Author: TechBrunch

China has closed its third state-run investment fund in a bid to strengthen its semiconductor industry and reduce its reliance on other countries for both wafer use and production, prioritizing so-called chip sovereignty. China's National Integrated Circuit Industry Investment Fund, also known simply as the “Big Fund,” has had two funds: Big Fund I (2014-2019) and Big Fund II (2019-2024). The latter was significantly larger than the former, but Big Fund III is larger than both, at 344 billion yuan (about $47.5 billion), public filings show. The larger-than-expected size of Big Fund III underscores China's goal of self-sufficiency in chip…

Apple has praised indie apps and startups over big tech companies in its list of finalists for the Apple Design Awards, including those offering AI chatbots. With the App Store model under question from lawmakers and regulators, Apple annually unveils the best and most technologically innovative software available on its platform, with a focus on smaller businesses. ChatGPT, for example, is not on Apple's finalists. Instead, Apple favors apps from small and mid-sized app makers like Copilot Money, SmartGym, recipe app Crouton, creative app Procreate Dreams, and Gentler Streak, as well as venture-backed startups like creative app Rooms and reimagined…

The founder of spyware app pcTattletale says the company is “out of business and finished for good” following a data breach over the weekend. The shutdown came days after hackers defaced the spyware manufacturer's website and published links containing a large amount of data from pcTattletale's servers, including a database of customer information and data stolen from some of its victims. pcTattletale is a remote surveillance app, also known as “stalkerware” because it can track people without their knowledge, allowing the app's hatcher to remotely view screenshots and personal data from a victim's Android or Windows device from anywhere in…

AI models continually surprise us not only with what they can do, but also with what they can't do and why. One interesting new behavior about these systems is both superficial and thought-provoking: AI models choosing random numbers like humans do. But first, what does that even mean? Can't people just pick numbers randomly? And how do we know if someone is doing a good job at it? This is actually a very old and well-known limitation of us humans: we overthink and misunderstand randomness. If you ask a person to predict whether a coin will flip 100 times and…

On Friday, Pal Kovacs was listening to rock and metal giants Bring Me the Horizon's highly anticipated new album when he noticed a strange sound at the end of the record's final track. Kovacs, who loved solving mysteries and cracking codes, wondered if the sounds contained a hidden message. His intuition led him to discover a hidden hacking-themed website that had actually been hacked at some point. Kovacs opened the song in the audio editing app Audacity and, sure enough, there was a spectrogram (which is basically a visual representation of the audio itself) that was actually a scannable QR…

Jan Reijke, a leading AI researcher who resigned from OpenAI earlier this month and publicly criticized the company's approach to AI safety, has joined OpenAI rival Anthropic to lead a new “superalignment” team. In his X post, Reike said that Antropic's team will focus on researching different aspects of AI safety and security, specifically “scalable oversight,” “weak-to-strong generalization,” and self-tuning. I'm happy to participate translator The Super Alignment Mission continues!My new team will work on scalable supervision, weak-to-strong generalization, and automated alignment.If you're interested in participating, send us a DM.— Jan Leike (@janleike) May 28, 2024 Sources familiar with the…

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week we cover the long-term impact of Synapse's bankruptcy on the fintech sector, Majority's impressive ARR milestone, and more. Subscribe here to receive TechCrunch's roundup of the biggest and most important fintech stories in your email every Tuesday at 7am PST. The big story Last week, we reported that Copper Banking, a digital banking service targeted at teenagers, suddenly discontinued its bank accounts and debit cards. The startup said that banking middleware provider Synapse would shut down its services “soon.” This is just one of many ways businesses and consumers are being affected by the…

YouTube's “app store” for games is getting a broader rollout. The company announced Tuesday that a collection of lightweight, free games called “Playables” will soon appear in the YouTube app for all users, in addition to the YouTube homepage. Previously, the games were made available to some users for testing before being made available to YouTube Premium subscribers in November of last year. YouTube Playables do not directly challenge the App Store model or violate Apple's rules because they do not monetize through paid downloads or in-app purchases. They do compete, however, with free games on the App Store, which…

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…

Following criticism of its approach to AI safety, OpenAI has formed a new committee to oversee “significant” safety and security decisions related to the company's projects and operations. But in a move sure to anger ethicists, OpenAI opted to populate the committee with only company insiders, including the company's CEO, Sam Altman, rather than outside observers. According to the company's official blog post, Altman and the other members of the Safety and Security Committee — OpenAI board members Brett Taylor, Adam D'Angelo, Nicole Seligman, Chief Scientist Jakub Paczocki, Alexander Madri (who leads OpenAI's “preparedness” team), Lillian Wen (head of safety…