Author: TechBrunch
The challenge of integrating renewable energy sources onto the power grid is a burgeoning startup opportunity. UK-based Axle Energy founded the company early last year to jump on the chance to accelerate the decarbonization of the power grid. The idea to build software to support the energy transition came about because of the high global energy prices caused by the war in Ukraine, says CEO and co-founder Karl Bach (pictured above, left, with co-founder and CTO Archie de Barker). The growing adoption of renewable energy was also a big catalyst in the decision. Before becoming entrepreneurs, the pair worked for…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company is working with the National AI Safety Institute, a federal agency whose mission is to assess and address risks to AI platforms, and has a contract to provide early access to its next major generative AI model for safety testing. The announcement, which Altman posted to X late Thursday night, didn't go into much detail, but along with a similar agreement it struck with the UK's AI Safety Agency in June, appears intended to counter the perception that OpenAI is neglecting its AI safety efforts in the pursuit of more capable and powerful…
WhatsApp's massive user base of 500 million in India is fueling Meta's AI ambitions. Meta CFO Susan Lee said on Wednesday that India is the largest market when it comes to usage of Meta AI, a notable milestone given that the product was launched in India only a few months ago. Since launch, people have used Meta AI for billions of queries, Li said during Meta's second-quarter earnings call. “WhatsApp is seeing particularly encouraging signs around user retention and engagement, which coincides with India becoming our largest market for use of Meta AI,” she noted. Meta first launched Meta AI…
While venture capitalists and other tech professionals are vacationing or attending the Paris Olympics, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and its lawyers have been busy this summer. This is the second time this week and at least the fourth time in the past few months that the SEC has filed fraud charges against a venture capital-backed founder. The SEC on Wednesday announced charges against Abraham Shafi, founder and former CEO of the social media startup known as IRL, accusing him of misleading investors. The SEC said Shafi made false and misleading statements about the company's growth and concealed his…
Google has released three new “open” generative AI models that it claims are “safer,” “smaller,” and “more transparent” than most others out there. Bold claims, to be sure. These are additions to Google's Gemma 2 family of generative models that debuted in May. The new models — Gemma 2 2B, ShieldGemma and Gemma Scope — are designed for slightly different applications and use cases but share a common focus on safety. Google's Gemma series model differs from the Gemini model in that Google has not released the Gemini source code, which is not only open to developers but is also…
As the generative AI boom continues, and in an election year that could impact future AI regulation, AI lobbying at the US federal level is intensifying. According to new data from OpenSecrets, a nonprofit that tracks and publishes metrics on campaign finance and lobbying, the number of groups lobbying the federal government on AI-related issues increased to 556 in the first half of 2024 (January-July) from 459 in 2023. At the same time, top AI startups are stepping up their lobbying efforts, the OpenSecrets data found. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, has significantly increased its lobbying spending, spending $800,000 in…
The U.S. Copyright Office has released the first part of a report on how AI will impact the sector, and its first recommendation is that new laws must be enacted immediately to define and combat AI-based spoofing. “Our findings make clear that the distribution of unauthorized digital copies poses a serious threat not only to the entertainment and political spheres, but also to ordinary citizens,” agency director Shira Perlmutter said in a statement accompanying the report. “We believe that effective nationwide protection against harm to reputations and lives is urgently needed.” The report itself is the first of a series…
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…
Apple is finally releasing some of the Apple Intelligence features it announced at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. However, the rollout is currently limited to the developer beta of iOS 18.1, so if you don't want to deal with buggy software in the early stages, you might want to wait for the public beta Apple Intelligence feature release or the stable release later this year. If you're using the Developer Beta, you can only use Apple Intelligence features if your language is set to US English and your region is set to the U.S. This does not affect your…
Hey everyone, welcome to TechCrunch's regular AI newsletter. In the AI space this week, Gartner released a report suggesting that roughly one-third of generative AI projects within enterprises will be abandoned after the proof-of-concept phase by the end of 2025. The reasons for this are varied, including poor data quality, inadequate risk management and rising infrastructure costs. However, according to the report, one of the biggest barriers to generative AI adoption is a lack of clarity about business value. Gartner estimates that deploying generative AI across an organization comes at a steep cost of $5 million to $20 million. A…