OpenAI’s Converge 2 program has been shrouded in mystery

by with No Comment Tech

OpenAI logo with spiraling pastel colors (Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch)

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

OpenAI’s Converge 2 startup accelerator program did indeed take place, according to two sources familiar with the program, despite the silence that has shrouded it. TechCrunch has also confirmed that the Open AI Startup Fund has funded startups in the cohort.

Converge 2 has been an odd exception to what is normally a mundane bit of PR in the tech industry. Typically an accelerator program announces the startups accepted into, or graduated from, its programs. After all, once it invests, it has every reason to boost those startups’ chances for success with its public stamp of approval.

But for months, a tech forum ran wild asking if the Converge 2 accelerator program actually happened. Nobody on that forum, which included people who said they applied, heard anything. No one on the forum posted about getting in or even receiving rejection notices. And others in the Valley weren’t hearing about the program either, despite how high profile OpenAI is, various sources told TechCrunch.

This silence was odd because it was not how the first program worked. OpenAI held Converge I in the typical accelerator fashion in early 2023. It called for applications and then publicly announced its first four investments from the overall OpenAI Startup Fund. In December 2023, Open AI Startup Fund announced it would start accepting applications for the second cohort of its accelerator program, Converge 2, expected to begin in March 2024 and conclude by April. 

But then, silence. There was no press release from OpenAI about the companies that earned investments. And after multiple requests for comment over months, OpenAI refused to even confirm that the program took place. Founders took to pondering online — and messaging us — about it.

We still cannot get those close to the program to tell us why OpenAI won’t publicly announce the cohort grads. Are the NDAs draconian? Is it just a don’t-talk culture thing? Admittedly, even Converge 1 kept its communications low-key, and the companies that were said to have partaken in it, like Cursor.AI, were revealed slowly.

Certainly, between early 2023 and today, the whole world is paying much closer attention to OpenAI, especially as the company reportedly seeks to raise another round that would value it at $100 billion, according to the WSJ. In fact, between Converge 1 and 2, the fund removed Sam Altman as its owner, replacing him with Ian Hathaway. 

This move hasn’t impeded fund activity. Since January, the fund has cut checks into a few new companies, according to PitchBook, like AI chatbot Heeyo, wellness company Thrive AI Health, AI chatbot New Computer, and Ambience Healthcare, which created an AI assistant for healthcare organizations. At least two of these companies, a source tells us, participated in a Converge program, though the person would not confirm which ones, citing not wanting to incur OpenAI’s displeasure.

As to what happens inside the program, details are even more scarce. One person told us the main benefit is access to OpenAI’s researchers and to unreleased model technology. That kind of access would lend itself to the theory that these companies are locked into some brawny NDAs, a tool that OpenAI is fond of using on its employees, as Vox recently reported. 

South Korea’s AI textbook program faces skepticism from parents

by with No Comment Tech

Image Credits: Bet_Noire / Getty Images

Some parents have reservations about the South Korean government’s plans to bring tablets with AI-powered textbooks into classrooms, according to a report in Financial Times.

The tablets are scheduled to be introduced next year, and by 2028, teachers are supposed to be using these AI textbooks for all subjects except music, art, physical education and ethics. The government hasn’t shared many details about how it will all work, except that the material is supposed to be customized for different speeds of learning, with teachers using dashboards to monitor how students are doing.

In response, more than 50,000 parents have signed a petition demanding that the government focus less on new tech and more on students’ overall well-being: “We, as parents, are already encountering many issues at unprecedented levels arising from [our children’s] exposure to digital devices.”

Lee Sun-youn, a mother of two, told FT, “I am worried that too much usage of digital devices could negatively affect their brain development, concentration span and ability to solve problems — they already use smartphones and tablets too much.”

Samsung Self-repair kit

Samsung’s self-repair program now covers 50 devices, including foldables

by with No Comment Tech

Samsung Self-repair kit

Image Credits: Samsung

Since launching its self-repair program in August 2022, Samsung has been aggressively adding new devices to the mix. Another upgrade this week brings the current offering up to 50 products (when you factor in variants like the Plus and Ultra), including smartphones, tablets, TVs, laptops, monitors, soundbars and even a projector.

There are 14 new devices in all, including the Galaxy S23 series, Galaxy Z Fold 5, Galaxy Z Flip 5, Galaxy Tab S9 series, the Galaxy Book 2 series and the aforementioned projector, Freestyle 2.

The news also finds Samsung adding a number of different parts options, including speakers, the SIM tray, side key and volume buttons on Galaxy phones and tablets. That’s in addition to displays, charging ports and back glass. The Galaxy book line, meanwhile, is adding speaker and fan repairs to the list. On the TV/monitor side, users will be able to replace ports and various components, “which can be fixed with common tools like a Phillips-head screwdriver.”

Samsung is partnering with Encompass Supply Chain Solutions to offer a better deal on components. The company also has a multi-year partnership with DIY repair service, iFixit. Samsung’s approach is generally more in line with Google’s in terms of access to tools and parts.

Apple, meanwhile, has drawn criticism for so-called ‘parts-pairing,’ in which a component’s serial number is tied to the phone, making it more difficult – or even impossible – to use third-party components. The battle has been a sticking point for Oregon’s proposed right to repair bill, which builds on California’s recent legislation, while adding provisions to tamp down on parts pairing.

Nikola Badger electric truck

Nikola sells abandoned electric Badger pickup truck program to friend of disgraced founder Trevor Milton

by with No Comment Tech

Nikola Badger electric truck

Image Credits: Nikola

Beleaguered electric trucking company Nikola has sold the Badger electric pickup truck assets it was once supposed to build with General Motors. The buyer? A new company called Embr Motors created by vehicle builder and television personality Dave “Heavy D” Sparks, one half of the former TV duo the Diesel Brothers.

Embr now owns the intellectual property associated with the Badger pickup truck, as well as the assets related to Nikola’s abandoned off-road and personal water craft vehicles. It also owns the only two prototype versions of the Badger ever built.

News of the deal to sell the Badger program comes at an odd time. Just a few weeks ago Nikola’s disgraced founder, Trevor Milton, announced plans to try to install Sparks and a slate of other directors on the company’s board. That effort failed. Milton was sentenced to four years in prison in December after being convicted of securities fraud and wire fraud in 2022, in part because he misled investors about the progress of the Badger.

From its founding in 2014, Nikola was always mainly about making hydrogen and electric big rigs. But it revealed the Badger pickup in February 2020, just a few months before it went public in a merger with a special purpose acquisition company. In September 2020, General Motors announced it was investing $2 billion in the startup and that it would help bring the Badger to market. Just days later short-selling research firm Hindenburg Research published a damning report alleging Nikola had made a number of false claims. That report spiraled into a government investigation, and ultimately, led to Nikola paying a settlement to the SEC and Milton’s departure and eventual conviction. Nikola refunded the customer deposits for the Badger and put the program on ice.

Sparks first revealed the purchase earlier this week in a YouTube video titled “The Nikola Badger is REAL and I Own Them.” He said the transaction involved “tens of millions” of dollars.” He also explained how he was given stock in Nikola as part of an arrangement to promote the Badger (before the program went under), and that he’s a longtime friend of Milton’s.

Nikola confirmed some details of the purchase Thursday morning, when it revealed its financial results for 2023.

Britton Worthen, the company’s chief legal officer, said on a conference call that Sparks and his partner, Cole Cannon, “expressed a desire” to bring the Badger to market and brought “several EV-related partners” to meetings as the two sides hammered out a deal. Nikola is essentially loaning money to Embr to purchase the assets and in exchange for a 30% stake in the company, which could “retain some value for its shareholders” if anything ever comes of the Badger or the other vehicles.

Worthen said Nikola is clawing back 500,000 of those shares Milton gave Sparks as part of the deal. Sparks and Cannon also agreed that Milton would not be involved “directly or indirectly in any way” with these projects.

“Over the three and a half years since Mr. Milton left the company, we at Nikola have worked to stay above the fray, not comment on his legal proceedings, and stay focused on the work at hand to bring zero-emission class eight trucks to market,” Worthen said on the call. “The irony that Mr. Milton is now trying to take control of Nikola, after all that has happened in the past three and a half years is not lost on us at the company. We will continue to push back against any efforts he makes to attempt to take control of Nikola and we believe our directors and management are far and away better for our stockholders than a slate of directors who lack relevant experience to run a clean energy clean tech company.”

TechCrunch reached out to Cannon for comment on his and Sparks’ involvement in the project but did not immediately hear back.

Anduril moves ahead in Pentagon program to develop unmanned fighter jets

by with No Comment Tech

A 1:2 scale model of Fury, the group five autonomous aircraft designed by Blue Force Technologies

Image Credits: Anduril (opens in a new window)

Anduril Industries has taken another step forward in its quest to become the next great American prime, this time by beating out major defense companies to develop and test small unmanned fighter jet prototypes.

The venture capital darling beat out Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman on the deal, under the Air Force’s Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) program. General Atomics was the other awardee out of the group of five.

Anduril and General Atomics will design, manufacture and test “production representative test articles” as part of the contract work, the Air Force said in a statement. Eventually, the Air Force will make a final, multibillion-dollar production decision in fiscal year 2026 and have fully operational aircraft from suppliers before the end of the decade. It is unclear if the Air Force will select more than one company to deliver production aircraft.

The deal could prove very lucrative for Anduril: Eventually, the CCA program aims to deliver at least 1,000 combat aircraft, which will fly in concert with manned platforms, like the F-35, and deliver their own weapons. The CCA program is part of an Air Force initiative called Next Generation Air Dominance; the aim is to modernize the entire fleet of flying systems, including piloted aircraft (Boeing and Lockheed are still in the running for manned system contracts).

At the center of Anduril’s victory is Fury, an autonomous air vehicle that it acquired when it bought North Carolina-based Blue Force Technologies last year. Anduril moved from acquisition of the tech to winning a major defense award with it in less than a year.

Seven-year-old Anduril was valued at $8.5 billion by investors, including Founders Fund, in 2022, when it announced its $1.48 billion Series E. The outfit’s famous 31-year-old co-founder, Palmer Luckey, has been outspoken about reversing the zero-sum paradigm that has dominated defense spending — which is to say, the defense primes win and the taxpayer loses — by building cheaper assets at a much faster pace.

“Anduril’s work on this program is just beginning,” Anduril SVP Jason Levin said in a statement. “U.S. and allied success in the future requires CCAs to be delivered at a speed, cost, and scale to beat the pacing threat. We look forward to continuing our partnership with the U.S. Air Force to deliver this critical capability to our Airmen as quickly as possible.”