Large language models trained on vast datasets could speed genomics research, streamline clinical documentation, improve real-time diagnostics, support clinical decision-making, accelerate drug discovery, and even generate synthetic data to advance experiments.

But their promise to transform biomedical research often runs into a bottleneck: beyond the structured data healthcare relies on, these models struggle in edge cases like rare diseases and unusual conditions, where reliable, representative data is scarce.

New York-based Mantis Biotech claims it’s developing the solution to fill this data availability gap. The company’s platform integrates disparate sources of data to make synthetic datasets that can be used to build so-called “digital twins” of the human body: physics-based, predictive models of anatomy, physiology, and behavior.

The company is pitching these digital twins for use in data aggregation and analysis. These digital twins could be used for studying and testing new medical procedures, training surgical robots, and simulating and predicting medical issues or even patterns of behavior. For example, a sports team could predict the likelihood of a specific NFL player developing an Achilles heel injury based on their recent performance, training load, diet, and how long they’ve been active, Mantis’ founder and CEO Georgia Witchel explained to TechCrunch in a recent interview.

To build these twins, Mantis’ platform first takes data from a variety of sources such as textbooks, motion capture cameras, biometric sensors, training logs and medical imaging. Then, it uses an LLM-based system to route, validate, and synthesize the various data streams, and runs all that information through a physics engine to create high-fidelity renders of that dataset, which can then be used to train predictive models.

“We’re able to take all these disparate data sources and then turn them into predictive models for how people are going to perform. So anytime you want to predict how a human being is going to be performing, that is a really good use case for our technology,” Witchel said.

The physics engine layer is key here, Witchel told TechCrunch, because it helps the platform enhance the available information by grounding the generated synthetic data and realistically modeling the physics of anatomy.

“If I asked you to do hand-pose estimation for someone who is missing a finger, it would be really, really hard, because there are no publicly available datasets of labeled hand positions of someone who is missing a finger. We could generate that dataset really, really easily, because we just take our physics model and we say, remove finger X, regenerate model,” she said.

Since Mantis’ platform fills gaps in data sources, Witchel thinks there’s potential for it to be used widely across the biomedical industry, where information on procedures or patients can be difficult to access, is unstructured or siloed into various sources. She stressed edge cases or rare diseases, where data is hard to obtain since there are often ethical and regulatory constraints around including patients’ data in public datasets, or using it for training AI models.

“You know how when you see a three-year-old running around, and they have a Barbie, and they’re holding it by one leg and smashing it against a table? I want people to have that mindset with our digital twins,” she said. “I think that’s going to open up people to this idea that humans can be tested on when you’re using virtual humans. I feel currently, people operate with the exact opposite mindset, which totally makes sense, because people’s privacy should be respected. In fact, I don’t really think people’s data should be exploited at all, especially when you have these digital twins.”

For now, Mantis has seen success in professional sports, presumably because there is a need to model high-performing athletes. Witchel said one of the startup’s main clients is an NBA team.

“We create these digital representations of the athletes, where it basically shows here’s how this athlete has jumped, not just today, but for every single day in the past year, and here’s how their jumps are changing over time compared to the amount that they’re sleeping, or compared to how many times they lift their arms above their head,” she explained.

The startup recently raised $7.4 million in seed funding led by Decibel VC, with participation from Y Combinator, a few angel investors, and Liquid 2. The funding will be used for hiring, advertising, marketing and go-to-market functions.

The next step for Mantis, Witchel said, is to continue building out the tech, and eventually release the platform to the general public, targeting preventative healthcare. The company is also working to cater to pharmaceutical labs and researchers working on FDA trials, aiming to deliver insights into how patients are responding to treatments.

Apple has provided federal agents with the real identities of at least two customers who used one of the company’s privacy features designed to mask their email addresses from apps and websites.

“Hide My Email” is a feature that allows paying Apple iCloud+ customers to generate anonymous email addresses that forward messages to a person’s private email address. Apple says it does not read messages that are forwarded. But the court documents show that this email privacy feature will not prevent law enforcement from discovering who owns an anonymous iCloud address.

According to court records seen by TechCrunch, the FBI requested records from Apple earlier this month as part of an investigation into an email allegedly threatening Alexis Wilkins, the girlfriend of FBI director Kash Patel, whose relationship with Patel has been widely reported. 

“In response to a law enforcement request, Apple provided records indicating that [the Hide My Email address] is an anonymized email account associated with the Target Apple Account,” reads the affidavit for the search warrant, which was first reported by 404 Media (via Court Watch).

Apple provided the account holder’s full name and email address, as well as records for 134 anonymized email accounts created using Hide My Email.

TechCrunch has seen a second search warrant, in which Apple turned over information about another customer in response to a request from federal agents with Homeland Security Investigations, a unit within ICE. The search warrant sought records from Apple during an investigation into an alleged identity fraud scheme. An HSI agent, citing “records received from Apple” in January 2026, noted that the alleged fraudster had created several anonymized email addresses through Hide My Email across multiple Apple accounts.

Apple touts much of its iCloud service as end-to-end encrypted, meaning that nobody other than its customers can access their own data, not even Apple. But not all customer information is beyond law enforcement’s reach, including information Apple stores about its customers, such as their names, where they live, and their billing information, as well as unencrypted information, such as emails.

The ability for law enforcement to access this information also underscores the privacy limitations of emails; the vast majority of emails sent, even today, are not encrypted and contain plaintext information needed to route messages around the world.

As such, demand for end-to-end encrypted messaging apps, like Signal, has ballooned in popularity in an effort to protect private data from both surveillance and malicious hackers.

A spokesperson for Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

An old Macintosh SE motherboard was sitting in a workshop gathering dust when its owner had a change of heart. Flipping through some early 90s magazines and a book that This Does Not Compute had held onto for decades, he found himself reading about mail order Mac builds that hobbyists had been quietly assembling from catalog parts, earning the nickname Cat Macs for exactly that reason. They offered a way to get into Apple hardware without paying full retail, and the idea stuck with him. This time around he would do something similar, but with a 3D printer doing the heavy lifting.

A community designer named GutBomb had already created a compact case designed to fit the SE motherboard, broken into pieces manageable enough for most printers to handle while still fitting everything neatly inside. The timing worked out well, as a new Prusa Core One L printer arrived just when it was needed, with a bed large enough to print the main top and bottom sections in single runs of around ten hours each. Once assembled, the seams all but disappeared and the lines matched the curves and vents of the original Mac with surprising accuracy.

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Getting the color correct matters more than you might think. The idea was to replicate the exact beige of the first Macs, rather than the brilliant white or yellowed tone that can detract from a retro design. A unique provider provided exactly what was needed in the form of Retro Platinum PLA, and the printed surfaces were smooth with cleanly removed supports. Heat set inserts were installed with a soldering iron to give firm threaded points for the screws, keeping everything fastened together without placing any strain on the plastic.

A compact adapter board from Joe’s Computer Museum, built around a Raspberry Pi Pico, handled both power and video in one unit, taking a standard ATX supply and converting the board’s video output to a clean VGA signal without eating up too much internal space. An original floppy drive and a Blue Scuzzy SD card emulator took care of storage, keeping the experience feeling authentic. Everything was cabled neatly behind a custom rear panel with ports for power, video, and the classic reset switch sitting right where you would expect them.

A simple 36-watt adapter provided all of the power required, and the system booted directly into System 7.0.1 after a brief change to the SD card image. Four megabytes of RAM was more than enough to run old games like Shufflepuck Cafe on a 15-inch LCD monitor, and it worked flawlessly. The video output was a pristine 1024 by 768 resolution, double the original Mac’s native output, which kept the interface clear and readable. The beige of the printed shell and the white of the monitor blended in nicely without clashing, which was a relief given how important color balance is on a retro build.

Microsoft has confirmed exactly when this year’s Xbox Games Showcase will take place. It will air at the usual time, 1PM ET on the Sunday (June 7) of Summer Game Fest weekend. In recent years, the company has offered a deeper dive into one particular game straight after the showcase, and it’s sticking to that format this time with a closer look at Gears of War: E-Day.

The showcase and Gears of War: E-Day Direct will be available in more than 40 languages, including American Sign Language and British Sign Language. A stream with English audio descriptions will be available as well. You can watch it on several of Xbox’s various social channels, including YouTube, Twitch and Facebook.

This is typically Xbox’s biggest showcase of the year. It will be the first Xbox Games Showcase with Asha Sharma at the helm of Microsoft’s gaming division. Perhaps we’ll hear some more details on the next Xbox (aka Project Helix), which is confirmed to be a system that will run PC games — much like the upcoming Steam Machine.

Along with more details about a brand-new Gears of War game, it seems likely that we’ll learn the release date for Fable during the Xbox Games Showcase. That game is slated to arrive this fall.

We don’t yet have exact release dates for Minecraft Dungeons 2 or Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the first Halo game’s campaign. Those are scheduled to debut this year as well, so they seem like prime candidates for showcase appearances. Microsoft also has Clockwork Revolution, State of Decay 3, OD (from Kojima Productions) and something new from Toys for Bob in the hopper.

In addition, Microsoft is promising the return of Xbox FanFest, an in-person fan event, to help mark the brand’s 25th anniversary. Sharma confirmed this will take place in Los Angeles, where all of the Summer Game Fest events are going down. “This year’s experience will include a look back at the last 25 years, alongside a forward view of what’s next,” according to an Xbox Wire blog post.

Uber is buying Berlin-based startup Blacklane, which provides on-demand, black-car chauffeur services, as the ride-hail giant expands deeper into luxury and executive travel services.

It’s a notable exit for Blacklane, which was founded in 2011 and has raised more than $100 million to date from rental car company Sixt, Mercedes-Benz, and ALFAHIM, a conglomerate in the UAE.

Uber said the acquisition still needs regulatory approvals, but expects it to close by the end of this year. The two companies didn’t disclose financial terms of the deal.

The acquisition comes just a few weeks after Uber announced the launch of Uber Elite, which combines a chauffeur service with a number of luxury offerings like in-vehicle amenities, airport meet-and-greets, and 24/7 phone support. Uber Elite is starting small, in just Los Angeles and San Francisco, with New York City on the horizon. Blacklane operates in major cities across Europe, the Middle East, Asia, South America, and North America.

“Out of 10 films, 9.5 will fail”

Making a movie in Singapore sounds glamorous—until you look at the numbers.

Kelvin Tan, better known as Mayiduo, learned this the hard way. In 2023, the 34-year-old businessman and media company founder decided to pursue a childhood dream: making a feature film.

Two years, S$1 million, and countless headaches later, his comedy movie Follow Aunty La premiered in Jun 2025 and was nominated for Best Feature Film at the Golden Petal Award 金海燕奖.

It broke even. That alone makes it an outlier in Singapore.

“Out of 10 films, 9.5 will fail,” Kelvin told us matter-of-factly. “The moment your film doesn’t lose money, it’s considered a success.”

We spoke with the filmmaker about the brutal economics of Singapore’s film industry, why most movies lose money, and how he managed to break even on his first feature film without a single government grant.

From influencer to filmmaker

Kelvin’s path into film wasn’t conventional.

Before 2023, he was running multiple businesses—a T-shirt printing company, an interior design firm, and Mandarin media company Double Up Media, where he built an audience as an influencer through short-form comedy skits.

But his love for movies started long before his business ventures. From a young age, he was “very inspired” by Hong Kong filmmaker Stephen Chow and, closer to home, by Jack Neo.

When I was younger, watching their films, I would think, actually, this is something I can do.

Kelvin’s breakthrough into the film industry came through a friend at mm2 Entertainment who managed to schedule a meeting with founder Melvin Ang.

The pitch landed. Melvin liked Kelvin’s vision, and by end-2023, Double Up Media was co-producing Follow Aunty La with mm2.

The film went through at least eight script revisions

Kelvin drew the idea for Follow Aunty La from the life of Double Up co-founder Charlene Huang, an influencer who started comedy content at 35 and weathered vicious online attacks.

He not only directed the film but also appears in a supporting role as a bad-tempered director of photography who helps Charlene’s protagonist become a successful influencer.

The story originally centred on an auntie chasing celebrity status, but mm2’s team advised a pivot.

They told me, in this age and time, younger people don’t want to be mingren (名人)—they want to be influencers.

The plot was reworked into an older woman pursuing Internet fame, resulting in a final runtime of two hours and eight minutes.

Kelvin said the film also pushed creative boundaries for Singapore cinema. Follow Aunty La is reportedly the first local feature with a cast composed entirely of influencers, and it frequently breaks the fourth wall—a storytelling choice he claims is rarely seen in traditional productions.

His background in social media made the film relatable, but Kelvin acknowledged that without oversight, it could have felt more like a stretched-out TikTok.

“If I didn’t have supervision, it might just feel like a very long TikTok video,” he said. “But with mm2’s experience and what we Double Up have, we put together something different from our predecessors.”

In the end, the film endured at least eight script revisions in mm2’s “writer’s room”—a process where producers, executives, and the director dissect every scene, every dialogue line, every character motivation.

Cold calls, clients, and conviction

Singapore’s film ecosystem is heavily tied to government funding. Grants can go up to S$300K under IMDA’s Long-Form Content Grant—but that’s still less than a third of a typical film budget.

Most local films cost around S$1 million to produce, though ultra-tight productions can squeeze by at S$400,000.

Kelvin’s initial plan was to shoot three short films and submit them to festivals to qualify for the scheme, hoping to ease some of the financial burden. Unfortunately, none of the films received nominations.

He could have shelved the project. But Kelvin didn’t because he truly believed in his work—so he took a different route: he bypassed the system entirely. Instead of chasing grants, he chased sponsors, making multiple cold calls to his network.

Out of the S$1M budget, S$700,000 came from brand sponsorships, and S$300K came from private investors.

These weren’t random sponsors. They were existing clients from his content business—brands already familiar with his ability to drive engagement. From independent watch dealer Watch Exchange to robot vacuum brand Dreame, they appear subtly throughout Follow Aunty La, integrated into props, home settings, and outdoor locations.

His pitch was simple: “This is brand elevation, not ROI”. Kelvin explained that movie sponsorships don’t generate instant returns, but position your brand alongside a cultural moment. Moreover, Kelvin offered a safety net no traditional director could match—if the film flopped, he’d create content to make up the value.

Most of these sponsors are online businesses. They’ve seen results from our campaigns. I told them, worst comes to worst, I can still produce content.

The hidden costs that can kill productions

Every single cent matters in movie-making.

Kelvin shared that a film crew covering vehicles, manpower, equipment, food, transport, and locations can burn through about S$30,000 a day.

After nearly a year of planning, filming took just 21 days in Nov 2024. That’s S$630,000 gone before post-production even begins. Factor in cast salaries, editing, colour grading, sound design, VFX, and mastering, and the budget quickly climbs to S$1 million.

If there’s one thing that terrifies Singapore filmmakers, it’s overtime.

Production days typically run 10–12 hours, but delays from bad weather to missed lines can easily push shoots beyond schedule. That’s when costs spike, with overtime pay kicking in at 1.5x rates.

“Ten days of overrun and your budget bursts,” Kelvin said. Thankfully, his production only overran for two days, yet it’s still a significant amount.

Then there’s the period of uncertainty that directors will have to deal with.

From concept to cinema release, Follow Aunty La took over two years—a standard timeline in Singapore’s film industry. But that also means capital is tied up the entire time, with no guaranteed returns.

Making a movie is a very risky business model. It’s a very long process, and your returns are always a big question mark.

For a businessman used to monthly campaign turnovers, the wait was brutal.

“Most of my time was spent convincing people,” he admitted. Without formal film training, Kelvin spent months proving he wasn’t just “some guy who got lucky” to his experienced production team, investors and sponsors.

You can make a great film and still never get it screened

Even after making a film, monetisation isn’t straightforward. Kelvin pointed out a harsh reality: you can make a great film and still never get it screened.

Distribution is key. You must have a distributor before you start. Otherwise, you’re just gambling.

This is where mm2, his co-producing partner, became a key collaborator to Kelvin’s movie. Other than providing film production expertise, the company had strong relationships with cinema chains Golden Village, Shaw Theatres, Cathay Cineplexes and Eaglewings Cinematics.

Without those connections, Follow Aunty La would have been another indie film with no screens.

To recover a S$1 million budget, a film typically needs to generate around S$3 million at the box office. Cinemas and distributors take their cut, leaving producers with roughly a third of ticket sales, explained Kelvin.

That’s why box office alone isn’t enough.

Filmmakers today also rely on secondary revenue streams, from streaming platforms to airline entertainment systems. But these come with their own barriers.

Kelvin managed to secure deals with platforms like KrisWorld and Apple TV, but Netflix turned him down. “Market too small,” they said.

It’s a harsh reality: despite a decent box office showing, Singapore films often struggle to land major streaming deals, as platforms prioritise content from larger markets like the US, UK, and Korea.

In the end, Follow Aunty La brought in about S$500,000 in Singapore and S$250,000 in Malaysia, alongside smaller platform deals—just enough to break even.

Part of the challenge also comes down to local constraints.

As a director, Kelvin had to balance storytelling with regulatory requirements, including classification by IMDA. Ratings play a critical role—moving from PG13 to NC16 can significantly shrink your potential audience in a small market like Singapore.

That influenced how he positioned the film.

Kelvin aimed to appeal to both younger viewers, who already follow him online, and older audiences, maximising reach in an already limited market. As a result, he targeted a PG13 rating to strike the right balance between accessibility and audience size.

“Film is still a business”

Reflecting on the experience, Kelvin admits that creating short-form content is a faster way to make money than putting out a feature film.

The filmmaking process is gruelling, financial returns are uncertain, and the local industry is contracting—he predicts a decline unless Singapore filmmakers pivot.

He’s also candid about the shifting landscape: public theatres are no longer the default audience, personal streaming at home is taking over, and generative AI is changing how stories are made.

Yet, he doesn’t want to discourage young filmmakers from entering the scene.

“Film is still a business,” he insists. “A lot of great directors fail because they don’t understand the economics.” While passion is crucial, understanding the finances of a film is equally important for a film to succeed. 

With the success of his film, Kelvin hopes to inspire more Singaporean filmmakers to carve a space locally and internationally. 

Looking ahead, he’s looking to continue making short-form content and also films that make people laugh. He’s currently acting in other productions—”3 Good Guys” and “Kongtao”—films where content creators increasingly populate Singapore film casts. 

It’s a significant shift and rejuvenation to Singapore films as influencers bring loyal audiences, reducing marketing costs that traditionally sink local films.

Kelvin is also exploring regional co-productions, starting with Taiwan first, where budgets run slightly larger at around S$2 million, and the market is larger. This could potentially open doors to audiences and collaborations with China, where budgets are much more lenient and can extend to as large as US$25 million budgets.

The economics may be brutal, but as Kelvin proved, they’re not impossible—if you know which rules to bend.

• Read other articles we’ve written on Singaporean businesses here.

Ehsan Noroozinejad of Western Sydney University explores how Australia is leading the charge in creating data centres with a future focus.

On 23 March, the Australian federal government released new expectations for data centres and AI infrastructure.

The message is simple: if companies want faster federal approvals, they must show their projects are in Australia’s national interest, support the clean energy shift, use water responsibly, create local jobs and build local capability.

The government states it will prioritise projects that line up with those goals. Assistant Minister for Science, Technology and the Digital Economy Andrew Charlton said, “We will do what is necessary to ensure the growth of AI is sustainable and underpinned by a strong social licence”. 

This is a big shift. It means data centres in Australia are no longer being treated as just another property or tech investment. They’re now being treated as major infrastructure, with real effects on the power grid, water systems, land use and local communities.

What is a data centre again?

Data centres are large buildings packed with computing equipment that stores, processes and moves data. These sites help run cloud services, video calls, online banking, research and the growing wave of AI tools.

The International Energy Agency says a typical AI-focused data centre can use as much electricity as 100,000 households. The largest ones under construction today could consume 20 times as much.

While Australia already has more than 250 data centres, that number is set to grow as the AI boom continues. These facilities help power modern life and they can bring jobs, investment and digital capability.

But essential infrastructure still needs public trust. And that trust will depend on whether these facilities pay their own way, or whether nearby communities end up carrying the hidden costs through more pressure on electricity, water and scarce urban land.

Electricity is the first big issue

A report prepared for the Australian Energy Market Operator found data centres in Sydney already use about 4pc of New South Wales’s grid-supplied electricity. By 2030, that could rise to 11pc.

Nationally, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation says data centres could account for up to 11pc of Australia’s total electricity use by 2035.

The same report states Australia would need another 3.2GW of renewable electricity generation and 1.9GW of battery storage by 2035 to contain price rises and avoid extra emissions.

That doesn’t mean data centres are automatically bad for the energy system. In fact, they could help fund new renewable energy, storage and grid upgrades if the rules around that are right. But that is the key point: if the rules are right and the government enforces them.

Water is the second issue

Not all data centres use the same amount, because water demand depends heavily on their cooling systems and what water source they use. But water can no longer be treated as a side issue.

A Water Services Association of Australia report on data centre water use in Australia says estimates for Sydney range from about 1.9pc of water supply by 2030, to around 15 to 20pc by 2035.

The water question is not just local. Australia’s water utilities say current data-centre use is still low, but future centres are likely to be much larger, with developers already seeking 5m to 40m litres a day. One industry estimate puts current use at less than 0.1pc of Australia’s total water, but future demand will depend on cooling choices and water source.

Hence the new federal expectations: data centres must use water sustainably, work early with utilities and communities, use non-potable water where possible, pay their share of infrastructure costs, and report water use transparently.

Then there is land

Many data centres are drawn to major cities because they need strong power, fibre links, water, site access and, in some cases, proximity to end users. But that also means they often compete for industrial land

In New South Wales, industrial land is already under pressure and is needed for logistics, urban services, jobs close to home and the construction supply chains that help deliver housing.

In January, NSW set up a parliamentary inquiry into data centres. It’s looking at electricity demand, grid impacts, water use, drought risk, noise, heat, traffic, land-use conflicts and whether data centres’ resource demands are impinging on new housing supply.

It is also asking who gets the benefits, who carries the costs and how transparent the approval process really is. In other words, NSW is already treating data centres as a public interest issue. Other states may need to follow, because federal expectations alone cannot resolve state planning and land-use conflicts.

What can we expect from the new federal policy?

At best, the new expectations should end the idea that any data centre is a good data centre simply because it brings private investment.

If the government adheres to its own rules, new data centre projects should bring their own clean power or help fund it. They should use water efficiently and, where possible, use recycled or non-drinking water. They should create real local jobs and skills. And they should be open about their energy, water and environmental performance.

The way forward is not to block data centres – Australia will need more of them. The answer is to be much more selective about where they go, how they are powered, how they are cooled and what they give back.

If they are essential infrastructure, they should meet the same test as any other big piece of infrastructure: serve the public, not just the market.

Ehsan Noroozinejad

Ehsan Noroozinejad is a senior researcher and sustainable future lead at the Urban Transformations Research Centre, for Western Sydney University. He specialises in smart and resilient construction and also holds a position at UBC Smart Structures in Canada. As the director of the Resilient Structures Research Group, Dr. Noroozinejad has spearheaded groundbreaking advancements in the field of structural engineering alongside an esteemed team of international researchers. His contributions have been recognised via numerous national and international awards and commendations. 

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