Gogoro, the Taiwanese electric scooter manufacturer and battery swapping giant, said its CEO and chairman Horace Luke has stepped down amid subsidy fraud allegations, according to a regulatory filing.
Gogoro allegedly used Chinese parts for e-scooters to reduce manufacturing costs, despite reporting that it used locally made parts to qualify for government subsidies. In a filing, Gogoro said internal investigations identified “certain irregularities” in the supply chain which caused it to “inadvertently incorporate certain imported components in some of its vehicles.”
Luke resigned in an effort to show the company’s resolution to fully cooperate with the local authorities as the investigation continues, Gogoro said in the filing.
Since going public in 2022, Gogoro has suffered from poor financials due to currency exchange rates and a push into new markets like the Philippines and Indonesia. In the second quarter, Gogoro recorded $20.1 million in losses, up from a $5.6 million shortfall in Q2 2023.
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Speaking with investors this month at an Oracle financial analysts meeting, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said that he expects AI to one day power massive law enforcement surveillance networks.
“We’re going to have supervision,” he said. “Every police officer is going to be supervised at all times, and if there’s a problem, AI will report that problem and report it to the appropriate person. Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.”
Ellison might believe that continuous surveillance, driven by AI, could greatly reduce crime. But the evidence doesn’t necessarily support his assertion.
As a piece in The Washington Post notes, police data in the U.S. is historically biased — most datasets of criminal activity overrepresent people of color and low-income neighborhoods. Feeding that data into an AI model could lead it to suggest more criminal activity is in those areas, creating racially and socioeconomically biased feedback loops.
In 2019, the Los Angeles Police Department suspended its crime prediction program after an audit showed it resulted in subjecting Black and Latino people to more surveillance.
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The Port of Seattle released a statement Friday confirming that it was targeted by a ransomware attack.
The attack occurred on August 24, with the Port (which also operates the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport) saying it had “experienced certain system outages indicating a possible cyberattack.”
The Port is now describing this as “a ‘ransomware’ attack by the criminal organization known as Rhysida.” (The group was also apparently responsible for last year’s cyberattack on the British Library.) With the Port refusing to pay the ransom, Rhysida “may respond by posting data they claim to have stolen on their darkweb site.”
“Our investigation of what data the actor took is ongoing, but it does appear that some Port data was obtained by the actor in mid-to-late August,” the Port said, adding that it will notify employees or passengers if it learns that any of their information was stolen.
TechCrunch’s Devin Coldewey actually flew through the airport a few days after the attack, where he saw firsthand that many airport systems were still down.
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It’s looking increasingly likely that OpenAI will soon alter its complex corporate structure.
Reports earlier this week suggested that the AI company was in talks to raise $6.5 billion at a $150 billion pre-money valuation. Now Reuters says the deal is contingent on whether OpenAI can restructure and remove a profit cap for investors.
In fact, according to Fortune, co-founder and CEO Sam Altman told employees at a company-wide meeting that OpenAI’s structure is likely to change next year, bringing it closer to a traditional for-profit business. OpenAI is currently structured so that its for-profit arm is controlled by a non-profit, which seems to frustrate investors.
“We remain focused on building AI that benefits everyone and as we’ve previously shared we’re working with our board to ensure that we’re best positioned to succeed in our mission,” OpenAI said in a statement. “The nonprofit is core to our mission and will continue to exist.”
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Lawyers representing Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX CEO and co-founder who was convicted of fraud and money laundering late last year, are seeking a new trial.
Following crypto exchange FTX’s collapse, Bankman-Fried was found guilty on all seven counts, then sentenced to 25 years in prison and ordered to pay $11 billion in forfeiture. He has been serving his sentence in Brooklyn.
Bloomberg reports that Bankman-Fried’s appeal focuses on the behavior of US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, alleging that Kaplan’s rulings were “not just erroneous but unbalanced” and that the judge “continually ridiculed Bankman-Fried during trial, repeatedly criticized his demeanor, and signaled his disbelief of Bankman-Fried’s testimony.”
The appeal also claims that Kaplan “repeatedly mocked defense counsel” while helping the government make its case, and that he “improperly prodded” jurors to reach a quick verdict.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers are seeking a new trial under a new judge. The U.S. attorney’s office that prosecuted the case said it does not plan to comment on the filing.
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Silicon Valley startup accelerator Y Combinator will expand the number of cohorts it runs each year from two to four starting in 2025, Bloomberg reported Thursday.
Y Combinator president Garry Tan told the site that approximately the same number of companies will go through YC each year, despite the change. This means each cohort will be about half the size of recent years. Tan added that having twice the cohorts means twice the demo days, giving investors more time to meet with startups.
The next fall program kicks off September 29, a few days after the summer cohort’s Demo Day on September 25 and 26.
TechCrunch has reached out to YC to confirm.
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