Author: TechBrunch
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has proposed new rules under the Fair Credit Reporting Act that would prevent data brokers from selling Americans' personal and financial information, including Social Security numbers and phone numbers. Months after President Biden signed an executive order curbing the sale of Americans' personal data, the U.S. Consumer Protection Bureau argued that data brokers are not data brokers in proposing new rules. It said it was intended to “curb” evasion of federal law. The legal provisions of the FCRA apply. CFPB Director Rohit Chopra told reporters during a conference call Monday that the proposed rules would…
ENGlobal Corporation, which provides engineering and automation services to the U.S. energy sector and federal government, announced that it has restricted access to its IT systems to only essential business operations following a cyberattack. Texas-based ENGlobal said in an 8-K filing with the SEC on Monday that it became aware of a “cybersecurity incident” on Nov. 25. The company said it suspected a threat actor had accessed its systems and “encrypted some of its data files.” Targeted by ransomware attack. ENGlobal, whose clients include the U.S. Department of Defense and Department of Energy, said it was investigating the incident. The…
Cancer incidence is increasing, especially among young people, but most new drug compounds have not gone through clinical trials. According to French entrepreneur Fanny Jolin (pictured above, right), the problem lies in the design of clinical trials. “Just because a drug doesn't succeed in clinical trials doesn't mean it's not a good drug,” she told TechCrunch. Therefore, better ways to test new molecules are needed, especially for cancer, where innovation has failed to bear fruit in recent decades. Her startup, Orakl Oncology, is applying AI to this problem, but Jaulin is quick to admit that her team is not alone…
The stage is set for AWS re:Invent 2024 Amazon's biggest enterprise event of the year is underway. If you can't make it to Las Vegas this year, you still have options. You can follow this live blog, join us for a preview of re:Invent 2024, or sign up here on Amazon to livestream re:Invent 2024's biggest talks in person. The livestream will begin Monday at 7:30 PM PT with Peter DeSantis, AWS Senior Vice President of Utility Computing. But you'll have to wait until Tuesday at 8 a.m. Pacific Time for the most notable keynote. AWS CEO Matt Garman will…
As millions of Americans open their laptops to buy presents this holiday season, tech companies are racing to hand over online shopping tasks to AI agents instead. Perplexity recently released an AI shopping agent for paying customers in the US. It's supposed to navigate retail websites for you, find the products you're looking for, and even click the checkout button for you. Perplexity may be the first major AI startup to offer this, but other companies have been exploring this space for some time, and we expect to see more AI shopping agents emerge in 2025. OpenAI and Google are…
The search interface for Instagram Threads, Meta's X competitor, has been improved, the company announced on Monday. The app offers a meta-run alternative to Elon Musk's You can filter your search by range. This is not as comprehensive as the advanced search in X. Currently, users can refine their queries by language, keywords, exact phrases, negative words, hashtags, and more. However, it makes it easier for Threads users to find specific posts. Search in Threads is also now comparable to search in Bluesky, and users can also use advanced queries to filter their searches by user profile, date range, and…
Users of conversational AI platform ChatGPT discovered an interesting phenomenon over the weekend. Well, the popular chatbot is refusing to answer questions about “David Mayer.” If you ask it to do so, it will immediately freeze. Conspiracy theories abound, but there may be a more mundane reason at the heart of this strange behavior. Word that the name is harmful to chatbots spread quickly over the weekend, with more people trying to trick the service into simply recognizing the name. Bad luck: Every time you try to get ChatGPT to spell that particular name, it may fail or cut off…
AI hardware startup Tenstorrent has raised nearly $700 million in new funding. Tenstorrent has raised $693 million in a Series D round, valuing the company at more than $2.6 billion, Bloomberg first reported. The round was led by Samsung Securities and AFW Partners. Other investors include Hyundai and Jeff Bezos' Bezos Expeditions. The Toronto-based company said it will use the capital to expand its engineering team and build an artificial intelligence training server to demonstrate its technology. Renowned microprocessor engineer and Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller told Bloomberg that the company plans to release a new AI processor every two years…
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has more than 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…
Coinbase on Monday announced integration with Apple Pay, allowing app makers to include the ability to purchase cryptocurrencies directly in their apps with Apple Pay. This integration is part of Coinbase Onramp and provides app makers with a way for their customers to convert traditional currencies such as the US dollar into cryptocurrencies. This process has traditionally been difficult, requiring users to pay additional fees and access multiple websites and apps. With Apple Pay integration, Coinbase continues to push its products towards the average consumer by making cryptocurrency purchases more accessible. With this integration, Apple appears to be at least…