Author: TechBrunch
Silicon Valley is building AI agents crazy to augment human labor. If such agents function as intended, the entire work could become extinct or close to it. AI agents are poised to drive away customer service representatives, sales associates, executive assistants, IT administrators, junior developers and journalists. AI startup boards replace “helpful VCs” by automating referrals to people. When a founder or investor is asked about the potential work that technology causes, the answer is always the same. Yes, AI eliminates some work. But it also creates others. Make sure it's become VC Mike Ghaffary's obsession. Ghaffary is previously best…
Copilot is Microsoft’s take on productivity-boosting generative AI, and it continues to grow and expand with Microsoft’s AI ambitions. Today, there are around a dozen Copilot-branded products powering various capabilities in Microsoft software and services, like summarizations in Microsoft Outlook and transcriptions in Microsoft Teams. That’s in addition to Microsoft-owned GitHub’s Copilot tool for generating code, and the Copilot that lives on Windows and the web, which serves as a general-purpose assistant. In this post, we explain the many Microsoft Copilots available and what they do, and the differences between the premium and free editions. What is Microsoft Copilot? Microsoft…
According to Reuters, Safe Superinterigence, an AI startup founded by former Openai chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, is in talks to raise funds at a valuation of at least $20 billion. It's not clear how much safety a secure Superintelligence, which has not yet generated revenue, is still in place, but it can be substantial. The new figures are four times the $5 billion valuation held by the company last September. Little is known about the work of Safe Superintelligence. The company, which counts former Openy researcher Daniel Levy and former Apple AI projects, has sourced Daniel Gross' lead Daniel Gross…
The humanoid robotics company figure raised an eyebrow this week when it announced it was leaving its partnership with Openai in support of building its own in-house AI model. Figure CEO Brett Adcock hints at a “major breakthrough” in their own process, and plans to unveil “something no one has ever seen on humanoids” next month. It's not just companies experimenting with non-Openai solutions. Last week, researchers from Stanford and Washington University demonstrated that they can train highly competent “inference” models for under $50 in cloud calculation credits, in stark contrast to the costs associated with OpenAI models. . TechCrunch's…
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has started notifying individuals whose personal information was stolen during a 2023 cyberattack. HPE has so far notified more than 12 individuals whose data was stolen in a cyberattack, according to a review of TechCrunch's violation notices filed with at least two U.S. Attorney General. The data that was infringed included Social Security numbers, driver's license information and credit card numbers, according to a submission to the state of Massachusetts. HPE spokesman Adam R. Bauer did not reply to requests for comment on the violation. This violation has been linked to intrusion into HPE's email systems and…
Over the past few years, Genai Boom has unleashed a wave of startups that promise to support the fast engineering process. That is, I came up with instructions that accurately steer the AI chatbot and provide useful output. So tools like Openai's ChatGpt and Google's Gemini will present users with blank fields for their queries. New York-based Promptlayer entered the space early and launched its tool about two years ago to allow app developers to manage the prompt process. Its founder was messing around with the AI chatbot itself and wanted something to track his prompts. On a bit of…
As the Covid-19 pandemic hits 2020 and schools move to online learning, Joe Titus and Paul Sue worry about how to maintain children's activity levels in the absence of forced PE classes and sports I was doing it. The solution for two friends was HiveClass, a New York-based Edtech platform that hosts online courses for K-12 students to learn about fitness, sports, dance, yoga, nutrition, mindfulness and more. There is also a self-defense course. Even in a post-pandemic world, the platform is gaining more attention than the convergence of trends. Children are increasingly free from school PE classes and often…
A coalition of more than 12 states in the US will file a lawsuit to block billionaire Elon Musk's cost-cutter team from accessing sensitive federal payment systems that contain personal data about Americans. He says he's planning. In a brief statement shared by 13 Democrat Attorney Generals, including California, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland and New York, the coalition states, “to defend the constitution, to privacy rights and essential funding.” He said he is planning to do so, and individuals and communities around the country are counting on him.” The state coalition did not say when they planned to file a lawsuit,…
UK government officials reportedly ordered Apple to secretly build a backdoor that would allow authorities to access their encrypted iCloud data. The Washington Post reports that demand was issued in January 2016 of the UK's Research Power Act, also known as the Snoopers Charter. Rather than seeking narrow access to specific Apple accounts, authorities have requested “blanket” access to end-to-end encrypted files uploaded to the cloud by users around the world . According to the post, Apple may suspend advanced data protection, which is the provision of encrypted cloud storage to UK users. That access does not provide UK authorities…
US Edtech giant Powerschool has confirmed that 16,000 UK students have personal and sensitive data stolen in the December 2024 data breach. This week, Powerschool began notifying individuals outside the US and Canada who have been affected by the violation. The incident was first confirmed by PowerSchool in January, and after hackers used compromised credentials to breach the company's customer support portal, it accessed personal data from millions of students and teachers. PowerSchool has not confirmed how many international students were affected. However, Powerschool spokesman Beth Keebler said in an email statement to TechCrunch that four UK schools have been…