Author: TechBrunch

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is touring Asian countries this week, spoke Thursday with South Korean President Yoon Seok-yeol, saying Meta will offset geopolitical risk issues in Taiwan, where TSMC is located. Therefore, he said that he would like to strengthen cooperation with Samsung Electronics regarding AI chips. is the world's largest contract chip manufacturing company and is headquartered in Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Yoon also discussed ways to expand cooperation in the artificial intelligence and augmented reality industries, a South Korean presidential official said in a briefing (in Korean) today. AI processors (manufacturing and sourcing, and the development of…

Since Hong Kong legalized crypto trading in June last year, blockchain projects in Western countries have attracted more attention to the Asian financial hub. Aptos, the blockchain network supporting A16Z developed by a group of former Meta employees, is one of them. Aptos was started by some of the original creators of the Meta-abandoned crypto payments project Diem. host DeFi event to be held in Hong Kong in April this year. Decentralized finance (DeFi), which seeks to replace traditional banking intermediaries with decentralized technology, has so far been a prominent use case for the blockchain space. “I went to Hong…

Silence Laboratories, a startup building infrastructure using multiparty computation (MPC) to help businesses keep data private and secure, raises $4.1 million in funding round It was announced that. Pi Ventures and Kira Studio co-led the recent funding with angel investors, bringing the total raised to $6 million. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its team size and strengthen its R&D pipeline. The startup's infrastructure uses MPC, a subset of cryptography. This allows two or more parties to jointly process confidential or personal information without exposing it to other parties. Founded in 2021 by Dr. Jay Prakash (CEO),…

Bfree, a technology-enabled debt collection startup based in Nigeria, is facing an ethical crisis after its founders witnessed the use and negative impact of aggressive collection methods such as incessant phone calls and debt scams by predatory digital lenders. was established to automate and implement the debt collection process. . After launching in 2020, the startup has a number of scalable debt collection methods, including a self-service platform where borrowers can set up new payment plans, and conversational AI tools (chatbots and callbots) as part of the collection. Introduced. -Providing services. These tools provide borrowers with humane after-sales service and…

Decentralized social network Mastodon has updated its official app for Android to make it easier for users to share their profiles via QR code. This could be useful for exchanging profiles in noisy places such as events or hotel lobbies, the company said in a blog post. To share a QR code, users go to their profile tab and tap the QR icon next to their name to get a code related to their profile that other users can scan. The organization also strives to make Fediverse easy to understand for users. To that end, we've added a domain name…

Paris-based cybersecurity startup Filigran is leveraging the success of OpenCTI to build a suite of open source threat management products. The company is already gaining early momentum with its open source threat intelligence platform, OpenCTI. To that end, the company recently raised €15 million (approximately $16 million at current exchange rates) in a funding round led by Accel, with participation from existing investors Moonfire Ventures and Motier Ventures. Filigran's first product is OpenCTI. It is a threat intelligence platform that allows you to collect threat data from multiple sources in a single interface. Thanks to its modular approach, customers can…

Formerly Lai Chinte When he is sworn in as Taiwan's president in May, his administration will be an unprecedented three-term administration by the Democratic Progressive Party. His victory underscored voters' desire to maintain the status quo even as Taiwan continues to grapple with the looming specter of China. Immediately after being elected in January, Mr. Lai stated that he wanted “world peace and stability.” It depends on peace in the Taiwan Strait. ” As long as this peace lasts, Taiwan has room to focus on domestic issues such as industry that will improve its economic competitiveness. These include the still-overshadowed…

If the sudden arrival of Google's Gemini chatbot wasn't obvious before, it is now. The Gemini image generator has since been removed and people of color are now wearing Nazi-era uniforms. Chatbot comments continue to go in absurd directions, such as equating Hitler's record with Elon Musk's meme posts. On Android, Gemini also breaks Google Assistant's song recognition. And for me, after Gemini's abhorrent cultural insensitivity, that's one of the most frustrating things. Let me explain. I primarily use Gemini on my older Samsung Galaxy A53 5G, which isn't the fastest Android smartphone. For a better experience, we've replaced the…

At a Glance: In a space where innovation and personalization are highly desirable, OnlyFans creators are constantly seeking new ways to engage and monetize their content. One such creator, known by her stage name Summer, has surprised the industry, earning an impressive $15k in just one month. Her secret weapon? An app called “Channel AI” that enabled her to create an AI clone of herself, complete with her own voice and personality. The Power of Personalization Summer’s success can be attributed to her innovative approach to content creation. By using Channel AI, she has been able to offer her fans…

Techstars cut The decision to reduce staff and close certain accelerators came after the company failed to meet its 2023 revenue goals, according to a preliminary 2023 financial summary document seen by TechCrunch. . Techstars also lost millions of dollars more than expected (on adjusted EBITA) by the end of the year, outlined in an additional document discussing its mid-year results. And the documents show that the company's costs are too high relative to its revenue. Techstars recently shut down accelerators in Boulder and Seattle after suspending its Austin-based program. The company laid off about 7% of its workforce and…