Author: TechBrunch

About two months ago, Brandon Tseng, co-founder of Shield AI, and one of his employees were in an Uber in Kiev, Ukraine. They were on their way to a meeting with military officials to sell AI pilot systems and drones, when suddenly an employee flashed a warning on his cell phone. Russian bombs were flying. Tseng shrugged off the possibility of death. “When it’s time to go, it’s your time to go,” he said. Instead, Tseng, a former Navy SEAL, wanted more action. Shield AI employees previously traveled to more dangerous regions of Ukraine to train troops using the company's…

Jeffrey Hinton was awarded the Nobel Prize this week for his fundamental research in artificial neural networks, which has earned him the nickname “Godfather of AI.” In his Tuesday speech, Professor Hinton praised a student who rebelled against OpenAI's CEO, alluding to former OpenAI chief scientist Ilya Satskeva. “I was especially fortunate that I had a lot of very smart students who were much smarter than me and really made things work,” Hinton said. “They've continued to do great things. I'm especially proud of the fact that one of my students fired Sam Altman.” Hinton is, of course, referring to…

Hello everyone, welcome to TechCrunch's regular AI newsletter. If you'd like to have this sent to your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. Synthetic data took center stage in AI this week. Last Thursday, OpenAI introduced Canvas, a new way to interact with ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot platform. Canvas opens a window with a workspace for creating and coding your project. Users can generate text or code in Canvas and optionally use ChatGPT to highlight sections for editing. From a user's perspective, Canvas greatly improves quality of life. But what's most interesting about this feature for us are the tweaked…

Zoom wants to turn you into an AI-animated photorealistic avatar, but not until sometime next year. The next feature, announced today at Zoom's annual development conference, turns a video clip that users record of themselves into a digital clone, complete with a head, upper arms, and shoulders. Users enter a script of what they want the digital double to say, and Zoom generates audio that syncs with the avatar's lip movements. Smita Hashim, Zoom's chief product officer, told TechCrunch that the custom avatars are designed to help people chat “asynchronously” with colleagues in a “faster, more productive” way. Ta. “Avatar…

Following $40 million in funding earlier this year, streaming media company Plex on Wednesday rolled out new TV show and movie review features, putting its app in more direct competition with other apps like Letterboxd and TV Time. announced that it would be exposed to This feature also includes a social networking element, allowing you to share reviews with your friends and friends of friends on Plex. The company entered the social networking space last year with the launch of its new “Discover Together” feature, allowing users to create a profile on the app and find and follow friends to…

When Alain first launched its health insurance product in France in 2016, it was the first new health insurance company in the country in 30 years. Now that Alan has announced expansion into Canada, the startup is on the verge of breaking new records. Canada has not had a new health insurance company since 1957. In many ways, Alan treats health insurance as a software-as-a-service. This is a subscription-first product that can be optimized with technology. For example, Alan built his own claims management system. Its main product is health insurance, which complements France's national healthcare system. French companies are…

Chipmaker Qualcomm on Monday said hackers had exploited a zero-day (a security flaw unknown to the hardware maker at the time of the exploit) in dozens of chipsets found in popular Android devices. I admitted it. The zero-day vulnerability, officially designated CVE-2024-43047, was identified by Qualcomm, citing unspecified “indications” from Google's Threat Analysis Group, the company's research arm that investigates government hacking threats. “There may be limited and targeted exploitation.” Qualcomm said Google's assessment was confirmed by Amnesty International's Security Lab, which works to protect civil society from digital surveillance and spyware threats. The US cybersecurity agency CISA has included…

Amazon announced Wednesday that it will soon add new AI-powered package search technology to its electric vehicle fleet. Vision-based technology is designed to help drivers prioritize their loads. Visually Assisted Package Search (VAPR) works by highlighting packages designated for delivery at the current stop with a green circle or red light. The company says this technology eliminates the need for drivers to stop and shuffle around the van each time to search for the relevant load. There's also an audio cue that alerts the driver if they've selected the right package. The company notes that doing so would eliminate the…

Today on Equity, Rebecca Beran talks about Gamebeast, a startup that gives Roblox developers tools like A/B testing and LiveOps that let them change their games without releasing new versions or disrupting user interaction. We spoke with Xander Brumbaugh, the 22-year-old founder of . A game in progress. Gamebeast recently raised a $3.7 million pre-seed round led by J2 Ventures with participation from a16z's Speedrun accelerator, which Brumbaugh graduated from in March. From consulting for entertainment studios like Netflix and writing a best-selling book about Roblox development to speaking with investors, Brumbaugh says the future of video games is in…

In an announcement on his WhatsApp channel today, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta is offering its AI chatbot, MetaAI, to six countries including Brazil, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Paraguay. . Beyond these countries, the company said it plans to gradually release Meta AI in more countries, including the Middle East. After this rollout, Meta AI will be available in 43 countries and over a dozen languages. Future expansions include regions such as Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Thailand, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and Yemen. Meta AI also plans to…