Its past time we applauded the creative skills of LLMsand it might make us appreciate humans more too.

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Dec 21, 2024Ravie LakshmananRansomware / CybercrimeA dual Russian and Israeli national has been charged in the United States for allegedly being the developer of the now-defunct LockBit ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation since its inception in or around 2019 through at least February 2024.Rostislav Panev, 51, was arrested in Israel earlier this August and is currently awaiting extradition, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) said in a statement. Based on fund transfers to a cryptocurrency wallet owned by Panev, he allegedly earned approximately $230,000 between June 2022 and February 2024."Rostislav Panev for years built and maintained the digital weapons that enabled his LockBit co-conspirators to wreak havoc and cause billions of dollars in damage around the world," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.LockBit, which was one of the most prolific ransomware groups, had its infrastructure seized in February 2024 as part of an international law enforcement operation called Cronos. It gained notoriety for targeting more than 2,500 entities in at least 120 countries around the world, including 1,800 in the U.S. alone.Victims of LockBit's attacks included individuals and small businesses to multinational corporations, such as hospitals, schools, nonprofit organizations, critical infrastructure, government, and law enforcement agencies. The RaaS is believed to have netted the group at least $500 million in illicit profits.Court documents show that Panev's computer analyzed following his arrest had administrator credentials for an online repository that was hosted on the dark web and contained source code for multiple versions of the LockBit builder, which affiliates used to create custom builds of the ransomware.Also discovered were access credentials for the LockBit control panel and a tool called StealBit, which allowed the affiliate actors to exfiltrate sensitive data from compromised hosts prior to initiating the encryption process.Panev, besides writing and maintaining the LockBit malware code as well as offering technical guidance to the e-crime group, is also accused of exchanging direct messages with Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, the primary administrator who also went by online alias LockBitSupp, discussing development work related to the builder and control panel."In interviews with Israeli authorities following his arrest in August, Panev admitted to having performed coding, development, and consulting work for the LockBit group and to having received regular payments in cryptocurrency for that work," the DoJ said."Among the work that Panev admitted to having completed for the LockBit group was the development of code to disable antivirus software; to deploy malware to multiple computers connected to a victim network; and to print the LockBit ransom note to all printers connected to a victim network."With the latest arrest, a total of seven LockBit members Mikhail Vasiliev, Ruslan Astamirov, Artur Sungatov, Ivan Gennadievich Kondratiev, Mikhail Pavlovich Matveev have been charged in the U.S.Despite these operational setbacks, the LockBit operators appear to be plotting a comeback, with a new version LockBit 4.0 scheduled for release in February 2025. However, it remains to be seen if the extortion gang can successfully stage a return in light of the ongoing wave of takedowns and charges.Second Netwalker Ransomware Affiliate Gets 20 Years in PrisonThe development comes as Daniel Christian Hulea, a 30-year-old Romanian affiliate of the NetWalker ransomware operation, was sentenced to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $21,500,000 and his interests in an Indonesian company and a luxury resort property that was financed with ill-gotten proceeds from the attacks.Hulea previously pleaded guilty in the U.S. to charges of computer fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy back in June 2024. He was arrested in Romania on July 11, 2023, and subsequently extradited to the U.S."As part of his plea agreement, Hulea admitted to using NetWalker to obtain approximately 1,595 bitcoin in ransom payments for himself and a co-conspirator, valued at approximately $21,500,000 at the time of the payments," the DoJ said.The NetWalker ransomware operation particularly singled out the healthcare sector during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was dismantled online in January 2021 when U.S. and Bulgarian authorities seized the dark web sites used by the group. In October 2022, a Canadian affiliate, Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, was sentenced to 20 years in prison.Raccoon Stealer Developer Sentenced to 5 Years in PrisonIn related law enforcement news, the DoJ also announced the sentencing of Mark Sokolovsky, a Ukrainian national accused of being the primary developer of the Raccoon Stealer malware, to 60 months in federal prison for one count of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.The 28-year-old conspired to offer the Raccoon infostealer as a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) to other criminal actors for $200 a month, who then deployed the malware on victims' systems using various ruses such as email phishing in order to steal sensitive data. The harvested information was used to commit financial crimes or sold to others on underground forums.Sokolovsky, who was extradited from the Netherlands in February 2024, pleaded guilty to the crime in early October and agreed to forfeit $23,975 and pay at least $910,844.61 in restitution."Mark Sokolovsky was a key player in an international criminal conspiracy that victimized countless individuals by administering malware which made it cheaper and easier for even amateurs to commit complex cybercrimes," said U.S. Attorney Jaime Esparza for the Western District of Texas.The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has set up a website where users can check whether their email address shows up in the data stolen by the Raccoon stealer malware. The MaaS operation was taken offline in March 2022 concurrent with Sokolovsky's arrest by Dutch authorities.NYC Man Gets Nearly 6 Years in Prison for Credit Card Trafficking and Money LaunderingThe latest actions also follow the sentencing of a 32-year-old New York City man, Vitalii Antonenko, to time served plus days for his involvement in a criminal scheme that infiltrated systems with SQL injection attacks in order to steal credit card and personal information and offer the data for sale on online criminal marketplaces."Once a co-conspirator sold the data, Antonenko and others used Bitcoin as well as traditional bank and cash transactions to launder the proceeds in order to disguise their nature, location, source, ownership, and control," the DoJ noted in May 2020. "The conspiracy's victims included a hospitality business and non-profit scientific research institution, both located in eastern Massachusetts."Antonenko was arrested in March 2019 on his return to the U.S. from Ukraine carrying "computers and other digital media that held hundreds of thousands of stolen payment card numbers."In September 2024, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computer networks and to traffic in unauthorized access devices, and one count of money laundering conspiracy.Found this article interesting? Follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn to read more exclusive content we post.SHARE

Best of CG Cookie Students 2024 By pavla on December 21, 2024 Community CG Cookie's second annual Student Reel is here! This is a hugely rewarding moment for the CG Cookie Crew after spending all year collecting notable student work. Witnessing our community apply what they learn in unique and jaw-dropping ways makes everything we do worth it.Thanks to all the members and Blender Market customers for making 2024 a very memorable year!

"A unicorn is worth more than riches"But what are yours?Ollie Reynolds, Staff WriterI never want to belittle the incredible achievement CD Projekt Red and Saber Interactive managed in porting The Witcher III to the Nintendo Switch, but when I recently booted it up for a fresh playthrough, I just couldnt cope with the visuals. It was nice back in 2019, but not anymore. So Im playing it on my Series X instead! Ah, much betterIm also playing through The Thing: Remastered on the PS5, which is a lovely, albeit slightly flawed take on the John Carpenter classic. Nightdive, as always, did an excellent job at beefing up the performance and visuals here.What, no Switch..? Well, yes, Im playing something for review, but more on that soon!Jim Norman, Staff WriterI'd like to think that this weekend will see me putting a few more hours into Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, maybe playing a few more games of Marvel Rivals with my pals and ticking off another island or two in Mario & Luigi: Brothership. But I'll be heading back to my parent's house for the holidays, so all that will be put aside in favour of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo Switch Sports and explaining the rules of Mario Party for the 100th time.Ah, Christmas is almost here. Have a good one, folks!Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube789kWatch on YouTube Gavin Lane, EditorSo many games I'm looking forward to tucking into. Unicorn Overlord is the big one, with Nine Sols, Tales of Kenzera: ZAU, and Loco Motive waiting in the wings. I got Braid: Anniversary Edition on sale a couple of weeks back, plus cute puzzler Railbound for 99 cents.I also want to play some more Yakuza and dip into Arco. I hear the latter has some issues on Switch but a 30% discount tempted me. Have a fantastic week, everyone!Alana Hagues, Deputy EditorAfter beating Nine Sols, Im in a bit of a gaming rut! I should go back to Trails through Daybreak, and I should start 1000xRESIST, but what have I done instead? Bounce around between Balatro, Tetris DX on NSO, and Bust A Move 4 on the PlayStation.But Ive just found out that Arco is on sale, and now Im thinking about making my backlog even bigger before 2025 hits. Lets just say its a little Christmas present to myself.Have a safe and healthy holiday season, everyone!Kate Gray, ContributorThis weekend I am on a PLANE once more. I'll be taking my Switch, my Steam Deck, and my iPad, which means I will have a fair amount of choice, but I feel like I should probably play Brothership, which I apparently pre-ordered a while ago and still haven't got around to playing.In reality, though, I will probably play a lot of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, and maybe some of the games I'm picking up in the Steam sale (Fields of Mistria, Void Stranger, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes). Or my backlog. Spoilers: it's never my backlog...Subscribe to Nintendo Life on YouTube789kWatch on YouTube Gonalo Lopes, Contributor'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse except me unpacking all my mini retro arcades, consoles and computers to display under the giant LCD set in the living room. It is the season for cosy retro gaming, and to ensure entertainment to both host and guests of all ages that will run by my humble abode this holiday season, I have reassembled all my minis not just as decoration but because I will surely spend the coming weeks revisiting classics on my SNES, Mega Drive and PC Engine minis. I do suspect the latest addition to the gang will be quite popular among folks of a certain age: The Spectrum continues to impress unaware folks who stumble upon it setup next to the A500 Mini.My game of the week is still New Star GP, now competing in the 1990s season championship. I also convinced my dad to pick up the PS4 version on his PS5 and I really, REALLY love to play this arcade racing gem with analogue triggers. Someone at Nintendo is taking notes for the next Switch Pro Ultra 2, right? There is absolutely no reason in this day and age not to take full advantage of analogue acceleration and braking on 'Mario Kart 9'.Happy holidays, folks! I'll see you soonish after another complete playthrough of Secret of Mana on SNES (Santa is in it in case you dont remember).(PS: The developers reached out to me and assured that world ten is indeed the very last hurdle to conquer Abathor. Sequel please?)That's what we have planned for the weekend, but what about you? Let us know in the following poll which games you're planning on booting up over the next couple of days.What are you playing this weekend (21st/22nd December)? (1 vote)Related GamesSee Also

LockBit warn they will be back, on Feb. 3, 2025gettyUpdate, Dec. 21, 2024: This story, originally published Dec. 20, now includes news of criminal charges filed against the suspected developer of the LockBit ransomware by the U.S. Department of Justice.If you thought law enforcement had not only disrupted the LockBit ransomware operation, alongside trolling the criminal gang behind it but taken it out of business altogether, then you are likely in for a shock: LockBitSupp, the groups alleged leader, has warned LockBit 4 will return next year. In fact, a dark web posting said the new ransomware attacks would launch on Feb. 3, 2025, to be precise. Heres what we know.The LockBit 4 Ransomware ResurgenceAs news of a new variant of NotLockBit ransomware targeting Windows and Mac users breaks, it looks like the original threat that the new group imitates is about to rise phoenix-like from the FBI takedowns earlier this year.A dark web posting, apparently from the administrator of the LockBit ransomware group, has teased the launch of a new version of the threat by posing the question: Want a Lamborghini, Ferrari and lots of titty girls? Sign up and start your pentester billionaire journey in 5 minutes with us. It is understood that a new leak website has been prepared for launch, along with a total of five anonymous TOR sites: the official release date for the latest version is cited as Feb. 3, 2025.MORE FOR YOUWhat You Need To Know About The LockBit Ransomware Attack ThreatLockBits activity has fluctuated month-on-month in 2024 following its takedown in February, Matt Hull, global head of threat intelligence at cyber security giant NCC Group, said. However, LockBit remained the most active ransomware threat actor in May 2024, responsible for 37% of all attacks, according to NCC Group data. In July 2024, LockBit 3.0 was also the second most prolific threat actor, Hull said. That burst of activity appears to have been short-lived, with the group not appearing in the top ten most active threat actors during October and November.LockBit operates on a Ransomware-as-a-Service affiliate model, with their particular structure providing affiliate groups with a central control panel to create their own LockBit samples, manage their victims, publish blog posts, and view statistics regarding their success rates for each attack, Hull said. RaaS models operate in a pseudo-organizational hierarchy, where the operators of the ransomware variant will get a percentage cut of each successful ransomware attack carried out by their affiliates, Hull said, thus minimizing the risk that the operators take on with each campaign.Like most other current ransomware actors, the LockBit threat deploys a double-extortion methodology of file encryption and sensitive data exfiltration. That data is subsequently posted on their leak site where interested buyers can now pay for access to the data, a timer extension, or even the datas deletion, Hull said, unless the ransom is paid, of course.Suspected LockBit Ransomware Coder Charged By U.S. Department Of JusticeRostislav Panev, a 51-year-old with Russian and Israeli citizenship, has been charged by the U.S. Department of Justice on suspicion of being involved ins the development of the LockBit ransomware family malware. The newly unsealed U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey, criminal complaint, charges Panev with conspiracy to commit fraud and related activity in connection with computers. That activity being the development, specifically, of the LockBit ransomware encryptors as well as one of the custom tools used in LockBit ransomware attacks known as StealBit. According to a Bleeping Computer report, Panev was arrested on Aug 18, 2024 in Israel where he remains in custody while a request for his extradition to the U.S. is processed.In the criminal complaint, Jacob A. Walker, a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, stated that Panev has provided coding and development services to the LockBit ransomware group since at least as early as in or around January 2022 and has received at least as much as approximately $230,000 in cryptocurrency transfers from the LockBit group during that time. Panev went on to state that On May 2, 2024, a grand jury in the District of New Jersey indicted a Russian national, Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, on 26 criminal counts based on Khoroshevs alleged role as the creator and primary developer and administrator of the LockBit group. The criminal complaint said that, while Khoroshev remains a fugitive, U.S. authorities believe that Panev was subordinate to Khoroshev in the LockBit group.Mitigation Methods For Incoming Ransomware AttacksAccording To The FBIWith ransomware-as-a-service and double-extortion ransom tactics on the increase, the Federal Bureau Of Investigation has warned users to be alert to the risk and provided a number of recommended mitigation methods. The FBI said that organizations should enact three mitigating strategies immediately:Install updates for operating systems, software and firmware as soon as they are released.Require phishing-resistant, non SMS-based multi-factor authentication.Educate users to both recognize and report phishing attempts.

The new Tarkov wipe is coming in the next few days. Credit: Battlestate Games / Mike StubbsThe next Escape From Tarkov wipe is now only a few days away, with the pre-wipe events kicking up a gear, signalling that a release date for the new wipe will arrive soon. And now, thanks to some digging, we have a pretty good idea of when the next Escape From Tarkov wipe will launch.Over the last few days, the pre-wipe events in Escape From Tarkov have started updating at a rapid pace. We started off slow with an event that added smugglers, and then one that basically gave out Kappa containers for free. But since then, we have had a new event almost every day, with cultists becoming more common, some new trader deals and the Tarkov Arena free weekend.Now, there is another addition to the pre-wipe festivities, with scavs seemingly getting better gear to kill you with. This is the most significant pre-wipe event so far, as this one is a regular almost every wipe and almost certainly signals that the next wipe will arrive within the next few days.When Is The Next Escape From Tarkov Wipe?In previous years this event has usually come just under a week before the wipe actually hits, so if we follow that logic once again that should mean the next Escape From Tarkov wipe will launch next week. Given that wipes often arrive on a Thursday, December 26th seems like the most logical date for the next Escape From Tarkov wipe, however December 27th could also be an option given that is when the wipe arrived last year.MORE FOR YOUIf I were a betting man, Id say that the next Tarkov wipe will arrive on December 26th. That gives us more than enough time to get the rest of the classic pre-wipe events out of the way, with increased boss spawns and a fire sale likely coming in the next few days, then the wipe can hit after the festivities end.While there is no confirmed date for the wipe, we do know that it will arrive before the end of the year and there are a lot of cool things that it is bringing with it. There will be some incredible new weapons, a rework to Customs which looks great, and a brand-new recoil system that is still being tested. It may not be the biggest wipe ever, given that the dev team is working on content for the full release, but it should still shake up a lot of things in Escape From Tarkov.

Susie Coughlin was concerned when her daughter struggled with reading skills at her public school.The mom of two was disappointed her district didn't teach phonics as part of its literacy program.She switched her child to a Catholic school where the girl thrived after being taught phonics.This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Susie Coughlin, 43, an interior designer from Falmouth, Maine. It has been edited for length and clarity.When our daughter, Carter, started struggling with reading, we thought it was related to her late birthday and the fact that almost everybody else in her class was a whole year older.Her father, Paul, and I decided that she should repeat kindergarten in her public school. In her first year, she'd been put in a Response to Intervention (RTI) program to improve her literacy skills. However, at the parent/teacher conference during her second year, we were told she wouldn't receive RTI.It didn't make sense because she wasn't progressing. Her self-confidence was low because it seemed like everyone else around her could read.What I heard from the teacher was, "It's OK. We're gonna let your kid slide through." Being a child myself who was allowed to slide, I hit the brakes. At that moment, I thought, "My kid's not going to be the kid that's just going to slide through."We had to employ a reading tutorA key issue was the school district didn't teach phonics for reading. Instead, the kids are taught to scan the page for picture clues to the word often at the expense of pronunciation and spelling.For example, Carter wrote in her homework, "I went to the osen," rather than "I went to the ocean." The teacher hadn't corrected the mistake because the emphasis was on visual cues a picture of the ocean rather than spelling.With phonics, you learn to sound out the word. It's a much more practical and efficient method of teaching literacy. It didn't seem like the district was going to adopt the method anytime soon. We had to search because private reading specialists are in high demand in our area, but we found a tutor for Carter.She finished her second kindergarten year in public school before beginning first grade at a local Catholic school. It cost $10,000 a year, and we were fortunate enough to be able to budget for that.We're glad we switched to a private Catholic schoolThe curriculum is very old-school, and they teach phonics. Carter, now 8, still has a tendency to look for picture cues on the page when she's reading, but she's getting there. It broke my heart when her confidence was in the toilet at her previous school. But her bucket of self-esteem is filling up.We were so happy with the Catholic school that we sent Huddy, Carter's younger brother, there, too. He's attended for two years and has a good grasp and understanding of phonics.In fact, at 6, he has excelled past his sister in reading because he has never been subjected to a nonsense visual cue program.As for Carter, she has continued to study with a tutor at home, and we help her at night. The best thing is that she finally seems to be enjoying books and the written word.Do you have an interesting story to share with Business Insider about the way that children are educated in school? Please send details to this reporter at jridley@businessinsider.com

After 10 years in elementary education, I decided I no longer wanted to be a teacher.I wanted a more flexible job that allowed me to stay at home with my kids.When time allows, I'm able to make more money than I did as a teacher and have a better work-life balance. When I went into education, I did so with the best intentions. Being a male elementary school teacher was sort of like being a unicorn. It is extremely rare for a man to be teaching early elementary. There were plenty of single-mom families in the area where I lived, and I knew many students didn't have a male role model at home to inspire them, so I thought I could fill this void. I took the responsibility seriously.But after ten years in the field, I had to tap out for a few reasons. None of the reasons really had to do with the students themselves. The pay wasn't great (after 10 years of teaching I was still taking home just around $3,000 a month) and I didn't enjoy the politics of teaching. But, the most important reason was probably that my wife and I were ready to start a family. She often works long hours and I didn't want someone else to raise my children. I thought I could find a way to contribute financially and still be home with the children.Becoming a freelance writerBefore I went into education, I had been a journalist for a few years. It wasn't something I really enjoyed at the time and I didn't see myself wanting to cover mundane board meetings forever. If you ever suffer from insomnia, just drop in on these meetings occasionally. It's like an instant sleeping pill.Still, I thought I was a decent writer. I've certainly read worse over the years from people who made their living as professional writers. So while I was still teaching, I joined Upwork, a website that connects freelancers with those looking to hire contract workers. Upwork allows people or companies to search for a specific type of writer they are looking for to complete their project at hand. You are competing against other writers who are also applying, but Upwork is a great tool to use when you are first attempting a freelance career. To begin, I set my fees low to get my foot in the door. Then it wasn't long before I had clients who were asking me to write for them on either a weekly or monthly basis. As an unexpected bonus, most of the topics I covered genuinely interested me. Health and fitness, education, and even ghostwriting children's books were all things I enjoyed writing and I was getting paid to do it.Fast forward four monthsAs I was wrapping up my last weeks in the classroom before the school year ended, I realized I could go give my notice that I would not be coming back to teach the following August.I had just made $6,000 in one month from freelancing and that was while I was still teaching. I would definitely miss my students and all the friends I had made, but being able to set my own schedule, work from home, and raise my kids was something I could not pass up. My wife and I were having children later on in life, and the math showed me I would probably not get the chance to spend as much time with my kids as other fathers, so I switched careers.My plan is mostly working wellI'll admit, I underestimated how much time I would have to write while taking care of two babies at home. I've really had to narrow down my client list over the last five years, picking the ones that are truly worthwhile. Now I only accept writing assignments I can get excited about. Though I only have about 15 hours of free time at home a week where I can focus on writing, I have made the most of it. In fact, you can find my two children's books "Ellie and Jack: Third Grade Ghost Hunters," and "Ellie and Jack: Third Grade Vampire Hunters," on Amazon and other sites. I always wanted to write children's books, and after helping thousands of children become better readers over the years, I think I have a pretty good idea on the types of stories they love to read. Weaving my teaching past into my current career has been a joy.With one child getting ready for kindergarten and the other just a couple of years away, it won't be long before I will have more time to write once again.

Infrastructure cools off, apps soarYoung people can feel pressured to keep up with every fashion trend they see on social media. pixdeluxe/Getty Images Jai Das, president and partner at Sapphire Ventures: "A larger number of 'application layer' companies will have a breakout year with several crossing $100 million in revenues. I predict 50 companies will cross $50 million ARR while still growing 60%+, and at least 10 will hit $100 million ARR. A lot of these companies will be prosumer companies, but there will be several business application companies as well."Ben Lerer, managing partner at Lerer Hippeau: "When you get the cost of compute going down as quickly as it has, and the number of options in terms of foundational models growing as it has, you end up with a really interesting time for the application layer to thrive. If you're a startup, you can go with the flavor of the month not just a ChatGPT wrapper, or a Claude wrapper, or a Gemini wrapper, or you name it but some combination of all of them to optimize functionality, results, and the cost of those results." Lower rates kick the IPO market into gear Uwe Krejci/Getty Images Sofia Dolfe, partner at Index Ventures: "2025 is the year we will see the IPO market opening back up. There are already signs that this is on the horizon: we're seeing gradual recovery, rates have started to come down, and there are many later-stage companies with the financial profiles to go public."Michael Yang, senior managing partner at Omers: "Two kinds of companies will go public as the IPO window opens back up next year. First, the truly great businesses that are really scaled and have forecastable growth and would've gone public earlier if the IPO market was more favorable, and second, companies that entered into structured financings with dirtier terms that need to go public for timing reasons."Nima Wedlake, managing director at Thomvest Ventures: "The IPO market will remain closed for most tech companies, with a high bar for entry $300 million-plus ARR, fast growth, and cash-flow breakeven or better." As crypto prices surge, founders return to the drawing tableCoinbase CEO Brian Armstrong. Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Nihal Mehta, general partner at Eniac: "Guidance on what the regulations could be for crypto and AI would encourage founders to build productively within those areas."Jai Das, president and partner at Sapphire Ventures: "The new administration is crypto-friendly, bringing with it an expected acceleration of crypto-based business models (especially those using stablecoins). I predict we'll have another crypto mania in 2025."Some venture funds go belly-upA woman walks on a beach blanketed with dead sardines in Tolten, Temuco, Chile. AP Photo/Felix Marquez Wesley Chan, cofounder and managing partner at FPV Ventures: "In 2025, I predict a lot of contraction for VCs, except for top funds. We're still in a downturn. Some firms shut down, a lot of firms are not doing new deals, and you will see a lot of junior-mid level employees leave." The great funding bifurcation continues iStock, BI Molly Alter, partner at Northzone: "The 'sexiest' deals will continue to raise at sky-high valuations, but for the rest of the pack, companies will need to show very specific metrics to command a strong valuation. There will be a great bifurcation into the 'haves' and the 'have-nots.'"Don Butler, managing director at Thomvest Ventures: "Startup shutdowns will increase, particularly at the seed stage, as companies run out of cash. This will influence valuations, with investors likely focusing on startups that have shown resilience or achieved meaningful milestones."Matt Murphy, partner at Menlo Ventures: "Valuations will rise as growth rates and market multiples recover, but many companies still might not grow back into their ZIRP valuations. People are over that and won't let it get in the way of pursuing opportunity. Valuations for GenAI companies will continue to be outliers based on any historical metrics." Robotaxis cover new terrain Mario Tama/Getty Images Brian Walsh, head of Wind Ventures: "2025 will be the year that we enter the age of 'robo taxis' with, first, Waymo now well along its adoption S-curve in San Francisco and expanding quickly, and, second, Tesla favorably positioned with quickly maturing best-in-class autonomy technology (no human in the loop) and an existing large fleet to scale it."Kasper Sage, managing partner at BMW i Ventures: "Autonomous fleet deployments will gain traction in controlled, high-density environments such as for applications like campus environments and logistics for heavy industries." Trump policy heralds return of megadealsMark Zuckerberg. David Zalubowski/ AP Images Aaron Jacobson, partner at NEA: "With the change of administration, I expect the return of mega M&A deals. We are going to see a 'WhatsApp' like $20 billion-plus M&A outcome for a leading AI company."Michael Yang, senior managing partner at Omers: "Big Tech will be back at the M&A table with a new administration and regulatory regime in place. They've been quieter in recent times but should be chomping at the bit to capitalize on what is still a buyer's market."Funding rounds become even more fluid Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images Sasha McKenzie and Van Jones, both deal leads at Wellington Access Ventures at Wellington Management: "The concept of letter rounds in VC is becoming more amorphous. We're seeing $30 million and $100 million seed rounds, raising questions about what seed even means anymore. The model is shifting towards evaluating how quickly founders can run and how disciplined they are with results, rather than hitting historically stated milestones (e.g., $1 million in revenue to raise a Series A). There will be more nuance in how VCs evaluate progress, focusing more on the operator and their ability to balance vision with execution, based on the capital they have." Multi-agent systems take center stage iStock; Rebecca Zisser/BI Aaron Jacobson, partner at NEA: "Chatbots are overhyped. Agents are under-hyped. Enterprises will move beyond the low-hanging fruit of 'GPT-wrappers' to deploy digital workers that can reason and take action to make a real business impact."Praveen Akkiraju, managing director at Insight Partners: "If 2024 was the year of LLMs, we believe 2025 will be the year of agentic AI where highly capable state-of-the-art reasoning LLMs are combined with orchestration frameworks like memory, tool calling, and user-in-the-loop processes to build AI agents that can address progressively complex business workflows."Seema Amble, partner at Andreessen Horowitz: "In the short term, human workers will be the reviewer in the loop; in the future, as trust is established over time, I expect many data-derived actions will shift toward being entirely a set of narrowly defined task-driven agents."S. Somasegar, managing director at Madrona: "The world where we each have a digital assistant that works with a collection of AI agents is probably five to ten years out. But having AI agents that can do specific tasks really, really well is happening sooner and I think we will see a ton of progress on this in 2025." Tender offers grow for a selective group of companiesElon Musk SpaceX Saul Martinez/Getty Images Ravi Viswanathan, founder and managing partner at NewView Capital: "The venture secondaries market will continue to be an important source of liquidity a trend we think is here to stay due to structural dynamics of the venture asset class."Simon Wu, partner at Cathay Innovation: "The size of tender offers has grown from millions to billions as the desire to own top-performing names by mutual funds and VCs increases, thus allowing some of the best names to stay private longer. Tenders are likely to get bigger to a selective group of companies in tandem with a more active IPO market next year." Industry-specific software takes overMark Bordo works alongside his dog Riley at Vetster, an online platform to connect people with vets. Paige Taylor White/Toronto Star via Getty Images Molly Alter, partner at Northzone: "Vertical SaaS will become more highly valued than ever, due to the increasing difficulty of differentiating a product in horizontal categories."Cathy Gao, partner at Sapphire Ventures: "Vertical software will evolve rapidly as AI moves to the agentic phase, enabling end-to-end automation of complex, industry-specific workflows that were once beyond the reach of software. By pairing deep domain expertise with intelligent automation, vertical AI will unlock new use cases, deliver outsized ROI, and become table stakes for staying competitive." Fintech roars back blackred/Getty, PM Images/Getty, Tyler Le/BI Alexa von Tobel, managing partner at Inspired Capital:"Given the new political climate, we, of course, expect to see less regulation across the board. I think we'll see acceleration in a few core categories, including fintech."Marlon Nichols, managing partner at MaC Venture Capital: "Fintech is an area I'm excited to invest in, particularly fintech startups leveraging AI to create transformative personal finance tools."Sydney Thomas, general partner at Symphonic Capital: "We are watching the regulatory environment towards fintech ease which has enabled massive speculation on what asset class will win. This also means, many startups will be required to regulate themselves, which isn't always an easy thing to do." Robots join societyOptimus, also known as Tesla Bot. Tesla Claire Yun, investor at Piva Capital: "Generative AI will continue to accelerate and supercharge robotics; simultaneously, we will see a choke point in human labor as an aging domestic workforce and protectionist policies create a sharp supply and demand imbalance. The result will be a colorful Cambrian explosion of robots as they step in to fill this gap."Bob Ma, partner at Wind Ventures: "Urban areas will have fleets of robots on sidewalks, while drones will manage suburban and rural deliveries. Enhanced speed, cost-efficiency, and sustainability will redefine retail and e-commerce, with regulations supporting wider adoption and innovation."Yuri Lee, partner at IVP: "As AI advances enable robots to move from structured, repetitive tasks to more complex and dynamic real-world applications, we'll see rapid progress in robotic perception, manipulation, and decision-making capabilities." Small language models rise in popularityMicrosoft CEO Satya Nadella. Microsoft Tasneem Dohadwala, partner at Excelestar Ventures: "Small language domain-specific models are starting to show more value. Instead of using vast swaths of the internet to train large models, these smaller models can be trained on specific datasets, such as medical journals, newspapers, or email collections. As a result, they are highly tailored and more accurate in reflecting a user's particular constraints and voice.Michael Yang, senior managing partner at Omers: "If 2024 was the year of the LLMs, 2025 will be the year of small language models (SLMs) and proprietary data sets spawning the next generation of enterprise SaaS applications. Companies have realized that data in their midst can be harnessed in new and better ways than the 'structured workflow apps' of old and by leveraging targeted SLMs, they can do work differently, more efficiently." Founders flock to private equityThoma Bravo founder and managing partner Orlando Bravo. Patrick T. Fallon/AFP via Getty Images Brad Bernstein, managing partner at FTB Capital: "Despite the IPO market showing better performance in Q3'24 with proceeds already surpassing 2023 totals, structural issues like regulatory burdens and governance challenges still pose obstacles for small and mid-cap companies. Private equity markets are stepping in to fill the gap, with growth equity deals comprising a larger share of activity and providing opportunities for startups in high-growth sectors like insurtech and healthcare tech."Jai Das, president and partner at Sapphire Partners: "With the new administration, I predict we will see an uptick in exits, and much more tech M&A activity. We'll also see PE firms buying up a lot of companies once boards and management teams realize these businesses won't be able to grow at 30% at scale and ultimately, IPO." Open-source foundation models come for OpenAI and xAI's lunchElon Musk and Sam Altman Michael M. Santiago/Getty, Nordin Catic/Getty, Tyler Le/BI Aaron Jacobson, partner at NEA: "Open-source foundation models will close the gap with the leading proprietary models. On top of this we will see a significant shift away from pre-training models from scratch to fine tuning OSS models and distilling them to smaller models for faster performance."Mo Jomaa, partner at CapitalG: "I predict that in 2025 we will continue to see open source technologies consume the infrastructure layer in software. We have seen this trend play out in several categories already, including data and analytics (which led to our investment in Databricks) and observability (which drove our investment in Grafana). Enterprises will continue to adopt open source because it helps them save money, avoid vendor lock-in, and shape the product roadmaps of the technologies that they procure." Record deals and dollars flow to cyber and national securityWiz cofounder and CEO Assaf Rappaport. Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch Andrew Schoen, partner at NEA: "We will see a surge of investment into technologies critical to restarting the US industrial base and enhancing national security. A record number of deals and dollars will go into AI, automation, cybersecurity, and frontier technology serving manufacturing, supply chain, and defense markets."Jake Seid, general partner at Ballistic Ventures: "Over the next 18 months, we're going to see a lot more cybersecurity exits. While this may include an uptick in M&A activity, I expect we'll see cybersecurity companies go public in 2025 and in the first half of 2026 given how large the market for cyber products has become." Trump's tech advisors bend his earTrump's AI and crypto Czar David Sacks. Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images Samir Kumar, general partner at Touring Capital: "We should expect a lot less regulatory headwinds in 2025 for AI given David Sacks will be the AI and crypto czar for the new administration. This is likely to even result in the repeal of President Biden's executive order on AI."Francesco Ricciuti, associate at Runa Capital: "In the US, Trump is bringing prominent people from the startup and VC world in the government, and I wouldn't be surprised if the regulatory landscape will evolve towards entrepreneurship and technology."