Author: TechBrunch

In terms of market capitalization, Nvidia is currently the second largest publicly traded company in the world after Apple. That's why Nvidia has been getting a lot of attention lately. And now, as reported by Bloomberg, public television broadcaster China Central Television is reporting that China's market regulator has opened an investigation into Nvidia's acquisition of Mellanox. This name may not sound familiar, but in 2019, Nvidia spent nearly $7 billion to acquire Mellanox, an Israeli company that develops high-performance chips for supercomputers. The Chinese government approved the acquisition in exchange for several promises. Among other things, Nvidia (and Mellanox)…

WhatsApp has fixed a bug that could allow malicious users to save photos and videos that were meant to be viewed only once and then disappear. TechCrunch reported in September that a bug in the implementation of the “View Once” privacy feature could allow users using WhatsApp's browser-based web app to view and save photos and videos. The View Once feature allows recipients to save, share, forward, copy, or even take screenshots or screen recordings of media sent as a “View Once”, since under normal circumstances photos and videos disappear after viewing. It is designed to prevent this. On Friday,…

Audrey Ziya and Peter Nsaka always wanted to be founders. Djiya's parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents were all entrepreneurs, and even when they went into consulting jobs after college, they kept an idea diary, writing about problems they saw and how technology could help solve them. I recorded a method. “I grew up watching my family move goods across borders, so the challenges around international commerce really stuck with me,” she told TechCrunch. She attended the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where she met Nsaka, who had been thinking about the same issues as her. While working as a software engineer…

As more AI companies consume large amounts of Reddit's data to develop their own chatbots, the popular online forum site has begun testing its own new conversational AI capabilities. The feature, called Reddit Answers, allows visitors to ask questions and receive a curated summary of relevant answers and threads across the platform, the company announced Monday. This feature will allow Reddit to better compete with AI providers like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Perplexity, which have become popular destinations for users looking for quick and concise answers to their questions. Also, because so many users add the keyword “reddit” to their search…

Alexis Conneau thinks deeply about the movie “Her.” In recent years, he has become obsessed with trying to bring Samantha, the film's fictional voice technology, to life. Conneau also uses a photo of Joaquin Phoenix's character in the film as his Twitter banner. Conneau's X/twitter banner (Image credit: X) He kind of did that with ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, a project Conneau started at OpenAI after doing similar work at Meta. AI systems process audio natively and respond with conversations just like a human would. Now, he's building something better with a new startup called WaveForms AI. Conneau spends a…

U.S. breast cancer screening program demonstrates the potential benefits of using artificial intelligence (AI) for mammography screening, with women who paid for AI-enhanced scans 21% more likely to have cancer detected claims. DeepHealth, an AI company owned by radiology giant RadNet, presented a study at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) annual meeting detailing 747,604 women who underwent mammograms over a 12-month period. . Overall cancer detection rates were 43% higher for those enrolled in the program compared to those not enrolled in the program. But some women apply (at their own expense) “U.S. Food and Drug Administration-compliant AI…

Many venture capitalists, especially startups, freely admit that 2024 will be a difficult year for raising new capital. Dimension Capital, a two-year-old venture firm, had a different experience during its second round of funding. “All the investors from Fund 1 came right back,” said Zavian Dahl (pictured center), managing partner and one of the firm's three founders. Dimension also brought in a few new investors, but ultimately “turned down the majority of LPs that expressed interest.” Less than two years after closing its first $350 million fund, Dimension announced it had raised an oversubscribed $500 million fund, exceeding its $400…

Supply chain software giant Blue Yonder said it is investigating allegations of data theft after a ransomware gang threatened to release large amounts of data stolen from the company. Blue Yonder, an Arizona-based company that provides supply chain management software to thousands of organizations including DHL, Starbucks and Walgreens, was attacked on November 21st. The company said at the time that it was a “ransomware incident,” but declined to confirm. Who was behind the attack? On Friday, the Termite ransomware group claimed responsibility for an attack on a leaked dark web site. In a post seen by TechCrunch, the criminal…

In winter 2025, UCLA's comparative literature classes will feature AI-generated textbooks, homework, and TA resources. The lesson in question is a survey of literature from the Middle Ages to the 17th century, and the material is generated by Kudu. Kudu is an “evolved” textbook platform founded by Alexander Kusenko, a professor of physics and astronomy at UCLA. According to the university, this will be the first class in the humanities department to use materials developed by Kudu. To create these materials, Professor Zrinka Stahuljak provided Kudu with class notes, PowerPoint presentations, and YouTube videos from previous versions. The course creation…

Mitchell Greene held various positions in investment banking, as an analyst at Bessemer Venture Partners, and at a hedge fund backed by Tiger Management before going independent in 2011. Mr. Green currently manages the funds of more than 700 individuals who have committed $5 billion to his firm, Lead Edge Capital. How did he convince so many people to join, including such luminaries as former Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy, former Charles Schwab CEO David Pottruck, and former PayPal CEO Dan Schulman? Acquiring stakes in Alibaba, Bumble, and Duo Security certainly helped. But Mitchell suggested the appeal also pertains to an…