Author: TechBrunch

A Chinese research institute has created what may be one of the most powerful “open” AI models ever. The model, called DeepSeek V3, was developed by AI company DeepSeek and released on Wednesday under a permissive license that allows developers to download and modify it for most applications, including commercial ones. DeepSeek V3 can handle a variety of text-based workloads and tasks from descriptive prompts to coding, translation, writing essays and emails, and more. According to DeepSeek's internal benchmark tests, DeepSeek V3 outperforms both “openly” available downloadable models and “closed” AI models that are only accessible via API. In some…

Henrik Fisker once envisioned a burgeoning EV empire at the startup he named after himself, which was to be led by the Ocean SUV. But cracks started showing in that vision almost as soon as the Ocean hit the road in 2023.  Fisker cut production targets multiple times, failed to meet sales goals and laid off staff. What’s more, its Ocean SUV was beset with software and mechanical issues, rendering it inoperable for some. Add troublesome brakes, sudden power loss and doors that wouldn’t open to the list of issues that led to multiple safety investigations and ultimately a pause…

According to a new report in The Information, Microsoft and OpenAI are internally defining a very specific form of artificial general intelligence (AGI) based on the startup's interests. And by this definition, it will take years for OpenAI to get there. The two companies reportedly signed a deal last year that states OpenAI will only achieve AGI if it develops an AI system that generates at least $100 billion in profits. This is far from the strict technical and philosophical definition of AGI that many would expect. OpenAI will reportedly lose billions of dollars this year, and the startup has…

VC Jenny Fielding (pictured above), co-founder of Everywhere Ventures and former Techstars managing director, was basically trolling X when she posted”Do you guys have strong opinions about pre-seed founders having EAs to help them schedule? Just checking.” Fielding told TechCrunch that she knew the post was “a little mean,” but it generated a lot of buzz. Some have suggested that early-stage founders could simply use an AI executive assistant. Others were upset that venture capitalists implied they shouldn't hire people to back their companies, even in their early stages. However, Fielding pointed out that founders still harbor misconceptions from the…

Over the past few years, TechCrunch has looked back with anticipation at some of the worst, mishandled data breaches and security incidents. — Other giant companies will take note and avoid the same disasters. To no one's surprise, this year we're listing many of the same bad acts by a whole new class of companies. 23andMe blames users for massive data breach Last year, genetic testing giant 23andMe lost the genetic and ancestry data of nearly 7 million customers thanks to a data breach in which hackers brute-forced access to thousands of accounts and collected data on millions more. I…

Indian online pharmacy PharmEasy is now valued at about $456 million after investor Janus Henderson said in a filing that he valued his 12.9 million shares in the company at $766,043. Asset manager Global Research Fund originally spent $9.4 million to acquire these shares. This valuation is 92% lower than PharmEasy's all-time high of $5.6 billion. It's no wonder that valuation remains low, even though PharmEasy secured more than $200 million in new capital earlier this year and is preparing to file for an initial public offering (IPO) next year. PharmEasy had started a capital increase in 2023 amid a…

Social network Bluesky announced over Christmas that it is testing a trending topic view. Trending topics are visible to users around the world on both the social network's desktop and mobile apps. On desktop, you'll see trending topics in the right sidebar, and on mobile apps, you can tap the search button to explore topics. Bluesky said Trending Topics is currently only available in English. The user is[設定]>[コンテンツとメディア]Move to[トレンド トピックを有効にする]You can disable trending topics by unchecking the option. What will the Trending Topics feature look like on Bluesky Mobile? Image credit: Bluesky Bluesky makes sure that content you don't want…

Updated on December 25th at 12:21pm Pacific: Added details on xAI evaluation and Kingdom Holdings' contribution. Elon Musk's AI company xAI has raised $6 billion in a Series C funding round. The company announced this week that Andreessen Horowitz, Blackrock, Fidelity, Lightspeed, MGX, Morgan Stanley, OIA, QIA, Sequoia Capital, Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Nvidia, AMD and others have joined. Saudi conglomerate holding company Kingdom Holdings invested about $400 million in the round, according to public documents. The filing also revealed that xAI's current valuation is $45 billion, nearly double its previous valuation. The new cash brings xAI's total funding…

When a startup raises a seed round, the eternal question arises: how much should the founders pay themselves and their first few employees? Kruze Consulting, a CPA firm specializing in venture-backed startups, recently analyzed the average salary range of over 450 seed-stage startups and shared the data with TechCrunch. The averages below are based on actual payroll records, not survey responses, Kruse said. Perhaps unsurprisingly, salaries for technical engineering/product roles tend to be higher than for CEOs. What's surprising is that salaries for people with COO/Operations titles tend to be even higher on average. This is frowned upon. That's because…

David Crane is in an enviable position. As CEO of GV, a venture company funded entirely by Google at $1 billion a year, his team of about 100 people makes big bets, despite some notable limitations. That's it. At the TechCrunch StrictlyVC event in San Francisco earlier this month, Krane said GV has invested in an astonishing 800 companies over the past five years, and over $10 billion over its 15-year history. No company has made more money at once than Uber, which was funded exclusively by GV in a $258 million Series C round in 2013. Still, GV still…