Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, is testing out a standalone iOS app for its chatbot, Grok, which was available only to X users until now. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Category: AI
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, Government & Policy
Sriram Krishnan named Trump’s senior policy advisor for AI
Incoming president Donald Trump has confirmed reports that Sriram Krishnan, until recently a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), will serve as senior policy advisor for AI at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Trump said in a statement that Krishnan will “help shape and coordinate AI policy across government, working with…
AI, anduril, Global IT News, Global Security News, Government & Policy, Palantir
Palantir and Anduril reportedly building a tech consortium to bid on defense contracts
Two big defense tech players, Palantir and Anduril, are talking to tech companies including SpaceX, OpenAI, Saronic, and Scale AI about forming a consortium to bid on Pentagon contracts, according to a report in the Financial Times. The goal, the FT says, is to challenge the dominance of “prime” defense contractors like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon,…
AI, ai alignment, AI research, ai safety, ChatGPT, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, TC
OpenAI trained o1 and o3 to ‘think’ about its safety policy
OpenAI announced a new family of AI reasoning models on Friday, o3, which the startup claims to be more advanced than o1 or anything else it’s released. These improvements appear to have come from scaling test-time compute, something we wrote about last month, but OpenAI also says it used a new safety paradigm to train…
AI, Biotech & Health, Everywhere Ventures, Global IT News, Global Security News, Hardware, Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory
Tetsuwan Scientific is making robotic AI scientists that can run experiments on their own
LLM models are already capable of diagnosing scientific outputs, but, until now, had “no physical agency to actually perform” experiments. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, gpt-5, openai, Startups
OpenAI’s GPT-5 reportedly falling short of expectations
OpenAI’s efforts to develop its next major model, GPT-5, are running behind schedule, with results that don’t yet justify the enormous costs, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. This echoes an earlier report in The Information suggesting that OpenAI is looking to new strategies as GPT-5 might not represent as big…
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Europe, exit, Global Security News, nvidia, Run:AI, Startups
Nvidia clears regulatory hurdle to acquire Run:ai
Chip company Nvidia gets the green light from the European Union to complete its acquisition of Run:ai. The EU came to a unanimous decision today that Nvidia could go ahead with its acquisition of Israeli GPU orchestration platform Run:ai, according to reporting from Bloomberg. The European Commission determined that if the merger went through other…
AI, Gemini AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, google gemini, Languages of India
Google is expanding Gemini’s in-depth research mode to 40 languages
Google said Friday that the company is expanding Gemini’s latest in-depth research mode to 40 more languages. The company launched the in-depth research mode earlier this month, allowing Google One AI premium plan users to unlock an AI-powered research assistant of sorts. The in-depth function works in a multi-step method, from creating a research plan…
AI, AI startups, Artificial Intelligence (AI), evergreens, Fundraising, Global Security News, megarounds, Startups, Venture, venture capital
Here’s the full list of 49 US AI startups that have raised $100M or more in 2024
In the first half of 2024 alone, more than $35.5 billion was invested into AI startups globally. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, ChatGPT, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, TC
OpenAI announces new o3 model
OpenAI announced a new o3 model on Friday. In a tweet ahead of its final livestream for its “12 Days of OpenAI” event, the company confirmed previous reports that it is skipping o2 due to copyright concerns, and is releasing early evals for the o3 model. It appears to be a successor to its o1…
AI, ChatGPT, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, sam altman
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 20. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan; the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model; the…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News
Arizona’s getting an online charter school taught entirely by AI
The newest online-only school greenlighted by the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools comes with a twist: the academic curriculum will be taught entirely by AI. Charter schools — independently operated but publicly-funded — typically get greater autonomy compared to traditional public schools when it comes to how subjects are taught. But Unbound Academy’s application,…
agi house, AI, early stage, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, South Korea, TC, Venture
‘Genius Girl’ goes from inspiring a Korean TV show character to raising a $100 million AI fund
Principle Venture Partners will write early-stage checks anywhere from $100,000 to “single digit millions.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, Enterprise, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News, Mindgard, Security, spinouts, Startups
British university spinoff Mindgard protects companies from AI threats
AI creates a dilemma for companies: Don’t implement it yet, and you might miss out on productivity gains and other potential benefits; but do it wrong, and you might expose your business and clients to unmitigated risks. This is where a new wave of “security for AI” startups come in, with the premise that these…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, sam altman, Sequoia, TC, Venture
Sam Altman once owned some equity in OpenAI through Sequoia
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sat before Congress in 2023 to testify about the dangers of AI. He told American lawmakers at the time that he owns no equity in OpenAI, something he’s said many times, claiming he just runs the company because he loves it. However, Altman recently said he actually did have some equity…
AI, Application Security, Global Security News, imperva, Security Bloggers Network, web scraping
Navigating the New Era of AI Traffic: How to Identify and Block AI Scrapers
In the not-so-distant past, webmasters faced challenges from bots like Google’s search spiders, which diligently scanned websites to index content and provide the best search results for users. Fast forward to today, and we are witnessing a new breed of bot: Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Claude. These AI models are not just…
AI, ai-powered search, Funding, Fundraising, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, In Brief, Perplexity, report, rumor, Search, startup, Startups
Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500M funding round
AI-powered search engine Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500 million funding round, valuing the startup at $9 billion. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar, reports that the round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, and that it closed earlier in December. In an email to TechCrunch, a Perplexity spokesperson declined to comment. The mammoth tranche comes as…
agentic ai, AI, boon ai, Enterprise, fleets, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News, logistics
Boon raises $20.5M to build agentic AI tools for fleets
Logistics is the name of the game during the holiday season: Companies that can seal the deal and get people and things to the places they need to be, on time, rake it in this time of year. But behind that demand lies a huge amount of inefficiency and fragmentation. Are logistics businesses ready for…
AI, Asia Pacific, createai, Gaming, Global Security News, Media & Entertainment, Transportation, TuSimple
TuSimple pivot from self-driving to AI animation is complete with CreateAI rebrand
TuSimple has completed its pivot away from autonomous trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The company shall henceforth be known as CreateAI. The rebrand comes as TuSimple is embroiled in controversy over the company’s plans to move its remaining U.S. assets to China to fund the new business, which it initially announced…
AI, ai alignment, ai safety, Emmett Shear, Exclusive, Funding, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News, scoop, startup, Startups
Ex-Twitch CEO Emmett Shear is founding an AI startup backed by a16z
Emmett Shear, the former CEO of Twitch, is launching a new AI startup, TechCrunch has learned. The startup, called Stem AI, is currently in stealth. But public documents show it was incorporated in June 2023, and filed for a trademark in August 2023. Shear is listed as CEO on an incorporation document filed with the…
a16z, AI, AI coding tools, Anysphere, cursor, Exclusive, Global IT News, Global Security News, Startups, Thrive Capital
In just 4 months AI coding assistant Cursor raised another $100M at a $2.5B valuation led by Thrive, sources say
Anysphere, the developer of AI-powered coding assistant Cursor, raised $100 million Series B at a post-money valuation of $2.6 billion, according to sources with knowledge of the deal. The round is being led by returning investor Thrive Capital, the person said. This new funding comes just four months after Anysphere raised its $60 million Series…
3d printing, a16z, AI, Exclusive, Global IT News, Global Security News, markforged, Startups
Backed by a16z and NEA, Backflip raises $30M Series A to turn text into AI-generated designs
Led by Markforged veterans and backed by a16z, Backlip has raised $30M to democratize product design thanks to AI. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, Apps, Artificial Intelligence, Global IT News, Global Security News, Instagram, Meta, Social
Instagram teases AI tools for editing appearances, backgrounds in videos using prompts
Instagram head Adam Mosseri is teasing upcoming generative AI features for the social app that will allow creators to “change nearly any aspect” of their videos using text prompts. The editing tools will be powered by Meta’s Movie Gen AI model, and are expected to launch on the social network sometime next year, Mosseri said…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News
Google releases its own ‘reasoning’ AI model
Google has released what it’s calling a new “reasoning” AI model — but it’s in the experimental stages, and from our brief testing, there’s certainly room for improvement. The new model, called Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental (a mouthful, to be sure), is available in AI Studio, Google’s AI prototyping platform. A model card describes…
AI, Artificial Intelligence, CAPTCHA, Global Security News, Krispy Kreme, malware, Podcast, ramsomware, Ransomware, Smashing Security
Smashing Security podcast #398: Fake CAPTCHAs, Harmageddon, and Krispy Kreme
This week, we delve into the dark world of fake CAPTCHAs designed to hijack your computer. Plus, the AI safety clock is ticking down – is doomsday closer than we think? And to top it off, we uncover the sticky situation of Krispy Kreme facing a ransomware attack. All this and more is discussed in…
AI, Benchmark, decart, Fundraising, Gaming, GenAI, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, LLM, oasis, Startups
Decart adds another $32M at a $500M+ valuation
A young startup that emerged from stealth less than two months ago with big-name backers and bigger ambitions to make a splash in the world of AI is returning to the spotlight. Decart is building what its CEO and co-founder Dean Leitersdorf describes as “a fully vertically integrated AI research lab,” alongside enterprise and consumer…
AI, Crypto, Global IT News, Global Security News, goatse gospels, Marc Andreessen, truth terminal, upward spiral
The promise and warning of Truth Terminal, the AI bot that secured $50,000 in Bitcoin from Marc Andreessen
“I think the most ironic way the world could end would be if someone makes a memecoin about a man’s stretched anus and it brings about the singularity.” That’s Andy Ayrey, the founder of decentralized AI alignment research lab Upward Spiral, who is also behind the viral AI bot Truth Terminal. You might have heard…
AI, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News, Quantum, Software
BlueQubit raises $10M to take Quantum software into real-world applications
Integrating quantum computing into real-world computer applications is an ongoing problem, as the platforms are architected fundamentally differently. BlueQubit, a San Francisco-based quantum software startup founded by Stanford alumni, thinks it might have the answer. Its Quantum Software as a Service (QSaaS) platform attempts to tackle the above problem by providing end-users with access to…
AI, AI and Machine Learning in Security, AI and ML in Security, Cybersecurity, Featured, Global Security News, News, Security Boulevard (Original), security platforms, Social - Facebook, Social - LinkedIn, Social - X, Spotlight
Arctic Wolf Acquires Cylance Endpoint Security Platform to Further AI Ambitions
Arctic Wolf this week revealed it has acquired the Cyclance endpoint security platform from Blackberry for $160 million. The post Arctic Wolf Acquires Cylance Endpoint Security Platform to Further AI Ambitions appeared first on Security Boulevard.
AI, AI training, Exclusive, gemini, Global IT News, Global Security News
Exclusive: Google’s Gemini is forcing contractors to rate AI responses outside their expertise
Internal guidelines passed down from Google led to concerns that the AI model could be prone to inaccurate outputs on topics like healthcare. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, alignment, Anthropic, deception, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Research, study
New Anthropic study shows AI really doesn’t want to be forced to change its views
AI models can deceive, new research from Anthropic shows — pretending to have different views during training when in reality maintaining their original preferences. There’s no reason for panic now, the team behind the study said. Yet they said their work could be critical in understanding potential threats from future, more capable AI systems. “Our…
AI, Enterprise, Enterprise Search, Glean, Global IT News, Global Security News, Perplexity
Perplexity acquires Carbon to connect AI search to your work files
Perplexity acquired a small Seattle-based startup called Carbon which specializes in connecting AI systems to external data sources, the companies announced on Wednesday. CEO Aravind Srinivasan says this will allow Perplexity to search through your files and work messages in Notion, Google Docs, Slack, and other enterprise applications sometime in early 2025. Carbon specializes in…
AI, Artificial Intelligence, chips, Enterprise, Global IT News, Global Security News, Meta, Microsoft, nvidia
Microsoft bought nearly 500,000 Nvidia Hopper chips this year
Microsoft bought more than twice as many Nvidia Hopper chips this year than any of its biggest rivals. The tech giant bought 485,000 Nvidia Hopper chips across 2024 according to reporting from the Financial Times, which cited data from tech consultancy Omdia. To compare, Meta bought 224,000 of the same, flagship Nvidia chip this year.…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News
OpenAI brings ChatGPT to your landline
ChatGPT is coming to phones. No, not smartphones — landlines. Call 1-800-242-8478 (1-800-CHATGPT), and OpenAI’s AI-powered assistant will respond as of Wednesday afternoon. “[Our mission at] OpenAI is to make artificial general intelligence beneficial to all of humanity, and part of that is making it as accessible as possible to as many people as we…
AI, ChatGPT, Global IT News, Global Security News, newsletter, openai, TC, this week in AI, this week in ai newsletter
Who wants ‘Her’-like AI that gets stuff wrong?
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, smash the link and sign up here. Last week, OpenAI launched Advanced Voice Mode with Vision, which feeds real-time video to ChatGPT, allowing the chatbot to “see” beyond the confines of its app layer. The premise is that…
AI, Copilot, Enterprise, free, GitHub, GitHub Copilot, Global IT News, Global Security News, TC
GitHub launches a free version of its Copilot
Microsoft-owned GitHub today announced a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool, which will also now ship by default with Microsoft’s popular VS Code editor. Until now, most developers had to pay a monthly fee, starting at $10 per month, with only verified students, teachers, and open source maintainers getting free…
AI, animation, Creative, Explorer, film, Funding, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Media & Entertainment, odyssey, Pixar, TC, tool, world models
AI startup Oddysee’s new tool can generate photorealistic 3D worlds
Odyssey, a startup founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, is developing an AI-powered tool that can transform text or an image into a 3D rendering. The tool, dubbed Explorer, is similar in some ways to the so-called world models recently demoed by DeepMind, World Labs, and Israeli upstart Decart. Given a caption like “A…
AI, Exclusive, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News, Gusto, Hauler Hero, SaaS, servicetitan, Startups, TC, waste management
Hauler Hero wants to bring waste management software into the 21st century
After nearly four years of working in sales at tradesperson software company ServiceTitan, Mark Hoadley (pictured above) was looking for a change and to potentially start something of his own in a similar industry. Hoadley’s brother-in-law, and now co-founder, Ben Sikma, was working on M&A in the waste management space at the time. Sikma discovered…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, In Brief, nonprofit, openai, report
OpenAI may pay its nonprofit arm ‘billions of dollars’ in conversion to for-profit
OpenAI’s transition away from a for-profit corporation that’s governed by a nonprofit board is well underway — and the nonprofit could be compensated royally for it. That’s according to The New York Times, which reports that OpenAI is in discussions to pay the nonprofit billions of dollars for it to cede control. There’s pressure to…
AI, Europe, Global Security News, privacy
EU privacy body weighs in on some tricky GenAI lawfulness questions
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) published an opinion on Wednesday that explores how AI developers might use personal data to develop and deploy AI models, such as large language models (LLMs), without falling foul of the bloc’s privacy laws. The Board plays a key steering role in the application of these laws, issuing guidance…
AI, Apps, artifical intelligence, CAA, Celebs, Global IT News, Global Security News, YouTube
YouTube to test a way for creators and celebrities to find AI-generated content using their likeness
YouTube is partnering with the Creative Artists Agency (CAA) to help celebrities, athletes, and creators identify content that uses their AI-generated likeness on the platform. The tool, which YouTube will begin testing early next year, will let these professionals submit requests for the removal of their AI-generated likeness. YouTube will first make the tool available for…
agentic ai, AI, AI and ML in Security, Copilot, Cybersecurity, Global Security News, Security Boulevard (Original), Social - Facebook, Social - LinkedIn, Social - X
The Biggest Risks of AI Apps, Agents and Copilots – and How to Combat Them
Remember, there is no free lunch with AI. The upsides are tremendous, but security cannot be an afterthought. The post The Biggest Risks of AI Apps, Agents and Copilots – and How to Combat Them appeared first on Security Boulevard.
AI, bootstrapping, Global IT News, Global Security News, Otterly.AI, seo, Startups
AI is burying company web sites in search results, but Otterly.AI thinks it can help
Many sites saw their organic traffic decline in 2024, in big part due to the rise of AI-generated search results. Many queries no longer lead to click-throughs, and even when users click, it is hard for companies to get more context on searches made within apps like ChatGPT or Perplexity. The answer to this problem…
AI, Databricks, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News, IPOs, Venture
‘It’s dumb to IPO this year’: Databricks CEO explains why he’s waiting to go public
Databricks just closed one of the largest funding rounds ever, raising a staggering $10 billion in fresh capital. Naturally, technology investors were quick to ask what this means for the company’s highly anticipated IPO. During an event in San Francisco on Tuesday night, Databricks CEO Ali Ghodsi explained why he’s waiting until at least 2025…
AI, doj, Exclusive, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, Perplexity, Startups
The DOJ wants a Perplexity executive to testify in its Google antitrust case
The US government is calling on a Perplexity executive to help make its case that Google is a monopolist. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, AI agents, Artificial Intelligence, Enterprise, Global IT News, Global Security News, Salesforce
Salesforce plans to hire 2,000 people to sell its AI products
Cloud software giant Salesforce looks to hire thousands of new sales people to sell its AI tools to customers. The company plans to hire 2,000 new sales representatives, according to CNBC, which cited remarks from CEO Marc Benioff at a company event Tuesday. This doubles the hiring plans that Benioff told Bloomberg last month. Benioff…
AI, Artificial Intelligence, ChatGPT, Global Security News, google gemini, OnlyFans, openai, Podcast, robot, The AI Fix
The AI Fix #29: AI on OnlyFans, and the bot that wants to be a billionaire
In episode 29 of The AI Fix, an AI company makes the bold step of urging us to “stop hiring humans”, Graham is wrong about GB AI, parents prepare their kids for the imminent Moxie-mageddon, Google releases Gemini 2.0, and a robot is found dead at work and nobody knows why. Graham inspects the AI…
AI, api, Dev, Developer, generative ai, generative media, generative video, Global IT News, Global Security News, Media & Entertainment, openai, sora
OpenAI says it has no plans for a Sora API — yet
OpenAI says it has no plans to release an API for Sora, its AI model that can generate reasonably realistic videos when provided with a text description or reference image. During an AMA with members of OpenAI’s dev team, Romain Huet, head of developer experience at OpenAI, said that a Sora API isn’t in the…
AI, down rounds, Global IT News, Global Security News, recapitalization, Startups, Tribeca Venture Partners, Valuations, venture capital
AI boom masks fundraising struggles for non-AI startups
Earlier this year, IVP general partner Tom Loverro, proclaimed that the post-pandemic downturn is over, and companies that made it this far should prioritize growth over cost-cutting. Yet, the companies still struggling to raise their next round of financing at a higher valuation or survive altogether could still be in the thousands, according to Brian…
AI, Apps, coda, Global IT News, Global Security News, grammarly, Startups
Grammarly acquires productivity startup Coda, brings on new CEO
Grammarly is acquiring productivity startup Coda, the company announced on Tuesday. As part of the deal, Coda’s CEO and co-founder Shishir Mehrotra will become the new CEO of Grammarly. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. The acquisition will help turn Grammarly’s AI assistant into an “AI productivity platform” thanks to the addition…
AI, api, developers, Devs, generativ ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, gpt-4o, o1, openai, realtime api
OpenAI brings its o1 reasoning model to its API — for certain developers
OpenAI is bringing o1, its “reasoning” AI model, to its API — but only for certain developers to start. Starting today, o1 will begin rolling out to devs in OpenAI’s “tier 5” usage category, the company said. To qualify for tier 5, developers have to spend at least $1,000 with OpenAI and have an account…
AI, ChatGPT, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, sam altman
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 23. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan; the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model; the…
AI, Cassava Technologies, Enterprise, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google
Google joins $90M investment into Cassava to bolster Africa’s digital infrastructure
With cloud spend continuing to surge, tech companies are scrambling to meet demand for the necessary infrastructure, with the growing need for AI compute only adding fuel to the fire. By way of example, Microsoft and BlackRock have created a $30 billion fund to support new data centers and energy infrastructure for the burgeoning AI…
AI, automated decisioning, automation decisions, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, Government & Policy, high risk, terms, terms of use
Google says customers can use its AI in ‘high-risk’ domains, so long as there’s human supervision
Google has changed its terms to clarify that customers can deploy its generative AI tools to make “automated decisions” in “high-risk” domains, like healthcare, so long as there’s a human in the loop. According to the company’s updated Generative AI Prohibited Use Policy, published on Tuesday, customers may use Google’s generative AI to make “automated…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, Government & Policy
UK consults on opt-out model for training AIs on copyrighted content
The U.K. government is consulting on an opt-out copyright regime for AI training that would require rights holders to take active steps if they don’t want their intellectual property to become free AI training fodder. The rise of generative AI models that are trained on vast quantities of data has brought intellectual property concerns to…
ABM AI, ABM Technology Group, Advanced Business Methods, AI, Channel Insider, channel partner, Global IT News, Global Security News, Huntress, IRONSCALES, IT, IT Channel, Katie Bavoso, Managed Services, MSP, Partner POV, Partners, Pax8, Podcast, SentinelOne, Video, video podcast, Zac Paulson
Video: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly Of AI With ABM Technology Group
In Part 2 of this interview, Zac Paulson, Director of Product and Strategy at ABM Technology Group, explains to Channel Insider: Partner POV host Katie Bavoso the unfortunate trend of clients accepting a cybersecurity strategy and related solutions only after they’ve had a breach or close call. He says it’s driven his business to not…
AI, ai coding, ai coding assistant, code assist, coding assistant, Dev, Developer, Enterprise, gemini, gemini code assist, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, google cloud
Code Assist, Google’s enterprise-focused coding assistant, gets third-party tools
Google on Tuesday announced support for third-party tools in Gemini Code Assist, its enterprise-focused AI code completion service. Code Assist launched in April as a rebrand of a similar service Google offered under its now-defunct Duet AI branding. Available through plug-ins for popular dev environments like VS Code and JetBrains, Code Assist is powered by Google’s Gemini…
AI, Big Data, big data analytics, data, Databricks, Enterprise, Funding, Fundraising, Global Security News, In Brief
Databricks raises $10B as it barrels toward an IPO
Databricks, the data analytics platform, has raised $10 billion in a funding round that values the company at $62 billion (up from $43 billion). Backers include Thrive Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, GIC, and Iconiq Growth. The round is one of the largest venture rounds in history, and will drive future future mergers and acquisitions,…
AI, ai models, Cohere, Exclusive, Global IT News, Global Security News, Palantir
Cohere is quietly working with Palantir to deploy its AI models
The Canadian AI startup has quietly partnered with Palantir to put Cohere’s models in use with unnamed Palantir customers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, Artificial Intelligence, bot, bots, colin angle, familiar machines & magic, familiar machines and magic, Funding, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News, Healthcare, home robotics, home robots, iRobot, robotics, Startups
iRobot co-founder’s new home robot startup hopes to raise $30M
Colin Angle, one of the co-founders of Roomba maker iRobot, is raising cash for a home robotics venture. A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reveals that Angle’s new company, Familiar Machines & Magic, is trying to raise $30 million. So far, it has raised $15 million from a group of eight investors.…
AI, Apps, ChatGPT, chatgpt search, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, Search, web search
OpenAI brings its AI-powered web search tool to more ChatGPT users
ChatGPT Search, OpenAI’s AI-powered web search experience, is now live for all ChatGPT users — with several new features in tow. By default, ChatGPT will automatically determine which questions to route through ChatGPT Search, or users can tap a new “Search the web” icon in the ChatGPT interface. ChatGPT Search shows summarized answers from different…
AI, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, google labs, imagen 3
Google experiments with a new image generator that remixes three images into one creation
Google Labs, Google’s experimental arm, is testing a new image generator called Whisk. This tool allows people to prompt with images instead of text, allowing them to remix a photo by altering the subject, scene, and style. Whisk uses Google’s image-generation model, Imagen 3, to combine three images: one for the subject, another for the…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News
YouTube creators can now allow third-party companies to train AI models on their content
Google says that it’ll soon begin to allow YouTube creators and rightsholders to let third-party companies including OpenAI, Apple, and Meta to use their videos to train AI models. “Over the next few days, creators and rights holders can choose to allow third-party companies to use their content to train AI models directly in Studio…
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Creators, Global IT News, Global Security News, Media & Entertainment, YouTube
YouTube will now let creators opt out of third-party AI training
YouTube on Monday announced it will give creators more choice over how third parties can use their content to train their AI models. Starting today, creators and rights holders will be able to flag for YouTube if they’re permitting specific third-party AI companies to train models on the creator’s content. From a new setting within…
AI, Artificial Intelligence, Creators, Global IT News, Global Security News, Media & Entertainment, YouTube
YouTube will now let creators opt into third-party AI training
YouTube on Monday announced it will give creators more choice over how third parties can use their content to train their AI models. Starting today, creators and rights holders will be able to flag for YouTube if they’re permitting specific third-party AI companies to train models on the creator’s content. From a new setting within…
AI, generative ai, glasses, Global IT News, Global Security News, Hardware, live ai, live translation, Meta, meta ai, multimodal ai, ray-ban meta, Shazam, SMART Glasses
Meta updates its smart glasses with real-time AI video
Meta’s Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are getting several new AI-powered upgrades, including the ability to have an ongoing conversation and translate between languages. Ray-Ban Meta owners in Meta’s early access program for the U.S. and Canada can now download firmware v11, which adds “live AI.” First unveiled this fall, live AI lets wearers continuously converse…
AI, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Global Security News, regulation, Regulatory Compliance, Security Boulevard (Original), Social - Facebook, Social - LinkedIn, Social - X
Why We Should Insist on Future-Proofing Cybersecurity Regulatory Frameworks
There are concerns around the future adaptability and efficacy of regulatory frameworks, particularly among the developer community. The post Why We Should Insist on Future-Proofing Cybersecurity Regulatory Frameworks appeared first on Security Boulevard.
AI, generative ai, generative media, generative video, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, google deepmind, image generator, imagefx, Imagen, imagen 3, Media & Entertainment, Veo, veo 2, video generator, videofx
Google DeepMind unveils a new video model to rival Sora
Google DeepMind, Google’s flagship AI research lab, wants to beat OpenAI at the video generation game — and it might just, at least for a little while. On Monday, DeepMind announced Veo 2, a next-gen video-generating AI and the successor to Veo, which powers a growing number of products across Google’s portfolio. Veo 2 can…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, neurips
NeurIPS keynote speaker apologizes for reference to Chinese student
A speaker at the annual NeurIPS AI conference has drawn criticism — not for her opinions about AI, but the way she referred to a Chinese student. During her keynote presentation on “How to optimize what matters most,” MIT Media Lab Professor Rosalind Picard (pictured above) included a slide quoting an excuse given by a…
AI, AI agents, evergreens, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News
What exactly is an AI agent?
Regardless of how they’re defined, the agents are for helping complete tasks in an automated way with as little human interaction as possible. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, david sacks, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Global IT News, Global Security News, Government & Policy, Marc Andreessen, TC
Trump’s Silicon Valley advisers have AI ‘censorship’ in their crosshairs
President-elect Donald Trump has surrounded himself with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs — including Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks — who are now advising him on technology and other issues. When it comes to AI, this crew of technologists is fairly aligned on the need for rapid development and adoption of AI throughout the U.S.…
AI, Elon Musk, Global IT News, Global Security News, Government & Policy, Meta, openai, Startups
Meta asks California AG to block OpenAI’s conversion to for-profit
Facebook’s parent company Meta is supporting Elon Musk’s effort to block OpenAI’s conversion from a non-profit company into a for-profit one. As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Meta sent a letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta arguing that allowing the shift would have “seismic implications for Silicon Valley.” And while the company asked…
AI, Artificial Intelligence (AI), evergreens, Global IT News, Global Security News, world models
What are AI ‘world models,’ and why do they matter?
World models, also known as world simulators, are being touted by some as the next big thing in AI. AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs has raised $230 million to build “large world models,” and DeepMind hired one of the creators of OpenAI’s video generator, Sora, to work on “world simulators.” (Sora was released on…
a16z, AI, Artificial Intelligence (AI), david sacks, Global IT News, Global Security News, Marc Andreessen, sam altman, Venture
Why Marc Andreessen was ‘very scared’ after meeting with the Biden administration about AI
What scared him most was what some said about the government’s role in AI, and what he described as a young staff who were “out for blood. ” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, AI chatbots, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, hiring, Klarna, TC
Klarna’s CEO says it stopped hiring thanks to AI but still advertises many open positions
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski recently told Bloomberg TV that his company essentially stopped hiring a year ago and credited generative AI for enabling this massive workforce reduction. However, despite Siemiatkowski’s bullishness on AI, the company is not relying entirely on AI to replace human workers who leave, as open job listings — for more humans…
AI, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, reasoning, reasoning models, Research
‘Reasoning’ AI models have become a trend, for better or worse
Call it a reasoning renaissance. In the wake of the release of OpenAI’s o1, a so-called reasoning model, there’s been an explosion of reasoning models from rival AI labs. In early November, DeepSeek, an AI research company funded by quantitative traders, launched a preview of its first reasoning algorithm, DeepSeek-R1. That same month, Alibaba’s Qwen…
AI, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Grok, grok-2, Social, X, xAI
X gains a faster Grok model and a new ‘Grok button’
XAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, may be embroiled in an escalating lawsuit with OpenAI. But that’s not stopping it from shipping new products — on a Friday night, no less. This evening, xAI revealed that it has begun to roll out an upgraded version of its flagship Grok 2 chatbot model to all users on…
AGI, AI, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Ilya Sutskever, In Brief, openai, safe superintelligence, ssi, superintelligence
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever believes superintelligent AI will be ‘unpredictable’
OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever spoke on a range of topics at NeurIPS, the annual AI conference, Friday afternoon before accepting an award for his contributions to the field. Sutskever gave his predictions for “superintelligent” AI, AI more capable than humans at many tasks, which he believes will be achieved at some point. Superintelligent AI will…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, TC
OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment
A former OpenAI employee, Suchir Balaji, was recently found dead in his San Francisco apartment, according to the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In October, the 26-year-old AI researcher raised concerns about OpenAI breaking copyright law when he was interviewed by The New York Times. “The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner…
AI, content moderation, Global IT News, Global Security News, Pavel Durov, social media, TC, Telegram
AI helps Telegram remove 15 million suspect groups and channels in 2024
Telegram launched a new page touting its moderation efforts, which have spiked since its founder’s arrest. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, Artificial Intelligence (AI), carbon capture and storage, CCS, Climate, data centers, Enterprise, exxon, exxonmobil, Global IT News, Global Security News, power plant
Exxon can’t resist the AI power gold rush
The oil and gas company announced that it’s planning to build a massive power plant for data centers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, project astra
See what Google’s Project Astra AR glasses can do (for a select few beta testers)
Google has released a prototype of Project Astra’s AR glasses for testing in the real world. The glasses are part of Googles long-term plan to one day have hardware with augmented reality and multimodal AI capabilities. In the meantime, they will be releasing demos to get the attention of consumers, developers, and their competition. Along…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News
OpenAI fires back against Musk, claims he wanted an OpenAI for-profit
OpenAI fired back at billionaire Elon Musk on Friday, publishing a series of emails that the company claims show Musk’s lawsuit against it is misleading. Musk’s legal battle with OpenAI, which has been going on for months, at its core accuses the company of abandoning its original nonprofit mission to make the fruits of its…
AI, Apps, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, Google NotebookLM, notebooklm
Google’s NotebookLM now lets you to talk to its AI podcast hosts
A few months ago, Google’s NotebookLM note-taking app debuted an Audio Overviews feature that generates a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on information you have shared with the app. Now, NotebookLM is rolling out the ability for users to interact with the AI podcast hosts. The idea behind Audio Overviews and the AI hosts…
AI, ChatGPT, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, sam altman
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 23. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan, the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model, the…
AI, ChatGPT, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, sam altman
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 23. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan, the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model, the…
AI, ChatGPT, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, sam altman
OpenAI 2024 event: How to watch new ChatGPT product reveals and demos
OpenAI is in the holiday spirit, it seems. The ChatGPT series of reveals, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be streamed live at 10 a.m. PT each weekday through December 23. So far, we’ve seen the launch of ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI’s $200 per month subscription plan, the full version of its “reasoning” o1 model, the…
AI, amd, Enterprise, Funding, Fundraising, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, In Brief, Liquid AI, liquid neural networks, startup, Startups
Liquid AI just raised $250M to develop a more efficient type of AI model
Liquid AI, an AI startup co-founded by robotics luminary Daniela Rus, has raised $250 million in a Series A led by AMD. Per Bloomberg, the round values Liquid AI at over $2 billion. Liquid AI aims to build general-purpose AI systems powered by a relatively new type of AI model called a liquid neural network. Liquid…
agentspace, AI, Apps, Enterprise, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, google cloud, Media & Entertainment, notebooklm
Google debuts NotebookLM for enterprises
Google’s bringing its viral NotebookLM app to the enterprise via a new service for Google Cloud customers, Agentspace. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, ChatGPT, Enterprise, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Kubernetes, openai, Outage, postmortem
OpenAI blames its massive ChatGPT outage on a ‘new telemetry service’
OpenAI is blaming one of the longest outages in its history on a “new telemetry service” gone awry. On Wednesday, OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT; its video generator, Sora; and its developer-facing API experienced major disruptions starting at around 3 p.m. Pacific. OpenAI acknowledged the problem soon after — and began working on a fix.…
AI, disinformation, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News
As AI-fueled disinformation explodes, here comes the startup counterattack
With disinformation on the rise, especially given the explosion of AI, companies are just as vulnerable to its effects as individuals. Refute is a London-based startup that detects and responds to disinformation on behalf of these commercial entities. It’s now raised a £2.3 million ($2.9 million) pre-seed round led by UK investors Playfair and Episode 1.…
AI, AI chatbots, character.ai, discord, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Government & Policy, privacy, Safety, Social
Texas AG is investigating Character.AI, other platforms over child safety concerns
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday launched an investigation into Character.AI and 14 other technology platforms over child privacy and safety concerns. The investigation will assess whether Character.AI — and other platforms that are popular with young people, including Reddit, Instagram and Discord — conform to Texas’ child privacy and safety laws. The investigation…
AI, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Microsoft, open source, phi-4, Research
Microsoft debuts Phi-4, a new generative AI model, in research preview
Microsoft has announced the newest addition to its Phi family of generative AI models. Called Phi-4, the model is improved in several areas over its predecessors, Microsoft claims — in particular math problem solving. That’s partly the result of improved training data quality. Phi-4 is available in very limited access as of Thursday night: only…
AI, deepfakes, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Media & Entertainment, Meta, meta video seal, open source, watermarking
Meta debuts a tool for watermarking AI-generated videos
Meta is open sourcing a method to watermark AI-generated videos. Called Meta Video Seal, the company says it’s robust against compression and edits. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, Apps, Enterprise, evergreens, gemini, Gemini Pro, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, google gemini
Google Gemini: Everything you need to know about the generative AI models
Gemini is Google’s long-promised, next-gen generative AI model family. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, ChatGPT, evergreens, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 has been a big year for OpenAI, from its…
AI, AI (Artificial Intelligence), AI hallucination, AI Misinformation generative AI, Application Security, artifical intelligence, Artifical Stupidity, Artificial Artificiality, Artificial Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Artificial Intelligence (AI)/Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence Cybersecurity, artificial intelligence in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence in security, artificial intellignece, Artificial Stupidity, Cloud Security, CVE, CVE (Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures), Cybersecurity, cybersecurity risks of generative ai, Data Privacy, Data Security, DevOps, Endpoint, Featured, Gen AI, GenAI, genai-for-security, generative ai, generative ai gen ai, Generative AI risks, generative artificial intelligence, Global Security News, Governance, Risk & Compliance, Humor, Identity & Access, Incident Response, Industry Spotlight, IoT & ICS Security, Large Language Model, large language models, Large Language Models (LLM), Large language models (LLMs), LLM, LLM Platform Abuse, llm security, Mobile Security, Most Read This Week, Network Security, News, Popular Post, SB Blogwatch, Security Boulevard (Original), Seth Larson, Social - Facebook, Social - LinkedIn, Social - X, Social Engineering, Spotlight, Threats & Breaches, vulnerabilities
AI Slop is Hurting Security — LLMs are Dumb and People are Dim
Artificial stupidity: Large language models are terrible if you need reasoning or actual understanding. The post AI Slop is Hurting Security — LLMs are Dumb and People are Dim appeared first on Security Boulevard.
AI, data breach, Data loss, Global Security News, Guest blog, Operating Systems, privacy
AI chatbot startup WotNot leaks 346,000 files, including passports and medical records
Wotnot, An Indian AI startup that helps businesses build custom chatbots, has leaked almost 350,000 sensitive files after the data was left unsecured on the web. Read more in my article on the Hot for Security blog.
AI, ChatGPT, Elon Musk, Global Security News, James Bond, jeff bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, openai, Podcast, Tesla, The AI Fix, Zoom
The AI Fix #27: Why is AI full of real-life Bond villains?
In episode 27 of The AI Fix, robots catch a ball, lead a revolt, and enjoy a juicy steak. Or do they? Graham struggles with a Micro USB cable, a student struggles with a school’s anti-AI rules, and OpenAI’s Sora video generation AI is leaked by hacktivists. Graham circles back into an outside-the-box deep-dive where…
AI, ChatGPT, Global Security News, Google, Law & order, Microsoft, openai, Podcast, privacy, robot, The AI Fix
The AI Fix #26: Would AI kill sentient robots, and is water wet?
In episode 26 of The AI Fix, an AI does surgery on pork chops, holographic Jesus wants your consent to use cookies, Mark opens the pod bay doors, our hosts discover OpenAI’s couch potato health coach, and Graham finds a robot made of drain pipes. Graham pits Mark against an AI in a morality quiz…