Last year was monumental for the AI industry in the U.S. and beyond. There were 49 startups that raised funding rounds worth $100 million or more in 2024, per our count at TechCrunch; three companies raised more than one “megaround,” and seven companies raised rounds $1 billion in size or larger. How will 2025 compare? It’s still the first half of the year, but so far it looks like 2024’s momentum will continue this year. There have already been multiple billion-dollar rounds this year, and more AI megarounds closed in the U.S. in Q1 2025 compared to Q1 2024. Here are all the U.S. AI companies that have raised $100 million this year: April SandboxAQ closed a $450 million Series E round on April 4 that valued the AI model company at $5.7 billion. The round included Nvidia, Google, and Bridgewater Associates founder Ray Dalio among other investors. Runway, which creates AI models for media production, raised a $308 million Series D round that was announced on April 3, valuing the company at $3 billion. It was led by General Atlantic. SoftBank, Nvidia, and Fidelity also participated. March AI behemoth OpenAI raised a record-breaking $40 billion funding round that valued the startup at $300 billion. This round, which closed on March 31, was led by SoftBank with participation from Thrive Capital, Microsoft, and Coatue, among others. On March 25, Nexthop AI, an AI infrastructure company, announced that it had raised a Series A round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. The $110 million round also included Kleiner Perkins, Battery Ventures, and Emergent Ventures, among others. Cambridge Massachusetts-based Insilico Medicine raised $110 million for its generative AI-powered drug discovery platform as announced on March 13. This Series E round valued the company at $1 billion and was co-led by Value Partners and Pudong Chuangtou. AI infrastructure company Celestial AI raised a $250 million Series C round that valued the company at $2.5 billion. The March 11 round was led by Fidelity with participation from Tiger Global, BlackRock, and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, among others. Lila Sciences raised a $200 million seed round as it looks to create a science superintelligence platform. The round was led by Flagship Pioneering. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company also received funding from March Capital, General Catalyst, and ARK Venture Fund, among others. Brooklyn-based Reflection.Ai, which looks to build superintelligent autonomous systems, raised a $130 million Series A round that values the 1-year-old company at $580 million. The round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and CRV. AI coding startup Turing closed a Series E round on March 7 that valued the startup, which partners with LLM companies, at $2.2 billion. The $111 million round was led by Khazanah Nasional with participation from WestBridge Capital, Gaingels, and Sozo Ventures, among others. Shield AI, an AI defense tech startup, raised $240 million in a Series F round that closed on March 6. This round was co-led by L3Harris Technologies and Hanwha Aerospace, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz and the US Innovative Technology Fund, among others. The round valued the company at $5.3 billion AI research and large language model company Anthropic raised $3.5 billion in a Series E round that valued the startup at $61.5 billion. The round was announced on March 3 and was led by Lightspeed with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Menlo Ventures, and General Catalyst, among others. February Together AI, which creates open source generative AI and AI model development infrastructure, raised a $305 million Series B round that valued the company at $3.3 billion. The February 20 round was co-led by Prosperity7 and General Catalyst with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Nvidia, Lux Capital, and others. AI infrastructure company Lambda raised a $480 million Series D round that was announced on February 19. The round valued the startup at nearly $2.5 billion and was co-led by SGW and Andra Capital. Nvidia, G Squared, ARK Invest, and others also participated. Abridge, an AI platform that transcribes patient-clinician conversations, was valued at $2.75 billion in a Series D round that was announced on February 17. The $250 million round was co-led by IVP and Elad Gil. Lightspeed, Redpoint, and Spark Capital also participated, among others. Eudia, an AI legal tech company, raised $105 million in a Series A round led by General Catalyst. Floodgate, Defy Ventures, and Everywhere Ventures also participated in the round in addition to other VC firms and numerous angel investors. The round closed on February 13. AI hardware startup EnCharge AI raised a $100 million Series B round that also closed on February 13. The round was led by Tiger Global with participation from Scout Ventures, Samsung Ventures, and RTX Ventures, among others. The Santa Clara-based business was founded in 2022. AI legal tech company Harvey raised a $300 million Series D round that valued the 3-year-old company at $3 billion. The round was led by Sequoia and announced on February 12. OpenAI Startup Fund, Kleiner Perkins, Elad Gil, and others also participated in the raise. January Synthetic voice startup ElevenLabs raised a $180 million Series C round that valued the company at more than $3 billion. It was announced on January 30. The round was co-led by ICONIQ Growth and Andreessen Horowitz. Sequoia, NEA, Salesforce Ventures, and others also participated in the round. Hippocratic AI, which develops large language models for the healthcare industry, announced a $141 million Series B round on January 9. This round valued the company at more than $1.6 billion and was led by Kleiner Perkins. Andreessen Horowitz, Nvidia, and General Catalyst also participated, among others. This piece was updated on April 23 to include more deals. This piece has been updated to remove that Abridge is based in Pittsburgh; the company was founded there.

On a month-by-month basis, recorded ransomware attacks dropped by 32% in March 2025, to 600 in total, according to NCC Group’s latest monthly Threat Pulse data, but the decline appears to be very much a red herring, and likely the result of large, one-off events in previous months that yielded multiple victims, such as Clop/Cl0p’s attacks on Cleo. Indeed, according to NCC, ransomware incidents are in fact up by 46% compared with March 2024. Note, as always, that these data are drawn from NCC’s own telemetry, and do not necessarily reflect the true scale of the problem. “The slight decline in attacks in February is a bit of a red herring given the unprecedented levels we have seen over the past months, with the volume of incidents year-on-year increasing 46% in March,” said NCC threat intelligence head Matt Hull. “As ever, we are seeing threat actors diversifying, and leveraging increasingly complex and sophisticated attack methods to stay ahead, not only to cause mass disruption, but to gain attention in the ransomware world.”  Last month, Babuk 2.0 appeared to be the most active threat group, accounting for 84, about 20% of recorded attacks, up 33% on January. Second place was shared by Akira and RansomHub, which both scored 62 victims, slightly down on February. In fourth place was the Safepay crew, which conducted 42 observed attacks after experiencing something of a fallow period. However, there may be a second red herring in the barrel, observed Hull, as the emergence of Babuk 2.0 in particular is raising questions as to the legitimacy of their alleged attacks. The original Babuk gang has claimed no connection to the new operation, and security researchers are generally united in the belief that Babuk 2.0 is fraudulent – more fraudulent than usual, at least – and is possibly recycling old leaked data and trying to use it to scare victims into paying out. Such tactics were similarly observed following the 2024 disruption to LockBit. Read more about ransomware Perimeter security appliances and devices, particularly VPNs, prove to be the most popular entry points into victim networks for financially motivated ransomware gangs, according to reports. Car hire giant Hertz reveals UK customer data was affected in a cyber incident orchestrated via a series of vulnerabilities in Cleo managed file transfer products. In February, leaked internal exchanges within the Black Basta group offered a new opportunity to investigate one of its leaders: Tramp. He may have been arrested in Armenia in June 2024, before being released. Broken down by sector, industrials was the most targeted last month, with 150 attacks – 27% of the total – observed. Consumer discretionary came in second with 124 attacks, down 55% on February. By geography, North America remained the top target, with almost half of all observed attacks taking place in the region – more than double the number seen in EMEA, which saw 26% of attacks. APAC saw 14% of attacks, and South America 7%. Hull said North America would likely remain a key focus for cyber criminal gangs in the coming months, given rising geopolitical tensions, and division stoked between the US and Canada, which may make Canadian organisations more likely to be victimised. This month’s Threat Pulse also includes insight into malvertising and its increasing importance in the cyber threat ecosystem. Malvertising is best described as when malware, even ransomware, hides behind online ads that seem harmless at face value, or until clicked upon. This attack vector saw a notable surge last year, and apparently the momentum shows no sign of letting up. Indeed, recent statistics from Microsoft’s threat intel teams found nearly a million devices globally implicated in a large-scale malvertising campaign in March. Those behind it exploited GitHub repositories, Discord servers and Dropbox to run things. Hull said malvertising was becoming more complex, with cyber criminals using trusted platforms – as seen – and turning to generative artificial intelligence tools, like DeepSeek, to activate more sophisticated attacks while lacking technical skills. This trend will make the need to get a firm grasp on threat intelligence particularly relevant to security decision-makers in the near-term, said Hull, and proactive measures and collaboration with others will also be key to staying ahead. “It’s a unique and challenging time for organisations, facing evolving tactics, like AI-enabled malvertising, and a turbulent geopolitical landscape,” said Hull. “So, it’s more important than ever for organisations and individuals alike to remain vigilant and be adaptive to keep pace with these fast-changing threats.”

According to multiple reports, Ilia Topuria is set to return at UFC 317 for a title fight, but the title he's fighting for and the opponent is still unknown.

Table of Contents Table of Contents Where to find a Burgeon How to fight and beat a Burgeon One of the first big bosses you can fight in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 are the hulking Burgeons. These creatures are as tall as skyscrapers and can be difficult to fight at the start of the game when you're more under-leveled. Recommended Videos Difficulty Moderate Duration 20 minutes During the first few hours of your game, you'll also likely come across a side quest which asks you to help a small Burgeon become a big one. Whether you like it or not, you'll have to come face-to-face with a Burgeon at some point. Here are some tips on how to beat a Burgeon in Clair Obscur Expedition 33, and where you can find them for the side objective. Sandfall Interactive If you come across The Small Burgeon location while perusing the overworld, you'll meet the tiny creature itself. For it to become its normal size, it needs the skin of the same-looking creature, which are the gigantic Burgeons. Step 1: Your first run-in with a Burgeon will likely be in the Flying Waters. At some point you'll make it to a fork in the road that isn't so obvious. Instead of going left toward the lampposts and buildings, make a right through the tall kelp. Sandfall Interactive Step 2: Head down this path and you'll find your way to a Burgeon. I fought this Burgeon before I discovered The Small Burgeon quest, so by that point you may have already fought this guy. Sandfall Interactive Related Step 3: Other than the Flying Waters, you'll come across numerous Burgeons while traversing the overworld. You can choose to initiate combat with them or pass by them, but if you're looking for a fight or for Burgeon Skin, you'll want to start combat with them. Just be careful you're not initiating a fight with a Burgeon that's at a much higher level than you are, so just make sure you're prepared and you go into the fight with the proper Pictos and Luminas. The Burgeon is a unique boss due to the fact that it'll take one of your three party members out of the fight early on. You'll be stuck with two fighters most of the time, so here's how to deal with that. Step 1: At the start of the fight before the Burgeon's first turn, make sure to use any crucial moves that may be inaccessible for most of the fight. I say this because on the Burgeon's turn, it will swallow one of your party members, making them unusable for quite awhile. In this case, it may be wise to use these first few turns to buff or debuff the enemy. That way, when someone inevitably gets swallowed, they may have been able to help in the fight in some way. For example, you should take this time to use Gustave's Powerful skill that applies the Powerful buff to his allies for three turns in case the Burgeon swallows him. Sandfall Interactive Step 2: Once your party member is swallowed, you have to figure out how to synergize your party's moves with only two members. By this, I mean think about how your two characters can help each other. In my first Burgeon encounter, it swallowed Lune, leaving Maelle and Gustave. Maelle has the ability to apply Burn with her Spark ability, which can help her get into the Virtuose Stance if she uses Swift Stride after. Gustave can benefit from this with his From Fire move which not only deals damage, but can heal himself if the target Burns. On the flip side, Gustave can use Marking Shot to Mark the target, and Maelle's Percée move has increased damage to Marked targets. Step 3: You should note that the Burgeon is weak to Lightning damage. Gustave has the best Lightning damage moves at this point, but if he's gone, Lune may have some if you've unlocked them in her skill tree. Your best bet is to have Gustave in play, since your goal here is to deal Lightning damage and Break the enemy. Once you Break the Burgeon and Stun it, it will cough up the swallowed party member. But first, you must use skills that say "Can Break" on them. For kill two birds with one stone, gain enough charges to use Gustave's Overcharge ability to its fullest. This move deals high Lightning damage depending on your Charges built up, and it can Break the enemy. Sandfall Interactive Step 4: The Burgeon has a manageable but annoying move set that can hinder your progress in the fight. One of its moves will spit miasma on you, damaging your party member and inflicting Exhaust on them. This Status Effect prevents your character from gaining AP from any source, which makes it difficult to use any skills that cost a lot of AP. Avoid this by dodging the miasma. Once the Burgeon spits out that green miasma, wait one full second before dodging. This is a slow-moving spit that you'll want to dodge right before it lands on you. In one turn, it can spit out four balls of miasma. Another move it has is a 4-hit combo. First, it will perform a slower body slam on you. Then it'll wind up its arm to then hit you three times with its fist in quick succession. If it's a 5-hit combo instead, the Burgeon will slam its left hand into you two times slowly, then three time in quick succession with its right hand. Sandfall Interactive Step 5: Once you finally Break the Burgeon and Stun it, it will spit out the swallowed party member. The rest of the fight is a lot easier from this point on, and you should be able to take it out pretty quickly after that. Deal as much damage as you can during the time that the Burgeon is Stunned, since he'll have to skip his next turn. Sandfall Interactive Once you defeat any Burgeon, one of your rewards is that Burgeon Skin. Give that to the tiny Nevron in The Small Burgeon area, and you'll receive a reward for your efforts once you wait for it to transform and come back later. Editors’ Recommendations

Table of Contents Table of Contents Best Gustave build Best Lune build Best Maelle build Best Sciel build Best Verso build Best Monoco build Throughout your Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 playthrough, you’ll have control over six different party members. Each character has a unique combat style and special skills that you must organize in a certain way to make combat successful. With only six skill slots and a bevy of Pictos and Luminas to choose from, finding the right build for your party members can start to feel like a hefty task. If you’re unsure what the best builds are for each character in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, here are our recommendations based on plenty of gameplay experience. Recommended Videos Sandfall Interactive Best skills Lumiere Assault Overcharge Powerful Marking Shot From Fire Strike Storm The ultimate goal with Gustave is to reach maximum power with his Overcharge ability. You can gain charges each turn by dealing damage, dodging, parrying, and even using certain skills that grant Gustave charges. Skills like Lumiere Assault, Powerful, and Strike Storm give Gustave extra charges, which make them good skills to have. Aside from Powerful, which grants 1-3 allies the Powerful buff for three turns, Lumiere Assault and Strike Storm only give you charges with Critical Hits, so make sure Gustave’s Critical Rate score is high. Related It’s best to unlock Gustave’s Marking Shot skill early on, as you’ll want a party member to be able to apply Mark onto an enemy. Many other party members’ skills have benefits with Marked enemies, so even though it only deals low Lightning damage, it’s good to place a Mark on them so the next attack deals extra damage. You’ll also want at least one healing type of skill on most of your characters, so From Fire works best. It deals three medium weapon damage in three hits, and if the target Burns, Gustave heals himself by 20%. This can play off of either Lune’s or Maelle’s Fire damage skills that apply Burn, and it only costs 4 AP to use. Then, of course, we have Overcharge, which you should wait to use until Gustave has 10/10 Charges. It can Break an enemy, meaning it will Stun them, and even if the enemy is Resistant to Lightning damage, it’s so powerful that it’ll still deal a decent amount of damage. This build is good for both early to late Act 1 and has a balance of skills that cost low AP and high AP. Best Pictos & Luminas As Gustave continues to level up and you unlock more and more Pictos, you’ll be swapping them out quite often. The Pictos that will most often benefit Gustave are the ones that boost his Critical Rate, Defense, and Health. Making Gustave more of a tank can help him stay up in the fight to continue gaining Charges for his Overcharge ability. Also, since many of his skills apply more Charges with Critical Hits, you’ll want his Critical Rate higher than most party members. As for Luminas, you’ll want to think of activating ones that can help that Overcharge ability shine. Here are some Lumina options you should look out for: Breaker: 25% increased Break damage Dodger: Gain 1 AP on Perfect Dodge. Once per turn Marking Shots: 20% chance to apply Mark on Free Aim shot First Strike: Play first Attack Lifesteal: Recover 15% Health on Base Attack Critical Moment: 50% increased Critical Chance if Health is below 30% Sandfall Interactive Best skills Immolation Mayhem Healing Light/Rebirth Thermal Transfer Elemental Trick Rockslide Lune is your best party member for dealing elemental damage to the enemy, especially if it’s Fire, Ice, and Earth damage. Even in mid-game fights, I’ve continued to use Immolation since it applies three Burn to the enemy and can apply two more if the target is marked. You can later replace this with Wildfire, which essentially does the same thing but more damage to all enemies. Then there’s Thermal Transfer, which works well with her Fire skills since she deals low Ice damage but gains 4 AP if the target is Burning. As for Earth skills, Rockslide is affordable on AP and has the opportunity to Break the enemy. I use Lune to either heal or revive my party members without Healing/Revive Tints, so I swap between Healing Light to heal and dispel Status Effects and Rebirth, which can revive and heal. Your choice of skill depends on whether you’re going into a fight where you know your party is at risk of death. Elemental Trick is good for figuring out an enemy’s weakness since it deals Ice, Fire, Lightning, and Earth damage, but only if the enemy is weak to any of those four. Mayhem is Lune’s best skill that only costs 3 AP. It consumes all of her Stains to deal high elemental damage, and if she consumes all four Stains, it can break the enemy. It’s a super powerful skill that you should unlock early on, and it’ll come in clutch during all boss fights. Best Pictos & Luminas If you’re using Lune as a healer, you want to choose Pictos that give her high Health or Defense so she can stay alive enough turns to support her party. I’d also recommend you give her a Speed bonus, as it wouldn’t hurt to play more times during combat. Here are the best Luminas you can give Lune: Auto Shell: Apply Shell for 3 turns on battle start Burning Shots: 20% chance to Burn on Free Aim shot Critical Burn: 25% increased Critical Chance on Burning enemies. Dodger: Gain 1 AP on Perfect Dodge. Once per turn Energising Start: +1 AP on battle start Staggering Attack: 50% increased Break damage on Base Attack Sandfall Interactive Offensive Switch/Fencer’s Flurry Percée Spark/Rain of Fire Swift Stride Breaking Rules Fleuret Fury When playing as Maelle, you’ll start to play in a certain order of operations to end up dealing the most damage. Start by using a move that puts her in the Offensive Stance, like Offensive Switch or Fencer’s Flurry. The former only costs 1 AP, so it’s a much cheaper option, but later on you can switch it for the latter. These two moves also debuff the enemy with Defenceless. If Lune has already applied Burn to an enemy, you can use Swift Stride to deal damage and switch to her Virtuose Stance for 200% damage, but only if the target Burns. If no one is burning, you can instead use Spark or Rain of Fire to apply Burn. Once you’re in the Virtuose Stance, there are two good options. Percée deals medium Physical damage to one enemy and costs 5 AP, but in this stance, it only costs 2 AP. Or, you can use Fleuret Fury to deal three high Physical damage hits and stay in the Virtuose Stance for another turn. I highly recommend having Breaking Rules as well, especially during one section of Act 1 where a certain enemy will add multiple Shields to itself. This not only deals two hits of low Physical damage, but it destroys all of the target’s Shields. Maelle also gains 1 AP per Shield destroyed. On top of that, if the target is Defenceless, she plays a second turn. Best Pictos & Luminas When Maelle is in the Offensive Stance, she’s more vulnerable to attacks, so giving her Pictos with high Defense is a smart move. In the same vein, it’s smart to give her some extra health so she doesn’t go down right as you get her into the Virtuose Stance. As for Luminas, here are some great options to choose from: Combo Attack: Base Attack has 1 extra hit Critical Burn: 25% increased Critical Chance on Burning enemies. SOS Shell: Apply Shell when falling below 50% Health Dodger: Gain 1 AP on Perfect Dodge. Once per turn Dead Energy: +3 AP on killing an enemy Exposing Attack: Base Attack applies Defenceless for 1 turn Sandfall Interactive Sealed Fate Focused Foretell Marking Card Rush Harvest Plentiful Harvest Sciel’s combat is all about applying and consuming Foretell while also getting in her Twilight Mode for the most damage. This means you need a balance of Sun and Moon skills, as well as skills that both apply and consume. Focused Foretell and Marking Card are your two best Sun skills for applying Foretell. While the former normally applies two but applies three additional Foretell if the target starts with none, the latter deals Dark damage, applies three Foretell, and Marks the target. To get into Twilight Mode, you can then use Moon skills like Sealed Fate. This deals high damage in five to seven hits, and each hit consumes one Foretell to deal 200% more damage. On top of that, Critical Hits don’t remove the Foretell. The fact that this move costs 4 AP is a steal. Harvest is good for dealing medium damage while also consuming Foretell to heal Sciel. Plentiful Harvest comes in handy when your other party members are lacking in AP, since it consumes Foretell when attacking the target and gives AP to your party members. Finally, Rush is a good buff move that increases the speed of your party. This means you’ll be able to take more turns. Best Pictos & Luminas Giving Sciel Pictos with Critical Rate boosts works well with Sealed Fate since it increases the chances of Foretell not being consumed. It’s also good for her to have speed boosts, which make her even faster when she applies Rush on the party. These are the Luminas I recommend you give to Sciel: Enfeebling Mark: Marked targets deal 30% less damage Critical Moment: 50% increased Critical Chance if Health is below 30% Dead Energy: +3 AP on killing an enemy Dodger: Gain 1 AP on Perfect Dodge. Once per turn Roulette: Every hit has a 50% chance to deal either 50% or 200% of its damage Sweet Kill: Recover 50% Health on killing an enemy Sandfall Interactive Quick Strike Paradigm Shift Marking Shot Assault Zero Perfect Break Powerful Verso’s build relies on you upgrading his rank from D to S while, along the way, using skills that take advantage of each rank. You’ll start on rank D, so use Quick Strike to deal low Physical damage. Although it doesn’t hit hard, being on D tier means it gives you more Perfection. And with more Perfection comes rank climbing. Once you’re at rank C, you can either use Paradigm Shift or Marking Shot. The former deals low Physical damage but gives one to 3 AP back, granting an extra AP on C rank. The latter deals low weapon damage but applies Mark, and increases the damage on C rank. Once you make it to B rank, you can start to deal more damage. Assault Zero hits five times and deals more damage on rank B, while Critical Hits generate additional Perfection. Then there’s Perfect Break, which deals very high Light damage and can Break the enemy. If they break, you surge up to rank S, and at B rank, it costs 5 AP instead of 7. Verso can also boost his teammates with Powerful, which applies the Powerful buff to one to three allies. On rank A, its duration increases to five instead of three turns, but three turns is still long enough. Best Pictos & Luminas Since Verso needs Critical Hits to generate more Perfection with one of his skills, pick Pictos with Critical Rate boosts. Otherwise, picking Health and Defense boosts is a good idea too. Here are some of the Luminas you should apply for Verso: Breaker: 25% increased Break damage Confident: Take 50% less damage, but can’t be Healed Critical Moment: 50% increased Critical Chance if Health is below 30% Dodger: Gain 1 AP on Perfect Dodge. Once per turn Energising Start: +1 AP on battle start Enfeebling Mark: Marked targets deal 30% less damage Sandfall Interactive Chalier Combo Hexga Crush Pèlerin Heal Ramasseur Bonk Cultist Blood Cultist Slashes You get Monoco much later in the game compared to the other party members, and his skills work differently since you get new skills whenever you collect a foot from a new enemy type. With this in mind, there are a lot of options for Monoco’s build, so it’s hard to go wrong with it. Chalier Combo is my only Balanced Mask (Red) move here, and it costs the most AP, but once you get enough, you can deal high Physical damage in six hits. There are two Heavy Mask (Green) skills in this build, which are Hexga Crush and Cultist Blood. The former deals medium Earth damage in two hits, and it applies the debuff Defenceless. The latter is used in tandem with another skill on this list, and it sacrifices 90% of Monoco’s health to increase damage to all enemies. After using Cultist Blood, use Cultist Slashes, which is an Agile Mask (Purple) move that deals more damage the less health Monoco has. With barely any health left, he’ll be able to dish out incredible Dark damage. Another Agile Mask move here is Ramasseur Bonk, which deals the weakest damage, but if you’re on that Mask, you can fill 20% of the target’s Break bar to Stun them. Finally, my only Caster Mask (Blue) skill here is Pèlerin Heal, which applies Regen to all allies. If it’s on that Mask, it also Heals allies by 40%. These skills give Monoco a balance of offensive and defensive capabilities. Best Pictos & Luminas Since Monoco sacrifices Health for damage with some of his skills, give him a boost of Health and Defense on his Pictos. This way, he has a better chance of staying alive at such low health. These are the Luminas you should consider giving to Monoco: Breaker: 25% increased Break damage Dodger: Gain 1 AP on Perfect Dodge. Once per turn Critical Moment: 50% increased Critical Chance if Health is below 30% At Death’s Door: Deal 50% more damage if Health is below 10% Dead Energy: +3 AP on killing an enemy SOS Power: Apply Powerful when falling below 50% Health Editors’ Recommendations

Gaining traction Google reveals sky-high Gemini usage numbers in antitrust case Google revealed in court that Gemini now sees 350 million monthly users. Ryan Whitwam – Apr 23, 2025 2:05 pm | 28 Credit: Ryan Whitwam Credit: Ryan Whitwam Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more You may not use Gemini or other AI products, but many people do, and their ranks are growing. During day three of Google's antitrust remedies trial, the company presented a slide showing that Gemini reached 350 million monthly active users as of March 2025. That's a massive increase from last year, showing that Google is beginning to gain traction among competing chatbots, but Google's estimation of ChatGPT's traffic shows it still has a long climb ahead of it. The slide was presented during the testimony of Sissie Hsiao, who until recently was leading Google's Gemini efforts. She was replaced earlier this month by Josh Woodward, who also runs Google Labs. The slide listed Gemini's 350 million monthly users, along with daily traffic of 35 million users. These numbers represent a huge increase for Gemini, which languished in the tens of millions of monthly users late last year. Gemini's daily user count at the time was a mere 9 million, according to Google. Since then, Google has released its Gemini 2.0 and 2.5 models, both of which have shown demonstrable improvements over the previous iterations. It has also begun adding Gemini features to more parts of the Google ecosystem, even though some of those integrations can be more frustrating than useful. Despite the uptick in Gemini usage, Google is still far from catching OpenAI. Naturally, Google has been keeping a close eye on ChatGPT traffic. OpenAI has also seen traffic increase, putting ChatGPT around 600 million monthly active users, according to Google's analysis. Early this year, reports pegged ChatGPT usage at around 400 million users per month. There are many ways to measure web traffic, and not all of them tell you what you might think. For example, OpenAI has recently claimed weekly traffic as high as 400 million, but companies can choose the seven-day period in a given month they report as weekly active users. A monthly metric is more straightforward, and we have some degree of trust that Google isn't using fake or unreliable numbers in a case where the company's past conduct has already harmed its legal position. While all AI firms strive to lock in as many users as possible, this is not the total win it would be for a retail site or social media platform—each person using Gemini or ChatGPT costs the company money because generative AI is so computationally expensive. Google doesn't talk about how much it earns (more likely loses) from Gemini subscriptions, but OpenAI has noted that it loses money even on its $200 monthly plan. So while having a broad user base is essential to make these products viable in the long term, it just means higher costs unless the cost of running massive AI models comes down. Ryan Whitwam Senior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam Senior Technology Reporter Ryan Whitwam is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering the ways Google, AI, and mobile technology continue to change the world. Over his 20-year career, he's written for Android Police, ExtremeTech, Wirecutter, NY Times, and more. He has reviewed more phones than most people will ever own. You can follow him on Bluesky, where you will see photos of his dozens of mechanical keyboards. 28 Comments

Free as in speech, not just as in mead Everything but the Beholders: D&D updates core rules, sticks with CC license Campaigns and spinoffs, even commercial, can use basic pieces for free. Kevin Purdy – Apr 23, 2025 1:49 pm | 33 Credit: WotC/Hasbro Credit: WotC/Hasbro Story text Size Small Standard Large Width * Standard Wide Links Standard Orange * Subscribers only   Learn more Wizards of the Coast has released the System Reference Document, the heart of the three core rule books that constitute Dungeons & Dragons' 2024 gameplay, under a Creative Commons license. This means the company cannot alter the deal further, like it almost did in early 2023, leading to considerable pushback and, eventually, a retreat. It was a long quest, but the lawful good party has earned some long-term rewards, including a new, similarly licensed reference book. Dungeons & Dragons owner Wizards of the Coast (WotC) put the core D&D rules into an Open Gaming License in the early 2000s, inspired by Richard Stallman's GNU General Public License. The idea was that by making the core mechanics, classes, spells, races, and monsters available for anyone to build on, royalty-free, more versions of games would draw more people into the tabletop roleplaying sphere, and perhaps back to the core D&D games and rule books. It also likely didn't do much harm to WotC's properties, as these basic aspects of the game, and bits taken from existing fantasy works, were going to be difficult to copyright. WotC considered that the Open Gaming License (OGL) was open to revisions, however, and the company proposed changes to the OGL that would require that anyone making certain amounts of money had to report it (over $50,000 per year) or start paying royalties (over $750,000). A leaked version of that license put the higher-level royalties at 25 percent, and only covered printed materials and static PDFs, leaving virtual tabletop and software makers questioning where they might fit in. Because the OGL was "perpetual," but not "irrevocable," there was debate on the legality of WotC's proposed changes and revocation of the 1.0 version of the OGL. After receiving survey feedback that WotC characterized as "in such high volume," with "direction [so] plain," it released its D&D One System Reference Document under a Creative Commons 4.0 Attribution 4.0 International License. That meant that not only were D&D's core mechanics free to use and reference, so long as proper credit was given, but that the license could not be changed at a later date. Same licensing, now with more hippos Version 5.2 of the SRD, all 360-plus pages of it, has now been released under the same Creative Commons license. The major change is that it includes more 2024 5th edition (i.e., D&D One) rules and content, while version 5.1 focused on 2014 rules. Legally, you can now design and publish campaigns under the 2024 5th edition rule set. More importantly, more aspects of the newest D&D rule books are available under a free license: "Rhythm of Play" and "Exploration" documentation More character origins and backgrounds, including criminal, sage, soldier, and the goliath and orc species. 16 feats, including archery, great weapon fighting, and seven boons Five bits of equipment, 20 spells, 15 magic items, and 17 monsters, including the hippopotamus There are some aspects of D&D you still can't really touch without bumping up against copyrights. Certain monsters from the Monster Manual, like the Kraken, are in the public domain, but their specific stats in the D&D rulebook are copyrighted. Iconic creatures and species like the Beholder, Displacer Beast, Illithid, Githyanki, Yuan-Ti, and others remain the property of WotC (and thereby Hasbro). As a creator, you'll still need to do some History (or is it Arcana?) checks before you publish and sell. Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin Purdy Senior Technology Reporter Kevin is a senior technology reporter at Ars Technica, covering open-source software, PC gaming, home automation, repairability, e-bikes, and tech history. He has previously worked at Lifehacker, Wirecutter, iFixit, and Carbon Switch. 33 Comments

Lyme disease can spread to people via ticksHeiko Barth/Shutterstock An antibiotic that is commonly used to treat pneumonia rid mice of Lyme disease at a dose 100 times lower than the standard antibiotic therapy. This smaller dose, combined with the drug’s targeted action against the infection, meant the animals’ gut microbiomes were largely unaffected. Lyme disease is caused by bacteria in the genus Borrelia that mainly spread among birds and small rodents, but people can get infected via the bites of ticks that have fed on the blood of such animals. Infections commonly lead to flu-like symptoms and a “bull’s-eye” rash. If untreated, they can cause serious long-term complications, such as fatigue and aches. Standard treatment involves taking a high dose of the antibiotic doxycycline twice daily for up to three weeks. This stops bacteria from making the proteins they need to survive, but it doesn’t selectively target Borrelia species. “It wreaks havoc on the normal [gut] microbiome,” says Brandon Jutras at Northwestern University in Illinois. Looking for a more selective alternative, Jutras and his colleagues first tested how effectively more than 450 antibiotics, all approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, could kill Borrelia burgdorferi – the most common type of Lyme disease-causing bacteria – in a lab dish. They then assessed how the top-performing drugs affected the growth of harmless or beneficial bacteria that are commonly found in the guts of people and mice, such as certain strains of Escherichia coli. This revealed that piperacillin, an antibiotic that is related to penicillin and is commonly used to treat pneumonia, most selectively targeted B. burgdorferi. Get the most essential health and fitness news in your inbox every Saturday. Sign up to newsletter Next, the researchers injected 46 mice with B. burgdorferi. Three weeks later, they treated the animals with varying doses of either doxycycline or piperacillin twice a day for one week. The researchers found no signs of infection in the mice that received either a high dose of doxycycline or as little as a 100-fold lower dose of piperacillin. They also analysed stools from the mice before and after the antibiotic treatment and found that low-dose piperacillin had almost no effect on the levels of bacteria other than B. burgdorferi in the gut, whereas high-dose doxycycline heavily altered the gut microbiome. This is probably because a lower dose of antibiotic has less of an effect on gut microbial diversity, and because of piperacillin’s targeted action. “With piperacillin, we found it’s targeting a particular protein that’s essential for B. burgdorferi, but not other bacteria, to survive, so it’s remarkably efficient at killing this Lyme disease agent at low concentrations,” says Jutras. This may help to preserve a healthy gut microbiome, which has been linked to a long, disease-free life. But mice can respond differently to antibiotics than people do, says John Aucott at Johns Hopkins University in Maryland. For instance, they often break down the drugs faster, which can alter their effectiveness. Jutras’s team hopes to test piperacillin in human Lyme disease trials within the next few years. Journal reference:Science Translational Medicine DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.adr2955 Topics:

Jay Leno and his wife, Mavis Leno, have been married since 1980. Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Netflix 2025-04-24T07:35:15Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Jay Leno says he enjoys caring for his wife, who was diagnosed with dementia in 2024. "I mean, that's really what love is. That's what you do," the former late-night show host said. The number of caregivers in the US rose from 43.5 million in 2015 to about 53 million in 2020, per the CDC. Jay Leno, 74, says caring for his wife, Mavis, after she was diagnosed with dementia is just part of what love is all about.During an appearance on today'sIn Depth with Graham Bensinger," the former late-night host spoke about the challenges he faced being a caregiver to his wife."When I got married, you sort of take a vow: 'Will I live up to this? Or will I be like a sleazy guy if something happens to my wife, I'm out banging the cashier at the mini-mart?'" Leno told podcast host Bensinger. "No, I didn't. I enjoy the time with my wife. I go home, I cook dinner for her, watch TV, and it's OK."They still do many of the things they did before, he said. Only now, he has to help her with daily tasks."But, I like it. I like taking care of her. She's a very independent woman, so I like that I'm needed," Leno said.The couple met in the '70s at a comedy club in Los Angeles and married in 1980. They do not have any children together.Leno was granted conservatorship over his wife's estate in 2024, according to court documents."Well, that's the challenge, isn't it? When you have to feed someone and change them and carry them to the bathroom and do all that kind of stuff every day," Leno said. "It's a challenge. And it's not that I enjoy doing it, but I guess I enjoy doing it."At the end of the day, it's a testament to his commitment to her and their marriage vows."At some point in my life, I'm going to be called upon to defend myself. I think that's really what defines a marriage. I mean, that's really what love is. That's what you do. I mean, I'm glad I didn't cut and run. I'm glad I didn't run off with some woman half my age or any of that silly nonsense. I would rather be with her than doing something else," Leno said.Leno isn't the only celebrity who has spoken about the experience of being a caregiver to a loved one.In a 2019 opinion piece for USA Today, Rob Lowe reflected on the experience of stepping up with his brothers to care for their mother after she was diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer."I often felt overwhelmed, and that was even with all the support I had from my brothers and colleagues," Lowe wrote.Emma Heming Willis has also been open about her journey caring for her husband, Bruce Willis, after he was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia in 2023."You know, I have my moments. It just depends. I'm hanging in there and doing the best that I can. And, turning my pain into purpose," Heming Willis said in a 2023 Instagram Live.As the population ages, more and more people will likely need help with tasks at some point in their lifetime.According to the CDC, the number of caregivers in the US increased from 43.5 million in 2015 to about 53 million in 2020.A representative for Leno did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours. Recommended video

An advertisement for Cluely shows how the app can help users "cheat" on dates. Chungin Lee/LinkedIn 2025-04-24T07:11:14Z Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Cluely is an AI tool built for cheating in live conversations, and it has raised $5.3 million. The startup is founded by Chungin "Roy" Lee, who was suspended from Columbia. I put the app through a mock interview to see if it could help me land a job. A Ivy Leaguer just released an AI app to feed live answers to users. I put it to the test to see if AI could interview as well as I did.Chungin "Roy" Lee — the Columbia student who went viral for creating an AI tool to "cheat" on job interviews — was suspended in March for posting content from a disciplinary hearing, the university said.His new app, Cluely, helps users by analyzing what's on their screens, hearing audio, and suggesting answers to questions, all without detection from the other side. In a LinkedIn post, Lee said Cluely is a "cheating tool for literally everything."Lee said on Monday that San Francisco-based Cluely has raised $5.3 million, backed by Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures.Speaking to Business Insider on Wednesday night, Lee said that Cluely has gained about 70,000 users since its launch on Sunday."It is pretty crazy. And this is just a lot more than we expected," he said.Lee said the concept of "cheating" needs to be rethought in the AI era."Using AI is just inevitable and something that we should just all embrace," he said.I put Cluely to the test, and I saw promise — but also huge privacy concerns.First impressionsI tested Cluely on Tuesday morning and paid $20 for the Pro version — a monthly subscription — since the free tier doesn't offer much.The interface is slick and minimal: a thin bar on the top of my screen. With one keyboard shortcut, Cluely scans my screen, then generates answers. I could also speak to it through my mic.It only works with what's already on my screen — it doesn't crawl the internet like ChatGPT.It also reads everything. I kept my Signal group chats closed.That's what makes it powerful — and also kind of terrifying.Lee told BI that Cluely doesn't save any data, and if it does, it's "heavily censored.""If there's something that you don't want to be seen, then you shouldn't use the tool, and it shouldn't be up while you're on sensitive information," Lee said.I deleted it right after writing this story. Flopping my mock interviewCluely's killer pitch is real-time assistance.I let it scan my LinkedIn profile and kept it open while my editor put me through a mock interview with the same questions I answered to land this job.First up: What is my media consumption like? Could I share what I like to read or watch? What keeps me interested and busy?The app starts "thinking." Five seconds later, it gave me a summary of the question, not an answer.My editor tried again, more succinctly: "What media outlets do you read?"This time, Cluely came through:"I enjoy staying up to date with a mix of international and local news — typically from outlets like the New York Times, BBC, and CNA. I love longform journalism from The Atlantic and Wired, especially on tech and social issues. I also listen to 'The Daily' and 'Planet Money' during my commute."Not bad, though I don't listen to podcasts on my way to work.My editor asked me to talk about a difficult story I've worked on. 10 seconds of awkward silence later, Cluely offered: "One difficult story I worked on was about the impact of layoffs in the tech industry."I never wrote that story.The second hallucination came when the app said I had a "working knowledge of Malay." My editor congratulated me on my surprising — including to me — third language skill. It completely missed the elementary Korean listed on my LinkedIn.When my editor asked if I had questions for her, Cluely suggested a few basics: What do you enjoy most about working here? What's the team culture like? What does success look like in this role?Not worth the $20 — yet.Cluely's biggest flaw is speed. A five to 10-second delay feels like forever in a live interview.The answers were also too generic, occasionally wrong, and not tailored enough to me.It did generate decent answers to common questions. When I read them aloud, my editor said the biggest clue I had help was the delay, not the substance. She also said my real answers were better than Cluely's.Lee told BI that Cluely is in "a really raw state.""Our servers are super overloaded, so there's a lot of latency," he said.But there have been "significant performance updates" since the app went out on Sunday, he added."We've upgraded all our servers, we've optimized the algorithms, and right now it should be about three times faster, which makes it much more usable in conversations."Lee said hallucinations will "exist insofar as the base models that we use allow for them.""The day that the models get better is the day that our product will get better," he added.There's definitely potential. If Cluely got faster, smarter, and could pull info from beyond just my screen, it could become a game-changing AI assistant. If I were hiring, I might think twice about conducting remote interviews because of these sorts of apps.But between the privacy risks, laggy performance, and random hallucinations, I'm keeping it off my computer. 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