Whenever a new year rolls around, I imagine my future: picturesque settings in the form of beautiful, awe-inducing lands; minimalistic yet intentional design; and a squeaky-clean presence. Sometimesartificial intelligencecan help with putting an image to your hopes -- like a freshly designed bathroom.I was recently spending time in the Bay Area, in an Airbnb located in a three-story 1910s home tucked away in the corner of a second-floor en suite that was chosen for accessibility and affordability. I was prepared for the room to meet my basic needs, but I was still underwhelmed by its bathroom design and overwhelmed by its fluorescent lighting. As a digital nomad, I've spent many nights in various Airbnbs for various needs, ranging from last-minute stays to specific design-focused choices.Partly from imagination, partly from curiosity, I turned to Renovate AI, an app that uses AI and generative models to create and re-create design-driven worlds. For me, navigating to its site felt like entering a very specific corner of SimsNation, built for architecture and interior design enthusiasts and experts. After spending far too long staring at the moving blob on the homepage -- somewhere between a trance experience and an art therapy session -- I began the process of temporarily redesigning my temporary bathroom to test out whether you could genuinely use this app to get started on your home renovations. The original, underwhelming bathroom. Carly Quellman/CNET The Renovate AI process Upgrade your inbox Get cnet insider From talking fridges to iPhones, our experts are here to help make the world a little less complicated. Renovate AI has a free plan, and paid plans range from $8 to $60 per month. Since I planned to redesign only one space, I didn't miss out by not upgrading. However, if you're interested in interacting with the site beyond a trial run and plan on seriously using Renovate AI to help with ideas for more than one room, a paid plan is necessary to get the most out of the tool. Once I signed up and signed in, I toggled over to the Bathroom image as part of the Residential tab. (There are Exterior and Commercial tabs, too.) After a couple of attempts at capturing the entire space, I was able to upload the image of my Airbnb bathroom to the site. From here, I could decide the extent of my redesign, including Tweak, Enhance, Renovateand Transform. Since I was on the free plan, I had the option of using Renovate or Transform once before needing to upgrade. Renovate includes style themes and changes to layout, and it gives your space major furniture updates in hopes of crafting a fresh, new ambiance. Transform provides complete interior reinventions and provides structural modifications and design shifts that create an entirely new living environment. I stuck to Renovate. From here, there's an option to choose which room type you're redesigning, or you can have AI auto-detect based on the details within your image. I was excited about the next step, which is where you can add the style influences that artificial intelligence will use as a template for the redesign. I chose Japandi (Japanese mixed with Scandinavian), Zen and Urban styles. I imagined a bathroom design that oozed warmth, simplicity and refinement. The last three steps involve deciding if you'd like to preserve any objects from your photos, and choosing a color tone and descriptors to influence the AI-operated outcome. I added descriptors like minimalist, warm and refined. From here, I clicked the final button, which read Renovate, and waited for the newly generated image to appear. Renovate AI gave me three options based on my style choices and descriptor words. My favorite was the redesign that had warm lighting cascading over the mirror, and that contained paneling that enhanced the refined look I'd imagined. My favorite AI redesign of the bathroom -- though it did have some oddities. Created by Carly Quellman using Renovate AISure, it had some wonky features. A basket instead of a toilet, for one. A bamboo screen inside the shower for another (not sure how long that would last), and a circular rug that looks more like a platform or a lazy Susan. Definitely less dull, though -- and it'll point you in the direction of the vibe you're going for during your remodeling project.There isn't an option within the app for a "redo" (so I essentially had to stick with one of the three designs per my free plan), but for an initial trial run, I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome. Even through the lens of artificial intelligence, good or upgraded design can truly make a space feel bigger. Who should use Renovate AI? Design can be grueling to learn if it's not your area of expertise, so I appreciate how artificial intelligence can broaden the range of users to include people who have no design experience but do have a desire to be immersed in design's possibilities. I've always had a hard time nailing down what kind of design type I like, so I was immediately excited when I found a platform that offered the capability to "redesign" a space in response to a picture upload and a "style" choice. (Who doesn't like to look at visually stimulating things?) Whether you're someone like me, who simply wants to reimagine their Airbnb, or someone who's looking to remodel a room or their entire house, in my opinion Renovate AI is thoughtful and inclusive.Besides design "renovations," the platform also offers virtual staging and 3D renders, along with the ability to change interior and exterior paint colors and to upscale blurry images.I imagine that if someone like me enjoyed the experience of such a tool, folks in the industry would find it fascinating if for nothing more than insight into how design choices influence data, or to quickly get a feel for different designs.I'm all in on something that can help refine or organize a process and strengthen communication in a visually stimulating way. All to reimagine any world, in seconds. Isn't that what dreaming is all about? For more tips on how AI can help you redesign your living room or evencreate social media headshots of you, check out CNET's AI Atlas homepage.

Our Experts Written by Tyler Lacoma, David Anders Our expert, award-winning staff selects the products we cover and rigorously researches and tests our top picks. If you buy through our links, we may get a commission. Reviews ethics statement Why You Can Trust CNET 16171819202122232425+ Years of Experience 14151617181920212223 Hands-on Product Reviewers 6,0007,0008,0009,00010,00011,00012,00013,00014,00015,000 Sq. Feet of Lab Space How we test CNETs expert staff reviews and rates dozens of new products and services each month, building on more than a quarter century of expertise. What to consider Price Are you will to pay around $200 for a starter security system for an apartment? Would you prefer to save more money with fewer devices? How do you feel about paying a subscription fee that usually starts around $15 for these kinds of systems? Are you willing to pay much more for professional home monitoring? Installation Does the system have options like adhesive to install without significantly damaging walls? Is it easy to pack up and move with you? Sensors Does the security kit come with basic sensors for front door contact and additional sensors to monitor a window or entryway? App Is the app easy to use and intuitive for first-timers? Does it make setup easy? Can you quickly arm or disarm the system from the app? Smart device compatibility Does the system integrate with your preferred smart home platform, such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple HomeKit? Can it work with third-party smart home devices? Additional devices Is it easy to add more sensors to the security system? Does it support add-ons like cameras or smart locks if you ever want to expand? Table of Contents Our Picks Best overall home security system for renters Ring Alarm 5-piece kit (2nd gen) View details $200 at Amazon View details Best home security system for renters with other smart tech Abode Security Hub 5-piece kit View details $160 at Abode View details Best compact home security system for renters Arlo Dual Sensor Home Security System View details $110 at Amazon View details Best adhesive-based home security system for renters Simplisafe The Foundation Kit View details $125 at SimpliSafe View details Best video doorbell alternative for renters Ring Peephole Cam View details $130 at Amazon View details HOME SECURITY DEALS OF THE WEEK SimpliSafe The Beacon 10-Piece Wireless Home Security System: $365 (save $365) Ring Alarm 8-Piece Kit With Wired Doorbell and Stick Up Cam: $350 (save $50) Arlo Home 6-Piece Security System: $200 (save $100) Eufy Security 5-Piece Home Alarm Kit: $95 (save $66) Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article. Table of Contents What are the best apartment security systems?When renting, you can still get a home security system that offers top-of-the-line safety measures. You just have to make sure that you get something that keeps apartments and rental properties in mind in the design. Throughout our extensive years of testing home security systems, weve kept an eye on the best home security kits for renters: Our top choice is the Ring Alarm five-piece kit, which has an excellent mix of sensors, affordability and installation options that wont leave you with unsightly damage -- plus it's easy to move to a new home.Read more: 11 of the Best Smart Home Gifts for the Holidays 2024We have chosen a variety of renter-friendly security options, including a compact all-in-one sensor kit from Arlo and a Ring peephole camera that is especially useful for apartment buildings. Explore our complete selection below, discover more about home security for apartments and rentals and get answers to common questions. If youre on a renter-security binge, visit our guides to cheap home security systems and affordable home security cameras to tap into more of CNET's knowledge.Best apartment security systems of 2024 Photo Gallery 1/1

You can trust VideoGamer. Our team of gaming experts spend hours testing and reviewing the latest games, to ensure you're reading the most comprehensive guide possible. Rest assured, all imagery and advice is unique and original. Check out how we test and review games here Contents hide While Path of Exile 2 and Diablo 4 currently dominate the ARPG space, with the latter games lead deeming similar games should be classed as Diablo-likes, industry veterans are reuniting to create an all-new entry in the genre.Original Diablo lead designer Erich Schaefer and Diablo 2 lead programmer Peter Hu have joined forces alongside other ARPG alumni to form Moon Beast Productions. Following a round of seed funding, the studio is now officially looking to create a new ARPG franchise that learns from the developers past.Ex-Diablo devs return to ARPG genreVia a press release, Moon Beast Productions has successfully roped in a network of angel investors, including ex-Blizzard developer and popular live-streamer Cohh Carnage. Other investors include 1AM Gaming, 1UP Ventures, Overwold and more.In the press release, Moon Beast Productions chief creative officer Erich Schaefer explained that the studio is hoping to create a new type of ARPG. Instead of static environments with hordes of mobs to slice and dice, the studio hopes to create open, more dynamic environments for players to battle through.We finally have the technological capabilities and decades of design experience to bring those visions to life. Were going back to what made those early Diablo games feel so awesome but taking them in some cool, fresh directions, the CCO explained.Built for modsAlongside the new focus, Moon Beast Productions new ARPG aims to create an ARPG designed for user-generated content on launch. This means that the game will support modding from the off, or at least be designed with it in mind.The studio explains that the arrival of modding has resulted in massive successes, namely citing Warcraft 3s popular DOTA mod.Our world technology is inherently dynamic, which makes it incredibly easy for players to create and integrate their own content, explained Hu. Were building in-game tools that allow players to not just mod, but potentially create entirely new game modes using our robust, client-server ARPG systems.Moon Beast Productions has still not revealed its new ARPG, but its an exciting project. Alongside a new game from Age of Empires veterans, there is a new explosion of classic gaming alumni returning to their respective genres. Hell, even Peter Molyneux is back.For more Diablo news, read about the series general managers thoughts on how fans turned the genre into a live-service platform, or read about the games Christmas event. DiabloPlatform(s):macOS, PC, PlayStationGenre(s):Action, RPGSubscribe to our newsletters!By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.Share

Almost two years ago, Louisiana passed a law that started a wave thats since spread across the entire U.S. south, and has changed the way people there can access adult content. As of today, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina join the list of 17 states that cant access some of the most popular porn sites on the internet, because of regressive laws that claim to protect children but restrict adults use of the internet, instead.That law, passed as Act 440, was introduced by sex addiction counselor and state representative Laurie Schegel and quickly copied across the country. The exact phrasing varies, but in most states, the details of the law are the same: Any commercial entity that publishes material harmful to minors online can be held liablemeaning, tens of thousands of dollars in fines and/or private lawsuitsif it doesnt perform reasonable age verification methods to verify the age of individuals attempting to access the material.To remain compliant with the law while protecting users privacy, Aylothe company that owns Pornhub and a network of sites including Brazzers, RedTube, YouPorn, Reality Kings, and several othersis making the choice, state by state, to block users altogether.Pornhub is currently blocked in:VirginiaMontanaNorth CarolinaArkansasUtahMississippiTexasNebraskaIdahoKansasKentuckyIndianaAlabamaOklahomaFloridaTennesseeSouth CarolinaGeorgias age verification bill has passed and is set to go into effect in July.On a map, it looks like this:Georgias age verification bill will go into effect in July.In Louisiana, sites in the Aylo network direct visitors to use the states LA Wallet, a digital drivers license for Louisianans, before they can enter the site. That system has been in place since January 1, 2023. But the law is not working as the lawmakers would have us believe they intended it. Instead of protecting children from harmful material, its sending visitors elsewhere across the internet. An Aylo spokesperson told me that the number of visitors in Louisiana instantly decreased by 80 percent when the platform introduced age verification in the state. Instead, visitors go to sites with worse moderation practices and no requirements on identity verification for uploadersjust a few of the security and safety practices Pornhub started putting into place in late 2020 amid allegations of abusive imagery on the site and a campaign by religious conservative groups to have the whole platform shut down.Even if someone wanted to visit Pornhub from Florida today, they could easily get around any age verification barriers with a VPN, which we consistently see searches for spike when these laws go into effect.Aylo sent 404 Media a statement about the age verification laws progress across the country:"First, to be clear, Aylo has publicly supported age verification of users for years, but we believe that any law to this effect must preserve user safety and privacy, and must effectively protect children from accessing content intended for adults.Unfortunately, the way many jurisdictions worldwide, including Florida, have chosen to implement age verification is ineffective, haphazard, and dangerous. Any regulations that require hundreds of thousands of adult sites to collect significant amounts of highly sensitive personal information is putting user safety in jeopardy. Moreover, as experience has demonstrated, unless properly enforced, users will simply access non-compliant sites or find other methods of evading these laws."In place of the homepage, in several blocked states, Aylo-network sites show a message read by adult performer and activist Cherie Deville: "The safety of our users is one of our biggest concerns. We believe that the best and most effective solution for protecting children and adults alike is to identify users by their device and allow access to age-restricted materials and websites based on that identification," DeVille says. "Until a real solution is offered, we have made the difficult decision to completely disable access to our website in your state."2025 will be a year of intensifying legal battles against the creep of age verification laws. As such, there is some hope: Not every state where bills were introduced rolled over and allowed their constituents to face more censorship with less safety. In Arizona, governor Katie Hobbs vetoed the copycat bill there. Children's online safety is a pressing issue for parents and the state, Hobbs wrote in a letter announcing her decision. While we look for a solution, it should be bipartisan and work within the bounds of the First Amendment, which this bill does not.The Free Speech Coalition filed a challenge to the law in Florida earlier this month, along with several co-plaintiffs, including the sex education platform O.school, sexual wellness retailer Adam & Eve, adult fan platform JustFor.Fans, and Florida attorney Barry Chase. These laws create a substantial burden on adults who want to access legal sites without fear of surveillance, Alison Boden, Executive Director of the Free Speech Coalition, said in a press release published in December. Despite the claims of the proponents, HB3 is not the same as showing an ID at a liquor store. It is invasive and carries significant risk to privacy. This law and others like it have effectively become state censorship, creating a massive chilling effect for those who speak about, or engage with, issues of sex or sexuality.And in Texas, Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton continues and will be heard this month.Age verification bills like the ones flooding the south and beyond are regressive at best, and actively harmful at worst. Theyre not just ineffective, theyre worse: they push people to sites where piracy is rampant and moderationmeaning, protection from actual harmful materialis almost nonexistent. Well be following these laws and their challengers into 2025 as we have been for years; if you have anything to share from inside of lawmakers offices about how theyre approaching these laws, please get in touch via Signal: sam.404.Sam Cole is writing from the far reaches of the internet, about sexuality, the adult industry, online culture, and AI. She's the author of How Sex Changed the Internet and the Internet Changed Sex.More from Samantha Cole

WTF?! Far less than a quarter of e-waste generated globally is properly collected, treated, and recycled, according to the UN. That's why repurposing and extending the lifespan of discarded electronics is so crucial. One person has done just that, with a remarkable home charging system created by repurposing over a thousand used laptop batteries. This remarkable feat has been running successfully for an astonishing eight years without a single battery replacement, as detailed by the creator, Glubux, on the online forum Second Life Storage.The setup is housed in a somewhat unassuming shed 50 meters (164 feet) away from the individual's residence, but its purpose is anything but ordinary. It combines old laptop batteries with solar panels to create an off-grid power supply, essentially turning a pile of e-waste into a sustainable energy solution.Despite the unconventional nature of this system, there have been no reports of fire hazards or swollen battery issues throughout its nearly decade-long operation. In fact, Glubux claims he can power his entire house from it, including the washing machine.The project's origins can be traced back to November 2016, when the creator shared his initial plans on the forum. At the time, he had already begun producing part of his electricity needs with a modest 1.4kW solar panel array, an old 24V 460Ah forklift battery, charge controllers, and a 3kVA inverter.However, Glubux aimed to expand his setup by constructing a dedicated shed to house additional batteries and charge controllers/inverters. He had already amassed around 650 laptop batteries and had started sorting and assembling them into packs, each designed to hold approximately 100Ah by carefully matching the number of cells and using copper wiring for efficient connections. // Related StoriesWhile some initial hiccups arose, such as uneven discharge rates among packs with different cell counts, the creator quickly adapted by rebalancing the packs and adding cells where needed. Eventually, he ended up using over a thousand laptop batteries.If you're wondering why the batteries in the photos don't resemble your typical laptop power pack, that's because laptop batteries have historically been multiple battery cells housed within a single casing. However, in this ingenious setup, Glubux took those individual cells and assembled them into their own customized racks a process that likely required a fair bit of elbow grease and technical know-how, but one that has ultimately paid off in spades.Fast-forward to the present day, and a recent update from Sunday revealed that the setup has been running without a hitch for eight years, with not a single laptop battery cell requiring replacement. Glubux has also upgraded his solar panel array to 24 units rated at 440W peak each, providing ample power generation capacity, especially during the winter months.

Like many highly valued startups, SpaceX sometimes allows its employees to cash out some of their shares by selling to company-authorized outside investors.TechCrunch has gotten a peek at an internal SpaceX document about such a tender offer from May 2022. Musk posted on X last month that SpaceX holds such sales for employees about every 6 months.These documents offer interesting insights into the investors who are authorized to buy these secondary shares, and the good deals they get.In this offer, investors paid $70 per share to employees, the document shows. Thats an enormous bargain compared to the share prices investors pay when investing in primary rounds where the company sells the shares directly to raise capital.During the primary sale in 2022, shares went for $270. (SpaceX hasnt sold shares in a primary round at a $70 price since its Series G went for $77.46 per share, the documents say. That was back in 2015, according to PitchBook.) Of course, the main reason for the giant discount in price is that employees own common stock and investors who buy into primary rounds typically buy preferred stock that entitles them to dividends and liquidation preferences. They are the first to be paid their investment back if the company ever sells itself.In fact, this doc reveals that as of 2022, if SpaceX sold itself, the first $6.67 billion would be owed to preferred shareholders. Since then, the company has raised another $750 million, so that sum first paid to investors should likely be increased by at least that amount. Should SpaceX actually command its astronomical current valuation of $350 billion, these liquidation preferences paying out investors first wont be a problem for employees or other common stock shareholders. But if one day the company goes for an under-$7 billion fire sale, common stockholders could get nothing.In terms of the dividends, as late as 2019, internal documents seen by TechCrunch said that SpaceX never paid any. But if its board of directors wanted to declare dividends, they would be paid out in fixed amounts based on when investors bought shares. Those amounts range from a few pennies per share for shares bought in its earliest and cheapest rounds, to over $10 a share for those bought in later and most expensive rounds.For employees, the news about their shares in 2022 was especially good. In February 2022, SpaceX did a 10-for-1 stock split of its Class A, B and C common shares. The preferred shares were not split. The documents dont make clear what the differences are between the different classes of common shares. In public companies, different classes often have different voting rights. For example, one class of shares retained by the founder might have 10 votes per share, allowing founders to retain control of their companies while selling shares and cashing out.In this case, its not clear when, if ever, SpaceX will go public. Secondary sales like this remain one of the only ways that employees have to sell their shares.Another bit of good news for employees in this sale was that the $70 per share price was an improvement over the previous tender of $56 when adjusting for the stock split, Bloomberg reported at the time. And Bloomberg also reported last month that the next tender offer may be as high as $108 to $110 apiece.Which investors got to buy?One of the most interesting revelations in these documents was that only a handful of investors were named as authorized buyers. And most of them were among the SpaceX orbit, so to speak, meaning the investors are either vocal supporters of SpaceX founder Elon Musk or have had other, historically close ties.They were:Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) was authorized to buy nearly 4.3 million shares for almost $300 million. Interestingly, a16z isnt a historical longtime major investor in SpaceX but managed to get on its cap table in a big way in the companys $250 million raise in August, 2022, according to PitchBook. It also became a lead investor of SpaceXs $750 million round, at a $137 billion valuation in 2023, CNBC reported.The firms co-founder, Marc Andreessen, has known Musk for the decades that theyve run in the same Silicon Valley tech billionaire circles. In the past few years, he has become a Musk champion, expressing admiration for the SpaceX, Tesla, and X CEO in all sorts of ways, from how Musk uses his money to keep launching startups to applauding Musks perseverance. Andreessen even publicly debated billionaire and rival VC Vinod Khosla (backer of OpenAI) on X (owned by Musk) after Khosla praised OpenAI shortly after Musk sued OpenAI. The debate caught Musks attention.Aliya Capital Partners is associated with Aliya Growth Fund, which was authorized to buy just over 1.4 million shares for nearly $100 million. Aliya is a family office for the wealthy in Miami that says SpaceX is one of its largest holdings. Aliya which has stakes in many prized startups like Figure AI, Impossible Foods, Anduril notably chipped in $360 million when Musk bought Twitter in 2022 for $44 billion, Reuters reported. Even after Musk took an immediate ax to Twitter headcount, and his management style caused others (and advertisers) to flee, Aliya remained publicly optimistic. We believe Twitter will produce a return of 4-5x in just a few years, with comparably limited downside risk, Aliya chief executive Ross Kestin told Reuters in December 2022.Aliya also happily champions SpaceX. In April, around the time that Bloomberg reported that its Starlink satellite business is still burning more cash than it brings in, Aliya took to LinkedIn to double down on Musks vision. It posted: Recent reports indicate a staggering 500,000 new Starlink subscribers in the last four months a feat far from coincidental and over 2.7 million in total. It stands as a testament to profound vision matched by impeccable execution.Gigafund, whose co-founder is a SpaceX board member, was allocated over 1.4 million shares at a cost of nearly $100 million. Gigafund was co-founded by fellow PayPal mafia member Luke Nosek who joined Peter Thiel when he founded Founders Fund. Thiel and Musk are, of course, fellow PayPal mafia members. At Founders Fund, Nosek led the first VC investment into Space X, took a board seat, and has been on the board ever since. He left Founders Fund in 2017 to launch Gigafund. Gigafunds co-founder, Stephen Oskoui, is also a former Founders Fund investor and has led the firm into deals with other Musk companies, including Neuralink and the Boring Company.137 Ventures is associated with 137 Holdings, which was authorized to buy just under 1.1 million shares at a cost of nearly $75 million. 137 Ventures is a VC fund thats interesting because its claim to fame is these kinds of secondary purchases. Founders Justin Fishner-Wolfson and Alex Jacobson met while at Founders Fund, working on its SpaceX investment. When Musk originally lobbied Thiel and Founders Fund to back his new rocket company at the time, the original investment in SpaceX was going to be around $5 million until Fishner-Wolfson advocated that it be much bigger. Founders Fund wound up writing a check that was about 20% of its fund and has continued to take large positions in other SpaceX rounds from other funds, Fishner-Wolfson told TechCrunchs Connie Loizos in 2020. He launched 137 Ventures in 2011.Point 2 Prove Investment was allocated 1 million shares, which cost $70 million. Point 2 Prove looks like a special purpose vehicle led by the secretive global investment firm Vy Capital, according to SEC Form D from July 2022. Vy was founded by Alexander Tamas, who spent his formative years at Yuri Milners DST. While Tamas doesnt say much in public, and therefore isnt a vocal Musk supporter, his company committed $700 million to Musks Twitter purchase, Bloomberg reported at the time. Vy also has a SpaceX stake and has invested in a number of other Musk companies like Boring and Neuralink. A prospectus for a Vy fund asserts that Tamas was the investor who secured for DST its early stakes in companies like Facebook, Airbnb, Spotify, Twitter, Alibaba and others. Marc Andreessen and his VC firm co-founder Ben Horowitz once described Tamas to Bloomberg as: Hes on speed-dial for everyone trying to build the most successful, highest-scale, global Internet companies today.Atreides Management is associated with Atreides Special Circumstances Fund, which was allocated nearly 429,000 shares at a cost of nearly $30 million. The founder of Boston-based hedge fund Atreides, Gavin Baker, goes way back with SpaceX. Before founding Atreides in January 2019, Gavin spent 18 years at Fidelity, rising to manage the $17 billion Fidelity OTC Fund, his website says. He made his first investment in SpaceX while at Fidelity, and in 2022 SpaceX was Atreides largest position among the VC portion of its fund, Bloomberg reported. (Atreides had $3 billion in assets under management that year but currently has about $4 billion AUM, according to a recent SEC filing.) The fund has also had a significant stake in Tesla since 2019. And Baker is a public supporter of Musk. Just this month he penned a long post on X advocating to reinstate Musks $56 billion Tesla pay package and backing Musks desire to move Teslas incorporation to Texas.TCP Exploration Fund 2022 was allocated over 357,000 shares for nearly $25 million. This is a fund associated with LAs Troy Capital Partners founded by Myspace founder Josh Berman, according to SEC Form D. However, by several accounts, Troys managing partner, Anthony Tucker, is the one responsible for Troys SpaceX investment. Troy has been a backer since SpaceXs Series J round in 2019, which valued the company at about $28 billion post-money, according to PitchBook. Troy, which emphasizes LA-based companies (although doesnt restrict itself to them), was also an investor in the now-defunct Hyperloop One that had hoped to build speedy underground transport between San Francisco and LA based on Musks idea.In addition, this SpaceX sale also authorized two more investors to buy about another $50 million shares combined as well, although the paperwork trail was too thin on both of them for us to determine their associations to Musk.SpaceX and all of the funds did not respond to multiple requests for comment except for Atreides, which declined comment.Update: This story originally published June 19, 2024, and was updated January 1, 2025, to include SpaceXs latest valuation.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev has a lot to celebrate this holiday season. After a bumpy few years following Robinhoods 2021 IPO a period during which shares of the commission-free trading app plummeted by more than 90% after it abruptly restricted trading in some meme stocks the 12-year-old company was just declared Yahoo Finances comeback stock of the year.Asked about that accolade in recent days over Zoom, Tenev was beaming. When we were a young company and just got started, everyone was kind of rooting for us, said Tenev, who oversees roughly 2,500 employees at Robinhood. Then at one point we started being treated as an incumbent the vibe became negative, [and] during COVID, it just became strange. [We] were growing like crazy, but people were unhappy, and we hit our low, and now it has been very positive.Its whats around the corner that has Tenev truly excited, however. Like a lot of fintech entrepreneurs, hes feeling very enthusiastic about a second Trump administration, given that deregulation appears to be a priority, along with a far warmer embrace of cryptocurrency.Unsurprisingly, he plans to take advantage of the fast-changing landscape. Indeed, during our chat, we talked about exploding job offers and about crypto. We discussed copytrading, a trading strategy that allows clients to automatically replicate the trades of another trader. We also talked about prediction markets, where Robinhood plans to increasingly compete with still-private startups like Kalshi and Polymarket that are squarely focused on allowing people to bet on the outcome of future events.You can listen to the whole thing here; meanwhile, below, you can find excerpts specifically pertaining to prediction markets. These excerpts have been edited lightly for length.Im seeing that one in 10 Americans [with brokerage accounts] have a Robinhood account, yet you only have a quarter percent of the total retail assets in the United States. Can that be right?I havent heard that stat. I mean, it doesnt sound crazy to me. Theres trillions [of dollars] of assets [in the world]. Robinhoods [AUM] is right around $200 billion, so weve still got a long ways to go. Were bigger than when we started, but some of these guys, like the Schwabs and the Fidelitys, have $10 trillion in assets. So were still growing, but our assets are growing 40% plus year over year, rather than 2% to 3%.When we last sat down in person, this was a much smaller company with ambitions to become a financial services giant; youve since gotten into wealth management and credit cards. Im wondering about some newer financial mechanisms, like prediction markets; how big an opportunity is there, do you think?Ive been a big fan of prediction markets for a long time, and it became clear to me relatively early on that political contracts are the ideal product in that space, because [politics] is very newsworthy and highly correlated to market performance, so useful as a hedge.The one other thing was: Everyone watches the polls and early results on election night to figure out whats going on, and if youre watching the news, the picture they paint is very unclear, right? Theyre doing all this math for you and tabulating [votes], but theyre not really telling you what the odds are of one candidate or the other winning the election. You contrast that with the prediction markets and I think whats even more powerful is just distilling where things stand right now based on all the information thats out there. And thats a very useful use case, not necessarily for prediction itself, but really for the news. If you want information as fast as possible about whats actually going on, I think prediction markets are really good.We didnt think itd be possible to launch [our own presidential election market] for this election because there was the lawsuit with the [Commodity Futures Trading Commission, or CFTC], then Kalshi prevailed in the 11th hour [to offer contracts that pay off as bets on U.S. political elections], the team mobilized. We put a lot of great people on it, and we went from intending to launch to actually shipping in about two and a half weeks, which was crazy and speaks to the culture and the product philosophy weve built at Robinhood.Did you ever talk to Kalshi about potentially buying it?Ive talked to Kalshi, not about buying it. We ended up working with ForecastEx [a CFTC-registered designated contract market (DCM) for forecast contracts]. And, this is a little bit technical, but were an FCM, a futures commission merchant, which is kind of like the customer-facing part of a futures or swaps dealer, and so we need to rely on an exchange functionally to serve as the back end of all these trades. And we ended up using ForecastEx because they had all the licensure to be able to do that. My understanding is that Kalshi is only able to offer it to retail directly, not able to serve other FCMs.I read that youve indicated a move into sports could take the form of event contracts, too.I think that was taken a little bit out of context. Certainly, our focus is on federally regulated event contracts rather than traditional sports betting. Right now, event contracts do not permit sports outcomes [but] that might change. You know, theres going to be a new CFTC Commissioner [and] a lot of people are interested in sports entering the federally regulated realm. I think those products would look very different from traditional sports betting. But yeah, our focus is on event contracts. I think thats going to be a big thing. The presidential election market proved to us that theres a lot of demand for these types of products. We had over half a billion contracts traded in about a week [by more than] half a million people. And so I think that the number one thing we were hearing afterward was: Can we have more contracts? Can this be a more-fleshed-out product and not just for the election?Obviously sports would be huge and perennial. What other types of contracts are you imagining?Theres a lot of possibilities. A natural fit for Robinhood is economic ones. You can see some examples of, you know, a Fed hike, a Fed drop anything thats at the intersection of news and financial markets is interesting to us. In my opinion, news has increasingly started to merge with entertainment.There are two ways to look at [event contracts]. One is as an active trader asset, that active traders like to trade alongside options and futures and other things. But the other is as a passive experience, where, if you just want the news, event contracts can be a way to deliver that to you in real time. Were also thinking about this, and I think that opens up a broader set of possibilities. I mean, you can have event contracts on pretty much anything from the Oscars and entertainment events to sports to politics. And the categories of event contracts almost become like the sections of a newspaper, right? Art, style, leisure, sports, business, [the] front page, which is real time. So you can imagine the digital equivalent of a newspaper being delivered via event contracts.Again, for much more with Tenev, you can tune in here.

For several years now, technologists have rung alarm bells about the potential for advanced AI systems to cause catastrophic damage to the human race. But in 2024, those warning calls were drowned out by a practical and prosperous vision of generative AI promoted by the tech industry a vision that also benefited their wallets.Those warning of catastrophic AI risk are often called AI doomers, though its not a name theyre fond of. Theyre worried that AI systems will make decisions to kill people, be used by the powerful to oppress the masses, or contribute to the downfall of society in one way or another.In 2023, it seemed like we were in the beginning of a renaissance era for technology regulation. AI doom and AI safety a broader subject that can encompass hallucinations, insufficient content moderation, and other ways AI can harm society went from a niche topic discussed in San Francisco coffee shops to a conversation appearing on MSNBC, CNN, and the front pages of the New York Times. To sum up the warnings issued in 2023: Elon Musk and more than 1,000 technologists and scientists called for a pause on AI development, asking the world to prepare for the technologys profound risks. Shortly after, top scientists at OpenAI, Google, and other labs signed an open letter saying the risk of AI causing human extinction should be given more credence. Months later, President Biden signed an AI executive order with a general goal to protect Americans from AI systems. In November 2023, the non-profit board behind the worlds leading AI developer, OpenAI, fired Sam Altman, claiming its CEO had a reputation for lying and couldnt be trusted with a technology as important as artificial general intelligence, or AGI once the imagined endpoint of AI, meaning systems that actually show self-awareness. (Although the definition is now shifting to meet the business needs of those talking about it.)For a moment, it seemed as if the dreams of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs would take a backseat to the overall health of society. But to those entrepreneurs, the narrative around AI doom was more concerning than the AI models themselves. In response, a16z cofounder Marc Andreessen published Why AI will save the world in June 2023, a 7,000 word essay dismantling the AI doomers agenda and presenting a more optimistic vision of how the technology will play out.SAN FRANCISCO, CA SEPTEMBER 13: Entrepreneur Marc Andreessen speaks onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2016 at Pier 48 on September 13, 2016 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Steve Jennings/Getty Images for TechCrunch)Image Credits:Steve Jennings / Getty ImagesThe era of Artificial Intelligence is here, and boy are people freaking out. Fortunately, I am here to bring the good news: AI will not destroy the world, and in fact may save it, said Andreessen in the essay.In his conclusion, Andreessen gave a convenient solution to our AI fears: move fast and break things basically the same ideology that has defined every other 21st century technology (and their attendant problems). He argued that Big Tech companies and startups should be allowed to build AI as fast and aggressively as possible, with few to no regulatory barriers. This would ensure AI does not fall into the hands of a few powerful companies or governments, and would allow America to compete effectively with China, he said.Of course, this would also allow a16zs many AI startups make a lot more money and some found his techno-optimism uncouth in an era of extreme income disparity, pandemics, and housing crises. While Andreessen doesnt always agree with Big Tech, making money is one area the entire industry can agree on. a16zs co-founders wrote a letter with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella this year, essentially asking the government not to regulate the AI industry at all.Meanwhile, despite their frantic hand-waving in 2023, Musk and other technologists did not stop slow down to focus on safety in 2024 quite the opposite: AI investment in 2024 outpaced anything weve seen before. Altman quickly returned to the helm of OpenAI, and a mass of safety researchers left the outfit in 2024 while ringing alarm bells about its dwindling safety culture. Bidens safety-focused AI executive order has largely fallen out of favor this year in Washington, D.C. the incoming President-elect, Donald Trump, announced plans to repeal Bidens order, arguing it hinders AI innovation. Andreessen says hes been advising Trump on AI and technology in recent months, and a longtime venture capitalist at a16z, Sriram Krishnan, is now Trumps official senior adviser on AI.Republicans in Washington have several AI-related priorities that outrank AI doom today, according to Dean Ball, an AI-focused research fellow at George Mason Universitys Mercatus Center. Those include building out data centers to power AI, using AI in the government and military, competing with China, limiting content moderation from center-left tech companies, and protecting children from AI chatbots.I think [the movement to prevent catastrophic AI risk] has lost ground at the federal level. At the state and local level they have also lost the one major fight they had, said Ball in an interview with TechCrunch. Of course, hes referring to Californias controversial AI safety bill SB 1047.Part of the reason AI doom fell out of favor in 2024 was simply because, as AI models became more popular, we also saw how unintelligent they can be. Its hard to imagine Google Gemini becoming Skynet when it just told you to put glue on your pizza.But at the same time, 2024 was a year when many AI products seemed to bring concepts from science fiction to life. For the first time this year: OpenAI showed how we could talk with our phones and not through them, and Meta unveiled smart glasses with real-time visual understanding. The ideas underlying catastrophic AI risk largely stem from sci-fi films, and while theres obviously a limit, the AI era is proving that some ideas from sci-fi may not be fictional forever.2024s biggest AI doom fight: SB 1047State Senator Scott Wiener, a Democrat from California, right, during the Bloomberg BNEF Summit in San Francisco, California, US, on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. The summit provides the ideas, insights and connections to formulate successful strategies, capitalize on technological change and shape a cleaner, more competitive future. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty ImagesImage Credits:David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty ImagesThe AI safety battle of 2024 came to a head with SB 1047, a bill supported by two highly regarded AI researchers: Geoffrey Hinton and Yoshua Benjio. The bill tried to prevent advanced AI systems from causing mass human extinction events and cyberattacks that could cause more damage than 2024s CrowdStrike outage.SB 1047 passed through Californias Legislature, making it all the way to Governor Gavin Newsoms desk, where he called it a bill with outsized impact. The bill tried to prevent the kinds of things Musk, Altman, and many other Silicon Valley leaders warned about in 2023 when they signed those open letters on AI.But Newsom vetoed SB 1047. In the days before his decision, he talked about AI regulation on stage in downtown San Francisco, saying: I cant solve for everything. What can we solve for?That pretty clearly sums up how many policymakers are thinking about catastrophic AI risk today. Its just not a problem with a practical solution.Even so, SB 1047 was flawed beyond its focus on catastrophic AI risk. The bill regulated AI models based on size, in an attempt to only regulate the largest players. However, that didnt account for new techniques such as test-time compute or the rise of small AI models, which leading AI labs are already pivoting to. Furthermore, the bill was widely considered an assault on open-source AI and by proxy, the research world because it would have limited firms like Meta and Mistral from releasing highly customizable frontier AI models.But according to the bills author, state Senator Scott Wiener, Silicon Valley played dirty to sway public opinion about SB 1047. He previously told TechCrunch that venture capitalists from Y Combinator and A16Z engaged in a propaganda campaign against the bill.Specifically, these groups spread a claim that SB 1047 would send software developers to jail for perjury. Y Combinator asked young founders to sign a letter saying as much in June 2024. Around the same time, Andreessen Horowitz general partner Anjney Midha made a similar claim on a podcast. The Brookings Institution labeled this as one of many misrepresentations of the bill. SB 1047 did mention tech executives would need to submit reports identifying shortcomings of their AI models, and the bill noted that lying on a government document is perjury. However, the venture capitalists who spread these fears failed to mention that people are rarely charged for perjury, and even more rarely convicted.YC rejected the idea that they spread misinformation, previously telling TechCrunch that SB 1047 was vague and not as concrete as Senator Wiener made it out to be. More generally, there was a growing sentiment during the SB 1047 fight that AI doomers were not just anti-technology, but also delusional. Famed investor Vinod Khosla called Wiener clueless about the real dangers of AI in October of this year.Metas chief AI scientist, Yann LeCun, has long opposed the ideas underlying AI doom, but became more outspoken this year.The idea that somehow [intelligent] systems will come up with their own goals and take over humanity is just preposterous, its ridiculous, said LeCun at Davos in 2024, noting how were very far from developing superintelligent AI systems. There are lots and lots of ways to build [any technology] in ways that will be dangerous, wrong, kill people, etc But as long as there is one way to do it right, thats all we need.Meanwhile, policymakers have shifted their attention to a new set of AI safety problems.The policymakers behind SB 1047 have hinted they may come back in 2025 with a modified bill to address long-term AI risks. One of the sponsors behind the bill, Encode, says the national attention SB 1047 drew was a positive signal.The AI safety movement made very encouraging progress in 2024, despite the veto of SB 1047, said Sunny Gandhi, Encodes VicePresident of Political Affairs, in an email to TechCrunch. We are optimistic that the publics awareness of long-term AI risks is growing and there is increasing willingness among policymakers to tackle these complex challenges.Gandhi says Encode expects significant efforts in 2025 to regulate around AI-assisted catastrophic risk, though she did not disclose any specific one. On the opposite side, a16z general partner Martin Casado is one of the people leading the fight against regulating catastrophic AI risk. In a December op-ed on AI policy, Casado argued that we need more reasonable AI policy moving forward, declaring that AI appears to be tremendously safe.The first wave of dumb AI policy efforts is largely behind us, said Casado in a December tweet. Hopefully we can be smarter going forward.Calling AI tremendously safe and attempts to regulate it dumb is something of an oversimplification. For example, Character.AI a startup a16z has invested in is currently being sued and investigated over child safety concerns. In one active lawsuit, a 14-year-old Florida boy killed himself after allegedly confiding his suicidal thoughts to a Character.AI chatbot that he had romantic and sexual chats with. This case, in itself, shows how our society has to prepare for new types of risks around AI that may have sounded ridiculous just a few years ago.There are more bills floating around that address long-term AI risk including one just introduced at the federal level by Senator Mitt Romney. But now, it seems AI doomers will be fighting an uphill battle in 2025.

Google Chrome's latest update proves its resilienceGettyIts no surprise Google is desperate to keep Chrome within its stable, pushing back on the DOJs campaign to force a sale of the browser. But Chrome is proving itself to be remarkably resilientjust as it is with a new update thats particularly bad news for Microsoft and its Windows OS.Microsoft has campaigned hard to switch Chrome users to its Edge browser, taking flak for the nags and ads stitched into Windows itself, including ones that interrupt Chrome installations on a PC. While this has proven broadly ineffective, Microsoft has also deployed a more potent tactic, pushing users to switch to Edge for security reasons, especially within an enterprise environment. As Ive commented, if users switch to Edge at work perhaps theyll do the same at home.Edger default popup in WindowsWindows LatestBut while Edge is steadily growing its market share, up more than 2% year-on-year to 13% of the desktop market, the already dominant Chrome was actually growing more quickly as 2024 ended. As picked up by Neowin from Statcounters latest numbers, Chrome opens 2025 with a strong and unreachable 66.88% market share, increasing its market share by 0.5 points in one month and 1.65 points year-over-year. As such, it seems the Microsoft Windows campaign is just not working.MORE FOR YOUDesktop Browser Market Share Worldwide (Jan - Dec 2024)StatcounterThe latest Windows ads pushing users to the Edge cropped up in development just before the holidays, with Windows Latest reporting that Microsoft Edge wont stop nagging users to set itself as default on Windows 11. But while there is clearly some conversion its not nearly enough to dent Chrome.Edge default pushWindows LatestTo be fair to Googles PR team, they have proven themselves to be equally resilient, batting away all manner of recent Chrome headlinesthe reversal on tracking cookies, Apples fabled ad mimicking The Birds, security warning after security warning, and the unimaginably painful Privacy Sandbox regulatory stalemate. They dont need to overreactChromes user base has proven that it cares much more about the browsers features and performance than its record on privacy and security bugs.But 2025 could be differentwe dont yet know where the U.S. antitrust campaign will end, and while Apple has jumped to its frenemies defense on Chrome, theres a lot of ground still to cover. That said, Microsoft has its own concerns here. As Neowin explains, browser makers and advocacy groups recently sent a letter to the European Commission asking it to subject Edge to DMA regulations and mark Microsoft as a gatekeeper that hurts other businesses with predatory practices.Happy new year? Maybe not for long.

NEW YORK - NOVEMBER 11: Bottles of Vitamin E are seen in a CVS pharmacy November 11, 2004 in New ... [+] York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)Getty ImagesNearly one in three US adults use multivitamins, according to reports from a study in JAMA Network. However, a recent meta-analysis that analyzed nearly 400,000 medical records from healthy Americans over 20 years found that daily multivitamin use did not prevent death from cancer, heart disease and stroke. The study only looked at the risk of death as the primary outcome.So does this mean that multivitamins are not beneficial to health?The obvious question remains- who, if anyone, should take a multivitamin?For the vast majority of adults, a healthy nutritious diet that includes fruits, vegetables, proteins, healthy fats and grains usually provide all the vitamins and minerals necessary for the body to function properly. Nutrients are best absorbed when consumed through foods and have the greatest effect on the bodys ability to function properly. Despite this, not all individuals can or are able to consume a healthy balanced diet. There are specific groups of people that would benefit from regularly taking multivitamins.Those With Nutritional DeficienciesInadequate levels of vitamins in the body can lead to certain diseases. As an example, low levels of vitamin D in children can lead to a condition called rickets, which results in weak bones, poor growth and bone deformities. In addition, scurvy, or vitamin C deficiency, can occur as it used to with sailors who did not get enough fruits and vegetables in their diet. Patients with scurvy typically have weakness, gum disease and poor wound healing. Although both rickets and scurvy are rare in the US currently, any vitamin deficiency that exists in the body needs to be treated to prevent disease.MORE FOR YOUThe ElderlyAs we age, our nutritional needs also change. As an example, nutrients and vitamins like calcium and vitamin D are critical to ensure adequate bone health and to help prevent osteoporosis, a condition characterized by decreased bone mass that can predispose people to fracture their bones more easily. For postmenopausal women, bone mineral density naturally decreases with lower levels of estrogen that come after menopause, increasing the risk of older women eventually getting osteoporosis. Estrogen is a key hormone that helps promote more bone formation. Taking multivitamins for postmenopausal females can decrease the risk of osteoporosis but may increase the risk of death from cardiovascular disease. Elderly patients should speak to their doctors to find out what treatment is best for them.Individuals With Medical ConditionsMany medical conditions, such as Crohns disease, ulcerative colitis and celiac disease can affect nutrient absorption. Many patients with these conditions lack the ability to absorb nutrients which ultimately results in vitamin deficiencies in their bodies. In addition, patients that have gastric bypass procedures also are predisposed to vitamin deficiencies and would benefit from taking multivitamins. In this surgery, the intestines are rerouted to bypass some parts of the bowel. These parts of intestine that are bypassed are precisely where iron and calcium are absorbed, thus leading to deficiencies in those nutrients that would need to be treated.People With Dietary RestrictionsSome individuals with dietary restrictions, such as those who religiously follow a vegetarian diet, may not take in essential nutrients that are found more commonly in animal products. Vitamins and mineral that are commonly absent in many vegetarian diets include vitamin B12, iron, calcium, zinc and vitamin D, according to Nordic Naturals. Individuals with restricted diets can take multivitamins to ensure they are getting all the important vitamins their bodies need.Pregnant WomenPregnancy increases the demand for many nutrients, including but not limited to folate, iron and calcium. Taking folic acid in the first trimester of pregnancy is critical in preventing neural tube defects in the fetus. In addition, anemia (a condition where the body does not produce enough red blood cells) is a relatively common condition in pregnancy, and iron supplementation can help increase blood volume to prevent it. Prenatal multivitamins are specifically recommended by doctors to support the mother and babys health in efforts to prevent conditions like anemia in the mother and neural tube defects in the child.Although a multivitamin is certainly not necessary for everyone, certain groups of people should really consider taking one. Taking too many multivitamins can also be problematic as it is possible to overdose on vitamins. As an example, although very rare, too much vitamin C can lead to an upset stomach, diarrhea and kidney stones. Before taking any dietary supplements, its important to have a conversation with your doctor so they can provide personalized recommendations based on your individual needs.