Author: TechBrunch

The hype is palpable. Self-driving car services are a hot topic of conversation as tech people from near and far gather at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco, one of the few locations where Waymo will be open to the public. Pega Ebrahimi, co-founder and managing partner of FPV Ventures, said on stage at TechCrunch, “Given all the hype around AI, everyone is going to be excited about self-driving cars in 10 years.” spoke. Disrupt 2024. “It's not going to be perfect for a while, but people are so excited and live in an optimistic world that it can happen…

Investor Wesley Chan has shown a knack for making early investments in multi-billion dollar unicorn companies, including Plaid, Gusto, Flexport, and most recently Canva. Chan comes from an unconventional background. He grew up in an immigrant family and had middling grades in high school. However, he got a job cleaning test tubes in a California Institute of Technology lab and was able to impress lab manager Ellen Rosenberg and get him admitted to MIT. From there, his unexpected journey continued. He majored in computer science because it seemed like a good career path, but landed in Silicon Valley shortly after…

As part of TechCrunch's ongoing “Women in AI” series, which aims to give AI-focused academics and other women the time they deserve (and are overdue) in the spotlight, TechCrunch interviewed Sofia Verastegui. Mr. Velastegui is a member of the National Science Foundation (NSF) National AI Advisory Board and former Chief AI Officer of Microsoft's Business Software Division. Verastegui had no intention of pursuing a career in AI. She studied mechanical engineering as an undergraduate at Georgia Tech. But after joining Apple in 2009, she became fascinated with apps, especially those powered by AI. “We started realizing that products with AI…

“There is no AI without data, there is no AI without unstructured data, and there is no AI without unstructured data,” said Chet Kapur, chairman and CEO of data management company DataStax. There is no AI without it.” Kapur started a conversation at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 about “new data pipelines” in the context of modern AI applications, and was joined by Vanessa Larco, a partner at VC firm NEA. George Fraser, CEO of data integration platform Fivetran. The chat covered multiple topics, including the importance of data quality and the role of real-time data in generative AI, but one of…

MIT this week unveiled a new model for training robots. This technique mimics the large amount of information used to train large-scale language models (LLMs), rather than the standard set of focused data used to teach robots new tasks. It will be. The researchers note that imitation learning, where an agent learns by following an individual performing a task, can fail when small challenges are introduced. These could be things like lighting, different settings, or new obstacles. In such a scenario, the robot does not have enough data available to adapt. The team looked to models like GPT-4 as a…

Bonobos founder Andy Dunn is back in the builder's seat, working on an in-person social media platform called Pie. But the biggest lesson he learned from the $310 million Bonobos exit has less to do with entrepreneurship and more to do with staying sane. Dan was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during college, but didn't receive adequate treatment until 2016 when he was hospitalized for a second time for a manic episode. “Mania is just a disaster. It's like being in a psychosis, with delusions like a savior. “…You can't accomplish anything in that state,” Dunn said on stage at TechCrunch…

CoffeeSpace is on a mission to help people find partners for their startup ideas online. The startup, which exhibited as part of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024's Startup Battlefield 200, has launched a social networking app that matches people exploring startup ideas and looking for co-founders. The startup's algorithm only matches candidates who meet each other's requirements. You can narrow down potential candidates based on a variety of filters, including expertise, location, industry, and more. CoffeeSpace CEO Hajim Mohammad told TechCrunch that he believes in looking beyond the traditional resume when looking for a co-founder for your business idea. As such, the…

CareYaya is a platform that matches people in need of care with medical students and is working to transform the care industry. The startup, which exhibited as part of TechCrunch Disrupt's Battlefield 200, aims to enhance affordable in-home support while also helping students prepare for future medical careers. The startup was founded in 2022 by Neil Shah, who came up with the idea for the startup based on his own experience as a caregiver for his wife who suffered from cancer and various other illnesses. During this time, Shah was a partner in a hedge fund, but had to downsize…

Technologies of national interest can come in many forms, including not just satellites and weapons, but also data analytics and cybersecurity. Many dual-use application startups are increasingly looking to the government as an attractive customer due to the wide range of use cases and available federal funding. There are also several grant programs (such as those provided by the Inflation Control Act) that provide non-dilutive funding to startups, said Rebecca Gewald, managing partner at Dcode Capital, who formerly worked at the CIA. says it is advising companies to pursue contracts instead. “The real key is how do we find replicable…

Disinformation is spreading at an alarming pace, thanks in large part to openly available AI tools. In a recent survey, 85% of people said they were worried about online disinformation, and the World Economic Forum named AI-driven disinformation the world's biggest risk. High-profile examples of this year's disinformation campaigns include the X bot network targeting U.S. federal elections and President Joe Biden's voicemail deepfakes that discouraged certain residents from voting. Overseas, candidates from South Asian countries are flooding the web with fake videos, images and news articles. A deepfake of London Mayor Sadiq Khan even incited violence at a pro-Palestinian…