AI
News coverage on artificial intelligence and machine learning tech, the companies building them, and the ethical issues AI raises today. This encompasses generative AI, including large language models, text-to-image and text-to-video models; speech recognition and generation; and predictive analytics.
There’s no need to worry that your secret ChatGPT conversations were obtained in a recently reported breach of OpenAI’s systems. The hack itself, while troubling, appears to have been superficial…
We’re about four months away from TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place October 28 to 30 in San Francisco! We could not bring you this world-class event without our world-class partners…
Quantum Rise, a Chicago-based startup that does AI-driven automation for companies like dunnhumby (a retail analytics platform for the grocery industry), has raised a $15 million seed round from Erie…
Hiya, folks, and welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. This week in AI, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down “Chevron deference,” a 40-year-old ruling on federal agencies’ power that required…
TechCrunch Minute: YouTube makes it easier to report and take down AI deepfakes
It’s easier than ever to make a deepfake of another person’s voice or face, but at least YouTube is making some small changes that make…
Cloudflare analyzed AI bot and crawler traffic to fine-tune automatic bot detection models.
For the past couple of years, innovation has been accelerating in new materials development. And a new French startup called Altrove plans to play a role in this innovation cycle.…
Apiday leverages AI to save time for its customers. But like legacy consultants, it also offers human expertise.
Google totally dodges the question of how much energy is AI is using — perhaps because the answer is “way more than we’d care to say.”
Meta plans to bring more generative AI tech into games, specifically VR, AR and mixed reality games, as the company looks to reinvigorate its flagging metaverse strategy. According to a…
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News outlets are accusing Perplexity of plagiarism and unethical web scraping
In the age of generative AI, when chatbots can provide detailed answers to questions based on content pulled from the internet, the line between fair use and plagiarism, and between routine web scraping and unethical summarization, is a thin one. Perplexity AI is a startup that combines a search engine…
Figma disables its AI design feature that appeared to be ripping off Apple’s Weather app
The Make Design feature is available within Figma’s software and will generate UI (user interface) layouts and components from text prompts.
As the AI boom gobbles up power, Phaidra is helping companies manage datacenter power more efficiently
Electricity demand is booming on account of AI. In a May 2024 report, Goldman Sachs predicted that data centers will use 8% of the U.S.’s total power supply by 2030, up from…
Anthropic is launching a program to fund the development of new types of benchmarks capable of evaluating the performance and impact of AI models, including generative models like its own…
YouTube now lets you request removal of AI-generated content that simulates your face or voice
Simply submitting the request for a takedown doesn’t necessarily mean the content will be removed, however.
Meta changes its label from ‘Made with AI’ to ‘AI info’ to indicate use of AI in photos
After Meta started tagging photos with a “Made with AI” label in May, photographers complained that the social networking company had been applying labels to real photos where they had…
Investment app Robinhood is adding more AI features for investors with its acquisition of AI-powered research platform Pluto Capital, Inc. Announced on Monday, the company says that Pluto will allow…
RoboGrocery combines computer vision with a soft robotic gripper to bag a wide range of different items.
This is by no means a complete list, just a few of the most obvious tricks that AI can supercharge.
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Robot cats, dogs and birds are being deployed amid an ‘epidemic of loneliness’
In the early 1990s, a researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology began work on what would become Paro. More than 30 years after its development, the doe-eyed seal pup remains the best-known example of a therapeutic robot for older adults. In 2011, the robot reached…
Apple’s AI plans go beyond the previously announced Apple Intelligence launches on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company is also working to bring these…
ServiceNow’s generative AI solutions are taking advantage of the data on its own platform
One of the earlier SaaS adherents to generative AI has been ServiceNow, which has been able to take advantage of the data in its own platform to help build more…
Here are India’s biggest AI startups based on how much money they’ve raised
India’s top AI startups include those building LLMs and setting up the stage for AGI as well as bringing AI to cooking and serving farmers.
Two separate studies investigated how well Google’s Gemini models and others make sense out of an enormous amount of data.
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SAP, and Oracle, and IBM, oh my! ‘Cloud and AI’ drive legacy software firms to record valuations
There’s something of a trend around legacy software firms and their soaring valuations: Companies founded in dinosaur times are on a tear, evidenced this week with SAP‘s shares topping $200 for the first time. Founded in 1972, SAP’s valuation currently sits at an all-time high of $234 billion. The Germany-based…
Women in AI: Sarah Bitamazire helps companies implement responsible AI
Sarah Bitamazire is the chief policy officer at the boutique advisory firm Lumiera.
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…
MIT robotics pioneer Rodney Brooks thinks people are vastly overestimating generative AI
He says that the problem is that generative AI is not human or even human-like, and it’s flawed to try and assign human capabilities to it.
Adept, a startup developing AI-powered “agents” to complete various software-based tasks, has agreed to license its tech to Amazon, and the startup’s co-founders and portions of its team have joined…
YC alum Fluently’s AI-powered English coach attracts $2M seed round
There are plenty of resources to learn English, but not so many for near-native speakers who still want to improve their fluency. That description applies to Stan Beliaev and Yurii…
