Author: TechBrunch
Elon Musk's AI company xAI has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Investors contributed at least $77,593, according to the filing. Ninety-seven people participated, but their identities are not disclosed in the document. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz are expected to contribute to the round, as well as Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. This new cash brings xAI's total funding to $12 billion, joining the $6 billion tranche xAI raised this spring. CNBC reported in November that xAI…
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…
Getting into the holiday spirit but still feeling stuck at work? With a cute new macOS called Festivitas, you can decorate your Mac computer screen with twinkling holiday lights that hang from your menu bar and illuminate your dock. You can. This quirky holiday treat was created by software developer Simon B. Støvring, creator of other developer-favorite iOS apps like text editor Runestone, scripting app Scriptable, and JSON editor Jayson. It was done. He's been teasing the app on social media for days before its release, showing off the various customizations he's added. At startup, you can adjust cable thickness,…
Threads is testing a feature that allows users to see how individual posts are performing on the social network. Previously, Threads' Insights feature only showed aggregated metrics across all posts. This feature now allows you to view metrics for each post. If you are testing, please check the number of views and likes received. , you can sort posts by highest or lowest number of replies. Additionally, you can see a breakdown of views and interactions by followers and non-followers for each post. You can also see how many people followed you from a particular post. Instagram head Adam Mosseri…
OpenAI has launched a new subscription plan for its AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT, which is quite expensive. OpenAI, which confirmed the leak this morning, announced ChatGPT Pro, a new $200/month subscription tier that provides unlimited access to all of OpenAI's models, including the full version of the o1 “inference” model. Unlike most AIs, o1 and other inference models effectively fact check. This helps avoid some of the pitfalls that models usually stumble upon, but the downside is that it often takes a long time to reach a solution. O1 reasons through tasks, plans ahead, and performs a series of actions…
OpenAI seems to be in the holiday spirit. The creators of ChatGPT have announced “12 Days of OpenAI.” This is a series of reveals that will be livestreamed starting December 5, 2024 at 10:00 AM PT and will continue for the next 12 days. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company's event will feature a variety of announcements, from new demos to product launches and even “Christmas presents.” It remains to be seen what OpenAI plans to reveal, but we could see more information about a possible $200/month ChatGPT Pro plan, an update to Advanced Voice Mode, or the long-awaited…
OpenAI's 12 days of announcements begin OpenAI's year-end event is about to begin. You can follow all the announcements on our live blog here or watch the livestream through OpenAI's YouTube channel. The first stream starts today at 10 a.m. PT, with new streams starting over the next 12 weekdays. The big question is, what will we actually see from OpenAI in the coming weeks? In this surprise announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hinted that it would include updates to existing products, new product launches, and demos. Stay with us — and be sure to follow us ×、 LinkedIn, Instagram,…
Google says its new family of AI models has an interesting feature: the ability to “identify” emotions. The PaliGemma 2 family of models announced Thursday can analyze images, allowing AI to generate captions and answer questions about the people “in” the photo. “PaliGemma 2 generates detailed, contextual captions for images that go beyond simple object identification to describe the action, emotion, and overall story of a scene,” Google said in a blog post shared with TechCrunch. ” he wrote. Google says that PaliGemma 2 is based on the Gemma open model set, specifically the Gemma 2 series. Image credit: Google…
Ladder, the Austin, Texas-based fitness startup that makes the popular strength-training app, accuses Peloton of plagiarizing its work with the release of Peloton's new app, “Strength+,” which exited beta on Wednesday. I am doing it. After receiving feedback from Peloton's beta testers that the app was very similar to Ladder's, similar in look, feel, and functionality, the company investigated further and found that members of Peloton's product, engineering, and design teams It said 15 people were found to have been using Ladder's app since January 2024. Of course, forcing employees of competing fitness-focused companies to use popular workout apps isn't…
The startup, whose founder previously served in the German military, has developed a product similar to Amazon Firestick for traditional defense equipment with a software stack. ARX Robotics claims its system can turn old equipment into AI-powered devices, such as self-driving trucks. Back in June of this year, ARX raised a €9 million seed round with support from Project A Ventures and Discovery Ventures, and lead investor NATO Innovation Fund. ARX first developed an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) and won a very large contract with the German military government, in this case for deployment to Ukraine. The company has now…