined product reporting. This common sequence spotlights early stage startups which are getting off the bottom with revolutionary concepts. Learn on for transient descriptions of every firm — and a pitch evaluation from GPT-powered “Imply VC,” which we immediate to supply each constructive and significant suggestions. Verify previous Startup Radar posts here, and electronic mail me at taylor@geekwire.com to flag…