Author: TechBrunch
Elon Musk has voiced his support for California's SB 1047, a bill that would require makers of very large AI models to create and document safeguards against those models causing significant harm. “This is a tough call and it will upset some people, but all things considered, I think California should probably pass SB 1047, the AI Safety Bill,” he wrote to X on Monday afternoon. “For over 20 years, I have advocated for regulating AI, just as we would any product or technology that poses potential risks.” Despite vowing to leave California, where his massive AI modeling company, xAI,…
OpenAI, Adobe and Microsoft are backing a California bill that would require tech companies to label AI-generated content, according to a letter from the companies seen by TechCrunch. The bill is due for a final vote in August. AB 3211 requires watermarking the metadata of AI-generated photos, videos, and audio clips. Many AI companies already do this, but most people don't read metadata. AB 3211 also requires large online platforms like Instagram and X to label AI-generated content in a way that the average viewer can understand. OpenAI, Adobe, and Microsoft are part of the Coalition on Content Provenance and…
OpenAI has backed a California bill that would require technology companies to label AI-generated content, according to a letter from OpenAI's chief strategy officer seen by Reuters, which is due for a final vote in August. AB 3211 requires watermarking the metadata of AI-generated photos, videos, and audio clips. Many AI companies already do this, but most people don't read metadata. AB 3211 also requires large online platforms like Instagram and X to label AI-generated content in a way that the average viewer can understand. In a letter to California lawmakers in April, industry groups representing Microsoft, OpenAI's largest investor,…
Generative AI models aren't actually human-like: they have no intelligence or personality — they're simply statistical systems that predict the next word in a sentence — but like an intern at an autocratic workplace, they will unapologetically follow instructions, including initial “system prompts” that teach the model its basic behavior and what it should and shouldn't do. All generative AI vendors, from OpenAI to Anthropic, use system prompts to control the overall tone and emotion of a model’s responses, to prevent (or at least try to prevent) the model from misbehaving. For example, a prompt might tell a model to…
The arrest of Telegram's founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, in France is starting to affect the app's popularity and rankings. On Saturday, its founder was arrested for allegedly allowing illegal activity to flourish on the social app by failing to properly moderate messages, particularly in areas related to drug trafficking, money laundering and the distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).Despite concerns about the app's content, Telegram is now seeing an increase in downloads, ranking second in the US App Store's social networking charts and seeing a 4% increase in iOS downloads worldwide so far. Telegram's ranking increase did not…
Limited partners selling their investment interests in venture capital funds to other LPs in the secondary market is not new. But traditionally, these transactions have been conducted offline through opaque broker networks, charged high fees and can be difficult for some LPs to participate in. Palico is looking to change that. Paris-based Palico quietly received authorization from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) in July to become the first company able to facilitate end-to-end LP secondary trading online as an electronic trading system (ETS). This authorization could have a major impact on the LP-driven secondary market, as LPs need sources…
Niantic is releasing a new version of its Scaniverse app to help users capture objects around them in greater detail. Scaniverse 4 allows users to capture places and objects in 3D using Gaussian partitioning technology. This technology captures more data points about objects, allowing for faster rendering and more accurate, richer representations. The company acquired Scaniverse in 2021, and this is one of the app's major updates. Previously, Scaniverse allowed users to scan places and objects and save them to their device or share them with friends. These new ways to scan allow users to place these splats (object scans…
Shared electric scooter startup Beam Mobility has installed hundreds of additional “Phantom” scooters in urban areas across Australia and New Zealand to avoid paying vehicle registration fees to local governments, according to a two-part report in The Australian. Cities are imposing limits on the number of scooters operators can deploy to avoid cluttering roads and sidewalks with vehicles that can pose a danger to pedestrians. The Australian's scoop includes Slack messages and other documents detailing how Beam provided false data to independent monitoring app Ride Report to underestimate the number of scooters in cities including Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Auckland and…
The fintech sector, which saw significant growth during and immediately after the pandemic, found itself in a rather tough spot in 2024. But while the rapid pace of fundraising has slowed, many fintech companies continue to grow and expand their teams. To get a better understanding of how many fintech companies fit this category, I put out a call asking which fintech companies were hiring. In just over an hour, I received over a dozen responses. Just a few days later, I had heard from dozens more. Even as someone who writes regularly about this space, I was surprised by…
As investors in their 20s enter the venture industry, they bring a fresh vibe and spot new trends that could become the next billion-dollar tech companies. We are already seeing younger investors carving out new niches. Alex Chan (26) is an investor at Chai Ventures. Her firm has backed companies such as consumer health platform Unfabled and emotional health specialist Mental Happy. Chan says she is interested in how the ecosystem has redefined women's health over the past few years. Women's health has become a hot sector with more capital flowing in. According to Pitchbook, the global market for “femtech,”…