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Showing posts from June, 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...

Kevin Spacey Speaks Out: Controversy, Acting, and Redemption on Lex Fridman Podcast

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In the ever-evolving world of entertainment, few names have stirred as much admiration and controversy as Kevin Spacey. Known for his compelling performances in iconic films like “Se7en,” “The Usual... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Fisker Went Bankrupt. What Do Its EV Owners Do Next?

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People who bought Fiskers are unsure about how they’ll keep their cars maintained or even whether the software-dependent EVs will continue working. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

We’ve Been Testing Grills for Years, and These Are Our Top Picks

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We grilled, smoked, baked, cleaned, and repeated to find the best option for every home. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Detroit police can no longer use facial recognition results as the sole basis for arrests

The Detroit Police Department has to adopt new rules curbing its reliance on facial recognition technology after the city reached a settlement this week with Robert Williams, a Black man who was wrongfully arrested in 2020 due to a false face match. It’s not an all-out ban on the technology, though, and the court’s jurisdiction to enforce the agreement only extends four years. Under the new restrictions, which the ACLU is calling the strongest such policies for law enforcement in the country, police cannot make arrests based solely on facial recognition results or conduct a lineup based only on facial recognition leads. Williams was arrested after facial recognition technology flagged his expired driver’s license photo as a possible match for the identity of an alleged shoplifter, which police then used to construct a photo lineup. He was arrested at his home, in front of his family, which he says “completely upended my life.” Detroit PD is known to have made at least two other wrongfu...

Detroit Police Department agrees to new rules around facial recognition tech

As part of a legal settlement, the Detroit Police Department has agreed to new guardrails limiting how it can use facial recognition technology. These new policies prohibit the police from arresting people based solely on the results of a facial recognition search, or on the results of photo lineups conducted immediately after a facial recognition © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

From chatbots to superintelligence: Mapping AI’s ambitious journey

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The path to AGI and superintelligence is uncertain — but the rapid evolution of AI is undeniable, promising transformative advancements. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Women in AI: Sarah Bitamazire helps companies implement responsible AI

Sarah Bitamazire is the chief policy officer at the boutique advisory firm Lumiera. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Security News This Week: Google Is Piloting Face Recognition for Office Security

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Plus: A cloud company says notorious Russian hacker group APT29 attacked it, Chinese hackers use ransomware to hide their espionage campaigns, and a bank popular with startups discloses a cyberattack. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The Wild Robot (2024): A Captivating Tale of Survival and Connection

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Welcome to GreenGround, your go-to destination for the latest in movies, TV series, and technology. Today, we’re thrilled to delve into one of the most anticipated animated films of 2024,... Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

NASA and Boeing deny Starliner crew is ‘stranded’: “We’re not in any rush to come home”

NASA and Boeing officials pushed back against recent reporting that the two astronauts brought to the ISS on Starliner are stranded on board. The companies said in a press conference Friday that they are using “the luxury of time” to learn as much about the capsule as possible before it returns to Earth.  The two © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Forget the debate, the Supreme Court just declared open season on regulators

As the country reels from a Presidential debate that left no one looking good, the Supreme Court has swooped in with what could be one of the most consequential decisions it has ever made, in the context of the tech industry. By reversing a 40-year-old decision, the court has opened up regulators to endless interference © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Ubisoft CEO says Assassin’s Creed remakes are in the works

Older Assassin's Creed titles are about to get modern reimaginings, mostly likely with better graphics and other improvements for newer consoles and more powerful PCs. Yves Guillemot, the CEO of Ubisoft, has revealed in an interview on the company's website that Assassin's Creed remakes are in the works when he was asked what's next for the franchise. The remakes will allow the company to revisit and modernize older worlds it has created, he explained, telling the interviewer that "there are worlds in some of [its] older Assassin's Creed games that are still extremely rich." Guillemot also said that Ubisoft's goal is to have Assassin's Creed games come out more regularly, "but not for it to be the same experience every year." The upcoming Assassin's Creed Hexe that's set during the witch trials in the Holy Roman Empire is "going to be a very different game from Assassin's Creed Shadows," he said. Shadows is set in Ja...

Rohlik rolls up $170M to expand in European grocery delivery and sell its tech to others

The salad days of fresh grocery delivery startups are over, but those that have stayed the course, and have built businesses that are seeing gains, are still here and are hungry for more growth. On Friday, one of those survivors, the Czech grocery delivery company Rohlik, announced $170 million in new funding. Rohlik – which © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

This Viral AI Chatbot Will Lie and Say It’s Human

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Bland AI’s customer services and sales bot is the latest example of “human-washing” in AI. Experts warn against the consequences of blurred reality. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

French AI Startups Felt Unstoppable. Then Came the Election

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With polls suggesting voters are about to swing toward the far right or hard left, the AI industry is starting to freak out. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Time Magazine partners with OpenAI and ElevenLabs

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Time's embrace of two up-and-coming AI companies shows a strong vote of confidence in the technology overall. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

FCC rule would make carriers unlock all phones after 60 days

The FCC wants to make it significantly easier for consumers to unlock their phones from their carriers, proposing that all devices must be unlockable just 60 days after purchase. How this will mesh with current plans and phone buying trends, however, is something the agency is hoping to learn before putting such a rule into © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Paramount’s strategy of purposeful digital rot doesn’t even make sense

Sometimes as we navigate our way through the daily doom scroll that is our current news cycle, it’s nice to go back and remember how things used to be. Those times sucked too but a distraction is still a distraction. One of my favorite ways to look at the past was by going through old clips of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report on Comedy Central’s website. Paramount went on a content teardown this week and pulled old clips and episodes of its signature satire shows from the Comedy Central website, as well as content from cable channels like TV Land, CMT and the Paramount Network, according to the Hollywood Reporter. Those sites now contain a notice that tells views the clips are unavailable there, but that they can "sign up for Paramount+ to watch many seasons of Comedy Central shows." It’s a bizarre move because most of those old episodes aren’t available on its Paramount+ streaming service. Essentially, there's no longer a free, legal means to consum...

Resemble AI’s next-generation AI audio detection model, Detect-2B, is 94% accurate

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Detect-2B, the next version of Resemble's AI audio detection model, relies on a new way to hear audio artifacts to know if the clip is real. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Time strikes a deal to funnel 101 years of journalism into OpenAI’s gaping maw

Time has joined a growing number of publications to sign a licensing deal with OpenAI. The ChatGPT creator will legally be able to train its large language models on 101 years worth of the storied publication's journalism, as Axios first reported. OpenAI will also have access to real-time content from Time, with the apparent aim of answering user queries about breaking news. In return, OpenAI will cite Time and link back to source material on the publication's website. Perhaps Time will get a monetary kickback too, like other publishers that have shuffled over to OpenAI with a ragged cap in hand and an eye on one a new revenue source for struggling media companies. The Atlantic, Vox Media, Wall Street Journal publisher News Corp, the Financial Times, People magazine publisher Dotdash Meredith and the AP have also been enticed by some snake oil bank deposits from OpenAI. Time says the agreement builds on its "commitment to expanding global access to accurate and trusted inf...

Bluesky lets you curate accounts and feeds to follow with its “Starter Pack” feature

Social network Bluesky has added a new feature for users to create a curated list of people and custom feeds to follow. This feature, called “Starter Pack,” is intended to help users joining the social network to find interesting content right out of the gate. Existing users can add accounts and custom feeds to create © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Reliance Jio kicks off Indian telecom price hike

Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecoms operator, has initiated what analysts expect to be an industry-wide increase in tariffs in the world’s second largest wireless market, raising some of its plans by more than 20%.  Jio’s revised pricing structure, effective July 3, sees its entry-level Rs 155 ($1.87) plan, offering 2GB of data and unlimited calls, © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

YouTube reportedly wants to pay record labels to use their songs for AI training

Much of the conversation about AI has revolved around the use of copyrighted materials to train models. YouTube is allegedly taking steps to avoid this issue, offering major musical labels payment to license their songs for AI training, the Financial Times reports.  Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records are all reportedly involved in talks with the Google-owned platform. However, it's unlikely the companies will get the last word as it would reportedly be up to each artist whether they participate. Many musicians are far from thrilled about allowing AI anywhere near their work. In April 2023, over 200 artists signed an open letter stating, "We must protect against the predatory use of AI to steal professional artists' voices and likenesses, violate creators' rights, and destroy the music ecosystem." In November, YouTube launched Dream Track, a tool that allowed select creators to pull from the lyrics and voices of singers such as John ...

PortSwigger, the company behind the Burp Suite of security testing tools, swallows $112M

Sometimes the most successful startup ideas come from people building tools to solve their own needs. Such was the case with Dafydd Stuttard, a security expert who goes by Daf.  Nearly two decades ago, living in the small market town of Knutsford in Cheshire in the northwest of England, Daf was working as a security © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Unwrapping ‘Red One’: A Holiday Adventure with Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans

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Unwrapping 'Red One': A Holiday Adventure with Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans #RedOneMovie, #DwayneJohnson, #ChrisEvans, #HolidayAdventure, #Christmas2024, #AmazonStudios, #MoviePreview, #Hollywood, #ActionComedy, #GreenGroundMedia Join Alvin from GreenGround as he dives into the upcoming holiday blockbuster "Red One," starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans. Set for release on November 15, 2024, this action-packed adventure promises to redefine the holiday movie genre with a star-studded cast and a thrilling storyline. Discover behind-the-scenes insights, plot details, and why this movie is set to become a new Christmas classic. Don't miss out – like, comment, and subscribe for more exciting content. Check the description for more details and join the conversation in the comments below! 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.gree...

One of our favorite cordless vacuums is $175 off at Amazon

No, vacuums aren't the most exciting thing to buy, but they do make life a lot better — especially if you have a pet. A clean house can be a bit cheaper right now thanks to a 30 percent discount on Tineco's Pure ONE S15 Pet Smart Cordless Vacuum Cleaner. The vacuum for pets is down to $349 from $500, and there's an additional, clippable $25 coupon that will bring the final price down to around $325 — a new all-time low price on one of our favorite cordless vacuums.  Tineco Pure ONE S15 Pet Smart Cordless Vacuum Cleaner is a cordless option with a charging base that requires no installation. The vacuum uses Zerotangle technology and grabs hair without wrapping it around the device.  If you're looking for a higher-end option, try Tineco's Pure ONE Station FurFree Cordless Vacuum Cleaner. It's 25 percent off, dropping to $599 from $799 — another record-low price. It can go into an OmniHub and gets self-cleaned when being recharged. The vacuum also has 60 days...

Is it time to integrate autonomous software development and fire all your engineers? (No — and at VB Transform we dish the real goods)

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AI coding assistants can (almost) do it all these days. How are enterprises integrating them, and how will it change software development? Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

How the Kaspersky ban will hit resellers in the US

"It's just a lot of time lost for nothing," a U.S.-based Kaspersky reseller told TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Forza Horizon 4 will be pulled from digital stores and Game Pass in December

Another notable game is set to vanish from digital storefronts. Developer Playground Games says Forza Horizon 4 will be delisted from the Microsoft Store and Steam on December 15, making it no longer available for digital purchase on either Xbox or PC. You may still be able to snap up a physical copy. Xbox will run frequent sales on the game on both storefronts until the delisting. The standard edition is currently 80 percent off on Steam ($12). Forza Horizon 4 will go on sale on the Microsoft Store on July 14. Playground says the delisting is due to licensing agreements expiring. Forza Horizon 4 has digital versions of a ton of real-life cars as well as many licensed songs. It's a pity that it's being removed from sale — especially given Xbox's stated commitment to game preservation and that Forza Horizon 4 was well-received — but unless developers are able to snag licenses for deeply integrated aspects of their games in perpetuity, delisting is a sad inevitability. All th...

Opera’s browser adds AI-powered image generation and better multimedia controls

Opera said today it is releasing Opera One’s second version in developer beta with features including new multimedia controls, split tabs, and new AI capabilities. The company is introducing new themes and design elements to give Opera One R2 a fresh look. The company has traditionally placed the multimedia controls on the sidebar. But with © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Julian Assange pleads guilty to espionage but defends himself in court

Julian Assange has formally pleaded guilty to violating the Espionage Act at a federal courthouse in Saipan, the capital of Northern Mariana Islands. The WikiLeaks founder was released from prison on June 24 after reaching a plea deal with the US government and quickly boarded a plane at Stansted Airport to make his way to Saipan. While the deal required Assange to plead guilty to "conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the national defense of the United States," he still defended himself in court.  Julian has arrived at the federal court house in Saipan.I watch this and think how overloaded his senses must be, walking through the press scrum after years of sensory depravation and the four walls of his high security Belmarsh prison cell. pic.twitter.com/BzgkpWPXdy— Stella Assange #FreeAssangeNOW (@Stella_Assange) June 25, 2024 According to The Washington Post, Assange argued that he should've been protected by the First Amen...

Dead by Daylight’s next survivor is Lara Croft

Behavior Interactive just announced another Dead by Daylight crossover that brings everyone’s favorite looter/archeologist Lara Croft into the game. The Tomb Raider expansion launches on July 16 and features the younger and grittier version of the character as seen in the newer titles collected in the Tomb Raider: Definitive Survivor Trilogy. The ultimate survivor faces a gauntlet of otherworldly peril. Lara Croft is coming. Dead by Daylight: Tomb Raider. July 16. @tombraiderPTB Patch NotesReddit 🔗 https://t.co/IulnB3mrTSForums 🔗 https://t.co/GNpztWbfXe pic.twitter.com/0kYgKzRVBL— Dead by Daylight (@DeadbyDaylight) June 25, 2024 This is technically Croft’s first foray into horror, but she’s definitely no stranger to cold-blooded murder. Throughout the franchise, she’s ended the lives of around 3,000 people. She’s a bigger killer than Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers combined. She even signed up to fight in the Call of Duty franchise. In other words, Croft will ...

Welcome to the fediverse: Your guide to Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, and more

Once upon a time, in a galaxy not so far away (this one, in fact), a few internet rebels decided that they were tired of the corporate overlords controlling their online lives. Thus, the fediverse was born — an attempt to wrest control of microblogging services, such as Twitter and its ilk, away from centralized © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

This smiling robot face made of living skin is absolute nightmare fuel

Giving robots a human-like exterior has been the standard for years — centuries even. But giving them actual, living skin that can be manipulated horrifying, slimy expressions? That’s new. The new work, published in the journal Cell Reports Physical Science, is very much just an experiment. This will not be the face of your next © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Inspired by Gen Z, Pinterest users can now turn boards into videos for sharing on Instagram and TikTok

The new addition was inspired by the video-sharing activity that was already taking place on apps like TikTok. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

ChatGPT for macOS no longer requires a subscription

The macOS ChatGPT desktop app is now available to everyone. That is, provided you’re running an Apple Silicon Mac (sorry, Intel users) and your computer is on macOS Sonoma or higher. OpenAI rolled out the app gradually, starting with Plus subscribers last month. ChatGPT now has an official macOS client before it has a Windows one. (In case you haven’t heard, Microsoft is its most crucial partner.) Of course, Windows 11 has the OpenAI-powered Microsoft CoPilot baked into its OS, which likely explains the omission. OpenAI and Apple are also teaming up on Apple Intelligence, which arrives later this year (unless you’re in Europe). The Mac app includes a keyboard shortcut (option-space by default, but it’s customizable) for typing chatbot queries from anywhere in macOS. Otherwise, the app mirrors the ChatGPT website’s appearance and functionality (including custom GPTs), except in native app form. You can also upload files, photos and screenshots. You can download and install ChatGPT for m...

EU accuses Microsoft of competition breach over Teams bundling

The European Union accused Microsoft of breaching competition rules Tuesday. In a formal statement of objections the bloc said it suspects the software giant of abusing antitrust rules by bundling its real-time comms and collaboration tool, Teams, with popular productivity apps, including its cloud-based suites for businesses Office 365 and Microsoft 365. The EU opened © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Julian Assange has been released from prison in a plea deal with the US

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has been released from prison and has agreed to plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act. The WikiLeaks account on X, formerly Twitter, has announced his release after being granted bail by the High Court in London. It also tweeted a video that appears to show Assange boarding a plane at Stansted Airport. The WikiLeaks founder and former editor-in-chief is expected to appear in a courtroom in the US Northern Mariana Islands on June 26 in order to finalize his plea deal with the US government.  Julian Assange boards flight at London Stansted Airport at 5PM (BST) Monday June 24th. This is for everyone who worked for his freedom: thank you.#FreedJulianAssange pic.twitter.com/Pqp5pBAhSQ— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) June 25, 2024 According to a letter from the US Department of Justice obtained by The Washington Post, Assange is specifically pleading guilty to "conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information relating to the natio...

Alter3 is the latest GPT-4-powered humanoid robot

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Alter3 is a humanoid robot that uses GPT-4 to reason about natural language instructions and map them to API calls to the robot Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Vocable AI introduces instant content strategy and planning with a single click

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CONTRIBUTOR CONTENT: As businesses vie for visibility in a saturated market, the key to increasing brand awareness isn’t just creating compelling content — it’s maintaining a consistent, effective and efficient content engine that evolves with your audience’s demands over time. Where many growing businesses struggle is in sustaining this pace, getting bogged down by the overwhelming processes  Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google is reportedly building AI chatbots based on celebrities and influencers

Google is reportedly building new AI-powered chatbots based on celebrities and YouTube influencers. The idea isn’t groundbreaking — startups like Character.ai and companies like Meta have already launched products like this — but neither is Google’s AI strategy so far. Google’s celebrity chatbots will be powered by the company’s Gemini family of large language models according to The Information, which broke the story on Monday. The company is trying to strike partnerships with influencers as well as celebrities, and is also working on a feature that will let people create their own chatbots simply by describing their personalities and appearance — something that Character.ai already lets you do. A fun fact: Noam Shazeer, one of the co-founders of Character.ai, is a former Google engineer and one of the creators of “transformers,” the fundamental tech that made today’s generative AI possible. It isn’t yet clear which celebrities or influencers Google might partner with. Meta’s chatbots...

Substrate lands $8M funding to bring ‘Lego blocks’ approach to enterprise AI

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Substrate raises $8 million to launch an AI development platform that simplifies enterprise machine learning with plug-and-play models and abstractions. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Apple is first company charged with violating EU’s DMA rules

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Apple is once again the focus of the EU’s competition policy. | Cath Virginia / The Verge Apple’s App Store “steering” policies violate the EU’s Digital Markets Act meant to encourage competition, said regulators in their preliminary ruling Monday. The European Commission has also opened a new investigation into Apple’s support for alternative iOS marketplaces in Europe, including the core technology fee it charges developers. “Our preliminary position is that Apple does not fully allow steering,” said Margrethe Vestager who heads up competition policy in Europe. “Steering is key to ensure that app developers are less dependent on gatekeepers’ app stores and for consumers to be aware of better offers.” Under the DMA, Apple and other so-called gatekeepers must allow app developers to steer consumers to offers outside their app... Continue reading… Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The Morning After: Elon Musk deepfakes are pushing crypto giveaways

It’s been a weekend of crypto scams, hacks and deepfake chaos. Late on Friday, someone hacked 50 Cent’s accounts to push memecoin GUNIT and made off with millions. The exact amount is unclear; Fiddy himself wrote on Instagram, “whoever did this made $3,000,000 in 30 minutes.” The rapper’s X account and website were hacked at the same time. Then, multiple deepfakes of Elon Musk were spotted on YouTube, telling viewers to deposit their crypto on a suspicious website, promising free crypto in return. Now taken down, the looped video showed Musk at what looked like a livestream from a Tesla event, with an AI-generated version of his voice instructing viewers to visit a website and deposit their Bitcoin, Ethereum or Dogecoin to enter the competition. Over 30,000 viewers tuned into the stream at one point, pushing it to the top of YouTube’s Live Now recommendations. Don’t take investment advice from rappers and social media network owners. — Mat Smith The biggest stories you might have misse...

This Shark AI Ultra robot vacuum is half off right now

There is something about summer that always seems to bring extra dirt and mess into the home, but, between the heat and many daily activities, I know the last thing I want to do is vacuum. While robot vacuums can be quite costly, right now, the Shark AI Ultra Voice Control Robot Vacuum with Matrix Clean Navigation is half off on Amazon, dropping its price to $300 from $599. It's a version of one of our favorite robot vacuums, the Shark RV2502AE AI Ultra — which also retails for $599. That one is 40 percent off right now, down to $360.  Shark's AI Ultra Voice Control Robot Vacuum with Matrix Clean Navigation is a great option if you're looking for a robovac that offers a bit of everything. As the name suggests, it offers features like voice control, which lets you start or schedule a clean through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. It also uses Matrix Clean to create a precise grid, ensuring it hits every corner of your home. Plus, 360 LiDAR vision allows it to avoid any...

Silicon Valley leaders are once again declaring ‘DEI’ bad and ‘meritocracy’ good — but they’re wrong

Scale AI founder Alexandr Wang set off another debate with an anti-DEI post. It revealed a lot about the current state of DEI in tech. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Apple reportedly even held talks with Meta about an AI partnership as it plays catch-up

Apple is apparently looking to take all the help it can get to integrate generative AI into its recently announced Apple Intelligence. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, citing sources with knowledge of the discussions, Apple has held talks with Meta about the possibility of using the company’s generative AI model. It also reportedly had similar discussions with startups Anthropic and Perplexity. As of now, though, nothing has been finalized, WSJ reports. At WWDC earlier this month, Apple officially announced its much-rumored partnership with OpenAI that will bring ChatGPT to newer iPhones, iPads and Macs with the upcoming generation of the devices’ OS. During the event, Apple’s senior VP of software engineering, Craig Federighi, also name-dropped Google’s Gemini as something that could be added to Apple Intelligence in the future. “We want to enable users ultimately to choose the models they want,” Federighi said. It would make sense, then, for Apple to be shopping arou...

What Came Before the Big Bang?

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By studying the geometry of model space-times, researchers offer alternative views of the universe’s first moments. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Deal Dive: Sir Jack A Lot returns with a startup for retail traders

When former YouTube product manager Kevin Xu, known as “Sir Jack A Lot” on Reddit, turned $35,000 into $8 million trading stocks between 2020 and 2022, many people thought his fortunes, and his way of investing, had peaked, just like 2021’s memestock craze had. Xu doesn’t agree, though, and he’s now building a startup for © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Smile 2: Unmasking the Horror #Smile2, #HorrorMovies

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Smile 2: Unmasking the Horror #Smile2, #HorrorMovies, #NaomiScott, #LukasGage, #Halloween2024, #MovieReview, #GreenGround, #SpookySeason, #HorrorFans, #FilmCritic Join Alvin from GreenGround as he delves into the chilling world of "Smile 2," the highly anticipated sequel that promises to haunt your dreams. Discover the plot, meet the cast, and explore fan theories in our exclusive deep dive. With Naomi Scott and Lukas Gage leading the way, this horror flick is set to be the event of the Halloween season. Don’t miss out – like, comment, and subscribe for more thrilling content! Check the description for more details and links to stay updated. 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://...

Fortnite Reload brings back classic weapons and locations

Fortnite fans are getting a treat with an update with Fortnite Reload, an action-packed mode for Battle Royale and Zero Build with classic features. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

OpenAI buys Rockset to bolster its enterprise AI

OpenAI has acquired a company, Rockset, building tools to drive real-time search and data analytics. In a post on its official blog this morning, OpenAI said that it would integrate Rockset’s technology to “power [its] infrastructure across products.” Members of Rockset’s team will join OpenAI, and Rockset’s existing customers will be transitioned off Rockset’s platform © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Tesla makes Musk best-paid CEO of all time and Fisker bites the dust

Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje‘s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Elon Musk just convinced Tesla shareholders to approve his $56 billion pay package, making him the highest-paid CEO in history — assuming he can dodge a © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

A new startup from Figure’s founder is licensing NASA tech in a bid to curb school shootings

Cover says what sets it apart is the underlying technology it employs, which has been exclusively licensed from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

The best budget earbuds around are on sale for $49

Anker makes our pick for the best budget-friendly earbuds in the form of the Soundcore Space A40. That model is now an even more enticing proposition, as has it dropped to an all-time-low price. You can pick up the Anker Soundcore Space A40 now for $40. The earbuds usually cost $80, so you're saving $31. Given that the Space A40 boasts features you'd find in earbuds that are twice as expensive, we already felt that they offered great value, so this is a pretty solid deal. The earbuds are light, and we reckon they should be comfortable to wear for extended periods. You won't hear as much detail as you would get from higher-end options, but that's to be expected. What you will get is an all-round warm sound profile that does a decent job at the lower end. You'll be able to adjust the EQ settings in the Soundcore app if you wish to put more onus on the bass or high end. You can also customize the touch controls through the app. In terms of durability, these earb...

The new Apple Pencil Pro is on sale for the first time since launch

The Apple Pencil Pro is currently on sale for $119 on Amazon, or $10 lower than its original price. While that's not a massive discount, it's the first time the new iPad accessory has gone on sale since it came out in mid-May. If you've been looking to get the model as soon as possible, this is a great chance to at least get it at a lower price than usual. The Apple Pencil Pro comes equipped with a sensor that can recognize squeezes, which can bring up tool palettes, activate shortcuts and do other actions. A haptic engine then delivers tangible feedback to serve as confirmation for each gesture and action you perform. You can also change the orientation of the shaped pen and brush tool by rotating the barrel of the stylus.  The Apple Pencil lineup can be a bit confusing, seeing as you now have four models to choose from that work with different iPad models. Apple's Pencil Pro works with latest iPads, namely the 11- and 13-inch iPad Air (M2), and the 11- and 13-inc...

One of our favorite webcams is on sale for only $48

If you’re in the market for a new webcam, you can save 20 percent on one of Engadget’s top picks for video calls. The Anker PowerConf C200, our top budget pick even at its standard price, is on sale for only $48. Anker PowerConf C200 Webcam captures video in up to 2K resolution. Although 1080p will suit most people just fine (and you can lower it to that, 720p or 360p if you want), we appreciated the extra sharpness and clarity the 2K feed brought to our calls. The plug-and-play webcam has a fast autofocus and an ƒ/2.0 aperture to let in more light and help brighten up darker scenes. It has dual stereo microphones built in, and you can use its companion software (AnkerWork) to change its pickup sensitivity from the default directional to omnidirectional (the latter for when more than one person is in your room). The webcam has a 95-degree field of view, but you can adjust it to 78 degrees if you prefer a tighter shot. As far as tradeoffs, it’s a surprisingly short list for this ...

Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy surpasses 20M copies sold

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Activision announced that the Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy has sold more than 20 million units, doubling its milestone from 2019. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

New medical LLM, PathChat 2, can talk to pathologists about tumors, offer diagnoses

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PathChat serves as a consultant, of sorts, for human pathologists to help identify, assess and diagnose tumors and other serious conditions.  Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Inside the players and politics of the modern AI industry

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Image: The Verge We’ve got a special episode of Decoder today — I was traveling last week, so Verge deputy editor Alex Heath and our new senior AI reporter Kylie Robison are filling in for me, with a very different kind of episode about AI. We talk a lot about AI in a broad sense on Decoder — it comes up in basically every single interview I do these days — and then we also dive deep into very specific problems that AI is causing with things like copyright law, misinformation, and other various policy challenges. But we don’t spend a ton of time on the day-to-day happenings of the AI industry itself. And that’s for good reason: it’s been moving so rapidly and changing so often that it’s nearly impossible for the average person to keep up. Making sense of all the different players, who’s building what, and what people in the industry honestly think about where it’s all going — it’s a lot. So, we thought it would be a good idea to take a beat and have Alex and Kylie break dow...

Cadana, an emerging markets payroll services provider for global hiring platforms, banks $7.1M seed

The global freelancer market, a $1.3 trillion industry fueled by over 200 million knowledge workers, drives demand for solutions that automate payroll and streamline employment and tax regulations worldwide. However, most existing products fail to address the legal landscape of emerging markets, such as differences in employment laws.  This oversight means global hiring platforms, which © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

In spite of hype, many companies are moving cautiously when it comes to generative AI

Companies are extremely interested in generative AI as vendors push potential benefits, but turning that desire from a proof of concept into a working product is proving much more challenging. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Pornhub to leave five more states over age-verification laws

Pornhub will cease operating in five more states this summer due to new legislation that requires age verification on adult entertainment websites. The move is in response to a wave of recently-passed laws that require porn websites and other platforms with explicit adults-only content to collect proof of their users' ages. In all of these states, that means people would need to upload a copy of their driver's license or other government ID, or register with a third-party age verification service, in order to use sites like Pornhub. A blog post from Pornhub said that its latest locations for shutdowns are Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky and Nebraska. The site said it would end operations in those states in July 2024. The website closed in Texas last week, and has also blocked access to its site in Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia in response to similar state legislation. Lawmakers from these states who supported age-verification laws said the...

The fall of EV startup Fisker: A comprehensive timeline

Here is a timeline of the events that led fledgling automaker Fisker to file for bankruptcy. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Société Générale to sell its freelancer challenger bank Shine to Ageras

Four years after acquiring Shine, a French fintech startup that offers bank accounts to freelancers and very small companies, Société Générale has announced plans to sell Shine to Ageras. In 2020, TechCrunch reported that Société Générale spent around €100 million to acquire Shine. It wasn’t a huge acquisition but it attracted quite a bit of © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Amazon faces nearly $6B in fines over California labor law violations

The California Labor Commissioner's office has fined Amazon $5,901,700 for infractions related to a law designed to protect warehouse workers. Under the state's AB-701 law, large companies are required to tell warehouse or distribution center workers in writing what their expected quotas are, including how often they should perform particular tasks, and what consequences they may face for failing to meet those quotas. This law was a reaction to stories from Amazon workers who said they would skip bathroom breaks or risk injury in order to maximize their output. "The hardworking warehouse employees who have helped sustain us during these unprecedented times should not have to risk injury or face punishment as a result of exploitative quotas that violate basic health and safety," Governor Gavin Newsom said when he signed the bill in 2021. According to the California Labor Commissioner, Amazon failed to meet those rules at two of its facilities in the cities of Moreno Va...

Adobe’s new terms of service say it won’t use your work to train AI

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Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge For the past couple of weeks, Adobe has faced intense backlash over changes to its terms of service agreement — and now, it’s trying to patch things up. On Tuesday, Adobe announced a tweaked version of its terms of service agreement that makes it clear the company will not train AI on user content stored locally or in the cloud. The section defining Adobe’s access to user content now includes several distinct categories, including one dedicated to generative AI. Adobe’s updated terms explicitly state that its software “will not use your Local or Cloud Content to train generative AI.” But there’s one exception: if your work is submitted to the Adobe Stock marketplace, the company can use it to train Adobe Firefly. These additions to the terms of service, according to Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief strategy officer, aren’t actually changing anything — Adobe says its stance on AI training just wasn’t clearly laid out before, leading to confusio...

Stray is coming to Switch this holiday season

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Stray, one of Engadget’s favorite games of 2022, is coming to Switch. The title, which lets you play as an orange tabby cat exploring a dystopian cyberpunk setting, arrives on Nintendo’s console this holiday season. The trailer shows familiar action in the two-year-old game from BlueTwelve Studio. You’ll see the feline protagonist rolling in a barrel, facing a robotic enemy and knocking objects off ledges (as cats tend to do). BlueTwelve Studios / Nintendo Unfortunately, its graphical fidelity appears noticeably downgraded compared to its console brethren, but that’s to be expected. Switch developers can do a lot with the seven-year-old system, but they aren’t miracle workers. Stray arrived on PS5/PS4 and PC (Steam) in 2022, followed by an Xbox port last year. The Switch version will round things out sometime around the holidays. You can check out the announcement trailer below. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/stray-is-coming-to-switch-this-hol...

iOS 18 could ‘sherlock’ $400M in app revenue

Apple's changes may affect apps that today have an estimated $393 million in revenue and have been downloaded roughly 58 million times over the past year. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Google DeepMind’s new AI tech will generate soundtracks for videos

Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence laboratory is working on a new technology that can generate soundtracks, even dialogue, to go along with videos. The lab has shared its progress on the video-to-audio (V2A) technology project, which can be paired with Google Veo and other video creation tools like OpenAI's Sora. In its blog post, the DeepMind team explains that the system can understand raw pixels and combine that information with text prompts to create sound effects for what's happening onscreen. To note, the tool can also be used to make soundtracks for traditional footage, such as silent films and any other video without sound.  DeepMind's researchers trained the technology on videos, audios and AI-generated annotations that contain detailed descriptions of sounds and dialogue transcripts. They said that by doing so, the technology learned to associate specific sounds with visual scenes. As TechCrunch notes, DeepMind's team isn't the first to release ...

Threads finally launches its API for developers

Meta said today that it finally launched its much-awaited API for Threads so developers can build experiences around it. This will allow-third party developers to create new experinces around Mark Zuckerberg sperately posted about the API launch saying “The Threads API is now widely available and coming to more of you soon.” In a blog © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Finbourne taps $70M for tech that turns financial data dust into AI gold 

Finbourne, founded out of London’s financial center, has built a platform to help financial companies organize and use more of their data in AI and other models. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Doublepoint launches WowMouse AR control for Magic Leap 2

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Doublepoint Technologies is taking gesture tech another step with the unveiling of the WowMouse AR for the Magic Leap 2. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Anker’s magnetic charging gear is up to 50 percent off right now

It has hit that time of year when all the rinky-dink chargers I bought have given up, and it's time to invest in some quality options. I'm personally a big fan of Anker, so it's exciting that Amazon is currently discounting some of Anker's best charging gear. Included in the sale is 30 percent off Anker's MagGo magnetic charging station, dropping its price to $70 from $100. This discount brings the Qi2-certified device to a new all-time low. Anker's MagGo magnetic charging station is a great choice if you're looking for an all-in-one option for a range of devices. The 8-in-1 charger comes with two USB ports, two USB-C ports, three AC outlets and one magnetic pad. It offers 15W of power for wireless charging and gets faster when wired to devices — increasing to 67W for charging your MacBook through the USB-C port, for instance. Anker claims that speed can bring your laptop to 50 percent in just 26 minutes. If you're just looking for a wireless charging p...

Hackers Detail How They Allegedly Stole Ticketmaster Data From Snowflake

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A ShinyHunters hacker tells WIRED that they gained access to Ticketmaster’s Snowflake cloud account—and others—by first breaching a third-party contractor. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

NASA’s 47-year-old Voyager 1 probe is back in action after months of technical issues

NASA engineers have managed to get the long-running Voyager 1 space probe fully back in working order after some seven months of technical difficulties. In November 2023, the spacecraft — which is more than 15 billion miles from Earth — started sending back strange, unreadable data, and the team has been working ever since to get to the root of the issue. While Voyager 1 seemed to be receiving and executing commands just fine, none of the science and engineering data it sent home made sense. In April, the team traced the problem to some corrupted memory in the probe’s flight data subsystem (FDS) computer and was later able to get two of its instruments sending science data again. Now, all four of Voyager 1’s instruments are back to sending readable data, NASA says. Voyager 1 launched in 1977, so the fact that it’s still going in any capacity is incredible. But now, it can resume its duties directly studying interstellar space. This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www...

Logitech launches MX Ink stylus for Meta Quest mixed reality headsets

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Logitech is launching MX Ink, a stylus that works for Meta Quest mixed reality and virtual reality headsets. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

YouTube is testing another way to combat ad blockers

YouTube continues its efforts to circumvent ad blockers. Earlier this week, ad blocker SponsorBlock posted that the Google-owned video service is testing out server-side ad injection with a limited number of users. Essentially, this means that both the ad is injected into the video before it arrives on your device (in contrast to client-side ad © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Subscription vitamin company Care/of is shutting down

Care/of, a company offering personalized subscription vitamin packs, says it will be canceling all subscriptions as of Monday, June 17 and will no longer be accepting new orders. The news doesn’t come completely out of the blue, as Care/of had previously disclosed in a New York Department of Labor filing that it planned to lay © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

US military reportedly used social media to spread anti-vax propaganda in the Philippines

The US military used fake social media accounts to spread propaganda that was designed to discredit China’s COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines during the height of the pandemic, according to a bombshell report from Reuters. The anti-vax campaign ran from spring 2020 until mid-2021, and was intended to “counter what [the Pentagon] perceived as China’s growing influence in the Philippines,” the publication found in its investigation. The Philippines saw low vaccination rates through 2021 even months after China’s Sinovac vaccine arrived in the area, and recorded nearly 50,000 COVID deaths by November of that year. In one example of the US’s anti-vax messaging cited by Reuters, an account in 2020 tweeted, “COVID came from China and the VACCINE also came from China, don’t trust China!” The campaign also pushed the narrative that China’s vaccines were “haram” — or forbidden under Islamic law — because of a pig derivative in the ingredients. Former military officials who spoke with Reuters ...

Until Dawn’s original actors will not star in its film adaptation

PlayStation Productions and Screen Gems have announced the cast for the upcoming movie adaptation of the interactive horror game Until Dawn. According to Deadline, the ensemble will include Ella Rubin, who stars alongside Anne Hathaway in Amazon Prime's The Idea of You, and Michael Cimino, who played Victor Salazar in Hulu's Love, Victor. Expats' Ji-young Yoo and Sitting in Bars with Cake's Odessa A'zion have also signed on to play characters in the game revolving around eight young adults who have to survive the night at a remote mountain lodge while being hunted by a killer. Supermassive Games got some pretty well-known actors to provide motion capture and voice acting for the game's characters, including Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere. They're no longer the right age to play their original roles, so it doesn't come as a surprise that they're not involved in the project. But since they're not unknown motion capture actors, the filmmakers are ...

The Cloud wins the AI infrastructure debate by default

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ANALYSIS: As artificial intelligence (AI) takes the world by storm, an old debate is reigniting: should businesses self-host AI tools or rely on the cloud? Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Arc now features a live calendar button to help you stay punctual for meetings

The Browser Company’s Arc, a web browser that aims to have a less cluttered user interface, launched a “Live Calendar” feature to ensure you never miss a call or run late to a meeting. The feature rolled out yesterday on Mac and is available in the latest Arc update with version 1.47.1. The new feature © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Posted from: this blog via Microsoft Flow .

Whatever Elon wants, Tesla gets

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images I generally find Elon Musk useful, in that he makes it clear which things in America are actually hard boundaries (contract law, maybe copyright law) and which are merely conventions (most everything else). You can take ketamine, smoke weed, ask your subordinates to have your babies, and run your companies like your own personal fiefdom; if you are wealthy and powerful enough, no one can stop you. Musk is entwined with his companies in a particularly unusual way. In the case of Tesla, he is probably responsible for its survival in a dicey period following the 2008 financial crisis. His involvement and fame have allowed Tesla to save significant money on advertising. For this service, Tesla shareholders voted him a massive pay package in 2018 — which was struck down by a judge in the state of Delaware, where Tesla is incorporated, because shareholders were not adequately informed that many of Tesla’s theoretically independent direc...