Author: TechBrunch
Two U.S. data brokers have entered into two lawsuits with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, which accused the companies of illegally tracking millions of people near sensitive locations such as medical facilities and military bases. As part of the settlement, they agreed not to collect private location data of Americans. Two settlements announced Tuesday would prohibit Virginia-based Gravy Analytics and Georgia-based Mobilewalla from collecting and retaining sensitive and detailed location data on people. are. The agreement accuses two data brokers (who collect vast amounts of people's personal information and sell millions of identifiable location data points, including where people have…
Earlier this year, there was widespread concern about how generated AI could be used to interfere in global elections to spread propaganda and disinformation. As far back as the end of the year, Meta shared that the technology had a limited impact across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, and claims that such concerns were not widespread, at least on its platform. The company said its findings were based on key elections in the US, Bangladesh, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, the EU parliament, France, the UK, South Africa, Mexico and Brazil. “While there have been confirmed or suspected uses of AI in this…
There are many services that allow you to create lists to track and discover new books, movies, and songs, but these lists often end up in silos. Former Squarespace employee Alfonso Cobo wants to combine all kinds of lists into one, and he's using Hyperist to do just that. Cobo said the ethos behind the creation of Hyperist is that people online often ask for recommendations on everything from skin care routines, books, restaurants to movies. “People on social media were asking for all kinds of recommendations, but suggestions were hard to keep track of and there was no way…
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…
Google's video generator is coming to a few more customers, specifically Google Cloud customers. Google announced Tuesday that Veo, an AI model that can generate short video clips from images and prompts, will be available in private preview for customers using Vertex AI, Google Cloud's AI development platform. Google says the launch will enable one of its customers, Quora, to integrate Veo into its Poe chatbot platform, and another customer, Oreo owner Mondelez International, will be able to integrate Veo into its Poe chatbot platform. It will be possible to create marketing content with agency partners. “We created Poe to…
If yurt founder Ben Van Lew had better eyes, he might have followed in his family's footsteps and joined the Air Force. “My whole family was in the Air Force. They were all pilots,” he said, later admitting, “My vision wasn't that far.” Instead, he's supporting the military in a very Silicon Valley way. The idea is to create an AI integration platform that can be deployed within high-security enterprises. “We are the first in the Pentagon's secret network,” he said. His goal is to become the Pentagon's primary AI-powered chat assistant (separate from the AI chatbot the Pentagon itself…
Fighting wildfires is a lot like fighting a war. There are also smokejumpers like infantry and paratroopers, air support from tanker planes, and mobile centers that can direct the movement of firefighters on the scene. “This is a battlefield,” FireDome co-founder and CEO Gadi Benjamini told TechCrunch. “It's changing, dynamic and unexpected.” But what firefighters lack is artillery support. That's what FireDome hopes to provide this upcoming fire season. The company's technology is similar to Israel's Iron Dome missile defense system, which identifies, tracks and destroys incoming rockets. The source of inspiration is not surprising. Benjamini spent more than a…
As users around the world wait for Spotify Wrapped stats, Apple Music's answer to this popular feature is now available to everyone. A Spotify Wrapped-like feature called Apple Music Replay lets users look back at the year's musical activities by highlighting the popular songs, artists, and albums they streamed. This year's Replay includes additional highlights, including “Continuous Listening,” which indicates the longest consecutive day a user listened to music on a streaming service. Plus, Replays tells you the date you first heard this year's top songs, artists, and albums. Replay also allows users to look back on the year month…
Amazon Web Services (AWS)'s biggest conference of the year has begun, and all signs point to it being an eventful one. AWS re:Invent 2024 kicks off in Las Vegas on Sunday, with sessions scheduled to run until December 6th. A keynote address by AWS CEO Matt Garman will kick off today's program starting at exactly 8 a.m. Pacific Time. AWS has compiled an archive of key keynotes and discussions on our YouTube channel, and will cover everything presented on stage. Pay attention to that as well as the stories that pop up over the course of re:Invent. Notably, this is…
Globo, the Spanish delivery app owned by Germany's Delivery Hero, has bowed to pressure over worker rights in its home market. The company announced on Monday that it would hire about 15,000 passengers, most of whom are now “self-employed,” according to Globo. The company warned of a 100 million euro hit to its revenue, according to Reuters. Spain's 2021 labor reform recognized riders working on delivery platforms as employees. But Globo has tried to circumvent the requirements by using subcontractors and keeping most passengers off its books. Those days seem to be over. Globo said in a statement that it…