Author: TechBrunch
To shine a well-deserved and long-overdue spotlight on women academics and others focused on AI, TechCrunch is launching an interview series highlighting notable women who have contributed to the AI revolution. Charlette N'Guessan is Data Solutions and Ecosystem Lead at Amini, a deep-tech startup using space technology and artificial intelligence to address the environmental data gap in Africa and the Global South. She co-founded and led product development for Bace API, a secure identity verification system that leverages AI-powered facial recognition technology to combat online identity fraud and address facial recognition bias in the African context. She is also an…
Vox Media president Pam Wasserstein sent a Slack message and email to staff on May 29 detailing news that the company's journalists said was shocking: Vox had signed a content licensing deal with OpenAI. The deal gives the AI company access to Vox's full archive of current content and journalism work to train ChatGPT and other models. Wasserstein's alert came just before Axios exclusively revealed details of the licensing and product agreement, much to the surprise of his reporters. Atlantic's reporter who signed a contract as a major AI giant Microsoft was not notified in advance. “Atlantic staff mainly knows…
When Kevin Shu, the former YouTube product manager known on Reddit as “Sir Jack-a-Lot,” turned $35,000 into $8 million in stock trading between 2020 and 2022, many assumed his fortune and investment methods had peaked, just as the 2021 meme stock boom has peaked. But Xu disagrees, and is now building a startup for retail investors that aims to provide the kind of friendly investment advice and community people have enjoyed on platforms like the WallStreetBets subreddit, but with accountability to stop scammers and fraudsters. AfterHour, which launched in April 2022, allows users to link their stockbrokerage accounts and post…
The battle between open source and proprietary software is well known, but the tensions that have permeated the software industry for decades have also found their way into the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence, where they've sparked fierce debate. The New York Times recently published a glowing review of Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, noting that his “open source AI” initiative has rekindled his popularity in Silicon Valley. But the problem is that Meta's Llama-branded large-scale language models are not actually open source. Or is it? By most estimates, no. But it does highlight that the concept of “open source AI”…
Hackers are advertising customer data they have allegedly stolen from Australia-based live events and ticketing company TEG on a popular hacking forum. On Thursday, hackers put up for sale data they allegedly stole from TEG, claiming to have information on 30 million users, including names, genders, dates of birth, usernames, hashed passwords and email addresses. In late May, TEG-owned ticket sales company Ticketek disclosed a data breach affecting Australian customer data, “which is stored on a cloud-based platform hosted by a trusted global third-party supplier.” The company said that “no Ticketek customer accounts were compromised” due to the encryption method…
Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje's weekly roundup of the must-reads from the startup world. Sign up here to receive it in your inbox every Friday. Elon Musk has persuaded Tesla shareholders to approve a $56 billion compensation package that would make him the highest-paid CEO in history, if he can avoid a Delaware judge's disapproval. Where better to stage this circus than Texas, home of everything giant, including egos? Shareholders at Tesla's Texas Gigafactory applauded as the vote results were announced. Meanwhile, Musk has steered his company beyond a clown with a chainsaw and is facing two new lawsuits…
An AI that will flirt with you. An AI that will help you find a date. An AI that will be your girlfriend. Or an AI that will be a companion and caretaker that shares your hopes and dreams. In this last category falls Dot, a new AI and chatbot that grows by learning about your innermost thoughts and feelings and acts as your “friend, companion and confidant,” according to the company's App Store description. The idea is intriguing: the AI could provide advice and information that is personalized to you and your interests, not only generally applicable, but also…
According to an SEC filing, Aether Fuels raised $30.4 million of a $34.3 million funding round. The e-fuels startup works to use carbon dioxide and other waste carbon streams to produce fuel for aviation and maritime shipping. This new funding round will add significantly to the company's bank account. Aether Fuels already raised $8.5 million via convertible notes in late 2023. The startup was spun out of Xora Innovation, an early-stage deep tech incubator run by Temasek. A company spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Since then, Aether Fuels has been working to improve its technology,…
Feel Therapeutics is working to move mental health care in a more scientific direction. The company makes wearable devices, mobile apps, and clinician dashboards to collect physiological, digital, and clinical data. The company recently raised $3.5 million in funding and shared their pitch deck with me, so let's take a closer look. Let's see what the company did well with the funding and where they need to pay more attention. We're looking for more unique pitch deck teardowns. Here's how you can get involved: Read all 90+ pitch deck teardowns here. Slides in this deck The company raised $3.5 million…
OpenAI は、リアルタイム検索とデータ分析を推進するツールを構築する企業 Rockset を買収しました。 OpenAIは公式ブログの投稿で、Rocksetの技術を統合して「 [its] 「製品全体にわたるインフラストラクチャ」RocksetのチームメンバーはOpenAIに加わり、Rocksetの既存の顧客はRocksetのプラットフォームから「徐々に」移行される予定です。 金銭的条件は明らかにされなかった。 「Rocksetのインフラストラクチャは、企業がデータを実用的なインテリジェンスに変換できるようにします」とOpenAIのCOO、ブラッド・ライトキャップ氏は声明で述べた。「Rocksetの基盤をOpenAI製品に統合することで、これらのメリットを顧客に提供できることを嬉しく思います。」 2016年に元Facebookエンジニアのベンカット・ベンカタラマニ氏とチューダー・ボスマン氏、データベースアーキテクトのドゥルバ・ボルタクル氏によって共同設立されたRocksetは、企業がデータベースやパブリッククラウドストレージサービスからデータを自動的に取り込み、そのデータを検索および分析アプリケーション用にインデックス化できるようにするツールを開発した。 Rockset のデータベース プラットフォームは、推奨エンジン、物流追跡ダッシュボード、そして特に OpenAI に関連するフィンテックや電子商取引などの分野のチャットボットなどの基盤となっていました。 Crunchbaseのデータによると、Rocksetは買収前にIcon Ventures、Sequoia、Greylockなどの投資家から1億1,750万ドル以上の資金を調達し、MetaやJetBlueなどの有名企業を顧客に抱えていた。JetBlueはRocksetをフライト遅延予測チャットボットのコンポーネントとして利用していた。 では、OpenAI は Rockset の技術を使って具体的に何を構築するのでしょうか。ブログ記事では、企業が OpenAI 製品を使用する際に「自社のデータをより有効に活用」し、「リアルタイムの情報にアクセス」できるようにすることに触れています。OpenAI のモデルを企業のデータに「基づかせる」ためのツールの改善が考えられます。おそらく、幻覚を減らしたり、さまざまなビジネス ユース ケースに合わせてモデルを微調整したりすることなどが目的でしょう。 Venkataramani 氏は Rockset のブログの投稿でプレビューを公開しています。 「Rockset のような高度な検索インフラストラクチャにより、AI アプリはより強力で便利なものになります」と彼は書いています。「Rockset は OpenAI の一部となり、OpenAI の製品スイートを支える検索インフラストラクチャを強化します。私たちは、AI アプリが大規模に直面する困難なデータベースの問題を解決するために OpenAI を支援します。」 Rockset の買収は、エンタープライズ セールスとテクノロジー組織に多額の投資を行うという OpenAI の最近の広範な戦略に適合しています。 5月にOpenAIはPwCと契約を結び、OpenAIのツールを他の企業に再販することになった。その前の月には、同社はビジネス向けのカスタムモデルチューニングおよびコンサルティングプログラムを開始した。 こうした動きは成果を上げているようで、OpenAI の今年の年間収益は 34 億ドルを超えると報じられている。OpenAI は最近、AI を活用したチャットボット プラットフォーム ChatGPT のエンタープライズ レベルのユーザーが 60 万人近くに達し、その中にはフォーチュン 500 企業の 93% が含まれていることを明らかにした。 Rocksetは、クリエイティブツールとインフラの構築にAIを活用するニューヨークを拠点とするスタートアップ企業Global Illuminationに続く、OpenAIによる2番目の上場買収だ。 Source link