Author: Jason

There is a new accounting software in town, coming in with a fresh $17.2 million raise and a desire to shake things up. The company, Filed, hopes to automate the grunt work. “The tax industry is facing a genuine crisis,” Leroy Kerry, Filed’s co-founder CEO, told TechCrunch. Many CPAs are approaching retirement while a dwindling… Read more

Meta is launching a new program to incentivize startups to adopt its Llama AI models. The program, Llama for Startups, provides companies “direct support” from Meta’s Llama team, as well as funding in certain cases. Any U.S.-based firm that is incorporated, has raised less than $10 million in funding, has at least one developer on… Read more

Impossible Metals, a deep-sea mining startup, submitted a formal request to the Department of the Interior to sell leases to mine the ocean floor. Read more

Just a few weeks after the U.S. and China made significant steps to de-escalate the growing trade war between the two countries, tensions are flaring again — this time over semiconductors. China’s Commerce Ministry in Beijing released a statement on Wednesday that threatened legal action against anyone who enforces U.S. export restrictions on Huawei’s AI chips,… Read more

Amazon is testing short-form AI-powered audio product summaries on select product pages, the company announced on Wednesday. The audio summaries are voiced by what Amazon calls “AI-powered shopping experts” that discuss key product features, customer reviews, and information from across the web. The new AI product summaries can be accessed by tapping the “Hear the… Read more

With TikTok still facing the possibility of a ban in the U.S., the popularity of short-form video content continues to grow. The latest company to enter this space is TED, the non-profit best known for its TED Talks featuring prominent figures like Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and the late Pope Francis.  On Wednesday,… Read more

Google on Wednesday detailed its plans to bring ads to AI Mode, the company’s AI-powered experience in Google Search. Ads may appear “where relevant” below and “integrated into” AI Mode responses as part of a test, Google says. AI Mode lets Google Search users ask a question and get an AI-generated response, with the ability… Read more

An increasing number of meetings have an AI note-taker present that transcribes the call and provides action items. Siro wants to do the same for sales folks who are on the ground and talking to customers face-to-face. The company on Wednesday announced it has secured $50 million in a Series B round led by SignalFire… Read more

In an era where hundreds of new venture funds have emerged, only to face a narrowing market as exits prove slippery, Elizabeth Weil’s Scribble Ventures stands out as a case study in the importance of deep networks. Defying a contraction that is sidelining many newcomers, Weil just secured $80 million for Scribble’s third fund, its… Read more

Prosecutors say the hacker stole information on 60 million students, an incident that matches the data breach at PowerSchool. Read more