Author: TechBrunch

This week, OpenAI quietly published a statement on its website pledging not to use its patents offensively. OpenAI emphasized its commitment to the principles of “broad access” and “collaboration” and said it would only use patents in ways that support innovation. “We will not engage in any activity where a party threatens, asserts a claim, files a lawsuit, assists anyone else in such activity against us, or harms us or our users. Unless otherwise involved, we pledge to use our patents only defensively.” company. But experts say that claim is just whitewashing. In contrast to patent pledges, such as IBM's…

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, one of the tech industry's biggest hype guys, wants you to know that he's passionate about generative AI, but even he doesn't know that generative AI's biggest proponents are I don't think I can accomplish what I say. And he (not surprisingly) blames Microsoft. A month after Salesforce's huge tech conference Dreamforce, Benioff endlessly touted, touted and praised AI (at least the AI ​​used in Salesforce's own products), it's now time to set expectations. I'm on tour. And he's badmouthing his biggest competitor and biggest rival, Microsoft. He recently appeared on the podcast “Rapid Response,” hosted…

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announced Thursday that Prabhakar Raghavan, the company's head of search engine and advertising products, will be leaving his post. Raghavan will be replaced as chief engineer by longtime Google executive Nick Fox. “Prabhakar has decided that the time is right to take a major leap forward in his career,” Pichai said in a statement. “After 12 years leading teams across Google, he will return to his roots in computer science and take on the role of chief engineer at Google. In this role, he will work closely with me and Google leadership. Together, we will provide…

Federal authorities announced Thursday that they have arrested an Alabama man for his alleged involvement in the hacking of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission X accounts earlier this year. Eric Council Jr. was charged in connection with the SEC X account hack that occurred on January 9th. The account published a post falsely announcing that the commission had approved the listing of a Bitcoin ETF on the domestic stock exchange, and the number of posts increased. According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the price of Bitcoin increased by $1,000. According to…

ChatGPT is now available on Windows. Today, OpenAI announced that it has begun previewing a dedicated Windows app for ChatGPT, its AI-powered chatbot platform. Currently available only to ChatGPT Plus, Team, Enterprise, and Edu users, the app is an early version and will be released ahead of a “full experience” later this year, OpenAI said. “The official ChatGPT desktop app lets you chat about files and photos,” OpenAI writes. “This app provides improvements to OpenAI's latest models, including access to OpenAI's newest and smartest model, OpenAI o1-preview.” Image credit: OpenAI The ChatGPT app for Windows can run on most Windows…

Apple Music on Thursday introduced a new feature that lets artists create playlists tied to setlists from recent concerts. The feature, named “Setlist,” serves as a promotional tool for musicians to interact with their fans. It lets artists turn setlists from a single show, residency, or entire tour into playlists that they can share with fans on Apple Music, display on their Shazam artist and concert pages, or post on social media. You can do it. The feature is easy to use. Artists must first upload an artist image to their profile for playlist cover art. You can then select…

Time is ticking! There are less than two weeks left until the doors open for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. To make sure no one misses out on this highly anticipated event, we're offering Expo+ 2-for-1 passes on the final day leading up to Disrupt 2024. Bring your friends, colleagues, and family to Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28th to 30th. Buy two Expo+ passes for half the price of one. This limited offer is available until October 27th at 11:59pm PT. All ticket prices will increase on the first day of Disrupt 2024. Get two discounted Expo+ passes here.…

Google on Thursday updated the audio summarization feature in its AI note-taking and research assistant NotebookLM. NotebookLM has recently gained a lot of attention for its podcast-like audio conversations based on content shared by users, with the ability to guide conversations and focus on specific topics instead. It just generates an overall audio summary. Now, NotebookLM's audio summaries allow users to digest and understand information in long documents and videos through AI-generated audio conversations. Shortly after its release last month, the feature helped NotebookLM gain traction, and many people began sharing audio summaries of content, including those created using diaries…

As we previously reported, enterprise CIOs have been slow to embrace generative AI. One reason is that AI doesn't fit into existing software engineering workflows because it literally doesn't speak the same language. For example, LLM (aka Large Language Model) requires a lot of deception to deliver valid JSON. That's where Dottxt comes in, a US-based startup with the promise of “making AI talk computers.” The company is led by a team that helps outline open source projects. This allows developers to get what they want from ChatGPT and other generative AI models without resorting to crude tactics like injecting…

Making the complex decision of when to sell a startup or keep moving forward is one of the most difficult challenges founders face. In an era where IPOs are frequently postponed and takeover offers arrive quickly, determining the right time to raise capital or remain independent has become increasingly delicate. We are excited to welcome three distinguished leaders to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Each of them brings a unique perspective to this issue. Join us on the Builders stage as Naveen Rao, VP of Generative AI at Databricks. Kamakshi Sivaramakrishnan, Head of Data Clean Room at Snowflake. and Battery Ventures General…