Author: TechBrunch
There are many reasons why we don't see many robots in our homes, other than robot vacuums, the most important of which is the challenge of unstructured and semi-structured environments. From floor plans to lighting, surfaces, and even people and pets, no two homes are the same. Even if robots could effectively map each home, the space is in constant flux. This week, researchers at MIT CSAIL announced a new way to train domestic robots in simulation: You can use your iPhone to scan parts of your home and upload them into the simulation. Simulation has been a fundamental element…
Apple announced on Wednesday that Apple Maps is now available on the web through a public beta, meaning you can now access the service directly from your browser. The release puts Apple Maps in direct competition with Google Maps, which has been available on the web for some time. Maps on the web are accessible in English and are compatible with Safari and Chrome on Mac and iPad, and Chrome and Edge on Windows PC. Apple plans to support additional languages, browsers, and platforms in the future. The web version of Apple Maps works just like the mobile app: you…
Alternative app store AltStore has released its first third-party iOS app in the European Union. The launch comes months after the company released an updated version of its app marketplace in the EU. AltStore PAL comes as a response to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which forces Apple to open up to new rivals. The first batch includes torrent app iTorrent, which allows users to download P2P (peer-to-peer) files, and qBitControl, a qBittorrent remote client for iOS devices. Also included in the list is PeopleDrop, a social discovery platform designed to help you connect with people nearby. There's also UTM…
Microsoft this afternoon previewed Bing Generated Search, its answer to Google's AI-powered search experience. Currently available only to a “small percentage” of users, Bing Generated Search is based on a combination of large- and small-scale generative AI models (it's not clear exactly which models) that aggregate information from across the web and generate summaries in response to search queries. For example, if a user searches for “What is a Spaghetti Western?”, a Bing-generated search will surface information about the history, origins, and top examples of the film subgenre, along with links and sources to show where those details came from.…
Hey everyone, welcome to TechCrunch's regular AI newsletter. Last Sunday, President Joe Biden announced that he would not seek reelection and instead gave his “full endorsement” to Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic nominee. Within days, Harris had secured the support of a majority of Democratic delegates. Harris has been outspoken on technology and AI policy, but what would that mean for AI regulation in the US if she wins the presidential election? My colleague Anthony Ha wrote a bit about this over the weekend. Harris and President Biden had previously said they “reject the false choice between protecting…
Investment in generative AI startups, which are developing AI-powered products that generate text, voice, video and more, isn't slowing down, but it's consolidating into earlier-stage ventures and their numbers are shrinking. According to Crunchbase data obtained by TechCrunch, 225 startups raised $12.3 billion in venture capital in the first half of 2023 (January through July 16). If this trend continues, generative AI companies are on track to raise as much as or more than the roughly $21.8 billion they raised in 2023. Here's a breakdown of the first half of 2024 totals: 198 Angel/Seed Investments: $500M 39 Early Stage Investments:…
Today's story focuses on a rural Essex high school that ended up in breach of UK GDPR laws. It may come as a surprise to those who used to take lunch money to school, but kids these days can do a biometric face scan to pay for their meals. But as scandals with companies like Clearview AI have shown, collecting biometric data can easily become a privacy nightmare. That's why the UK's GDPR stipulates that the use of facial recognition technology must be opt-in by default. And in this high school, parents could only opt out of using the technology…
Thousands of stories have been written about former NFL quarterback and civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick. If there's anyone who knows more than anyone about losing control of your narrative, it's him. Now, Kaepernick is launching Lumi, an AI storytelling platform that helps creators tell and own their own stories. If you're reading this and thinking, “Huh?”, that's understandable. But the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback has more expertise in this field than you might think. First, Kaepernick says this is a solution for storytellers, and generative AI is just a tool to get there. Kaepernick has spent the last…
CrowdStrike, the cybersecurity firm whose botched update crashed millions of computers around the world last week, is offering $10 Uber Eats gift cards to its partners as an apology, according to multiple people who said they received the cards and sources who were aware of the gift card offerings. On Tuesday, a source told TechCrunch that they received an email from CrowdStrike offering gift cards because the company recognized “additional work caused by the July 19 incident.” “We sincerely thank you and apologize for any inconvenience,” the email read, according to screenshots shared by the source. The same email was…
When we look at the mythological Ouroboros, it's natural to think, “Well, that won't last.” It's a powerful symbol of swallowing one's own tail, but difficult in practice. The same may be true for AI: new research suggests that AI may be at risk of “model collapse” after being trained several times on self-generated data. In a paper published in Nature, researchers from the UK and Canada, led by Ilya Shmailov of the University of Oxford, show that today's machine learning models are fundamentally vulnerable to a syndrome they call “model collapse.” They write in the introduction to their paper:…