Category: Uncategorized
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Leaked data exposes a Chinese AI censorship machine
One academic who reviewed the dataset said it was “clear evidence” that China, or its affiliates, wants to use AI to improve repression. Read more
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Bradley Tusk says he makes more money with ‘equity-for-services’ than he did as a traditional VC
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… Read more
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Fintech Mercury lands $300M in Sequoia-led Series C, doubles valuation to $3.5B
Digital banking startup Mercury has raised $300 million in primary and secondary funding at a $3.5 billion post-money valuation, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Wednesday. The valuation is more than double the startup’s valuation when it last raised capital – a $120 million Series B round in 2021 that valued the company at $1.62… Read more
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Nuclear startup Terrestrial Energy goes public via SPAC, netting $280 million in merger
The Canadian company is developing small modular reactors. It previously raised nearly $100 million. Read more
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Has GetReal cracked the code on AI deepfakes? $18M and an impressive client list says yes
The proliferation of scarily realistic deepfakes is one of the more pernicious byproducts of the rise of AI, and falling victim to scams based on these deepfakes is already costing companies millions of dollars — not to mention the implications these could have on national security. A startup that’s built a toolset aimed at governments… Read more
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A new social app is fighting rage-bait
Sez Us, a social app founded by Democratic strategist Joe Trippi, is trying to build a platform without rage-bait. Rage-bait refers to any posts that are intended to stoke controversy. This might be an intentionally controversial political take, or it can be a wholly fabricated scenario designed to farm engagement (for example, a satirical creator… Read more
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YouTube is changing how YouTube Shorts views are counted
YouTube is changing how it counts views on YouTube Shorts to give creators a deeper understanding of how their short-form content is performing, the company announced on Wednesday. Shorts views will now count the number of times a creator’s Short starts to play or replay. In the past, a view had been counted after a… Read more
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Waze removes Google Assistant from iOS due to ongoing issues
Since the integration of Google Assistant for Waze on iOS in 2020, iPhone users have faced ongoing issues that the company has struggled to resolve for “over a year,” Waze wrote in a post, apologizing for the “prolonged inconvenience.” On Wednesday, the navigation app officially discontinued the feature. Many users had previously reported on Reddit… Read more
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Amazon’s Alexa Fund is now backing AI startups
Amazon started the Alexa Fund in 2015 to back early-stage voice startups. With the advent of large language models and Amazon launching Gen AI-powered Alexa+ along with a family of multimodal AI models, the fund now wants to broaden its scope and invest more in AI startups. In a blog post Amazon shared with TechCrunch… Read more
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What’s next for ATProto, the protocol powering Bluesky and other apps
It’s getting easier to build new applications on ATProto, the protocol that powers Bluesky’s social network and a growing number of other apps. At ATmosphere, the ATProto community conference held over the weekend in Seattle, Bluesky CTO Paul Frazee offered attendees a glimpse of what’s ahead for the protocol’s development and how those will help… Read more