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Anthropic’s 3.5 Haiku model comes to Claude users
Anthropic has released one of its newest AI models, Claude 3.5 Haiku, for users of its AI chatbot platform, Claude. Reports of 3.5 Haiku’s launch in Claude began rolling in Thursday morning on social media, and TechCrunch was able to independently confirm that the model is available in Claude on the web and mobile. Claude…
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Mark Zuckerberg sweetens Meta’s $1M donation to Trump’s inaugural fund with a pair of smart glasses
Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is pulling off a lobbying-public relations combo move by gifting President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural fund $1 million, according to the Wall Street Journal. The money came from Meta, to be clear, but Zuckerberg sweetened the gift further — while doing great marketing — by sending Trump a pair of Meta’s smart…
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Epic Games to pre-install its game store on ‘millions’ of devices with new Telefónica deal
Epic Games is partnering with Telefónica, one of the largest telecommunication providers in the world, to preinstall the Epic Games Store on all new compatible Android devices on its network. Telefónica services Spain, the U.K., Germany, and Latin America. The company says the partnership will bring the Epic Games Store to “millions” of phones, marking…
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United and Air Canada can now use Apple AirTags to track lost luggage
Arriving in time for holiday travel and potentially lost luggage, a new feature that allows Apple AirTag owners to share the location of a lost item is now integrated with the customer service systems of two major airlines. United and Air Canada are the first launch partners for Apple’s “Find My Share Item Location” feature,…
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DOJ asks court to reject TikTok’s bid to temporarily block sell-or-ban law
The Department of Justice has asked a U.S. appeals court to reject ByteDance and TikTok’s emergency motion that aims to temporarily block the law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless the social network divests from Chinese ownership by January 19. The Justice Department said the court should not delay the matter, arguing that…
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Realize Music’s ‘Sing’ wants you to sing out loud by yourself in VR because it just feels good
Aimed at maintaining well-being, Sing is a VR app that you can sing out loud with when you’re home alone. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
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Evinced’s $55M C round will help bring its accessibility dev tools (and AI) to Europe
Making sure your software is accessible is fast becoming a must rather than a nice-to-have, and Evinced is one of a wave of startups helping make that happen. The company is about to expand to Europe, where new accessibility regulations are about to take effect, and has raised $55 million to fuel the expansion. Evinced…
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The founders of SlideShare are making sharing docs more social with their new platform, Jaunt
When SlideShare, the presentation-sharing service acquired by Scribd, launched in 2006, generative AI technology was significantly less advanced than it is today, and social networking platforms were just beginning to take off. Recognizing the evolution of AI and the increasing desire for innovative ways to share documents, the founders of SlideShare—Amit Ranjan (COO), Jonathan Boutelle…
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Amid lawsuits and criticism, Character AI unveils new safety tools for teens
Character AI is facing at least two lawsuits, with plaintiffs accusing the company of contributing to a teen’s suicide and exposing a 9-year-old to “hypersexualized content”, as well as promoting self-harm to a 17-year-old user. Amid these ongoing lawsuits and widespread user criticism, the Google-backed company announced new teen safety tools today: a separate model for…
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Archer teams up with Anduril and raises $430 million to build defense aircraft
Funding to defense tech companies has boomed in 2024 as geopolitical tensions rise, advancements in AI abound, and investors seek out a new growth area amid a broader tech sector slowdown. Archer Aviation wants in on the action. The aviation startup, which is building vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, said Thursday that it has…