Author: TechBrunch

Europe doesn't have many large language model (LLM) makers, but one of the few AI companies out there, Germany's Aleph Alpha, appears to be preparing to exit the race. Bloomberg interviewed CEO Jonas Andrulis about the company's pivot to a broader generative AI support business. The idea behind the product, PhariaAI, announced last week, is to help other companies and the public sector use AI tools, whether or not they've developed the underlying technology themselves. “The world has changed,” Andrewlis told Bloomberg. “Just getting a European law master's degree is not enough of a business model. You can't justify the…

Every automaker wants to build and sell what are called software-defined vehicles, and Rivian may have done just that, but getting there wasn't easy. Just ask Wassym Bensaid, Rivian's head of software. Rivian modified 600 parts of its flagship R1S SUV and R1T pickup truck models to lower production costs and improve the EVs' performance. The company left the exterior largely untouched, instead revamping the underside, including the electrical architecture, a redesigned software user interface that offers detailed, illustrated graphics using Unreal Engine, and deeper integration with Apple and Google. Bensaid, who joined the EV maker in 2019, led the…

Over the past few months, tech executives like Elon Musk have been touting the performance of their AI models in one particular benchmark: the chatbot arena. Chatbot Arena, run by a non-profit organization called LMSYS, has become a big focus for the industry: posts about model leaderboard updates are viewed and reshared hundreds of times on Reddit and X, and the official LMSYS X account has over 54,000 followers. The organization's website has seen millions of visitors in the last year alone. Still, the question remains as to whether Chatbot Arena can tell us how “good” these models actually are.…

Google announced on Thursday that it is expanding its generative AI-powered virtual try-on tool to include dresses, allowing users to virtually try on thousands of dresses from hundreds of brands, including Boden, Marge, Sandro, Simkhai and Staud. The company says that dresses are one of the most searched apparel categories in its tool, but as Google explained in a blog post today, dresses are more detailed and complex than other clothing items, making them difficult to use with current virality technology. To provide more context, Google Shopping last year released a tool that uses proprietary diffusion technology to create high-quality,…

Six years ago, many e-commerce and SaaS companies were able to avoid paying sales tax to states where they had customers but no brick-and-mortar stores. But as online shopping has grown, states have found themselves losing tax revenue. The era of free riding for online retailers came to an end in 2018 when the state of South Dakota sued Wayfair over sales tax collection. The Supreme Court ultimately sided with South Dakota. Currently, online stores and SaaS companies must collect sales tax from customers wherever necessary, but this is no easy task as tax laws vary widely by city, county,…

We’re rapidly approaching TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Today, we’re excited to announce the 200 startups selected to participate in this year’s Startup Battlefield 200 (SB 200) cohort. TechCrunch's editorial staff read, vetted, and discussed thousands of applications. Narrowing it down to 200 was a tough process, but we're incredibly pleased with the results. Through this vetting process, we were reminded once again of how much creativity, innovation, and talent there is in the startup community that never ceases to amaze and inspire us. After reading the Startup Battlefield 200 list, we…

YouTube will limit teens' exposure to videos that promote or idealize certain fitness levels or physical appearances, the company said Thursday, a safeguard that was first rolled out in the United States last year and is now being rolled out to teens around the world. The announcement comes as YouTube has faced criticism over the past few years for exposing teens to content that could harm them and encourage eating disorders. The types of content that YouTube will limit exposure to include videos that compare physical attributes or idealize a particular fitness level, body type or weight. YouTube will also…

YouTube on Thursday announced a new set of AI detection tools to help prevent artists, actors, musicians, athletes and other creators from having their likenesses, including their faces and voices, copied and used in other videos. One key component of the new detection technology is an expansion of YouTube's existing Content ID system, which currently identifies copyrighted material. That system will be expanded to include new synthetic singing voice identification technology to identify AI content that imitates someone's singing voice. The company said other detection technologies will also be developed to identify when someone's face has been imitated with AI.…

While details are still emerging on how exactly AI regulation will be implemented and ensured, today a number of countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union, signed a treaty on AI safety developed by the Council of Europe (COE), an international standards and human rights body. The Council of Europe's Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law (its full title) is described by the Council of Europe as “the first legally binding international treaty aimed at ensuring that the use of AI systems is fully compatible with human rights,…

French cleantech startup Calyxia is on the brink of profitability: The company just raised a $35 million Series B round that will enable it to further scale up industrial production of its sustainable alternative to microparticles and microcapsules, putting it on track to achieve net profitability by 2026. But co-founder and CEO Jamie Walters says the B Corp is just getting started. The “first” problem Calixia is tackling is staggering in its global scope: Microplastics are contaminating everything around the world, from soils, rivers and beaches to the Arctic's ice caps, and they're even making their way into our bodies…