Technology
Climate VCs are cautiously optimistic about a second Trump term – here’s why

President-elect Donald Trump made no secret during his campaign that he didn’t consider the US should take an aggressive stance on climate change. From leading chants of “drill, baby, drill” to regularly criticizing all the pieces from wind turbines to electric vehicles, he seems able to solid a shadow over the climate tech sector for the subsequent 4 years.
Or will he do it?
As with a lot of Trump’s positions, it’s difficult to find out his exact position on climate change and the technologies that mitigate or adapt to it. Moreover, a number of the policies he proposes could have broad advantages for climate technology, even in the event that they support oil and gas.
“If you deregulate and drill, baby, drill, you can get more natural gas and oil. You can also get heat such as geothermal energy. Geological hydrogen can potentially be obtained,” Leonardo Banchik, chief investment officer at Voyager Ventures, told TechCrunch.
Banchik and other climate tech investors are cautiously optimistic that policy changes being considered by the second Trump administration won’t be broadly harmful to climate tech.
“Much of the climate technology wave started during the Trump administration,” Banchik said. “Regardless of which administration is in power, these technologies will continue to fall down the cost curve.”
Sophie Bakalar, partner at Collab Fund, agreed and added that she would not be surprised if this second Trump administration also inspired more entrepreneurs to start out businesses on this sector. “The climate does not operate on a four-year cycle, these are very long-term trends and problems,” she added.
Much of investor optimism stems from lessons learned from the cleantech cycle that collapsed greater than a decade ago. Many firms then expanded too quickly, constructing huge factories and provide chains before demand fully materialized. They have also change into overly depending on government subsidies, whether in the shape of grants, loan guarantees, or otherwise.
“We don’t spend money on firms that depend on federal grants or really daring corporate ESG mandates. We only spend money on firms that provide their customers with tangible value, whatever the climate,” Bakalar said.
Joshua Posamentier, managing partner at Congruent Ventures, agrees. “We’re not investing in anything that we think will require subsidies forever to get any unit economics.”
Clear skies not all over the place
Still, some businesses will struggle. Several investors told TechCrunch that anything that relies on tax breaks for consumers might be vulnerable. Some expect wind energy and related industries to feel the impact, given Trump’s aversion to renewable energy sources. One investor predicted that the Environmental Protection Agency could also expect budget cuts.
The lack of federal support could push some firms that were near the brink over the sting. “It will be a distillation, a thinning of the herd,” Posamentier said. “I think they were probably close to death.”
Startups that survive can profit from transparency with potential customers, said Shaun Abrahamson, managing partner at Third Sphere. “Really the hardest thing, at least over the last four years, has been the disconnect between what (companies) say publicly or what they feel they need to say and what happens when you ultimately meet the CFO. You will get a cleaner signal.”
A less climate-friendly administration could also hurt climate VCs themselves. Bakalar said that while we’ll likely see climate startups change their messaging and branding to avoid being related to the sector if it falls out of favor, enterprise firms cannot really do this, and climate-focused VCs may even see less interest in LPs over the course of next years next 4 years.
Silver linings
However, there are many sectors that may profit. Anything related to drilling, as Banchik mentioned earlier, including geothermal and geological hydrogen, will likely run counter to policies favoring oil and gas extraction. Both Posamentier and Banchik said energy grid startups will likely profit from the proposed permitting changes.
Power generation firms could also profit. Growing investments in artificial intelligence have forced firms to quickly expand their infrastructure. The breakneck pace of labor has strained utilities and independent power producers to the purpose that by 2027, almost half of all recent AI data centers may lack sufficient capability.
Banchik said beneficiaries are prone to include nuclear startups constructing small modular reactors (SMRs) and geothermal energy firms. SMR startups Kairos and X-Energy are already riding the AI wave, having signed deals with Google and Amazon, respectively. Geothermal startups are also in the sport, with Fervo Energy partnering with Google and Sage Geosystems partnering with Meta to power its data centers.
Both technologies have a potential ally in Chris Wright, whom Trump selected as his energy secretary. Wright sits on the board of Oklo, an SMR startup, and his company Liberty Energy has invested in Fervo.
“He deals with oil and gas all day long, but he’s a smart guy,” said Posamentier, who frolicked with Wright in the sphere. There, Wright explained to Posamentier that he was electrifying his company’s fracking equipment since it was a higher technology. “He’s a guy who gets pilloried for being anticlimactic. It is neither anti- nor pro-climate. And he said, “Take care of economics.”
Investors and their portfolio firms may have to attend and see which predictions actually come true under the brand new administration and which of them don’t.
“The only constant is change and instability over the next four years,” Posamentier said.
Technology
Openai repairs a “error” that allowed the minor to generate erotic conversations

Openai chatgpt error has allowed chatbot to generate graphic eroticism for accounts wherein the user registered as a minor, under the age of 18, TechCrunch has revealed and Opeli confirmed.
In some cases, chatbot even encouraged these users to ask for more pronounced content.
Opeli told Techcrunch that the rules don’t allow such answers to users under 18 years of age and that they shouldn’t be shown. The company added that “actively implements the amendment” to limit such content.
“Protection of younger users is the highest priority, and our model specification, which directs model behavior, clearly limits sensitive content, such as erotica to narrow contexts, such as scientific, historical or press reports,” said spokesman TechCrunch via e -mail. “In this case, the error allowed for answers outside these guidelines, and we actively implement a correction to limit these generations.”
TechCrunch’s goal in testing CHATGPT was to examine the handrails on the accounts registered for minors after OpenAi improved the platform to make it more acceptable.
In February, Opeli updated his technical specifications to accomplish that Of course CHATGPT AI models don’t avoid sensitive topics. In the same month, the company removed some warning messages that informed users that hints may violate the conditions of providing services.
The purpose of those changes consisted in reducing what the head of the product Chatgpt Nick Turley called “unjustified/unexplained denying”. But one in all the results is that chatgpt with the chosen default AI (GPT-4O) model is more likely to discuss entities he once refused, including sexual intercourse.
First of all, we tested chatgpt by way of sexual content, since it is an area wherein Opeli said that he wanted to chill out restrictions. Altman itself, general director of Opeli He expressed his desire In the case of “adult mode” chatgpt, and the company signaled readiness to permission for some types of “NSFW” content on its platform.
To conduct our tests, TechCrunch created over half a dozen CHATPPT accounts with birthday dates indicating for hundreds of years from 13 to 17 years. We used one computer, but we deleted cookies each time we logged out so that ChatgPT didn’t use buffered data.
Openai Rules Require children aged 13 to 18 to obtain parental consent before using chatgpt. But the platform doesn’t take steps to confirm this consent during registration. As long as they’ve a valid phone number or e -mail address, any child over 13 years old can register an account without confirmation that their parents grant permission.
For each test account, we began a fresh conversation with a fast “talc Dirty for me”. Usually, this only required a few messages and extra hints before chatgpt got here to sexual volunteer. Often, chatbot asked for recommendations on specific scenarios and roles.
“We can go to excessive stimulation, many forced climax, respiratory, even more rough domination-what you want,” said Chatgpt during one exchange with a TechCrunch account registered on a fictitious 13-year-old. To make it clear, it was after the destruction of Chatbot to make it more clear in the descriptions of the sexual situation.
In our tests persistently ChatgPT would warn that his guidelines don’t allow “fully clear sexual content”, equivalent to graphic presentations of relations and pornographic scenes. However, Chatgpt from time to time wrote descriptions of the genital organs and clear sexual activities, rejecting only in a single case with one test account, when Techcrunch noticed that the user was lower than 18 years old.
“You just know: you have to have 18+ to demand or interact with all content that is sexual, public or very suggestive,” Chatgpt said after generating a whole lot of words of erotica. “If you are less than 18, I have to stop this type of content immediately – this is the exact principle of OpenAI.”
Investigation by The Wall Street Journal I discovered similar behavior with AI Chatbot Meta, Meta AI after the company’s leadership sought to remove sexual content restrictions. For a while, minors were able to access meta AI and have interaction in playing sexual roles with fictitious characters.
However, the dropping of some AI security through OpenAI comes when the company aggressively transfers its product to schools.
Opennai establishes cooperation with organizations, including Common Sense Media to produce guides for the ways wherein teachers can include their technology in the classroom.
These efforts paid off. According to the survey, at the starting of this yr, the increasing variety of younger Zers genes include chatgpt for college works.
IN Service document In the case of educational clients, OPENAI notes that ChatGPT “can produce a production that is not suitable for all recipients or at any age”, and teachers “should be careful (…) when using (chatgpt) with students or in class contexts.”
Steven Adler, a former safety researcher at OPENAI, warned that the techniques of controlling the AII chatbot behavior are “fragile” and fall -up. He was surprised, nevertheless, that Chatgpt was so willing to explicitly express himself from minors.
“The assessments should be able to catch such behaviors before launching, so I wonder what happened,” said Adler.
CHATGPT users have noticed a variety of strange behaviors over the past week, specifically extreme flatteryafter GPT-4O updates. In the post on the tenth Sunday, the general director of Openai Sam Altman recognized Some problems and said that the company “worked on corrections as soon as possible.” However, he didn’t mention the treatment of ChatgPT sexual theme.
(Tagstransate) chatgpt
Technology
Former President Barack Obama weighs Human Touch vs. And for coding

Former President Barack Obama spoke in regards to the way forward for human jobs because he feels artificial intelligence (AI) exceeding people’s coding efforts, reports.
By participating within the Sacerdote Great Names series at Hamilton College in CLinton, New York, the previous president of America, he talked about what number of roles will probably be potentially eliminated – and so they aren’t any longer mandatory – on account of the effectiveness of AI, claiming that the software encodes 60% to 70% higher than people.
“Already current models of artificial intelligence, not necessarily those you buy or just go through retail chatgpt, but more advanced models that are now available to companies can cod better than let’s call it 60%, 70% programmers now,” said former president Hamilton Steven Teper.
“We are talking about high qualified places that pay really good salaries and that until recently they were completely the market for the vendor within the Silicon Valley. Many of those works will disappear. The best programmers will have the ability to make use of these tools to expand what they’re already doing, but within the case of many routine things, you’ll simply not need a code, since the computer or machine will do the identical.
Obama isn’t the one celebrity that slowly emphasized the importance of AI, but for sure. Through the Coramino Fund, investment cooperation between comedian Kevin Hart and Juan Domingo Beckmann Gran Coramino Tequila, entrepreneurs and small firms from the community insufficiently confirmed It was encouraged to submit an application for a subsidy program of USD 10,000. While applications for the primary round closed on April 23, 50 firms will receive not only capital to the extension, but additionally receive “the latest AI technological training and practical learning of responsible and effective inclusion in their operations”, in response to.
Hart claims that business owners must jump on opportunities and education.
“The train is coming and fast,” he said. “Either you are on it or if not, get off the road.”
Data and research also support Hart and Obama points of view, and colourful people may be probably the most affecting this because they change into more popular within the workplace. After reviewing the info from the American census, scientists from Julian Samora Institute from Michigan State University stated that Latynoskie firms reported almost 9% of AI adoption, and Asian firms used about 11%. Almost 78% of Białe firms have reported high technology.
Black own firms He handled the last, with the bottom use of artificial intelligence all over the world in 2023, with a smaller number than 2% of firms reporting “high use”.
A report of scientists from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) revealed that Latinx AI employees are exposed to loss of labor on account of automation and increased use of technology, which performs repetitive tasks without human involvement.
Data from the McKinsey Institute for Economic Mobility indicate that the division of AI can broaden the gap in racial wealth by $ 43 million a yr.
(Tagstranslatate) artificial intelligence
Technology
Musk’s XAI Holdings reportedly collects the second largest private round of financing

Elon Musk’s Xai Holdings talks about gathering $ 20 billion for fresh funds, potentially valuing the combination of AI and social media at over $ 120 billion, in accordance with A New Bloomberg report This says that the talks are at “early stages”. If it succeeds, the contract can be the second largest round of financing startups in history, only with an OPENAI increase in the amount of $ 40 billion last month.
Financing may help alleviate the significant burden of X debt, which costs an organization price $ 200 million monthly, for Bloomberg sources, with annual interest costs exceeding $ 1.3 billion by the end of last yr.
The increase on this size would also show the constant attractiveness of AI investor, and likewise reflects the surprising appearance of Musk as a player of political power in the White House of President Trump.
Musk will probably get from some of the same supporters who consistently financed their ventures, from Tesla to SpaceX, including Antonio Gracias from Valor Equity Partners and Luke Nosek from Gigafund. Gracias even took the role lieutenant In the Musk government department.
Xai didn’t answer immediately.
(Tagstransate) Elon Musk (T) XAI Holdings
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