Author: TechBrunch
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. 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 for more wide-ranging needs. And that growth has propelled OpenAI itself into becoming one of the most-hyped companies in recent memory, even if CEO and co-founder Sam Altman’s firing and swift return raised concerns about its direction and opened the door for competitors. What does that mean for OpenAI, ChatGPT and its other ambitions? The fallout is still settling,…
For every 1,000 kilograms of cement produced worldwide, 600 kilograms of carbon dioxide are released into the atmosphere. If you don't think that's a lot, consider that the world produced about 4.2 billion tons of cement last year. This is large enough to account for about 8% of all carbon pollution. This is a big question, and one that weighed heavily on Gurinder Nagra's mind when he was a graduate student at Stanford University. That wasn't the focus of his PhD – it's carbon capture and storage – but he couldn't stop thinking about it. He told TechCrunch that of…
Sei Labs, a startup co-founded by a former Robinhood engineer and a former Coatue VC, has launched a new open source project that offers a fresh and exciting approach to making Ethereum faster and cheaper for developers. On Wednesday, Say launched Parallel Stack, a public good project that means it will be free for crypto developers to use. Aims to improve transaction per second (TPS) performance of Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-based layer 2 blockchains through proven computer science parallelism concepts, learned exclusively by TechCrunch There is. Sei Labs raised $30 million at a valuation of $800 million about a year…
Volley, a new sports technology startup, aims to revolutionize the way racquet sports players (platform tennis, padel, pickleball) train with AI-enabled sports training machines. Unlike traditional tennis ball machines that simply fire balls at different speeds and heights, Volley's trainer robot leverages AI and vision software to collect data and learn skill levels while playing. Simulate live gameplay. So it doesn't have to be done by the whole team. Get a decent training session. “Volley is a great machine for pros, beginners, and everyone in between, thanks to its AI and system smarts,” co-founder and CEO John Weinlader tells TechCrunch.…
Journey, an employee-centric mental health company, is acquiring Felt, a startup formerly known as Mine'd that specializes in matching individuals with therapists using artificial intelligence. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Journey, which provides mental health employee assistance programs used by organizations such as Georgetown University and Regeneron, said the acquisition supports Journey's mission to revolutionize employee well-being and mental health support while harnessing the power of AI. states that it is in line with Felt co-founder and CEO Aaron Albert told TechCrunch that the startup's acquisition strengthens the company's ability to make mental health support not only…
The European Parliament on Wednesday voted to adopt the AI Act, giving the European Union a leg up in setting rules for a wide range of software that uses artificial intelligence, in what the region's lawmakers are calling “the world's first comprehensive AI law.” secured a top position. MEPs overwhelmingly supported the interim agreement reached in December in tripartite consultations with the Council, with 523 votes in favor to 46 against (49 abstentions). This landmark law establishes a risk-based framework for AI. Apply different rules and requirements depending on the level of risk involved in your use case. Today's full…
Spotify is enhancing its audiobook streaming service by adding a feature familiar to app music consumers: countdown pages. These YouTube-like countdown pages were launched last year alongside Spotify's other new additions for artists, giving artists a dedicated space on their profiles where they can count down to new releases with a timer. Now, the same option will be available to audiobook publishers and authors, the company announced today at the London Book Fair. For audiobooks, Countdown Pages allows Spotify users to pre-save books before release. When a book becomes available, Spotify alerts users through a notification. This new option allows…
When electric vehicle startup Telo Trucks announced its light pickup truck, people predictably went wild. Some executives see light trucks as more than just a convenience, they're a lifestyle, but major automakers have largely ignored them for the past two decades in pursuit of higher-margin full-size pickups. With just a few renderings and early prototypes, the company secured nearly 3,000 reservations for him. But over the past few months, something unexpected has happened. Fleet customers were also hooked. Jason Marks, co-founder and CEO of Telo Truck, told TechCrunch that “there is a tacit understanding that urban fleet companies are no…
Simulation is an essential step in physical product engineering. This allows engineers to create prototypes and understand how they will behave in the real world, taking into account factors such as aerodynamic drag, air and water flow, and pressure and temperature distribution. However, according to Jason Lango, CEO of Luminary Cloud, today's engineering simulators tend to be very slow and difficult to scale up. “Most engineers are using legacy software that runs on on-premises infrastructure, which slows down the design workflow and causes each simulation to take days or weeks,” Lango told TechCrunch in an interview. Ta. “This decades-old legacy…
Stashpad, a “DM to yourself” style notes app for developers, is pivoting into a documentation app that can be used without logging in. The company will continue to maintain its original Notes app and call it “Stashpad Lists.” StashPad Docs is a new product from the company that doesn't require a login and supports Markdown format. The product is browser-first and document history is stored locally, allowing users to search for documents without contacting the server. The company said that there is no offline support at this time, but this is a feature that the startup will introduce in the…