Author: TechBrunch

A week after announcing a series of updates to its enterprise suite of Copilot AI-powered products, Microsoft is rolling out updates to all users, including tools that help them understand what they see on their screens and answer questions. We're releasing new Copilot features on Windows. The updated Copilot apps for iOS, Android, Windows, and Web are rolling out today, and all Copilot now has a “warmer” and “distinct” style, as Microsoft describes it. Microsoft is also bringing a chatbot to WhatsApp, allowing users to chat with Copilot via DMs. This is similar to the experience you get with other…

Microsoft has launched Bing Generative Search, its answer to Google's AI-powered search experience. Following a pilot in July, Bing Generative Search began rolling out to all U.S. users this morning, although it is still in development. The easiest way to invoke this is to search for “Bing Generative Search” in Bing. Microsoft also said it would introduce an option to more easily launch Bing Generative Search for “informational queries.” Bing Generative Search is based on a variety of AI models that aggregate information on the web and generate summaries in response to search queries. For example, when a user searches…

Microsoft will pay publishers for content featured in Copilot Daily, a new feature of its cross-platform assistant powered by Copilot AI. Copilot Daily, announced Tuesday along with other Copilot upgrades, provides users with an audio summary of the weather and current events. Alexa and Google Assistant have long offered similar daily summaries, but Microsoft describes the effort as “an antidote to the familiar feeling of information overload.” “Clean, simple, and easy to digest, Copilot Daily pulls only from approved content sources,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post, adding that reminders and customization options will be added over time. Reuters, Axel…

The UK's National Crime Agency has announced that it has linked a long-standing affiliate of the LockBit ransomware group to Evil Corp, a notorious Russian-backed cybercriminal organization with ties to the Russian government. The NCA announced on Tuesday that it had revealed the true identity of Russian national Aleksandr Ryzhenkov of a Rockbit affiliate known as “Beverly”. British authorities believe he is Evil Corporation's “second-in-command.” This is the latest effort by UK and international law enforcement agencies, dubbed 'Operation Kronos', to link LockBit, once one of the most prolific Russian ransomware gangs, with Russian links. It aims to disrupt the…

Sonos' app relaunch in May will be studied as a lesson in business schools for years to come. The home audio company prioritized attracting new customers over its existing loyal fan base when adding Ace headphones to its product portfolio. The result was a bug-filled release that led to missed revenue and over 100 layoffs. Subsequent product releases have also reportedly been delayed. As October dawns, its effects are still being felt. But the company announced plans Tuesday that it hopes will go a long way toward reversing fortunes and repairing relations. Sonos has set out the following seven “promises.”…

A team of founders who sold their last company to Amazon to build a new business within AWS are embarking on a difficult reinvention of the business of backing up their organizations' cloud infrastructure. Today, Eon (as their new startup is called) has a product, a set of customers, three rounds of funding totaling $127 million, and a $750 million post-funding valuation. and has come out of stealth. Specifically, Eon, which was recently founded in Israel and New York in January 2024, has raised $20 million in seed led by Sequoia (with participation from Vine Ventures, Meron Capital, and Eight…

Traveling abroad comes with its own set of stresses, and for many people, one of the biggest stresses is what to do if they become unwell. Will you be able to find a doctor who speaks your language, accepts your insurance, and can avoid the expense and stress of visiting an unfamiliar hospital emergency room? A startup called Air Doctor has built a platform to help people in this very predicament, and is seeing strong traction and has now raised $20 million in a Series B round. Air Doctor's product is part directory, part algorithm-driven location-based service provider, and part…

A UK-based open source startup launches its first commercial product, backed by Silicon Valley's most prominent venture capital firm. Pydantic on Monday announced $12.5 million in Series A funding led by Sequoia, launching an observability platform called Logfire after five months of trials in open beta. But the company is best known for its eponymous Python library and open-source data validation framework, launched in 2017 by British developer Samuel Colvin. This project has become more and more powerful and is now used by developers in several companies around the world. Big names like Meta, Nvidia, Netflix, Google, and OpenAI. Businesses…

US asset manager Invesco estimates an implied valuation of about $13.3 billion in Swiggy, an Indian food delivery and quick commerce startup that plans to go public in about a month, and holds a stake in the company. It increased the value of Swiggy stock. Invesco's Developing Markets Fund said in a disclosure on Tuesday that its holdings of 28,844 Swiggy shares were valued at $237.24 million at the end of July 2024. The asset manager bought Swiggy stake for $190.47 million. Invesco invested in Swiggy in early 2022, leading a $700 million round in the Bangalore-based startup. This round…

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 solution provider like Automattic or WP Engine for a plug-and-play solution. In mid-September, Mullenweg wrote a blog post calling WP Engine “the cancer of WordPress.”…