Author: TechBrunch

TikTok has warned of a looming shutdown in just six days, as the Supreme Court is currently weighing the law that would ban the app. So we thought it’s time to take a look at other platforms that may be able to fill the TikTok-shaped hole in our lives.  The law gives TikTok parent company ByteDance until January 19 to divest its U.S. operations or face a ban in the country. TikTok is hoping for a pause to the law, but if that doesn’t happen, the app will effectively be banned in the country.  There’s no 1:1 TikTok replacement, but…

Young Gen Zers are using OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot ChatGPT for schoolwork, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center. But it's unclear whether they are fully aware of the technology's pitfalls. In a follow-up to a 2023 poll on ChatGPT usage among youth, Pew surveyed some 1,400 U.S.-based youth ages 13 to 17 for homework and other school-related tasks. I asked if they had ever used ChatGPT for an assignment. 26% answered yes, double the number two years ago. Just over half (54%) of the teens surveyed said they thought it was acceptable to use ChatGPT to research…

More U.S. users of TikTok are turning to Duolingo to learn Chinese, as the company adopts a Chinese social app called RedNote ahead of TikTok's ban. Unless blocked by the Supreme Court, the US law is set to take effect on January 19th, TikTok will be removed from US app stores and the app will no longer function on users' devices unless they install a VPN client. Masu. But instead of trying to circumvent the ban, more than 700 million TikTok users migrated to the social video platform RedNote (also known as Xiaohongshu), facilitating an amazing cultural exchange between the…

Meta announced this week that it will purchase 200 megawatts of solar energy from multinational power company Engie, adding to the company's more than 12 gigawatts of renewable power portfolio. The news comes as tech companies ramp up their AI ambitions, adding data centers at a breakneck pace, and power demand is rising to the point where half of all new AI servers could be underpowered by 2027. It was announced in the midst of a growing number of Meta has been steadily adding new capacity, announcing in December that it would build a 2-gigawatt data center in Louisiana, a…

The uproar over competing e-readers to the popular Kindle has revealed how the use of Chinese AI models in U.S. products could unwittingly spread Chinese propaganda. According to an AI screenshot shared on Reddit, a large language model (LLM) created by TikTok's parent company ByteDance was used in an e-book reader called Boox. According to posts and communications between TechCrunch and the LLM, the LLM spouted Chinese government propaganda when asked questions about China and its allies, sparking backlash from users. The LLM in question is ByteDance's Doubao, which is offered as an API under ByteDance's cloud services division Volcano…

OpenAI is getting into the local news game. Newsletter-based media organization Axios announced a partnership with OpenAI on Wednesday. As part of the three-year deal, the AI ​​giant will fund the expansion of Axios' local newsletter into four new cities. Kansas City, Missouri. Boulder, Colorado. and Huntsville, Alabama. According to Axios, OpenAI has content sharing and licensing agreements with several publications (the nature and details of these agreements have not been made public), but OpenAI does not provide funding for the actual newsrooms of the media companies it works with. This is the first time that it has been offered.…

Influential AI researcher François Cholet is launching a new startup aimed at building cutting-edge AI systems with novel designs. Ndea, a startup, consists of an AI research and science lab. We aim to develop and operate AGI. AGI stands for “artificial general intelligence” and refers to AI that can perform any task that a human can normally perform. This is a goal for many AI companies, including OpenAI. “We are betting on a different path to building an AI that can truly invent, adapt, and innovate,” Chollet wrote in a series of posts about X. They can learn at least…

Hello everyone, welcome to TechCrunch's regular AI newsletter. If you'd like to have this sent to your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week was something of a swan song for the Biden administration. On Monday, the White House announced sweeping new restrictions on exports of AI chips, which were loudly criticized by tech giants including Nvidia. (NVIDIA's business would be severely affected if the restrictions go into effect as proposed.) And on Tuesday, the administration issued an executive order opening up federal land to AI data centers. But the obvious question is: Will this move have a lasting…

There's even more good news for those looking to leave Meta's social app ecosystem in favor of more open alternatives. An independent developer is building a photo sharing app for Bluesky called Flashes. The soon-to-be-released app leverages the AT protocol, the same technology that powers Bluesky, and is built using code from the developer's previous Bluesky client, Skeets. If Flashes launches, it could capitalize on growing consumer demand for alternatives to Big Tech's social media monopoly. This trend has led to the adoption of open source decentralized apps such as Mastodon and Bluesky, including the recently released Pixelfed mobile app…

Google said it is working with the Associated Press to build a “feed of real-time information” into Gemini to make the Gemini chatbot app more of a one-stop shop. Jafar Zaidi, Google's vice president of global news partnerships, said the goal is to “further increase the usefulness of results” in the Gemini experience. “When developing new AI services and products,[s]”We identify certain types of information and data that help us improve our products and services for people around the world,” Zaidi wrote in a blog post. “this [new feed] It is especially useful for users looking for up-to-date information. ”…