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Showing posts from February, 2024

Automation Leverage in Turnaround Strategy

Automation Leverage in Turnaround Strategy Turnaround work is often described as a crisis discipline: reduce costs, preserve cash, stabilize operations and buy time. Those moves matter, but they are not enough. A durable turnaround also needs leverage: better systems, clearer information flows and repeatable execution. For Livio Andrea Acerbo , AI automation is useful in turnaround strategy when it improves the operating rhythm of a company. The point is not to add tools. The point is to remove friction from decisions that must happen every week. From cost control to operating clarity Cost control can stop the bleeding, but operating clarity creates the next phase. Teams need to know which products are profitable, which customers deserve attention, where working capital is trapped and which workflows create avoidable delay. Automation helps when it turns scattered data into a management cadence. Dashboards, exception reports, document summaries, pipeline reviews and cash visibi...

Sega appoints ex-Disney exec as head of transmedia

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Sega announced it has appointed Justin Scarpone, former executive at Disney and Scopely, as head of its transmedia efforts. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

GamerSafer acquires Minecraft-focused Minehut server community

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GamerSafer has acquired the Minehut server from SuperLeague, taking over a popular Minecraft server community. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A Neuromancer TV series is coming to Apple TV+

Apple TV+ has announced it's adapting William Gibson's Neuromancer into a 10-episode series. The novel debuted in 1984 and is largely thought to mark the birth of cyberpunk, which includes creations like The Matrix and Robocop. In fact, it's crazy that it has taken four decades for it to get the Hollywood treatment.  Neuromancer follows "a damaged, top-rung super-hacker named Case who is thrust into a web of digital espionage and high stakes crime with his partner Molly, a razor-girl assassin with mirrored eyes aiming to pull a heist on a corporate dynasty with untold secrets," a release states. The story is being brought to the small screen by Graham Roland (Dark Winds, Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan) and JD Dillard (Devotion, Sweetheart), who will act as showrunner and director, respectively. Skydance Television and Anonymous Content will co-produce it with support from Drake's DreamCrew Entertainment. Production on Neuromancer has yet to start, so details like ...

Silence Laboratories, a cryptographic security startup, secures funding

Silence Laboratories, a startup that builds infrastructure using multiparty computation (MPC) to help enterprises keep data private and safe, said it has raised a $4.1 million funding round. Pi Ventures and Kira Studio co-led the recent funding, which brings its total raised to $6 million, along with angel investors. The startup will use the funding to scale © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Popular video doorbells can be easily hijacked, researchers find

Several internet-connected doorbell cameras have a security flaw that allows hackers to take over the camera by just holding down a button, among other issues, according to research by Consumer Reports. On Thursday, the non-profit Consumer Reports published research that detailed four security and privacy flaws in cameras made by EKEN, a company based in © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Nvidia, Hugging Face and ServiceNow release new StarCoder2 LLMs for code generation

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While it remains to be seen how well StarCoder2 models perform in different coding scenarios, the companies did note that the performance of the smallest 3B model alone matched that of the original 15B StarCoder LLM. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The best alternatives to Spotify for listening to music

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Image: Getty Images When this article was originally written in February 2022, the big Spotify controversy was that artists were abandoning the audio service in protest of the company’s contract with podcaster Joe Rogan, and some subscribers were deciding to follow the musicians’ example. More recently, the issue that has users irritated is the continued lack of HiFi and the layoffs that have made music discovery even harder. Although Spotify is probably the best-known music service, there are quite a few alternatives available for good music listening. If you’re someone who has decided to explore what music services are out there, here’s a quick rundown of some of the possibilities. But in the interest of being complete, we will start with Spotify itself. ... Continue reading… Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

EA is laying off over 650 employees

Video game company Electronic Arts will lay off 5 precent of its workforce according to a report it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday. More than 650 EA employees will lose their jobs as a result of the move, part of a broader restricting that will see the company cutting back on office space and ending work on some video games. EA’s cuts are the latest in a long line of layoffs that have rocked the video game industry since last year. In 2023, more than 10,500 video game workers lost their jobs, and more than 6,000 people in the industry were cut in January 2024 alone. The video game companies that have laid off workers so far include Microsoft, Riot Games, and Unity among many others. On Tuesday, Sony announced that it was laying off 900 people from its PlayStation division, roughly 8 percent of its headcount. In a memo sent to EA employees, CEO Andrew Wilson wrote that the company is “streamlining our company operations to deliver deeper, more connected e...

Remedy takes Control back from 505 Games for €17M

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Remedy Entertainment has bought back the rights for Control and its sequels from 505 Games, including spinoff Condor. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Nintendo lawsuit accuses Switch emulator creators of ‘piracy at a colossal scale’

Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against the creators of a popular Switch emulator called Yuzu, which gives users a way to play games developed for the platform on their PCs and Android devices. In the lawsuit shared by Game File's Stephen Totilo, the company argued that Yuzu violates the anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).  Nintendo explained that it protects its games with encryption and other security features meant to prevent people from playing pirated copies. Yuzu has the capability to defeat those security measures and to decrypt Nintendo games. "[W]ithout Yuzu's decryption of Nintendo's encryption, unauthorized copies of games could not be played on PCs or Android devices," the company wrote in its complaint.  It's illegal to "circumvent technological measures put into place by copyright owners to protect against unlawful access to and copying of copyrighted works" under the DMCA, Nin...

MWC 2024: Nothing enters the budget range with Phone (2a)

Nothing isn’t one to be quiet about new releases. The London-based phone company’s media push largely relies on trickling out information about devices bit by bit. It’s been a solid strategy thus far (if a bit annoying as someone who covers this world), as so many of its announcements have been first-gen products, each generating © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Amazon accused of using AI to ‘replicate the voices’ of actors in Road House remake

Amazon is being sued by the writer of the original 1989 Patrick Swayze version of the film Road House over alleged copyright infringement in the movie's remake, The Los Angeles Times has reported. Screenwriter R. Lance Hill accuses Amazon and MGM Studios of using AI to clone actors' voices in the new production in order to finish it before the copyright expired.  Hill said he filed a petition with the US Copyright Office in November 2021 to reclaim the rights to his original screenplay, which forms the basis of the new film. At that point, the rights were owned by Amazon Studios, as part of its acquisition of MGM, but were set to expire in November 2023. Hill alleges that once that happened, the rights would revert back to him.  According to the lawsuit, Amazon Studios rushed ahead with the project anyway in order to finish it before the copyright deadline. Since it was stymied by the actor's strike, Hill alleges Amazon used AI to “replicate the voices” of the actors who wo...

Thrasio, once king of e-commerce aggregation, files for Ch.11

Thrasio, the U.S. start-up that raised billions of dollars and popularized the concept of e-commerce aggregation — buying up and restructuring dozens of smaller brands and third parties selling on marketplaces like Amazon in a bid for better economies of scale — has commenced a restructuring of its own. The company has filed for Chapter © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

VCs look to AI data centers, local LLMs, and domain models for growth

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Pitchbook's analysis shows AI data centers, local large language models (LLMs) and domain-specific foundation models are three of the many growth catalysts VCs need to keep their firms growing and delivering returns.  Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

This is what the Nothing Phone 2(a) looks like

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Nothing's drip feed of specs and line drawings gets us to this point. At MWC 2024, the company finally revealed its next phone in the flesh during its MWC soiree. Sadly, it was in a glass box — which seems to be the not-great trend of this year's Mobile World Congress.  But, for a phone seemingly pitched as its cheapest device yet, it looks good. Cool, even. The Nothing design DNA is fully there, with an admittedly scaled-back version of its light-up Glyphs on the rear. The phone will seemingly mark the return of a centralized camera unit, gasp! What's next, a headphone socket? Nothing Journalists attending the event managed to capture every angle of the new phone, rumored to ring in cheaper than the Nothing Phone 2, which launched at a reasonable $599. (The original Phone 1 cost $299 in the US under a "Beta Membership" program.) Earlier rumors peg the European price around €400 ($430), with savings from using a cheaper MediaTek processor. Courtesy of Tom's ...

Confirmed: Photoroom, the AI image editor, raised $43M at a $500M valuation

Photoroom, the AI-based photo editing app out of Paris that has been growing like a weed targeting people doing business online while also attracting a lot of casual users to boot, has confirmed that it’s closed its latest funding round: $43 million at a $500 million valuation, according to CEO and co-founder Matthieu Rouif, who © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Humane reveals first international market for the Ai Pin, partnering with South Korea’s SK Telecom

Hyped AI startup Humane has announced plans for its first international market, inking a deal with South Korean carrier SK Telecom. The announcement comes shortly after the San Francisco-based company revealed it was pushing back the shipping date of its Ai Pin device from March to mid-April in its domestic U.S. market. Founded in 2017 by © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The Pentagon used Project Maven-developed AI to identify air strike targets

The US military has ramped up its use of artificial intelligence tools after the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, based on a new report by Bloomberg. Schuyler Moore, US Central Command's chief technology officer, told the news organization that machine learning algorithms helped the Pentagon identify targets for more than 85 air strikes in the Middle East this month.  US bombers and fighter aircraft carried out those air strikes against seven facilities in Iraq and Syria on February 2, fully destroying or at least damaging rockets, missiles, drone storage facilities and militia operations centers. The Pentagon had also used AI systems to find rocket launchers in Yemen and surface combatants in the Red Sea, which it had then destroyed through multiple air strikes in the same month. The machine learning algorithms used to narrow down targets were developed under Project Maven, Google's now-defunct partnership the Pentagon. To be precise, the project entailed the use of Google...

Former Twitter engineers are building Particle, an AI-powered news reader

A team led by former Twitter engineers is rethinking how AI can be used to help people process news and information. Particle.news, which entered into private beta over the weekend, is a new startup offering a personalized, “multi-perspective” news reading experience that not only leverages AI to summarize the news, but aims to do so © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Geothermal startup Fervo Energy is tapping fresh $221M round, filing reveals

The company draws heavily on drilling techniques pioneered by the oil and gas industry. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Doublepoint launches its WowMouse gesture-touch control app for Pixel Watch 2

Admittedly Apple iWatch uses have had it since October last year, but as of today at Mobile World Congress, the Doublepoint startup has launched the updated version of its popular WowMouse gesture-touch control app for Android smartwatches. Launched at CES in January, the free app now supports Google’s Pixel Watch 2, having already garnered around © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Mistral partners with Microsoft, announces new large AI model with chat app

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In MMLU tests, Mistral Large had an accuracy of 81.2%, sitting behind GPT-4’s, but doing much better than Llama 2 70B and Gemini Pro 1.0. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google hopeful of fix for Gemini’s historical image diversity issue within weeks

Google is hopeful it will soon be able to ‘unpause’ the ability of its multimodal generative AI tool, Gemini, to depict people, per DeepMind founder, Demis Hassabis. The capability to respond to prompts for images of humans should be back online in the “next few weeks”, he said today. Google suspended the Gemini capability last © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Truecaller brings call recording and transcription to India

Caller identity company Truecaller has launched its call recording and transcription for paid users in India, the company’s biggest market. The recording feature will be available to premium users on both Android and iOS, with support for English and Hindi transcriptions. In June 2023, the company introduced call recording for premium users in the U.S., © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The Gentlemen” Series – Are You Ready for the Ride?

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Dive into the Guy Ritchie-inspired world of crime, humor, and chaos. This "The Gentlemen" breakdown has it all! #TheGentlemen, #GuyRitchie, #Netflix, #CrimeDrama, #BritishGrit, #MustWatch, #Bingeable, #Stylish, #Suspense, #Unpredictable Remember, if you want to stay updated with the latest trends, news, and tech reviews, don’t forget to like and subscribe to Greenground! Follow up on our website https://www.greenground.it or follow up on our social #fyp, #foryou, #love, #explorepage, #trending, #reviews, #news #YouTube: https://youtube.com/@LivioAcerbo #TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@greengroundit #Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greengroundit/ #X(Twitter): https://x.com/greengroundit #Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lacer2k/ #Podcast: https://anchor.fm/livioacerbo #Medium: https://medium.com/@livioandreaacerbo/ #Telegram: https://t.me/greengrounditnews #Reddit: https://reddit.com/r/greengroundnews #Odysee: https://odysee.com/@livioacerbo:c #Rumble: https://rumble.c...

Apple’s wearable ideas include smart glasses and cameras in your ears

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Illustration: The Verge Apple’s future roadmap for wearables may include AI-powered smart glasses, as well as AirPods with cameras, according to Mark Gurman in today’s Power On newsletter for Bloomberg. Both concepts are in the exploratory phase inside Apple, representing more of a look at the company’s future plans than discreet products. The smart glasses would be angled as AirPods stand-ins, he says, just with more sensors, AI features, and longer-lasting batteries. But even though they’d serve as a cheaper head-worn gadget than the Vision Pro, they wouldn’t be the AR face computer with high-quality transparent displays that Apple is trying to get to. Gurman writes that these glasses would instead be a step in that direction that’s more comparable to Meta... Continue reading… Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Amba Kak creates policy recommendations to address AI concerns

As a part of a multi-part series, TechCrunch is highlighting women innovators — from academics to policymakers — in the field of AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The ultra-complex card game that will take over your weekend

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge Hi, friends! Welcome to Installer No. 27, your guide to the best and Verge-iest stuff in the world. (If you’re new here, hello, you’re awesome, and also, you can read all the old editions at the Installer homepage. Oh, and send me some recommendations! The more the merrier!) This week, I’ve been playing Assassin’s Creed Nexus on the Quest 3, reading about obsessive ramen makers and Noah Kahan’s journey to TikTok superstardom, finally watching Dune so I can be ready to see the sequel, also finally watching Patriot, and trying desperately to learn to make crispy Brussels sprouts. I also have for you a mega-viral new camera, a better way to manage your smart home, a new book about Twitter, and a whole bunch of awesome games to play this... Continue reading… Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Stellantis CEO dishes on Waymo, Rivian cuts staff and the great EV softening continues

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares and I covered © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The latest ‘Woj bomb’ was just a scam NFT tweet from a hacked account

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The fake NBA Top Shot tweet. | Image: X / @wojespn People who still use NBA Top Shot were the primary targets of a scam tweet posted to ESPN reporter Adrian Wojnarowski’s account on X Saturday evening at about 6:30PM ET. The tweet referred to NBA Top Shot as a “popular” NFT platform, despite the fact that current activity levels are a tiny fraction of what we saw during its peak, and falsely claimed a “free NFT pack is available to all customers.” The tweet linked visitors to a scam version of the NBA Top Shot website (the link went to a .org address instead of the official site’s .com URL) that could attempt to drain assets from people who give it access to their crypto wallets. About a half hour later, the official Top Shot account posted, saying, “There is NO Free Airdrop happening on NBA Top Shot at this time, Please be careful and always double check links.” There is NO Free Airdrop happening on NBA Top Shot at this timePlease be careful and always double check lin...

Byju’s founder, ousted by shareholders, says rumors of his firing ‘greatly exaggerated’

Byju Raveendran, the founder of eponymous edtech group Byju’s, told employees on Saturday that he continues to remain the chief executive of the startup and that rumors of his firing have been “greatly exaggerated,” a day after a shareholder group voted to remove him at an emergency general meeting. In a 758-word letter, content of © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google explains why Gemini’s image generation feature overcorrected for diversity

After promising to fix Gemini's image generation feature and then pausing it altogether, Google has published a blog post offering an explanation for why its technology overcorrected for diversity. Prabhakar Raghavan, the company's Senior Vice President for Knowledge & Information, explained that Google's efforts to ensure that the chatbot would generate images showing a wide range of people "failed to account for cases that should clearly not show a range." Further, its AI model grew to become "way more cautious" over time and refused to answer prompts that weren't inherently offensive. "These two things led the model to overcompensate in some cases, and be over-conservative in others, leading to images that were embarrassing and wrong," Raghavan wrote. Google made sure that Gemini's image generation couldn't create violent or sexually explicit images of real persons and that the photos it whips up would feature people of vario...

How to find opportunities in the kids game market | Nick Button-Brown interview

The game business is tough, but Nick Button-Brown, chairman of Outright Games, feels like things are better in the market for kids games. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

AWS will add Mistral open source AI models to Amazon Bedrock

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It makes total sense for AWS to offer a wide range of models, and the move follows its cloud competitor Microsoft adding Meta's open-source Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

As Techstars retools, some former staffers say it lost focus on what made it successful

Well-known accelerator group Techstars announced a slew of changes to its operations this week, including the shuttering of some of its city-based programs.  Criticism from former members of its decisions lit social media channels who argued that the famed startup accelerator has lost focus on the very thing that historically made it so successful. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Virtual Staging AI helps Realtors digitally furnish rooms within seconds

House staging is a significant part of the real estate industry, and while Realtors have traditionally staged houses physically before posting a listing, it’s an expensive and time-consuming process. A startup called Virtual Staging AI is making it possible for Realtors to virtually stage a house with the help of generative AI. Virtual Staging AI, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Reddit cites r/WallStreetBets as a risk factor in its IPO filing

As Reddit finally files to go public, the company wrote in its S-1 filing that “meme stock” schemes on r/WallStreetBets could pose a risk to investors. The subreddit r/WallStreetBets, a community of retail traders with 15 million members, describes itself as being “like 4chan found a Bloomberg Terminal.” It’s most well known for coordinating a © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

UnitedHealth says Change Healthcare hacked by nation state, as pharmacy outages drag on

U.S. health insurance giant UnitedHealth Group said Thursday in a filing with government regulators that its subsidiary Change Healthcare was compromised likely by government-backed hackers. In a filing Thursday, UHG blamed the ongoing cybersecurity incident affecting Change Healthcare on suspected nation state hackers but said it had no timeframe for when its systems would be © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Armenia’s 10web brings AI website-building to WordPress

Generative AI has done an impressive job in improving productivity in a wide range of areas, including website building. There’s no lack of tools that now allow one to generate web designs by simply describing what they want in prompts, including established player Wix and bootstrapped startups like Relume. 10web, a company based out of © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Riot’s Project L fighting game is officially titled 2XKO

It's been a big few months for fighting games between the likes of Mortal Kombat 1, Street Fighter 6 and Tekken 8 all popping up. There's another would-be major player sitting in the wings though, as Riot is preparing to enter the fray. The publisher has provided an update on Project L, the long-awaited League of Legends spin-off it announced in 2019. The fighting game now has an official name: 2XKO. Let's be honest, that's a real stinker of a name, It's isn't exactly going to roll off the tongue. Some of those commenting on a YouTube video in which Riot made the announcement suggested that "Double KO" would have been better. It's hard to disagree. The name stems from the format of 2XKO. It's a 2 vs. 2 tag-based fighting game, borrowing an idea popularized by the Marvel vs. Capcom series. You can play solo or, in a nice touch, recruit a friend as your tag partner and battle another duo. Riot also says 2XKO will have streamlined controls and mec...

Scientists develop ‘nanosphere’ paint that could reduce planes’ carbon dioxide emissions

Paint might not seem like the heaviest component to consider when building a large device like an airplane, but its mass can add up. Now, a new and lightweight substance could provide a welcome substitute: Two material scientists from Kobe University, Fujii Minoru and Sugimoto Hiroshi, have discovered nanospheres that are near-invisible silicone crystals. The particles can reflect light thanks to very large and efficient scattering, research published in the journal of ACS Applied Nano Matter details. The result could mean covering a surface in vibrant color while only adding 10 percent of the weight that paint would bring, Fast Company reports. This reduction could have a tremendous impact on factors such as cost and carbon dioxide produced. Simply put, a plane must use more fuel as its weight goes up, thus directly increasing the amount of money airlines spend (and then charge customers), along with the quantity of fuel burned as carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Minoru and Hiroshi...

Framework’s new sub-$500 modular laptop has no RAM, storage or OS

Framework is all about modular, upgradable laptops and now the company is offering people a more-cost effective entry point. It has dropped the price of its B-stock Factory Seconds systems (which are built with excess parts and new components). As such, it's now offering a Framework Laptop 13 barebones configuration for under $500 for the very first time. The 13-inch machine comes with an 11th-gen Intel Core i7 processor with Iris Xe graphics. So the CPU should be sufficient for most basic tasks and some moderate gaming. Here's the catch: Frameworks' barebones laptops don't include RAM, storage, Wi-Fi connectivity, power adaptor or even an operating system. Tinkerers (i.e. folks who likely would be most interested in playing around with a Framework system) are likely to have some spare parts kicking around anyway. You can buy whatever other components you might need from the Framework Marketplace. To that end, Framework says it's selling refurbished DDR4 memory at ...

Hellohive is tackling hiring discrimination as more equitable hiring companies emerge

Hellohive announced on Thursday a $3.4 million Series A round to help combat discrimination during the hiring process. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Reddit files to go public — at last

Social media giant Reddit filed to go public today. Its long-awaited S-1 filing will see it approach the public markets potentially at the head of a long column of richly valued technology startups and private companies that need to find an exit this year. The timing of Reddit’s IPO is not a surprise. The company’s got © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Your older S23 phone will get Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite in late March

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Samsung said Wednesday that the Galaxy S24’s AI features will arrive on last year’s phones (including foldables) and tablets in late March. In January, Engadget’s Sam Rutherford reported that the AI suite would soon be available on the Galaxy S23 series, Z Fold 5, Z Flip 5 and Tab S9. Today’s announcement makes that device list official while adding the more specific arrival window of late March 2024. That group of 2023 devices will receive a software update next month with the AI features from the S24 series. Those include communication-based AI tricks like Chat Assist (adjusts message tone and translates messages), Live Translate (real-time voice and text translations) and Interpreter (split-screen translation for in-person conversations). They’ll also get the productivity-based AI features Circle to Search (search for anything on your screen by drawing a ring around it), Note Assist (formatting, summaries and translations of notes), Browsing Assist (summaries of news articles) and T...

Antler’s founder on its vertical AI bet in Southeast Asia

A growing roster of vertical AI startups is emerging in Southeast Asia to serve sectors ranging from seafood to finance. Singapore-based venture capital firm Antler recently made a bet on 37 of them, investing $5.1 million in total for pre-seed deals. This included a strategic partnership with Khazanah, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, which invested into © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Microsoft’s upcoming custom chip will be made by Intel

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Intel's relatively new Foundry division — formerly known as Intel Foundry Services until earlier today — has just landed a notable order from a big name. According to Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced that his company will be tapping into Intel's latest 18A (1.8nm) fabrication process for an upcoming in-house chip design. But given Intel's process roadmap, this means we likely won't be seeing Microsoft's new chip until 2025. While neither company disclosed the nature of said silicon, Microsoft did unveil its custom-made Azure Maia AI Accelerator and Azure Cobalt 100 CPU server chips last November, with an expected rollout some time "early" this year to bolster its own AI services. The Cobalt 100 is based on Arm architecture, and it just so happens that Intel has been optimizing its 18A process for Arm designs since April last year (it even became an Arm investor later), so there's a good chance that this colla...

Varaha helps Indian farmers reduce climate-harming practices like burning crop residue and flooding rice fields

The voluntary carbon offset market will reach $250 billion by 2050 from $2 billion in 2020, according to estimates made by Morgan Stanley. However, awareness of the monetary and environmental benefits associated with carbon credits is low. Generally speaking, carbon offsets are granted when an organization or company engages in a practice that reduces CO2 © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The LTE-enabled Apple Watch Series 8 is nearly half off

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The Apple Watch Series 8 offers similar health and fitness features to its successor. | Image: Apple We’re officially one month away from spring. For a lot of us, that means the weather will finally be nice enough that we can exercise outside. If you want to continue to keep a close on eye on fitness and health metrics while away from indoor gym equipment, right now Walmart is selling the LTE-enabled Apple Watch Series 8 for $299.99 ($200 off) in select colors with a small / medium-sized band. Apple’s last-gen flagship wearable isn’t dramatically different from the newer Apple Watch Series 9. You’ll miss out on the Series 9’s double-tap feature and on-device Siri. However, you’ll still be able to take advantage of many of the same health features, including EKGs, menstrual cycle tracking, irregular heartbeat alerts, fall detection, and... Continue reading… Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

India spurs space sector investment with raised limits on foreign funding

India has updated official rules in the space sector to attract global investors and companies, after opening it up to private players four years ago. The new foreign direct investment (FDI) policy raises limits on foreign investment, potentially spurring renewed interest in the South Asian space community. Private and public actors in India have been © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Framework is selling a cheap modular laptop

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A picture of the Framework 13 from The Verge’s 2021 review. | Photo by Monica Chin / The Verge Framework is now selling a $499 version of its modular 2021 Laptop 13, a “barebones configuration” equipped with an 11th-generation Intel i7-1165G7 CPU (Intel is now on its 14th generation for mobile processors). The company says this is a first for its affordable “B-stock Factory Seconds” machines that use leftover parts and ship without memory or storage included. So it’s cheap, but you’ll need to provide a couple of parts on your own. Framework writes in its announcement that it’s also selling refurbished DDR4 RAM for half what it would cost new “to reduce the all-in price.” The base B-stock Laptop 13 configuration is one step up from the version that Monica Chin said in her Verge review was “uniquely friendly to user upgrades,” but notably lacked available screen or GPU upgrades. The company also announced that preorders for its larger, gaming-focused Laptop 16 have made ...

FuboTV accuses Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. of antitrust practices over joint streaming service

FuboTV, a streaming platform dedicated to live sports, has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery, accusing the companies of staging "a years-long campaign" to hamper its business. The company's lawsuit comes shortly Disney-owned ESPN, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they're launching a sports streaming service in the fall of 2024, which will give subscribers access to sporting events from the networks they own. FuboTV's complaint argued that the companies are stealing its playbook and that the launch of their joint venture will destroy competition and lead to price inflation for consumers.  Further, FuboTV alleged that the launch of the defendants' streaming service is but "the latest coordinated step" in their "campaign to eliminate competition in the sports-first streaming market" and in their effort to block its business. The streaming service said the defendants charge it content licensi...

Uber Eats expands its autonomous food delivery service to Japan

Following its autonomous food delivery launch in Miami and Fairfax, Virginia, Uber Eats will soon be offering the same robotic service in Japan — its first outside the US. It is once again collaborating with Google alum startup Cartken, with local compliance help from Mitsubishi Electric, to bring a fleet of Model C sidewalk delivery robots to select areas in Tokyo in March. Uber Eats Japan CEO Shintaro Nakagawa says the autonomous delivery service will solve the local labor shortage issue, while complementing the existing human delivery methods "by bicycle, motorbike, light cargo, and on foot." Cartken's six-wheeled Model C uses six cameras and advanced AI models for autonomous driving plus obstacle detection, and remote control mode is available when needed. With guidance from Mitsubishi, the robot has been modified to suit local needs in Japan. For one, its speed is capped at 5.4 km/h or about 3.36 mph as per local regulation, which is a lot slower than the 6 mph top s...

Members of ransomware gang Lockbit arrested by law enforcement

International law enforcement, led by the UK’s National Crime Agency, disrupted ransomware gang Lockbit's operation. The group behind notable hacks against aircraft manufacturer Boeing, chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, sandwich chain Subway and thousands more had its site taken offline on Monday while authorities arrested major players behind the gang. "This site if now under the control of law enforcement," the website reads. According to malware repository Vx-underground, law enforcement took down at least 22 Lockbit-affiliated Tor sites. "Through our close collaboration, we have hacked the hackers; taken control of their infrastructure, seized their source code, and obtained keys that will help victims decrypt their systems," National Crime Agency Director General, Graeme Biggar, said in a statement. “As of today, LockBit are locked out. We have damaged the capability and most notably, the credibility of a group that depended on secrecy ...

Exclusive: Hummingbird launches AI-powered automation platform for financial crime investigations

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It's aimed at eliminating the manual, repetitive tasks that bog down investigators and compliance teams at large financial institutions. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Florida man buys Cake’s remaining US inventory of electric motorbikes

The future of bankrupt electric motorbike startup Cake is still uncertain, but the majority of its U.S. inventory is going to a guy in Florida. Michael Joyce, who runs a retail shop in St. Petersburg called Emoto, tells TechCrunch that he bought all of the Cake Makka and Ösa motorbikes that had been shipped stateside © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

MariaDB’s potential take-private deal is an indictment of 2021’s SPAC mania

The potential sale of MariaDB to K1 Investment Management for $37 million is a capstone on the failed era of SPAC mergers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Bioptimus raises $35 million seed round to develop AI foundational model focused on biology

There’s a new generative AI startup based in Paris. But what makes Bioptimus interesting is that it plans to apply everything we’ve collectively learned about AI models over the past few years with a narrow, exclusive focus on biology. The reason why it makes to sense to create a startup focused exclusively on biology is © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

PhonePe aims to be a top Google Play alternative in India — but it has a challenging road ahead

Walmart-backed PhonePe is set to launch its Android app store this week with zero commission for in-app purchases for developers. The app store is based on Indus OS’ tech, a company that PhonePe acquired in 2021. In this story, we are going to take a look at why developers are pushing for an alternative store © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

After raising $110M, Build A Rocket Boy lays off staff

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Build A Rocket Boy has laid off an undetermined number of staff, just a little more than a month after announcing it had raised $110 million. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

With Sora, OpenAI highlights the mystery and clarity of its mission | The AI Beat

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Sora, OpenAI's new text-to-video model, may be a black-box mystery, but the company's unwavering mission to develop AGI is not. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Amazon’s Echo speaker falls to $55 in Presidents’ Day sale

Amazon is ringing in Presidents' Day with big sales on its Echo devices, including its fourth-generation Amazon Echo. The smart speaker is currently down to $55 from $100 — a 45 percent discount. Though released in 2020, Amazon's 4th-gen Echo is still its latest iteration and has held its weight over the years. We even named it 2024's best smart speaker under $100.  So, what makes the 4th-gen Amazon Echo so great? It stands above its competitors like the Google Nest Audio and HomePod mini thanks to features like two 0.8-inch tweeters combined with a three-inch woofer. It does a nice job of filling the room and has a solid bass thump while playing music. The 4th-gen Amazon Echo also supports lossless HD audio, allows you to call other people with an Echo device and offers voice control for lights, sensors and locks.  While the 4th-gen Amazon Echo is a solid buy, there are a few Echo devices also on sale that have a bit more oomph. Take the Echo Studio, which is back to its ...

EU opens formal probe of TikTok under Digital Services Act, citing child safety, risk management and other concerns

The European Union is formally investigating TikTok’s compliance with the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission has announced. Areas the Commission is focusing on in this investigation of TikTok are linked to the protection of minors, advertising transparency, data access for researchers, and the risk management of addictive design and harmful content, in said © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Struggling database company MariaDB could be taken private in $37M deal

MariaDB is the subject of another potential takeover bid, as the company behind the eponymous open source relational database management system (RDBMS) confirmed it had received a provisional offer from California-based K1 Investment Management. K1 quietly revealed on Friday that it had tabled what is known as an “unsolicited non-binding indicative proposal” for MariaDB, which © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Ford preps for its next big fight, Waymo recalls its self-driving car software and layoffs come for another AV startup

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. This week’s news includes a BMW security © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Nintendo’s Switch 2 may not arrive until 2025

Nintendo's "Switch 2" was widely expected to arrive sometime this year, but a new rumor is putting that timeline into question. Now, the company is telling publishers that the next-gen console is slated for release in the first quarter of 2025, according to VGC, Eurogamer and other sources. That would line up with the release of the original Switch, which was announced in October 2016 but came out in March 2017.  Publishers were reportedly briefed recently on the launch date change from late 2024 to early 2025. Several sources said they were working on Switch 2 games with releases planned for early 2025. One key title could be the long-delayed Metroid Prime 4, which is still on Nintendo's release schedule but has no specific date attached.  Earlier this month, Nintendo slightly bumped its fiscal 2024 Switch sales forecast from 15 million to 15.5 million, compared to 18 million and 23 million in 2022 and 2021. Nintendo's stock slid today based on the release delay ...

The Dawn of a New Era: Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 Review

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The tech landscape is on the brink of a major revolution, and at the forefront is the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, a device that promises to redefine our understanding... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Delving into the Depths of “Shogun 2024”

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Today, we’re venturing into the heart of feudal Japan with the much-anticipated 2024 adaptation of “Shogun.” This series isn’t just a retelling of James Clavell’s famous novel; it’s a reimagining... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Navigating the Cosmos with “Constellation”: A Deep Dive into Apple TV+’s Latest Thriller

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In an era where the final frontier seems closer than ever, Apple TV+ is set to captivate audiences with its latest offering, “Constellation,” a psychological thriller that promises to take... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Revolutionizing the Future: The W1 Wheeled Quadruped Robot by LimX Dynamics

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In today’s fast-evolving world, the boundaries of technology are continually being pushed further, blending the realms of science fiction with our everyday reality. A prime example of this technological advancement... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Madame Web: A Cinematic Genius or a Tangled Mess?

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Dive into the heart of controversy with Alvin on GreenGround as we unravel "Madame Web," a film that's polarizing audiences and critics alike. Is it a stroke of genius or a bewildering misfire? Join us in a captivating review that challenges the norms of superhero cinema, explores its bold narrative choices, and questions the future of genre storytelling. Your thoughts could light the way to understanding this enigmatic piece. Like, comment, and subscribe to join the debate and discover more thought-provoking content. #MadameWeb, #SuperheroCinema, #CinematicGenius, #FilmControversy, #FemaleLead, #DakotaJohnson, #MovieReview, #GreenGround, #PopCultureDebate, #CinemaEvolution Remember, if you want to stay updated with the latest trends, news, and tech reviews, don’t forget to like and subscribe to Greenground! Follow up on our website https://www.greenground.it or follow up on our social #fyp, #foryou, #love, #explorepage, #trending, #reviews, #news #YouTube: https://youtu...

Why are ransomware gangs making so much money?

For many organizations and startups, 2023 was a rough year financially, with companies struggling to raise money and others making cuts to survive. Ransomware and extortion gangs, on the other hand, had a record-breaking year in earnings, if recent reports are anything to go by. It’s hardly surprising when you look at the state of © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

NASA is looking for volunteers to live in its Mars simulation for a year

If extreme challenges are your cup of tea, NASA has the perfect opportunity for you. The space agency put out a call on Friday for volunteers to participate in its second yearlong simulated Mars mission, the Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog (CHAPEA 2). For the duration of the mission, which will start in spring 2025, the four selected crew members will be housed in a 1,700-square-foot 3D-printed habitat in Houston. NASA is accepting applications on the CHAPEA website from now through April 2. It’s a paid gig, but NASA hasn’t publicly said how much participants will be compensated. The Mars Dune Alpha habitat at NASA’s Johnson Space Center is designed to simulate what life might be like for future explorers on the red planet, where the environment is harsh and resources will be limited. There’s a crew currently living and working there as part of the first CHAPEA mission, which is now more than halfway through its 378-day assignment. During their stay, volunteers will perf...

OpenAI releases Sora, a credit score–based dating app launches and an anti-Tesla ad comes under fire

Welcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering noteworthy happenings in the tech industry. This week, OpenAI stunned the blogosphere with the release of Sora, a new AI model that can generate videos in impressively high fidelity. We’ve seen video generators before. But what makes Sora unique is its understanding of time © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Dutch startup Monumental is using robots to lay bricks

Few categories are as ripe for automation-fueled disruption as construction. The industry is valued at around $2 trillion a year, in the U.S. alone. Much of that work is strenuous, repetitive and sometimes dangerous — precisely the sorts of problems industrial robotics are built to solve. The other thing construction brings is a wide range © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Amazon, one of the world’s largest employers, has called the National Labor Relations Board ‘unconstitutional’

Amazon, a company that employs more than 1.54 million people, has claimed that the National Labor Relations Board Relations Board (NLRB), the federal agency responsible for protecting the rights of workers, is unconstitutional. Amazon made the claim in a legal document filed on Thursday as part of a case in which prosecutors from the Board have accused the e-commerce giant of discrimination against workers at an Amazon warehouse in Staten Island who had voted to unionize, according to The New York Times.Amazon is not the first company to challenge the Board’s constitutionality. Last month, Elon Musk’s SpaceX sued the NLRB after the agency accused the company of unlawfully firing eight employees and called the agency “unconstitutional” in the lawsuit. Weeks later, grocery chain Trader Joe’s, which the NLRB accused of union-busting, said that the NLRB’s structure and organization was “unconstitutional,” Bloomberg reported. And in separate lawsuits, two Starbucks baristas have independent...

Wyze cameras reportedly let owners see into a stranger’s home — again

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Image: Wyze Five months ago, we wrote about how your Wyze webcam might have let strangers peek into your house. It appears to have happened again. After an extended outage that Wyze linked to problems with AWS, ten different Redditors are reporting that their Wyze app showed them images from a security camera that wasn’t their own — giving them glimpses of a stranger’s porch or living room. Some of the videos were from entirely different timezones. “One of my cameras notified me of an event from inside someone else home with them in it walking around,” begins one post. “I just got a motion detection notification with a picture for someone else’s house that isn’t mine!” reads another. “Why did I get someone else’s notification which showed their living room? 2nd time in a few months. This is bad,” read a third. A fourth wrote, in all caps: LOOKING THROUGH MY EVENTS AND ITS NOT MY HOUSE. A LADY IS WALKING AROUND IN A LIVING ROOM. THIS IS ON MY ACCOUNT. HUGE SECURITY ISSUE...

San Francisco Giants replace Cruise self-driving car uniform patch with another GM brand

The San Francisco Giants said goodbye this week to a uniform patch that advertised Cruise and its robotaxis — the latest fallout for the GM self-driving subsidiary and its controversial presence in the city. The marketing partnership, which was announced in August 2023, will continue, but with another GM brand. For the 2024 baseball season, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Tech giants sign voluntary pledge to fight election-related deepfakes

Tech companies are pledging to fight election-related deepfakes as policymakers amp up pressure. Today at the Munich Security Conference, vendors including Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Adobe and IBM signed an accord signaling their intention to adopt a common framework for responding to AI-generated deepfakes intended to mislead voters. Thirteen other companies, including AI startups OpenAI, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google tests a feature that calls businesses on your behalf and holds until an agent is available

Google is testing a new feature that will place a call to a business on your behalf, wait on hold and then give you a call once a live representative is available, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. The new feature, called “Talk to a Live Rep,” would get rid of the need for users to © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

European digital rights group say the future of online privacy is on a knife edge

A coalition of more than two dozen digital and democratic rights groups, NGOs and not-for-profits, including noyb and Wikimedia Europe, have written to the European Union’s regulatory body for data protection urging it to reject a tactic that’s been controversially seized upon by Meta in its latest bid to circumvent the bloc’s privacy laws. If © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Bulletin is a new AI-powered news reader that tackles clickbait and summaries stories

After the shutdown of the buzzy AI news app Artifact from Instagram’s founders, a new app called Bulletin is also now turning to AI to help remove clickbait and summarize the day’s news. Except in this case, users can customize news sources the app features, as you could in any other RSS reader, instead of © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

VR sickness happens. Here’s how to avoid and treat it.

Over the past week, a number of people have reported returning their Vision Pros for a number of reasons, including issues around headset comfort and sickness. Returns are par for the course with any nascent technology. No matter how polished a first-generation product is upon release, there’s a very real sense in which it serves © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

SpaceX moves its legal home to Texas from Delaware

Elon Musk has started moving his businesses away from Delaware, following a judge's decision in the state to invalidate his $56 billion Tesla pay package. In a post on X, Musk has announced that SpaceX has moved its corporate home from Delaware to Texas, along with a copy of the certificate of conversion it received from the Texas Secretary of State. "If your company is still incorporated in Delaware, I recommend moving to another state as soon as possible," the executive added.  SpaceX has moved its state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas!If your company is still incorporated in Delaware, I recommend moving to another state as soon as possible. pic.twitter.com/B7FLByL2dY— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 15, 2024 As Bloomberg notes, he also moved Neuralink's business from Delaware to Nevada on February 8, shortly after he revealed that the company implanted its brain chip into a human patient for the first time. With that change in location, Neuralink joined ...

Alibaba faces reckoning with once-vaunted ‘new retail’ strategy

In 2017, “new retail” began appearing in Alibaba’s earnings reports. Coined by the Chinese e-commerce behemoth, the term refers to the seamless integration of online and offline retail. Six years later, Alibaba is having a moment of reckoning with this strategy as it looks to offload some of its offline retail assets. On its recent © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Rasa, an enterprise-focused dev platform for conversational GenAI, raises $30M

It’s no fun as a customer to have an interaction with a bot when it’s clearly a bot with which you’re engaging. Rasa is a startup that claims to have developed the infrastructure to give developers at large enterprises the ability to build “robust” generative conversational AI assistants so that those interactions feel more personal © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

TechCrunch is heading to MWC. We want to hear about your startup

It’s [checks calendar] a week and a half until Mobile World Congress 2024 [mild panic creeps in], and TechCrunch will be returning to Barcelona once again for the big phone show [soothing memories of tapas past]. The event is always a big one for big telecos, phonemakers and European startups alike. As ever, we’re particularly © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Happy Valentine’s Day, dating app downloads are slowing down

It may be Valentine’s Day here in the U.S., but the dating app market isn’t looking as promising as it used to. According to a new analysis by app intelligence provider data.ai, global downloads of dating apps saw only tepid growth year-over-year as of this January —  a slight increase of just 1.9% to reach © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Andrej Karpathy confirms departure (again) from OpenAI

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Andrej Karpathy, a former leading researcher and member of the founding team at OpenAI and before that, Tesla, has posted on X that he has left the former company once more. This marks Andrej’s second stint at the company. He first worked at OpenAI in 2016 and 2017, according to his LinkedIn, under co-founders turned  Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Unsurprisingly, Zuck thinks the Quest 3 is a ‘better product’ than Apple’s Vision Pro

Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg has posted a review of Apple's Vision Pro on Instagram, reminding us all that the rivalry between the two companies have deepened even further with the launch of the latter's mixed reality headset. In the video shot with a Meta Quest 3, Zuckerberg didn't mince words while pitting the Vision Pro against his company's device. He said he originally expected the Quest to be the better value for most people, because it's "like seven times less expensive" than the $3,500 Vision Pro. However, after testing his competitor's product, he came to the conclusion that the Quest "is the better product, period."  He added that the Quest is "better for the vast majority of things that people use mixed reality for." Zuckerberg said he thinks the Quest is "a lot more comfortable," since Meta designed it to be light and portable, so that people could use it while moving around or even while hanging out with friends...