Author: TechBrunch

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. 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. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into becoming one of the most-hyped companies in recent memory. And its latest partnership with Apple for its upcoming generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, has given the company another significant bump in the AI race. 2024 also saw the release of GPT-4o, OpenAI’s new flagship omni…

The generative AI boom is driving demand for AI chips specialized for training and running generative AI models, and major players, from venture capital firms to startups, are rushing to get in on the action. SoftBank's Masayoshi Son is reportedly looking to raise $100 billion for a chip business to rival tech giant Nvidia, while OpenAI is said to be in talks with investment firms to launch an AI chip manufacturing venture. AI chip startup Axelera has kept a relatively low profile, but it has managed to garner the support of backers, including Samsung, by focusing on a niche area…

A travel hack that went viral on TikTok taught users how to save money on hotels and Airbnb by booking directly with the accommodation. Now, a new startup, Directo, is helping travelers find the same deals with the help of a Chrome extension that directs them to the accommodation's website, where they can often find discounted rates because the accommodation doesn't have to pay a sales commission. On social media, creators and influencers post various money-saving tips, teaching users how to book a room or homestay for less. This often involves doing a reverse image search of the accommodation's photos…

We now know how important it is to have quality data to use in large-scale language models (LLMs), but preparing the data for the models is an early challenge for companies and an opening for enterprising entrepreneurs. That's where Illumex, a two-year-old Israeli startup founded by a former VP of AI at Sisense, comes in. The startup is using GenAI to get data ready for LLMs, and today the company announced a $13 million investment. Inna Tokarev-Sela, founder and CEO of Illumex, says she recognized this data preparation problem years ago and founded Illumex with the goal of making it…

AI “agents,” generative AI models that can autonomously take actions, like copying information from emails and pasting it into a spreadsheet, have been hailed as a huge productivity boost. It may be a bit premature, given that models are prone to making mistakes. But at least a few founders (and analysts and investors) seem convinced that agents are the next frontier for generative AI. Vera Liu and William Lu are two such founders. Their company, Orby AI, is building a generative AI platform that automates a variety of business workflows, including workflows such as data entry, document processing, and form…

Sometimes the most successful startup ideas come from people building tools to solve their own needs. That was the case with security expert Dafydd Stuttard, better known as Daf. Nearly 20 years ago, Duff, who lived in Knutsford, a small market town in Cheshire, northwest England, worked as a security consultant for a variety of clients. Meanwhile, he was also building apps he could use himself to speed up routine parts of his work. He gave each tool a random name and used one for a while before moving on to another. Sometimes he would talk about the tool to…

Cloud services remain a weak spot for businesses when it comes to security, and companies that offer effective solutions to address this continue to attract significant interest in the market from both customers and investors. The latest example is Odaseva, which has raised $54 million in funding and focuses on one use case: securing Salesforce environments. The round was led by Silver Lake Waterman, with participation from existing investors F-Prime, Eight Roads and Serena Capital, as well as new investors Eurazeo and Crescent Cove. Odaseba has raised $90 million to date. The company has not disclosed its valuation, but founder…

Iron Spring Ventures was founded in 2020 to back startups in industrial sectors like construction and manufacturing, but at the time it was one of a handful of early-stage venture firms focused on capital-intensive sectors. Now the firm is doubling down on that effort. The Austin, Texas-based firm has raised $100 million for its second fund focused on industrial startups, a notable increase from the $61 million in the firm's first fund, which closed in 2021. This latest raise allowed the firm to hire its first principal, Colleen Konetzke, and head of platform, Stephanie Volk. The firm plans to use…

Social network Bluesky has added a new feature that lets users create curated lists of people to follow and custom feeds. Called “Starter Pack,” the feature is aimed at helping users join the social network quickly find interesting content. Existing users can create a starter pack by adding their account and custom feed, then share a link or QR code with users who aren't yet on Bluesky. Image credit: Bluesky The link has a “Join Bluesky” button that takes you to the social network's sign-up page. When you sign up, your account will automatically follow all suggested people and feeds.…

French startup Dust has raised $16 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia Capital, allowing businesses to create custom AI assistants and share them with their employees to work more efficiently. But what's interesting about Dust is how it differs from other companies working on enterprise agents, or AI assistants in general: Unlike consumer-facing tools like ChatGPT, Dust assistants are connected to your company's data and documents. For example, when you build a new assistant in Dust, it can connect to Notion pages, documents stored in Google Drive, Intercom conversations, and Slack. At the same time, unlike…