Author: TechBrunch
Meta has fixed a bug that led users to believe the company had adjusted their choices in its political content settings tool without their consent. The issue affected both Instagram and Threads users, and appeared to have reset users' content settings to defaults that limited the amount of political content from people they didn't follow. On Wednesday, Meta confirmed that it was investigating the issue and working on a fix. Late Wednesday evening, Meta's communications director, Andy Stone, announced in a thread post that the issue had been resolved. He also shared more details about the nature of the bug,…
YouTube is adding several new features for premium users, including support for smart downloads and picture-in-picture mode for Short videos, as well as a wider rollout of its “Jump Ahead” feature for navigating between videos. The Google-owned video streaming platform already supports background playback for long-form videos and picture-in-picture mode so you can watch content while browsing other apps, and the company is now extending this support to Shorts, starting with Android users. YouTube will also add a “jump ahead” button that will appear when users double-tap to skip. When a user taps the button, YouTube will jump to the…
TechCrunch is teaming up with Google Cloud as a featured partner for Startup Battlefield 200, an event that will highlight and support the most promising startups from around the world at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place in San Francisco from October 28-30. At the heart of this collaboration is a shared vision to accelerate innovation. Google Cloud is committed to helping startups scale faster and smarter by combining our robust infrastructure, advanced AI capabilities, and global network. This approach aligns perfectly with the goals of TechCrunch Disrupt and Startup Battlefield 200, which aim to spotlight and nurture the next wave…
a16z-backed Character.AI today announced that users can now converse with AI characters over phone calls, a feature that currently supports multiple languages including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Korean, Japanese and Chinese. The company tested the calling feature ahead of today's public launch. During the test period, more than 3 million users made more than 20 million calls. The company also noted that calling with AI characters can be useful for practicing language skills, mock interviews, and adding to role-playing gameplay. With the tap of a button, users can initiate a call directly with the user-created AI character, a feature that…
TikTok is gearing up to compete with Amazon's Prime Day event in July, as the social network announced on Thursday that its TikTok Shop will host a “Deals For You Days” sales event in the US starting July 9. The announcement comes just days after Amazon announced that its annual Prime Day sale will take place on July 16th and 17th. Prime Day's success has prompted other retailers, big and small, to use the day to run competing sales, and now TikTok is one of them. According to TikTok, the sale event will offer great deals on fashion and beauty…
SoftBank Group founder Masayoshi Son announced on Thursday that the Japanese technology giant has formed a joint venture in Japan with Chicago-based health tech company Tempus. The two companies plan to conduct data analytics in Japan and develop personalized medical services using AI under the name SB Tempus. The company plans to start with oncology, which remains the biggest cause of death in Japan, according to Son, whose father died of the disease last year. The move underscores Son's ambitious and broad focus on AI. At a special press conference today, Son detailed one more specific application of AI: the…
Startup valuations have plummeted since the 2021-2022 bull market, which has hit the European startup ecosystem particularly hard, but there is one European region where the correction has worked slightly in its favor: the South. Evidence of this was apparent at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona earlier this year, as TechCrunch reporters repeatedly encountered Nordic venture capitalists scouting startups in the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal). These startups bring a winning combination that venture capitalists love: significantly lower operating costs and much lower valuations. Further evidence of this “southern trend” comes with the news that Enrique Linares, one of the…
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into becoming one of the most-hyped companies in recent memory. And its latest partnership with Apple for its upcoming generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, has given the company another significant bump in the AI race. 2024 also saw the release of GPT-4o, OpenAI’s new flagship omni…
The generative AI boom is driving demand for AI chips specialized for training and running generative AI models, and major players, from venture capital firms to startups, are rushing to get in on the action. SoftBank's Masayoshi Son is reportedly looking to raise $100 billion for a chip business to rival tech giant Nvidia, while OpenAI is said to be in talks with investment firms to launch an AI chip manufacturing venture. AI chip startup Axelera has kept a relatively low profile, but it has managed to garner the support of backers, including Samsung, by focusing on a niche area…
A travel hack that went viral on TikTok taught users how to save money on hotels and Airbnb by booking directly with the accommodation. Now, a new startup, Directo, is helping travelers find the same deals with the help of a Chrome extension that directs them to the accommodation's website, where they can often find discounted rates because the accommodation doesn't have to pay a sales commission. On social media, creators and influencers post various money-saving tips, teaching users how to book a room or homestay for less. This often involves doing a reverse image search of the accommodation's photos…