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HongShan, Peak XV back stablecoin-powered neobank KAST
Peak XV and HongShan, the Indian and Chinese investment firms that split from powerhouse Sequoia last year, have co-led a $10 million seed investment in KAST, a dollar-denominated neobank-like platform that lets customers hold and spend stablecoins through traditional payment avenues. Kast also issues credit cards that work with standard merchant networks, enabling users to…
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The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight…
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Lina Khan’s FTC era ends; Andrew Ferguson named chair
Andrew Ferguson, one of two Republican FTC commissioners appointed by U.S. President Joe Biden, will be the country’s next FTC chair, incoming president Donald Trump announced Tuesday on social media. The news is being met with relief in some circles. Current FTC Chair Lina Khan was blamed by many in Silicon Valley for a dearth…
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Court orders Mullenweg and Automattic to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org
A California district court judge has granted a preliminary injunction to WP Engine. The order asks WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg and WordPress.com owner Automattic to restore WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, a WordPress theme and plug-in repository site owned by Mullenweg. Judge Araceli Martinez-Olguin noted that WP Engine’s access to WordPress.org, themes, plugins, and subdomains.…
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Cruise employees ‘blindsided’ by GM’s plan to end robotaxi program
The news came by Slack message. Cruise CEO Marc Whitten, who took the top post in June, posted a message Tuesday afternoon in the company’s announcements channel along with a link to a press release entitled “GM to refocus autonomous driving development on personal vehicles.” GM, which acquired the self-driving car startup in 2016, would…
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ElevenLabs’ AI voice generation ‘very likely’ used in a Russian influence operation
Generative AI has a plethora of well-documented misuses, and now, it appears to be cropping up in state influence operations. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
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Joby launches $300M public offering ahead of 2025 commercial eVTOL release
Electric vertical takeoff and landing vehicle startup Joby Aviation has launched a public offering to sell up to $300 million of its shares of common stock, per a regulatory filing. Separately, Joby raised $222 million in October from underwriters. This latest filing adds to that offering and would give Joby the chance to raise a…
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YouTube’s new auto-dubbing feature is now available for knowledge-focused content
YouTube announced on Tuesday that its auto-dubbing feature, which allows creators to generate translated audio tracks for their videos, is now rolling out to hundreds of thousands more channels. YouTube first introduced its AI-powered auto-dubbing tool at Vidcon last year, which was only being tested with a limited group of creators. This tool could help…
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GM is giving up on Cruise robotaxis, pivots to personal autonomous vehicles
General Motors said Tuesday it will no longer fund the development of a commercial robotaxi business and will instead absorb its self-driving car subsidiary Cruise and combine it with the automaker’s own efforts to develop driver assistance features — and eventually fully autonomous personal vehicles. The pivot is a remarkable step for the automaker, which…
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HarperCollins CEO touts Spotify’s audiobooks entry, AI’s impact on publishing
The future of audiobooks and AI’s impact on the publishing industry were points of discussion for HarperCollins, whose CEO, Brian Murray, spoke at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference on Tuesday. During the event, the exec praised Spotify’s entry into the audiobooks market and detailed its future growth plans in the space. He also…