Author: TechBrunch

As its latest announcement shows, Paris-based AI startup Mistral AI is gradually building an alternative solution to OpenAI and Anthropic. The company is launching a new flagship large language model called Mistral Large. In terms of inference capabilities, it is designed to be comparable to other top models such as GPT-4 and Claude 2. In addition to Mistral Large, the startup is also launching its own new service Le Chat, which replaces ChatGPT. This chat assistant is currently available in beta. For those not familiar with Mistral AI, the company is best known for its capitalization statement, as it raised…

Small and medium-sized businesses, just like their larger competitors, are keen to leverage AI technology to enhance their sales processes. However, they often lack the in-house IT expertise or capital to implement enterprise-grade tools like OpenAI and Anthropic. Darwin AI, an AI startup based in Brazil, is developing a conversational AI assistant for small and medium-sized businesses across Latin America who want to get into AI but don't have IT staff. The assistant is designed to interact with customers in a more human way and generate more revenue. If the conversation escalates negatively or becomes a sales lead, bring in…

A few months ago, OpenAI launched a GPT store. This is a marketplace where people can create and list AI-powered chatbots that are customized to perform various tasks (coding, answering trivia questions, etc.). Yes, GPT stores are powerful. However, this requires using OpenAI's model rather than other models, which some chatbot creators and users object to. So startups are creating alternatives. One FlowGPT is for GenAI models such as Google's Gemini, Anthropic's Claude, Meta's Llama 2, and OpenAI's DALL-E 3, as well as the front-end experience for those models (think text fields and prompt suggestions). It aims to become a…

Networking app BeScene launches today, offering a Tinder-like experience for filmmakers and other creators, including actors, animators, cinematographers, costume designers, directors, editors, producers, production assistants, script coordinators, and writers. and help build connections within entertainment. industry. Breaking into the film and media field has always been difficult, and many companies (Staff Me Up, Backstage, Mandy, ProductionHUB) have built specialized career sites to help streamline the process. But BeScene doesn't just want to serve users with years of experience, it also wants to cater to low-budget, student, and up-and-coming filmmakers who may find it difficult to make connections. “Our goal is…

Approximately 17 million LoanDepot customers had sensitive personal information, including Social Security numbers, stolen in a January ransomware attack, the company confirmed. The loan and mortgage giant said in a data breach notification filed with the Maine Attorney General's Office that the stolen Loan Depot customer data included names, dates of birth, email addresses and zip codes, financial account numbers, He said it included a phone number. The stolen data also includes Social Security numbers that LoanDepot collected from its customers. The number of affected Loan Depot customers has increased from 16.6 million when it was initially disclosed to federal…

One of the challenges with alternative proteins, especially plant-based, is developing products that mimic the taste of traditional meat. Many startups have tackled this challenge. However, the co-founders ingredohmThe Israeli food technology startup and graduate of SOSV's Indie Bio incubator program says it is inventing lab-grown proteins that are up to 10 times cheaper to produce and taste better. ing. Of course, the caveat is that their products aren't just plants. The company says it combines traditional animal proteins with plant-based ingredients to produce “hybrid meat, dairy and eggs.” Some people say. lack of fat Ingredients in the product can…

Interview Kickstart, a profitable startup that helps technology professionals develop skills to advance their careers, has raised $10 million in its first funding from Blume Ventures, the companies announced Monday. Founded in 2014, the San Francisco-based startup helps engineers learn from employees and alumni of top technology companies. Although always profitable, 2023 was a pivotal year for Interview Kickstart, co-founder Ryan Valles told TechCrunch as he moved into a senior role in the company's newly launched AI field. It was a pivotal year, he said in an interview with TechCrunch, as his new launch aimed at aspiring engineers quickly found…

Google today announced a new feature set for mobile phones, cars, and wearables at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. These features include composing messages with Gemini, captioning AI-generated images, summarizing text with his AI for Android Auto, accessing passes on Wear OS, and more. The company's Gemini implementation for image generation has faced a lot of criticism. But that doesn't stop Google from deploying it in other contexts. The company announced that starting this week, it will add in-app access to Gemini to Google Messages. This feature is currently in beta and only supports English. Google is also rolling…

Caller ID company Truecaller has started recording and transcribing calls for paying users in India, its largest market. The recording feature is available to Premium users on both Android and iOS, and English and Hindi transcriptions are supported. The company introduced a call recording feature for premium users in the US in June 2023 and is now expanding the feature to India. The main difference is that due to regulations, in the US you will hear a beep on your receiver when you start recording. That won't happen in India. If you're using Truecaller on Android, you'll see a dedicated…

A few years ago, setting up shop in Europe was a no-brainer for North American venture capitalists. The market attracts companies of all sizes, from OMER and Lightspeed to Bessemer Venture Partners, and Spotify's IPO appears to have woken up North American VCs to the potential of creating a huge European exit. VCs wanted to make sure they didn't miss out on the next wave. However, it is unclear whether they were able to catch it. The trend hasn't completely reversed since the happy days of 2021, but it's getting pretty close. Still, Europe's startup market has grown rapidly over…