Author: TechBrunch
OpenAI said in a blog post on Friday that it had banned a group of ChatGPT accounts linked to an Iranian influence operation that was generating content about the U.S. presidential election. The operation produced AI-generated articles and social media posts that did not appear to reach a large audience, according to the company. This is not the first time OpenAI has banned accounts with ties to state-affiliated entities using ChatGPT for malicious purposes: in May, the company blocked five campaigns that used ChatGPT to manipulate public opinion. These episodes are reminiscent of state actors' attempts to use social media…
Welcome to Startups Weekly, a weekly roundup of the must-reads from the startup world. I'm Anna Heim from TechCrunch's international team, and I'll be writing this newsletter from now on. Want it delivered to your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. This week we look at the process of starting a startup: how it gets founded, funded, closed, and acquired. This week's most interesting startup stories Image credit: Neon Money Club While one company has made stealth its way into the spotlight, several others have flown under the radar this week. Close call: Black Forest Labs is the name of…
While the ethics of AI-generated pornography are still debated, we can all agree that the technology can be used to create sexual images of people without their consent. One way to do this is through “undressing” sites, which generate fake nude versions of people from photos of them in normal clothes. As you can imagine, the potential abuses here are nearly limitless. San Francisco city attorney David Chiu announced at a press conference and in an interview with The New York Times that he would file a lawsuit to shut down 16 of the most popular of these sites. The…
We're into the final week of discounted rates for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Through August 23rd, you can save up to $600 on select individual ticket types. Join a vibrant group of over 10,000 attendees, startup founders, and venture capital investors from October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Here are some great reasons to attend Disrupt 2024: Gain insights from top industry leaders Explore six industry-specific stages and learn from the best in your industry. Speakers are cutting-edge innovators and recognized experts in their fields. Google Cloud's AI Stage Builders Stage Fintech Stage SaaS Stage Space Stage by Aerospace…
As always, there's a lot going on in the startup world, and the folks at Equity had a blast analyzing it all. Kirsten Kolosec, Mary Ann Azevedo, and Devin Caldway kicked off this Friday's TechCrunch Equity Podcast by discussing WeRide, a Chinese self-driving car startup that is seeking a US IPO at a valuation of $5 billion. The company also recently received permission to test self-driving cars with passengers in California. The three then moved on to talk about EliseAI, which just raised $75 million in Series D funding, making it a unicorn. The seven-year-old company's chatbots text, email, and…
Fortnite developer Epic Games announced Friday that it has officially launched a rival iOS app store in the European Union, with the Epic Games Store also launching on Android worldwide. The app store will feature games like Fortnite, Rocket League Sideswipe and Fall Guys, and the company said it is working with developers to release games on the Epic Games Store in the future. Epic Games will also be offering its games on independent mobile store AltStore PAL, which announced yesterday that its app store will be available for free thanks to a grant from Epic Games. The company said…
Following the launch of AI Overview in the U.S., Google is expanding AI-powered search overviews to six more countries: India, Brazil, Japan, the U.K., Indonesia, and Mexico. These markets will also receive local language support for AI Overview. The search giant is also overhauling how it displays links to source material. On both desktop and mobile, it's adding a view in the top right that displays site icons above the AI summary. Users can tap on these icons to go to links cited in the AI summary to read more about that topic. Image credit: Google Additionally, the company is…
Over the past few months, we have seen a rise in the user base eager to try out new and old social networks alternatives to Twitter. Mastodon, Bluesky, Spill, T2 etc are some of the social media platforms people are trying out. Now, Meta is entering the game with a major launch in partnership with Instagram. What is Threads and how do I create an account? Threads is a text-based Twitter rival to Meta, and it's tied to your Instagram account, so you can create an account by logging in with your Instagram credentials. How is it different from Twitter?…
A social media spat between billionaire tech investors has called into question the journalistic independence of 3-year-old news outlet SF Standard after a reporter there contacted sources for a story about venture capitalist Ben Horowitz and his wife, Felicia. Standard's only backer is another longtime venture capitalist, Michael Moritz, who, in a blistering rebuke on the X platform Thursday night, called the “coming soon” article a “cheap smear campaign” orchestrated by Moritz, accusing him of “enlisting a disinformation 'newspaper' to fabricate a smear campaign against me, a business rival.” Horowitz's business partner, Marc Andreessen, later joined in, repeating the accusation…
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's 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 that dystopian future a reality. California's bill, SB 1047, aims to prevent real-world disasters caused by AI systems, and is due for a final vote in the state legislature in late August. While this seems like a goal we can all agree on, SB 1047 has…