Author: TechBrunch

Elon Musk's xAI has open sourced the base code for its Grok AI model, but not the training code. The company described it on GitHub as a “314 billion parameter expert mixture model.” xAI said in a blog post that the model is not tailored for specific uses, such as conversational use. The company noted that Grok-1 was trained with a “custom” stack, but did not provide further details. This model is licensed under the Apache License 2.0, which allows commercial use. Last week, Musk noted on X that xAI intends to open source the Grok model this week. Last…

Arjun Sethi speaks with the confidence of someone who knows more than others, or who knows that sounding confident can shape perceptions. In any case, he told me on his Zoom that “in five years, he will have 50% of the world's personal data in his hands,” and that “it will be impossible to compete against me.” ” When he says it, he says it with all his might. Warren Buffett's authority has dropped the truth about the stock market. Sethi, co-founder of venture firm Tribe Capital, is talking about Tribe's recently spun out Termina, a subscription-based AI software platform…

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! I am filling in for Mary Ann, who is on a well-deserved vacation. This week, we cover how Griffin Bank got its license ahead of the big players, and we dive into Stripe's annual letter, several funding rounds, and more. big story This week's top news was the UK's Griffin Bank The banking-as-a-service company has succeeded in doing something even the region's most valuable fintech company, Revolut, has yet to do: obtain a banking licence. Granted, as Mike Butcher writes, obtaining a banking license is difficult (it took Griffin a year), but Revolut…

GitHub’s chief legal officer, Shelley McKinley, has plenty on her plate, what with legal wrangles around its Copilot pair-progammer, as well as the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act, which was voted through the European Parliament this week as “the world’s first comprehensive AI law.” Three years in the making, the EU AI Act first reared its head back in 2021 via proposals designed to address the growing reach of AI into our everyday lives. The new legal framework is set to govern AI applications based on their perceived risks, with different rules and stipulations depending on the application and use-case. GitHub, which…

Keeping up with an industry as rapidly changing as AI is a challenge. So until AI can do it for you, here's a quick recap of recent stories in the world of machine learning, as well as notable research and experiments that we couldn't cover on our own. Last week, Midjourney, an AI startup that builds image (and soon video) generators, made a small, blink-and-you'll-miss-it change to its terms of service related to its policy on intellectual property disputes. This primarily served to replace the tongue-in-cheek language with more legal and arguably precedent-based provisions. But the change can also be…

Latest news: Starbucks announced Friday that it is discontinuing its NFT program as it “prepares for what comes next as we continue to evolve the program,” according to its FAQ page. We spoke with program leader Steve Kaczynski on the Chain Reaction podcast last month.On Friday, he tweeted: his future with the company was uncertain: Below is the original interview with Mr. Kaczynski from February 22nd. While the NFT space may be down significantly from all-time highs, there can still be value for brands and loyalty programs looking to reach fans in new ways, he said. steve kaczynskico-author of the…

India is withdrawing its recent AI advisory after receiving criticism from many entrepreneurs and investors, both domestic and international. The Ministry of Electronics and IT on Friday shared the latest AI recommendations with industry stakeholders, no longer requiring users in South Asian markets to receive government approval before launching or deploying AI models. The revised guidelines recommend that companies instead label poorly tested and unreliable AI models to inform users of their potential fallibility and unreliability. Masu. The revision comes after India's IT ministry came under harsh criticism from a number of prominent figures earlier this month. Martin Casado, a…

SpaceX requires employees to agree to some unusual terms regarding stock compensation, which has a chilling effect on staff, according to sources and internal documents reviewed by TechCrunch. It includes a provision that gives SpaceX the right to buy back vested stock within six months after an employee leaves the company for any reason. SpaceX also has the right to prohibit past and present employees from participating in the tender offer if they are deemed to have committed “misconduct against the company” or violated written company policies, among other reasons. is given to the company. One former employee said employees…

Welcome to Startups Weekly — a weekly roundup of must-sees from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every Friday. Pornhub has been playing a game of chicken with many state legislatures for some time. Last year, the obscenity merchant blocked access to users in Mississippi, Virginia, and Utah. And this week, if you live in the Lone Star State, the site was removed from the internet. That's right, Texans are now officially banned from Pornhub's hallowed halls unless they're crafty enough to use a VPN to get past their digital bouncers. This…

Over the years TechCrunch has extensively covered data breaches. In fact, some of our most-read stories have come from reporting on huge data breaches, such as revealing shoddy security practices at startups holding sensitive genetic information through to disproving privacy claims by a popular messaging app. It’s not just our sensitive information that can spill online. Some data breaches can contain information that can have significant public interest or are highly useful for researchers. Last year, a disgruntled hacker leaked the internal chat logs of the prolific Conti ransomware gang exposing the operation’s innards, and a huge leak of a…