Author: TechBrunch
Slack president Denise Dresser told TechCrunch that the company is transitioning its business chat platform into an “operating system for work,” specifically, making Slack a hub for AI applications from Salesforce, Adobe, and Anthropic. The company's CEO sees Slack as more than a place to chat with colleagues, but do users want that? And if they do, will they pay a premium for it? Slack on Monday announced several new features for Slack AI, the messaging platform's higher-priced tier. The updates include AI-generated Huddle summaries, similar to the channel summaries already available to subscribers. Users can also now chat with…
Beleaguered chip maker Intel has announced plans to acquire key customers and make changes to its foundry business in an effort to turn things around. Intel is taking steps to transition its chip-making unit, Intel Foundry, into an independent subsidiary, Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger said in a blog post. Leadership of Intel Foundry will remain unchanged and the subsidiary will remain within Intel, but Intel Foundry will have an operating committee that includes independent directors. Gelsinger also said the company would suspend chip-making projects in Poland and Germany for two years and consider scaling back chip packaging and testing operations…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is leaving an internal committee that OpenAI created in May to oversee “significant” safety decisions related to the company's projects and operations. OpenAI said in a blog post today that the safety and security committee will be an “independent” board oversight group and will be chaired by Carnegie Mellon University professor Zeico Colter, Quora CEO Adam D'Angelo, retired U.S. Army Gen. Paul Nakasone, and former Sony vice president Nicole Seligman, all of whom are current members of OpenAI's board of directors. OpenAI said in a post that the committee conducted a safety review of OpenAI's most…
Copilot is Microsoft’s take on productivity-boosting generative AI, and it continues to grow and expand with Microsoft’s AI ambitions. Today, there are around a dozen Copilot-branded products powering various capabilities in Microsoft software and services, like summarizations in Microsoft Outlook and transcriptions in Microsoft Teams. That’s in addition to Microsoft-owned GitHub’s Copilot tool for generating code, and the Copilot that lives on Windows and the web, which serves as a general-purpose assistant. In this post, we explain the many Microsoft Copilots available and what they do, and the differences between the premium and free editions. What is Microsoft Copilot? Microsoft…
As electric vehicle startup Fisker Inc. enters its fourth month of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, existing owners have received bad news: They will have to pay labor costs to resolve two of the five outstanding recalls for their Ocean SUVs. Fisker broke the bad news in a FAQ posted on its website Sunday night, saying that three of the five recalls — sudden power loss, false warning lights and reduced regenerative braking — can be fixed with a free over-the-air software update. Problems emerged in two other recalls: some Oceans had faulty door handles; and all SUVs needed replacement of…
As part of Salesforce's big tech conference, Dreamforce, taking place in San Francisco this week, the company's venture capital arm, Salesforce Ventures, announced a new $500 million fund dedicated to AI companies. This is significant for a few reasons. First, in June 2023, Salesforce Ventures is doubling its AI fund from $250 million to $500 million, and the additional $500 million will bring the AI fund to $1 billion. This will match the total of $5 billion put into it in the first 15 years since its launch in 2009. Salesforce Ventures is also helping make San Francisco a hotspot…
Gogoro, a Taiwanese company that makes electric scooters and replaces batteries, said in a regulatory filing that its CEO and chairman, Horace Luke, has resigned following allegations of subsidy fraud. Gogoro is accused of using Chinese-made parts in its electric scooters to cut manufacturing costs, despite reporting it was using domestically produced parts to qualify for government subsidies. Gogoro said in the filing that an internal investigation found “certain irregularities” in its supply chain that led to the “erroneous incorporation of certain imported parts into some of our vehicles.” Gogoro said in the filing that Luke had resigned to demonstrate…
On Monday, Apple released a new version of iOS, the operating system for its iPhones. iOS 18 is free to download and works on iPhone XR and XS and later, and second- and third-generation iPhone SE. That means if your iPhone supports iOS 17, you can install iOS 18 on it. When Apple announced iOS 18 at its annual developer conference WWDC, the company spent a lot of time talking about Apple Intelligence, the umbrella term Apple is using for all of its upcoming generative AI-related features. However, Apple Intelligence is not part of iOS 18.0. The first AI features…
Speaking at the Oracle Financial Analysts Conference, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said he hopes AI will one day power large-scale law enforcement surveillance networks. “We're going to have a monitoring system in place,” he said. “All of our officers will be monitored at all times, and if there's an issue, the AI will flag it up and report it to the right people. We're constantly recording and reporting everything that's going on, so citizens will be on the best behavior.” Ellison believes that continuous AI surveillance could significantly reduce crime, but the evidence doesn't necessarily support his claim. As The…
11xAI, a startup that builds AI bots for process automation, or end-to-end workflow automation, just raised $24 million in new Series A funding led by Benchmark. It's also one of several AI startups moving their headquarters to San Francisco, according to founder and CEO Hasan Sukkar. The company was founded in London. The Series A comes about a year after 11xAI raised $2 million in a seed round led by Project A Ventures. Founded in 2022, the company calls its AI agents “automated digital workers,” and like others in the space, its pitch is that its software can handle repetitive…