Author: TechBrunch
South Korea's fabless AI chip industry has seen a flurry of fundraising events in recent years as demand for hardware to run AI applications surged, and consolidation in the sector already appears to be underway. Two of South Korea's leading fabless AI chip startups, Rebellions and Sapeon, announced on Wednesday that they have agreed to merge. The merger is a strategic move by Rebellions and Sapeon as they aim to lead South Korea's fabless AI chip market and take on global rivals like Nvidia. The combined company could go public within the next two to three years, said two industry…
Apple has been on a hot streak lately, announcing a ton of new features for a range of devices at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) earlier this week. But many of these features were already available to some degree on Apple devices through third-party apps, so as in years past, we'll examine the ideas Apple has “Sherlocked” in this year's updates. But what does it mean for Apple to “Sherlock-ify” something? In the late 90s, Apple released a search app called Sherlock for macOS 8, which could be used to search the web and files on the local system. Today,…
It's not a sexy topic, but someone needs to talk about it: The CFO tech stack (the software used by the world's chief financial officers) is on the verge of disruption. That's the word of Jonathan Sanders, CEO and co-founder of Light, a Danish startup that emerged from stealth on Wednesday after raising $13 million in a seed round led by European venture capital giant Atomico. The Copenhagen-based startup is reinventing general ledger software from the ground up, using AI to cleanse transactional data, helping finance teams ask questions in plain English and get understandable answers from their data. Wright…
Washington, DC, may be the epicenter of laws and regulations that affect startups, but many in the city know nothing about Y Combinator, one of the most well-known accelerators fueling the startup industry. Speaking at TechCrunch Strictly VC event on Tuesday night, Luther Lowe, YC's head of public policy, said the startup incubator is looking to raise its profile in DC. Rowe, who joined the accelerator last fall from Yelp, where he served as svp of public policy, described his role at YC as like “YC 101” for DC folks. “A lot of people in Washington don't actually know what…
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) will investigate all aspects of the rise of AI technology, FTC Chair Lina Khan said at TechCrunch's Strictly VC event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. But Khan said the commission's goal is not to crush startups trying to compete in the space with increased regulation. “We want to make sure that the arteries of commerce are open, the avenues of commerce are open, and that if you have a good idea and you can commercialize it — if there's interest in the market — you have a fair chance to compete,” Khan told the…
It's always interesting to see what gets people excited about a keynote. There's always one big, big name item that makes the biggest headlines — at WWDC 2024 this week, that award went to Apple Intelligence — but often it's the little things that presenters sling around that really get people excited. The arrival of Calculator for iPad was the biggest pre-AI attraction at the event; even the mention of the app got the crowd excited before the company showed off its impressive equation-solving capabilities. Sometimes, some deferred gratification is all you need. As surprising as it is to admit,…
One of the biggest questions surrounding models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Midjourney since they launched is what role, if any, they will play in everyday life. That's something Apple is trying to answer with its own take on the category, Apple Intelligence, which was officially unveiled at WWDC 2024 this week. The company went all out for show at its launch event on Monday. That's what keynotes are all about. When Senior Vice President Craig Federighi wasn't skydiving or doing parkour tricks with the help of some Hollywood (Cupertino, to be precise) wizardry, Apple was determined to prove that its…
When generative AI tools started to gain traction following the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022, the finance industry was one of the first to recognize the potential of these tools to speed up the process of data collection and research — after all, speed is crucial when advising investors who need to respond quickly to market changes. Now, a startup called Linq has entered the space with an AI agent that can automate a variety of tasks required for financial analysis and research, and has raised $6.6 million in a funding round led by InterVest and Atinum, with participation…
Artificial intelligence, despite its incredible capabilities, is starting to get a bad rap among consumers. AI chatbots are prone to hallucinations – making up answers when they don't know how to respond and confidently presenting false information as if it were fact. Google's search AI overhaul went so wrong that the company was forced to admit that it never intended to encourage users to put glue on pizza or eat stones, and then rolled back the feature for some search queries after it made so many mistakes. Microsoft's AI-powered recording feature “recall” will now be turned off by default after…
It’s WWDC 2024 keynote time! Each year Apple kicks off its Worldwide Developers Conference with a few hours of just straight announcements, like the long-awaited Apple Intelligence and a makeover for smart AI assistant, Siri. We expected much of them to revolve around the company’s artificial intelligence ambitions (and here), and Apple didn’t disappoint. We also bring you news about Vision Pro and lots of feature refreshes. Here’s how to watch the archive of WWDC 2024. Developers should expect hardware and software updates, per the usual, and some other items we initially thought would be unveiled. Brian Heater also went…