Author: TechBrunch
Google today announced that it is adding support for 110 languages to its translation service, and the company is using the PaLM 2 AI model to power the translations. These languages include Afar, Cantonese, Manx, Nko, Punjabi (Shamukhi), Tamazight (Amazight) and Tok Pisin. The company claims that the newly added languages are spoken by more than 614 million people, roughly 8% of the world's population. Google noted that these languages are at different stages of use: some have 100 million speakers, others have no active speakers, but people are working to preserve them. Google said it takes into account factors…
What is AI good for? Berlin-based startup Synthflow wants to automate repetitive tasks for busy people who run small businesses. The company is announcing a $7.4 million seed round for its no-code platform for AI voice assistants for small businesses. The startup has raised a total of $9.1 million since it was founded around spring of last year, underscoring investors' continued enthusiasm for accelerating the applications of generative AI. The startup also claims to be approaching 1,000 customers, boasting “double-digit” monthly growth since it secretly wrapped up development and released its browser-based “no-code” tool in December 2023. This suggests there's…
The Department of Justice has charged a Russian civilian with conspiring to destroy Ukrainian government computer systems as part of a larger hacking operation ahead of Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine. U.S. prosecutors in Maryland announced Wednesday that Amin Stigall, 22, is wanted for allegedly helping set up a server that Russian government hackers used to launch a destructive cyberattack against Ukrainian government ministries in January 2022, a month before the Russian government ordered tanks and troops to cross the Ukrainian border. The cyber campaign, known as “Whispergate,” used so-called wiper malware that deliberately and irreversibly encrypts data on infected…
Can chatbots replace human therapists? Some startups and patients claim that it can, but the science hasn't fully proven it. One study found that 80% of people who used OpenAI's ChatGPT for mental health advice considered it a good alternative to regular therapy, while another report found that chatbots are effective in reducing certain symptoms related to depression and anxiety. Meanwhile, it's well-known that the therapist-client relationship — that human connection — is one of the best predictors of success in mental health treatment. Three entrepreneurs, Dustin Klebe, Lukas Wolf, and Chris Aeberli, are proponents of chatbot therapy: Their startup,…
Facing new competition from startups such as Arc, Google on Wednesday announced five new features to improve the search experience in its Chrome browser on mobile devices. These new features include new shortcuts for local search results, an updated address bar for easier navigation, trending search suggestions, live sports cards for fans, and more personalized search suggestions tailored to users' browsing habits. The features will be rolling out soon on both Android and iOS devices. One of the new features is Chrome Actions, which allows users to more easily perform certain tasks without having to go into the settings screen.…
Jerry Pratt and Figure quietly parted ways last month. Pratt was a research scientist at MIT after spending just under two years at the Bay Area-based robotics company. In 2022, Pratt left Boardwalk Robotics, the humanoid startup he founded and led, to become the well-funded CTO of Figure a few months before the company emerged from stealth. But it was only last week that Pratt announced his departure. The news came via LinkedIn, where he announced he was founding a new entrant into the increasingly competitive world of humanoids. Persona AI was officially founded just last month and is currently…
Hey everyone, welcome to TechCrunch's regular AI newsletter. This week in AI, music labels are suing two AI-powered music generator startups, Udio and Suno, for copyright infringement. The RIAA, the trade group representing the US music recording industry, announced the lawsuit on Monday, filed by Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group, Warner Records and others. The suit claims that Udio and Suno trained the generative AI models underlying their platforms on labels' music but failed to compensate the labels, and seeks $150,000 in damages for each allegedly infringing work. “Synthetic musical output could saturate the market with machine-generated content and…
Earlier this month, TikTok released a new social app called Whee, an Instagram-like service that lets users take photos and share them with friends. Like Instagram, Whee supports the use of photo filters and has a messaging feature. But the company's plans for Whee are unclear, as the app has seen relatively few downloads and has not yet been promoted in Apple's search ads, according to new data from app intelligence firm Appfigures. Without marketing support, new apps would remain largely invisible in today's App Store. Such is the case with Whee, which was quietly released in 71 countries around…
When Paul Hedrick left a career in private equity to start Tecobas in 2015, he wanted to sell the brand's signature cowboy boots in a slightly different way than other traditional western wear companies: He wanted to sell the boots online and directly to consumers, but unlike many other DTC brands, he didn't want to wait for online sales to slowly ramp up. Instead, Hedrick, who is now Tecobus' chairman, began selling the boots, loaded into the back of his Toyota Forerunner, at farmers' markets in Dallas, Texas, and at his old elementary school. In a recent episode of Found,…
Photographers claim that Meta tags their actual photos as “created with AI.” Meta introduced this automated tagging to help people understand whether what they're looking at is real or computer-generated, but even the AI itself isn't very good at telling what is and isn't AI, which is why users like a former White House photographer and a professional cricket team end up posting photos that are flagged as AI-generated. Former White House photographer Pete Souza told TechCrunch that this could be the result of basic photo editing that photographers do before uploading their photos. So uploading the image to Photoshop,…