Author: TechBrunch
Not everyone is convinced of the return on investment of generative AI. But many investors are, judging by the latest numbers from funding tracker PitchBook. According to PitchBook, in Q3 2024, VCs invested $3.9 billion in generative AI startups across 206 deals. (That doesn't include OpenAI's $6.6 billion round.) And $2.9 billion of that money went to U.S.-based companies across 127 deals. The biggest winners in Q3 included coding assistant Magic ($320 million in August), enterprise search provider Glean ($260 million in September), and business analytics company Hebbia ($260 million in July). $130 million). China's Moonshot AI raised $300 million…
Open source may have many characteristics, but one thing it doesn't have, at least by most estimates, is a business model. But that didn't stop Joseph Jacks and OSS Capital from seeking out early-stage open source startups and funding them through their formative years. These include Formbrick, an open source alternative to Qualtrics that raised a pre-seed round last year. Another Notion alternative is AppFlowy. An alternative plane for Jira. Calendly alternative Cal.com. Alternative hopscotch for the postman. For those looking for an Okta alternative, Cerbos is worth a look. What they all have in common is that they are…
Throne is a health startup based in Austin. We sell cameras. It clips onto the side of the toilet bowl. Take a picture of your poop. The system, currently in beta, uses artificial intelligence to test your dog as a way to determine things like gut health and hydration. It turns out you can learn an amazing amount from logs. Sloan calls the underlying technology “artificial gut intelligence.” The company says the AI is “trained by doctors to understand what your waste is trying to tell you about your health.” Doctors look for various signs of health in waste products,…
According to Reuters, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati, who announced her resignation last month, is raising VC funding for a new AI startup. The startup reportedly focuses on building AI products based on proprietary models and could raise more than $100 million in this round. At the time of his departure, Murati wrote in X that OpenAI's recent releases “fundamentally changed the way AI systems learn and reason about complex problems.” She said she was “leaving here because I want to have time and space to explore for myself,” but gave no details about her future plans. Before joining OpenAI in…
Penguin Random House, the world's largest commercial publisher, plans to add language to the copyright pages of its books prohibiting the use of these books to train AI. As The Bookseller reports, new books from publishers and reprints of older titles include: “No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any way for the purpose of training artificial intelligence techniques or systems.” It is said that the description will be included. Although the use of copyrighted material to train AI models is currently being challenged in multiple lawsuits, Penguin Random House is the first to update its…
This story has been updated throughout with updated details as the story unfolds. We will continue to do so as litigation and disputes are ongoing. There is a lot of controversy going on in the world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites. The central issue is a dispute between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress. WordPress technology is open source, free, and powers a huge portion of the internet (approximately 40% of websites). Websites can host their own WordPress instance or use a…
Midjourney plans to release an upgraded web tool that will allow users to edit images uploaded from the web using Midjourney's generated AI. The upgraded tool, which Midjourney CEO David Holtz said will be released “early next week,” will also allow users to retexture objects in images and “redraw” colors and details according to captions. You will be able to do it. Editing existing images with AI has become a hot topic these days. Platforms like Meta struggle with how to label images edited with AI tools versus images generated from scratch with AI models, while companies like Google We've…
As part of TechCrunch's ongoing “Women in AI” series, we're giving female AI-focused academics and others their well-deserved and overdue spotlight time, but TechCrunch interviewed Dr. Rebecca Portnoff, Vice President of Data Science. Thorn, a nonprofit organization, develops technology to protect children from sexual abuse. She attended Princeton University and then earned a PhD in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. She continues to rise through the ranks at Thorne, where she has worked since 2016. She started as a volunteer researcher, and now, eight years later, she leads what is probably the only team in the world…
DNA and genetic testing company 23andMe is in turmoil following last year's data breach and continued financial deterioration. The once pioneering giant now faces an uncertain future amid efforts to go private, amid growing concerns about what will happen to the genetic data of 23andMe's roughly 15 million customers. There is. 23andMe, best known for its saliva-based test kits that offer a glimpse into a person's genetic ancestry, has failed to turn a profit and has been valued at $6 billion since going public in early 2021. It has plunged more than 99% since its peak. This profit shortfall can…
Azar has facilitated over 100 billion video chats with an app that connects random strangers around the world. But until recently, the Seoul-based app, which shares parent company Match with Tinder, Hinge and OkCupid, wasn't available in the United States. Breaking through the US market may be difficult. For millennials who grew up with access to platforms like Omegle and Chatroulette, random video chat apps were like Ouija boards. But instead of evoking jump-scare-inducing ghostly signs, these apps are known for unexpectedly producing men without pants, a horror that's probably scarier than anything supernatural. Omegle was shut down last year…