Author: TechBrunch

Let's start with the premise that change is hard for everyone. In large organizations, change is even harder. Over the past 15 years, I've watched large organizations try to embrace mobile, big data, cloud, and general digital transformation, only to see many of them struggle to implement these technologies time and time again. Today, it's AI that is forcing change on companies and their employees, whether they like it or not. Part of the problem is technical debt, the notion that an organization's tech stack needs to evolve to make the most of new technologies, rather than using a set…

The South Korean startup ecosystem has grown over the last decade as major tech firms and venture capital from the West has sought to make inroads in the country. No surprise there: South Korea has long been one of Asia’s strongest economies. Startups here have enjoyed good access to funding, benefiting from Big Tech companies like Google, Meta, Qualcomm and Samsung setting up operations locally, as well as from dedicated venture arms. It also helps that the Korean government has spurred investment by setting up innovation hubs, incubators and accelerators. Today, South Korea ranks ninth on the list of countries…

Brazil's Supreme Court ordered the immediate nationwide suspension of the X Platform on Friday, following a months-long legal battle with Elon Musk's social media company over content moderation, according to Bloomberg. The court added that anyone using a VPN to access the X Platform would be fined 50,000 reais ($8,900) per day, but it was unclear how the ruling would be enforced. Earlier this month, X suspended its operations in Brazil in protest of a court order requiring it to remove accounts that allegedly spread false information. At the time, the company said that Brazilian Supreme Court Judge Alexandre de…

Sources told The Wall Street Journal this week that OpenAI is in talks to raise a new round of funding at a staggering valuation of more than $100 billion. It turns out investors have already proven they're willing to value the company that highly to get on OpenAI's coveted cap table: In several companies tracking or facilitating secondary transactions (where investors buy shares from existing investors rather than directly from a company), investors have paid prices that suggest valuations of more than $100 billion. The main deal that OpenAI is negotiating is being led by Josh Kushner's Thrive Capital, which…

Update: California's Appropriations Committee passed SB 1047 on Thursday, August 15, with significant amendments that change the bill. Read more here. Outside of science fiction movies, there is no precedent for AI systems being used to kill people or launch large-scale cyberattacks. But some lawmakers want to put in place safeguards before bad actors make this dystopian future a reality. California's bill, SB 1047, aims to prevent real-world disasters caused by AI systems. The bill passed the state Senate in August and now awaits approval or veto from California Governor Gavin Newsom. While this seems like a goal we can…

Stock trading startup Public has acquired Carta's secondary brokerage account business, TechCrunch has confirmed. Carta, best known for its cap table management software, has amassed a lot of data. The company was trying to move into the booming secondary marketplace securities trading business when in January a startup client publicly accused Carta of using the startup's private cap table data to approach shareholders and broker a sale without the startup's knowledge. The allegations spread, spooking many of Carta's clients and threatening to leave. Days later, Carta announced it was abandoning the business, and Axios previously reported that the company has…

Apple stands by its decision to suspend the Apple developer account of Appstun, a mobile app company founded by one of the student winners of its Worldwide Developer Conference 2021. According to an announcement posted on Appstun's website, Apple took the action to suspend the developer account after the company's apps were rejected multiple times for violating the company's App Store guidelines. Apple's decision to close developer accounts was recently addressed on X by Apple critic and 37Signals co-owner and CTO David Heinemeier Hansson, where he praised how privileged web developers are to be able to run their businesses without…

Estita Cabra had always wanted to work for Airbnb, and when she came up with the idea for her fashion-sharing platform company, Buy Rotation, a few years ago, she looked to other gig economy businesses like Airbnb for inspiration. She launched Buy Rotation in 2019, turning her side hustle into a full-fledged fashion clothing rental business. It now claims to have more than 500,000 users, including celebrities like Herem Mirren, Ellie Goulding, and Amelia Windsor, a member of the British royal family. The company has raised $3.5 million in funding from backers including Bessemer Ventures and Cornerstone VC, but Kabra…

LAION, the German research institute that creates the data used to train generative AI models such as Stable Diffusion, has published a new dataset that it claims has been “thoroughly cleaned of any known links to suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM).” The new dataset, Re-LAION-5B, is actually a re-release of the older dataset, LAION-5B, but with “fixes” implemented based on recommendations from non-profit organizations Internet Watch Foundation, Human Rights Watch, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, and the now-defunct Stanford Internet Observatory. Two versions are available for download: Re-LAION-5B Research and Re-LAION-5B Research-Safe (which additionally removes NSFW content), and…

According to Microsoft, a North Korean hacking group exploited a previously unknown bug in Chrome to target organizations in early August with the aim of stealing cryptocurrency. In a report published on Friday, cybersecurity researchers at the tech giant said they first saw evidence of the hackers' activity on Aug. 19 and that the hackers were linked to a group known as “Citrine Sleet,” which is known for targeting the cryptocurrency industry. According to the report, the hackers exploited a flaw in a core engine within Chromium, the underlying code for popular browsers like Chrome and Microsoft Edge. At the…