Author: TechBrunch

X, the Elon Musk-owned social network formerly known as Twitter, quietly added a new image generator to its Grok assistant last Saturday. Then I deleted it. And now we are bringing it back and officially announcing it. The image generator, called Aurora, was developed by Musk's AI company xAI and trained on billions of examples from the internet. xAI said in a blog post that Aurora “excelles in photorealistic rendering,” can follow text instructions, and can “take inspiration from or edit directly from user-provided images.” . Image generated by Aurora. Image credit:xAI Aurora is currently available on X through Grok…

OpenAI released its video generation tool Sora on Monday. However, the company has chosen not to release any significant features to most users until further testing is conducted. The feature in question generates a video using an uploaded photo or footage of a real person as a reference. OpenAI says it will give “some” Sora users access to Sora users, but won't widely roll out the feature until it has had a chance to fine-tune its “approach to safety.” There is. “The ability to generate videos using uploaded photos or videos of real people as 'seeds' is a potential exploit…

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into becoming one of the most-hyped companies in recent memory. And its latest partnership with Apple for its upcoming generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, has given the company another significant bump in the AI race. 2024 also saw the release of GPT-4o, OpenAI’s new flagship omni…

Bluesky, a social networking startup and X competitor, is working on subscriptions. The company first announced plans to develop new revenue streams based on a subscription model when it detailed its $15 million Series A in October. Now, a mockup previewing the upcoming Bluesky subscription and a list of possible features have been published on Bluesky's GitHub. The company warns on GitHub that the listing here is only a mockup of the user interface, and that paid features are very likely to change before launch, but it's important to note that at least some of these are Bluesky's premium features.…

Ukraine's Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-UA) said in a report released over the weekend that hacker groups are targeting the country's defense and military companies with phishing attacks. CERT identified the hacker group as UAC-0185 (also known as UNC4221), but did not say who was behind the group. But earlier this year, a cybersecurity firm linked the group to the Russian government. Contact Us Do you have more information about the cyber attack on Ukraine? Or was it another attack by Russian government hackers? You can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai securely from your non-work device on Signal (+1 917 257 1382),…

Sora, OpenAI's video generator, was released today to at least some users. YouTuber Marques Brownlee revealed the news in a video posted to his channel on Monday morning. Brownlee got early access to Sora and gave his first impressions in a 15-minute review. According to Brownlee, Sora lives at Sora.com, whose home page features a scroll of recently generated Sora videos curated by OpenAI. (As of this article's publication, it had not yet been published on TechCrunch.) Notably, the tool is not built into ChatGPT, OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot platform. Sora seems to be its own separate product for now. Videos…

Artivion, a medical device company that makes implantable tissues for heart and vascular transplant applications, said its services were “disrupted” due to a cybersecurity incident. In an 8-K filing with the SEC on Monday, Georgia-based Artivion (formerly Cryolife) disclosed a “cybersecurity incident” involving the “capture and encryption” of data on Nov. 21. He said he recognized it. This suggests that the company has suffered damage. However, Artivion has not yet confirmed the nature of the incident and did not immediately respond to TechCrunch's questions. No major ransomware group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. Artivion said it took some…

OpenAI seems to be in the holiday spirit. ChatGPT's series of announcements, called “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be livestreamed weekdays at 10 a.m. Pacific time through December 23. On the first day of the event, ChatGPT Pro, OpenAI's $200 monthly subscription plan, was announced as well as the full version. The second day saw a demonstration of “fine-tuning reinforcement.” We don't know what other announcements or product launches are planned, but there could be some surprises like an update to Advanced Audio Mode or the release date of Sora, the long-awaited text-to-video generator. there is. . Below, we'll explain…

Podcast recording platform Riverside announced Monday that it has raised $30 million in Series C funding led by Zeev Ventures with participation from Seven Seven Six and angel investor Sam Lessin. The company hopes to use the funding to grow its team and build solutions for the podcast and content creation space. The startup, founded in 2020, has raised $80 million in funding to date, with Zeev and Seven Seven Six participating in multiple rounds. The startup also counts Casey Neistat, Marques Brownlee, Guy Raz, Elad Gil, and Alexander Klöpping as angel investors. The company's $35 million Series B funding…

Do we really need another social media app for college students? With a TikTok ban looming in the US, a new app called Connyct seems to think so. Connyct is very similar to popular short-form video apps, with personalized content feeds, private chats, music, filters, stickers, and more. We also have an event discovery section and community channels to help students stay connected and bond based on common interests. This new app, initially only available in early access, will be available to more college students starting today. Connyct's launch follows a recent unanimous decision by a federal appeals court to…