Technical

Retym, a U.S. chipmaker with Israeli roots, has raised a fresh $75 million series D led by James Kuklinski of Spark Capital. Existing investors — Mayfield’s Navin Chaddha and Kleiner Perkins’ Mamoon Hamid — also participated, bringing its total raised to $180 million, it says. Retym is another startup benefiting from AI’s glow-up. It’s chips […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/KD1VbG8

Oracle has denied at least one breach, despite evidence to the contrary, as it begins notifying healthcare customers of a separate patient data breach. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3HFMDSU

Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker’s suite of AI-powered tools and features, is gaining new features. Most notably, the company on Monday announced that Apple device owners will now be able to take advantage of Priority Notifcations, which allows Apple’s AI to highlight your most time-sensitive notifications in a new format. Other updates are coming to […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/rXvO8xh

Apple is developing a new version of its Health app that includes an AI coach that can advise users on how to get healthier, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Gurman first reported that something like this was in the works back in 2023, but now he says development is moving ahead, with the new features […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/VSuIJXe

Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas recently took to Reddit to address users’ product complaints and reassure them that the company is not under serious financial pressure. Srinivas seemed to be responding, in part, to a user theory that the company is “doing horribly financially” and “making lots of changes to cut costs.” As an example, the […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/IGvhV9S

It’s been 25 years since China Miéville stepped into the literary spotlight with his novel “Perdido Street Station.” Combining elements of science fiction, fantasy, and horror, the novel introduced readers to the fantastically complex city of New Crobuzon, filled with insect-headed khepri, cactus-shaped cactacae, and terrifying slake moths that feed on their victims’ dreams. It […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/8FPS6Uq

When Twin came out of stealth in January 2024, AI agents were more of a theoretical concept than a reality. Today, the Paris-based company is releasing an automation agent in partnership with Qonto, the fintech startup that offers business bank accounts to more than 500,000 customers across Europe. If you want to automate repetitive tasks, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/VIX3tUc

An excerpt from the upcoming book “The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future” offers new details about why OpenAI’s board briefly fired CEO Sam Altman back in 2023. Written by Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey, the book claims the nonprofit’s board members became increasingly concerned after learning about issues […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vepyBhH

Amazon announced this week that Jennifer Salke is stepping down as the head of Amazon MGM Studios — a move that could indicate high-level dissatisfaction with the company’s streaming strategy over the past few years. To be clear, Salke’s boss Mike Hopkins (the head of Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video) praised her work in […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/AoNbBJw

‘Tesla Takedown’ organizers have promised their biggest day of global action this weekend, encouraging thousands to protest outside Tesla showrooms, dealerships, and even charging stations to peacefully object to Elon Musk’s role in slashing government spending.  As Tesla protests have spread, so has the backlash. Activists holding up signs are being conflated with masked vandals […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9FeXuVr

Prolific fintech investor and QED Investors co-founder Frank Rotman said Friday that he will transition to a partner emeritus role by year’s end to focus on founding his own startups. But those startups won’t necessarily be financial technology companies. In a post on X, Rotman – who helped start QED in 2007 – declared that […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9uiNY7l

Nintendo announced on Friday that its live-action “The Legend of Zelda” movie will premiere on March 26, 2027. It’s a little weird to announce this the day after a Nintendo Direct livestream, where the gaming company usually unloads all of its recent news. But that was intentional. The company wants fans to download its new […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/IBxSHXD

Certification platform Certiverse raised an $11 million Series A led by Cherryrock Capital, it announced this week. The company was founded by Ruben Garcia, Pablo Meyer, and Federico Lopez in 2023. It lets organizations develop certification exams at, its founders say, far less cost than traditional methods.  Certifications are an age-old method to gain technical […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QA2br3u

President Trump is slapping 25% tariffs on all cars imported to the United States, including from our immediate North American neighbors. He’s also placed a 25% tariff on certain parts used to build cars. It’s a decision that will likely supercharge the cost of new and used cars, but it’s also a gift to Tesla, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/w2tkPRD

HoneyBook, a startup last valued in late 2021 at $2.4 billion, told TechCrunch that it hit $140 million in annualized recurring revenue (ARR). This makes HoneyBook one of the few startups with peak-VC-era valuations to report their financials after the market cooled.  Many startups that raised in 2021 and have not raised since then remain […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qSOrtIT

Meta-owned Instagram is copying yet another feature from TikTok. This time, it’s the ability for users to play a reel at 2x speed by long pressing on the right or left side of their screen. When TikTok first launched, videos could only be 15 seconds long. As the years passed and TikTok rose in popularity, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/VB6gIPa

OpenAI is embracing rival Anthropic’s standard for connecting AI assistants to the systems where data resides. In a post on X on Wednesday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said that OpenAI will add support for Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol, or MCP, across its products, including the desktop app for ChatGPT. MCP is an open-source standard that […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ap3GvJQ

Elon Musk’s rocket company SpaceX has allowed Chinese investors to buy stakes as long as the funds are routed through the Cayman Islands or other offshore hubs, according to reporting from ProPublica.  SpaceX is a defense contractor for the Pentagon, one that handles sensitive work like building a classified spy satellite network. Investment from China […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/5tLw6dT

One academic who reviewed the dataset said it was "clear evidence" that China, or its affiliates, wants to use AI to improve repression. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/WCawcJf

Bradley Tusk, co-founder and managing partner at Tusk Venture Partners, told TechCrunch in today’s episode of Equity that VC as we know it is dead. And it has been for the last four years.  “Maybe there’s some VC that I’ve never heard of that’s awash with liquidity the last couple of years, but we haven’t […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/y80lTV7

The startup uses AI to quickly search for minerals over wide areas, identifying promising potential deposits for exploration. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QdzOjW0

Instagram on Tuesday announced a new school partnership program aimed at expediting the handling of moderation reports submitted by verified school accounts. The program is currently available to all middle and high schools in the U.S. It allows schools to report posts or student accounts that may violate the app’s guidelines directly to Instagram. These […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/JCiQgOR

Apple has announced that its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will kick off on June 9 and run through June 13. The tech giant’s event is where it offers a look at its upcoming versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, as well as new tools for its developers. As in past years, the […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/nWS2Lh1

Tornado Cash was used to launder billions in stolen crypto, according to the Treasury. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/pkjm8hz

Brooklyn-based electric vehicle charging infrastructure startup Revel on Monday launched its first fast-charging station in San Francisco, kicking off its plans to expand across the Bay Area over the next year.  “For years, Revel has operated the largest, fastest, and most reliable fast-charging network in New York City,” Frank Reig, co-founder and CEO of Revel, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/14iXBeE

Over the past decade, Dubai-based Network International has become one of the dominant payment processors across the Middle East and Africa, thanks in part to a pair of acquisitions. However, many large incumbents can fall prey to slower innovation, opening the door for smaller, faster-moving startups. The latest development is Enza, a fintech founded in […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/xSujQR3

Genetics testing company 23andMe has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the U.S. to initiate the sale of its assets. Alongside the announcement, the company’s co-founder and CEO Anne Wojcicki separately said she is leaving the company to become an independent bidder for the company. “After a thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives, we have […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/GvKaHqo

The Bot Company, the robotics startup founded by former Cruise co-founder and CEO Kyle Vogt, has raised $150 million in a round led by Greenoaks, according to Reuters, citing unnamed sources. Vogt founded the startup with Paril Jain, who led the AI tech team at Tesla, and former Cruise software engineer Luke Holoubek. Vogt did […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sSX0tJ7

In 2010, a programmer who was mining bitcoin famously made the comically expensive mistake of spending 10,000 bitcoin on two pizzas. As of this writing, those coins would be worth $850 million dollars. While there are few comparisons to that kind of miscalculation, the prospect of adding interest payments to fast-food orders is raising concerns […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/iZQGRPb

Social network Bluesky, an alternative to X built on open source technologies, has scored a big win in terms of attracting notable users to its platform. The company on Sunday confirmed that former president Barack Obama has joined its service. Bluesky OOO Rose Wang replied to a post where someone wondered if the account posting […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/lAkqOuK

We may not have an agreed-upon definition of AI “agent” yet, but a multitude of startups want to create “agentic” tools to automate various tasks online. One such firm, Browser Use, has attracted a ton of interest from developers and investors thanks to its solution that makes websites more “readable” for AI agents. Browser Use […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/p0kUNTz

Jonah Peretti’s career to date has been defined by constant reinvention. As the founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, Peretti has been at the forefront of digital media for almost two decades, navigating changes as the once small startup transformed into, at one point, a multimedia powerhouse. But as the company grows older, one question lingers: […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TGMQIj0

Charlie Javice’s high-profile fraud trial has become a showcase of embarrassing missteps on both sides, with eyebrow-raising details about how JPMorgan Chase was allegedly deceived into buying her startup, Frank, for $175 million when it had just 300,000 customers instead of four million. Per a new WSJ article, one pivotal moment came when former Frank […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/U4hfGPC

In a blog post last July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that “selling access” to Meta’s openly available Llama AI models “isn’t [Meta’s] business model.” Yet Meta does make at least some money from Llama through revenue-sharing agreements, according to a newly unredacted court filing. The filing, submitted by attorneys for the plaintiffs in the […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ru60QUH

Valve removed a video game called Sniper: Phantom's Resolution from Steam after users reported that its free demo contained malware. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/YhXORnF

DeepSeek has gone viral. Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week after its chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeek’s AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques, have led Wall Street analysts — and technologists — to question whether the U.S. can maintain its […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/234WP6n

EV owners of GM vehicles like the Chevrolet Silverado EV and Cadillac Lyriq will now officially have access to Tesla’s Superchargers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/5J6ZFnx

Google is rolling out a new Gmail update that is designed to help you find the email you’re looking for more quickly. The company announced on Thursday that it will now use AI to consider factors like recency, most-clicked emails, and frequent contacts when surfacing emails based on your search query. Up until now, Gmail […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Ra29XBL

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said today that the service now has more than 1 billion active users. This number is up from last year’s reported 950 million monthly active users. Durov also noted that the company registered $547 million in profits last year. He had announced the company’s profitability in December but hadn’t provided any […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/8WqKiMu

The most problem-free EV charging networks in the U.S. right now are the ones built by Tesla and Rivian, according to a new survey from Consumer Reports. The publication surveyed 1,230 owners on their EV charging experiences between March 2024 and February 2024, and just 4% of the respondents said they experienced problems at Tesla’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sOf1U5n

Maju Kuruvilla, who left the CEO role of controversial one-click checkout startup Bolt last year, is back. He’s launching his own startup, focused on a different problem for online shoppers: what he calls “check-in.” When you click on an ad for something like a t-shirt, the experience afterwards can feel a little clunky. The website […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qAVEPIG

On the heels of its IPO filing, Swedish fintech giant Klarna announced on Monday that it will exclusively provide buy now, pay later loans for Walmart. The partnership with Walmart is one that rival Affirm had previously owned. Klarna will provide the loans to Walmart customers through OnePay, a fintech startup in which it owns […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/I6Aoq92

The constellation will keep a close eye on wildfires, eventually imaging nearly all of the Earth’s surface once every 20 minutes. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/np0tBTH

A broad coalition drawn from across the ranks of Europe’s tech industry is calling for “radical action” from European Union lawmakers to shrink reliance on foreign-owned digital infrastructure and services to bolster the bloc’s economic prospects, resilience, and security in increasingly fraught geopolitical times. In an open letter to European Commission president, Ursula von der […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/wsvpl5Y

After reporting in January that Apple is adding an “Air” option to its iPhone lineup, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is offering more details about the upcoming slimmer iPhone. The iPhone 17 Air will launch this fall, Gurman says — and like the MacBook Air, it will be thinner than standard models, while combining high-end and low-end […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ZivaTs7

Meta won a legal victory this week against Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former employee who recently published a memoir of her time at the company titled “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.” An arbitrator ruled that the company has made a valid argument that Wynn-Williams, who worked at Facebook (now Meta) […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yuOnwjk

Users on social media have discovered a controversial use case for Google’s new Gemini AI model: removing watermarks from images, including from images published by Getty Images and other well-known stock media outfits. Last week, Google expanded access to its Gemini 2.0 Flash model’s image generation feature, which lets the model natively generate and edit […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/JnbIKGw

Amazon Echo users will no longer have the option to process their Alexa requests locally, which means all of their voice recordings will be sent to the company’s cloud. Ars Technica reports that on Friday, Amazon sent an email to customers who have “Do Not Send Voice Recordings” enabled on their Echo smart speakers and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/u43KrcW

GTC, Nvidia’s biggest conference of the year, begins Monday and runs till Friday in San Jose. TechCrunch will be on the ground covering the news as it happens — and we’re expecting a healthy dose of announcements. CEO Jensen Huang will give a keynote address at the SAP Center on Tuesday at 10 a.m. Pacific, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/FD6Pjos

Social network Bluesky recently published a proposal on GitHub outlining new options it could give users to indicate whether they want their posts and data to be scraped for things like generative AI training and public archiving. CEO Jay Graber discussed the proposal earlier this week, while on-stage at South by Southwest, but it attracted […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/E7tCHar

Klein, a former AT&T technician turned whistleblower, exposed mass surveillance by the U.S. government in 2006. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1eYk84q

The new Netflix movie “The Electric State” depicts a world full of robots — but not robots as we know them. Directed by brothers Anthony and Joe Russo (who previously helmed two Avengers blockbusters, “Infinity War” and “Endgame”) for a reported budget of $320 million, “The Electric State” takes place in an alternate version of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TRVH9Ed

Amazon won't say if it will stop hosting data from three phone surveillance operations that spilled private data on millions of people. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1AoVN7M

Silicon Valley’s most storied startup accelerator, Y Combinator, held its Winter 2025 Demo Day on Wednesday, showcasing its latest batch of 160 startups. Some of Silicon Valley’s most successful startups – including Stripe, Airbnb, and Reddit – started out in a YC batch. Unsurprisingly, many of the startups in this batch are focused on building […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tHQVs0I

Manus, the viral AI “agent” platform from Chinese startup Butterfly Effect, has had an unintended side effect: raising the profile of another AI tool called Browser Use. Browser Use, which aims to make websites more accessible for agentic applications that perform tasks on a user’s behalf, has experienced explosive growth in the past week. Daily […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/10ZP3Lo

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vTUpigS

Geothermal resources have enormous potential to provide the sort of consistent power that data centers crave. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/gp7W8Df

Unlike AI competitors, DeepSeek’s founder Liang Wenfeng is in no hurry to get investment from outsiders. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/p81krfP

When Bluesky CEO Jay Graber walked on stage at SXSW 2025 for her keynote discussion, she wore a large black T-shirt with her hair pulled back into a bun. At first glance, it might appear as though she’s following the same playbook that so many women in tech leadership have played before: downplaying her femininity […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ltuKG4R

Cheaper, lighter, and denser: the trifecta defines an ideal battery. No one has devised a perfect cell quite yet, but one stealthy startup thinks it has found a new material that solves at least two of those challenges. Daqus Energy has been quietly operating for the past four months, refining a compound known as TAQ […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Hfqg9t2

A new WSJ report suggests that Saudi Arabia’s now eight-year-old Neom project — a futuristic, carbon-neutral, 105-mile-long linear city envisioned by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — has become a financial sinkhole. Plagued by delays and cost overruns, the country, which has already shelled out $50 billion, could reportedly face another 55 years of construction, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/UbkGZ67

Manus, an “agentic” AI platform that launched in preview last week, is generating more hype than a Taylor Swift concert. The head of product at Hugging Face called Manus “the most impressive AI tool I’ve ever tried.” AI policy researcher Dean Ball described Manus as the “most sophisticated computer using AI.” The official Discord server […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/6elEqLp

Faced with an aging population and labor shortages, Japanese businesses are increasingly relying on service robots to supplement their workforce, according to Bloomberg. Research firm Fuji Keizai projects the country’s service robot market to nearly triple by 2030, to ¥400 billion ($2.7 billion). Potentially driving that growth: The Recruit Works Institute projects that the country […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1qrD8oN

The CEO of Colossal, a startup that aims to use genetic editing techniques to bring back extinct species, including the wooly mammoth, assured audiences at SXSW that the company has no plans to create a real-life Jurassic Park — lest there was any doubt. “Modern conservation isn’t working […] and we’re gonna need a ‘de-extinction’ […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/SbWauD6

The US Department of Justice is still calling for Google to sell its web browser Chrome, according to a Friday court filing.  The DOJ first proposed that Google should sell Chrome last year, under then-President Joe Biden, but it seems to be sticking with that plan under the second Trump administration. The department is, however, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yjcknTK

A federal judge is allowing an AI-related copyright lawsuit against Meta to move forward, although he dismissed part of the suit. In Kadrey vs. Meta, authors including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Ta-Nehisi Coates have alleged that Meta has violated their intellectual property rights by using their books to train its Llama AI models, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/37NE15v

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re looking at OpenAI potentially charging $20,000 a month for a specialized AI agent, the unexpected return of early-internet darling Digg, a company genetically engineering mice to have mammoth-like fur, and more! Let’s do this. OpenAI could charge up to $20,000 per month for specialized AI “agents.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/8VQqGP5

xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has acquired a 1 million-square-foot property in Southwest Memphis to expand its AI data center footprint, according to a press release from the Memphis Chamber of Commerce. The new land will host infrastructure to complement xAI’s existing Memphis data center. “xAI’s acquisition of this property ensures we’ll remain at the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/CtX1oxL

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Sometimes problems are just that: problems. But often, they are also fodder. This week brought us a mix of startups facing adversity, sometimes of their own doing, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/FOdzvwp

With the rise of AI companions who serve as online friends or romantic interests, experts are questioning how the technology affects our real-world social connections and relationships. According to Kasley Killam, author of the social health-focused book “The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/X1AIGe3

On June 5, TechCrunch Sessions: AI will kick off — and you can be part of the industry-changing conversations that will be taking place. We have an open invitation for members of the AI community to lead breakout sessions and discussions with over 1,200 startup founders, VC leaders, and AI aficionados attending our newest event, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/MlvdPXz

Ryan Breslow is once again the CEO of Bolt, the fintech company told TechCrunch on Wednesday. Bolt shared a communication that recently went out to investors in which Breslow wrote that “following a challenging few years,” he had been reinstated as Bolt’s CEO with “unanimous approval” of the board of the one-click checkout company. Justin […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/oGAt1Oe

Experts note that this is just the first step for the alleged North Korean hackers to profit from the historic heist. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/L3biZgd

We still didn’t get a straight up definition of exactly what an AI agent is during Bret Taylor’s Mobile World Congress fireside chat in Barcelona on Tuesday. The Sierra founder and OpenAI board chair preferred to side-step CNN moderator Anna Stewart’s question asking how “agentic AI” is “any different to a GenAI chatbot” by suggesting […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/pTRzIZN

“There’s scarcely a part of the company that is unaffected by AI,” said Vishal Sharma, Amazon’s VP of Artificial General Intelligence, on Monday at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. He also dismissed the idea that open-source models might reduce compute needs and demurred over the question of whether European companies would change their GenAI strategies in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/wtTFxvh

Google is adding new features to its AI assistant, Gemini, that let users ask it questions using video and content on the screen in real time. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 in Barcelona, the company showed off a new “Screenshare” feature, which lets users share what’s on their phone’s screen with Gemini and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/JcbHLYB

Privacy-focused messaging app Signal has been flying high in the Dutch app stores this past month, sitting many days as the most downloaded free app on iOS and Android for all categories, per data from multiple app-tracking platforms such as Sensor Tower. The app has experienced surges in popularity through the years, often in response […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TK6tamh

Apple is struggling to rebuild Siri for the age of generative AI, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, who says the company might not release “a true modernized, conversational version of Siri” until iOS 20 comes out in 2027. That doesn’t mean there won’t be big Siri updates before then. A new version Siri will reportedly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/OjJe5Sc

With just a few words, AI models can be prompted to create a story, an image, or even a short film. But according to Weber Wong, these models are all “made by non-creatives for other non-creatives to feel creative.” In other words, they’re not built for actual creative professionals. That’s something Wong is hoping to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/CYZONax

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban waded into the latest government tech shake-up on Saturday, posting an unexpected offer of support for newly laid-off federal workers on the social network Bluesky. His message, which quickly gained traction, urged the displaced engineers and designers to turn the upheaval to their advantage. “If you worked for 18F and got […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zOyQ3Wl

Researchers have developed small robots that can work together as a collective that changes shape and even shifts between solid and “fluid-like” states — a concept that should be familiar to anyone still haunted by nightmares of the T-1000 robotic assassin from “Terminator 2.” A team led by Matthew Devlin of UC Santa Barbara described […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vFJXpkE

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek recently declared that its AI models could be very profitable — with some asterisks. In a post on X, DeepSeek boasted that its online services have a “cost profit margin” of 545%. However, that margin is calculated based on “theoretical income.” It discussed these numbers in more detail at the end […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/a2iEWbe