Author: TechBrunch

The European Union has long had a reputation for strong privacy laws. But a legislative plan to combat child abuse, formally introduced by the bloc in May 2022, threatens to reduce the privacy and security of hundreds of millions of local messaging app users. The European Commission, the EU's legislative body that drafted the proposal, has framed it as a plan to combat child abusers' misuse of mainstream technology tools and protect children's rights online. Child abusers claim they are increasingly using messaging apps to distribute child sexual abuse material. (CSAM) and even new victims. The approach adopted by the…

For the past few years, the Delivering the Future event has showcased the latest technology that powers Amazon operations. The company's 2023 event in Seattle featured updates on its pharmacy products and drone delivery. This year in Nashville, Amazon discussed AI updates to the shopping experience and how the company is using computer vision to further reduce package delivery times. While the company didn't showcase any new robotic systems during the two-day event, it did provide important insight into how it integrates with existing products. Immediately after the event, TechCrunch spoke with Tye Brady, principal engineer at Amazon Robotics. This…

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei wants you to know that he's not an AI “ruiner.” At least, that's what I read in “Mic Drop,” a roughly 15,000-word essay that Amodei published on his blog late Friday. (I asked Anthropic's Claude chatbot if I agreed, but unfortunately the post exceeded the length limit of the free plan.) Broadly speaking, Amodei paints a picture of a world where all AI risks are mitigated and the technology enables prosperity, social uplift, and enrichment never before possible. He insists this is not about minimizing the downsides of AI. Mr. Amodei initially targeted AI companies that…

How do machine learning models work? And do they really “think” or “reason” the way we understand them? It's a philosophical question as well as a practical one, but a new paper circulating Friday suggests the answer is a pretty clear “no,” at least for now. A group of AI research scientists at Apple published a paper for public commentary on Thursday called “Understanding the Limits of Mathematical Reasoning in Large-Scale Language Models.” Although the deeper concepts of symbolic learning and pattern reproduction are a bit in the weeds, the basic concepts of their work are quite easy to understand.…

For some, AI fatigue is real — but clearly venture investors haven’t grown tired of the category. AI deals continued to dominate venture funding during the third quarter. AI companies raised $18.9 billion in Q3, according to Crunchbase data. That figure represents 28% of all venture funding. The third quarter also saw the close of the largest venture deal of all time: OpenAI raised a behemoth $6.6 billion round. OpenAI’s deal was one of six AI funding rounds over $1 billion in 2024. Here are the U.S.-based AI companies that raised $100 million or more so far in 2024: October…

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has more than 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…

Khosla Ventures has raised $405 million for OpenAI, according to a regulatory filing. Based on the filing alone, Khosla's stake in the ChatGPT maker appears to represent at least 6% of the $6.6 billion round the company closed last week. But that doesn't mean Khosla put a lot of capital into this round. Most, or perhaps all, of the $405 million was pooled from other investors through a special purpose vehicle, or SPV. SPVs are used when a company does not have enough capital to meet a round, or when there is enough exposure to the company to offer its…

Welcome to Startups Weekly — a weekly roundup of must-sees from the world of startups. Want it delivered to your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Private markets continued to generate the most funding news in the startup world this week, for both companies and funds. But it would be a mistake to forget the public sector. While startups rallied with lawmakers, others gained and lost licenses. This week's most interesting startup stories Image credit: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch This week was a reminder that, for better or worse, startups need to maintain their licenses and interact with regulators to…

Instagram chief Adam Mosseri on Friday addressed moderation issues that have caused users on Instagram and Threads to lose access to their accounts or have their posts disappear, saying the company blamed human moderators for “mistakes.” I discovered it.” The company did not initially blame flaws in its AI system, as many believed it would. In a post on the thread, Mosseri addressed the issues that have plagued the social platform in recent days, adding that the mistakes found so far have been the work of content reviewers (humans, not automated systems). I couldn't see the context of how the…

In late September, Shield AI co-founder Brandon Tseng vowed that U.S. weapons would never be fully autonomous, meaning that AI algorithms would make the final decision to kill someone. “Congress doesn't want that,” the defense technology founder told TechCrunch. “Nobody wants that.” But Tseng spoke too quickly. Five days later, Anduril co-founder Palmer Lackey announced his openness to autonomous weapons, or at least his deep skepticism about the debate. America's adversaries are using a phrase that “sounds pretty good in a nutshell: Don't you agree that robots should never be able to decide who lives or dies?” Lackey said this…