Author: TechBrunch

The first self-checkout system was installed in a Kroger grocery store outside Atlanta in 1986. It took decades, but the technology has finally spread across the U.S. And with grocery stores moving toward automation, robotic bagging may not be far off. This week, MIT's CSAIL division is showcasing RoboGrocery, which combines computer vision and soft robotic grippers to bag a variety of items. To test the system, researchers placed 10 objects that were unknown to the robot on a grocery conveyor belt. Products range from delicate items such as grapes, bread, kale, muffins and crackers to more rigid items such…

Whether it's drafting emails, creating concept art, or conning vulnerable people into thinking you're a friend or relative in need, AI is versatile. But we all want to avoid getting scammed, so let's take a moment to talk about what you should be careful of. Over the past few years, not only has the quality of generated media, from text to audio to images to video, improved dramatically, but it has also become cheaper and easier to create. The same kinds of tools that help concept artists dream up fantasy monsters and spaceships, or help non-native speakers improve their business…

When Till Klein and Jochen Bütgen met Gaingels, a US-based angel investor syndicate that supports LGBTQ+ founders, they wondered why there wasn't a company doing the same in Europe's LGBTQ+ startup community. Five years later, when no such company still existed, Klein and Bütgen decided to start their own. In 2023, the two founded Identity.vc, a venture firm that invests in early-stage companies with at least one founder or executive who identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. The Berlin-based firm is currently raising €50 million for its first fund, having raised €15 million to date. The founding partners…

In the early 1990s, researchers at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology began developing the robot that would become Paro. More than three decades later, the fawn-eyed baby seal is still best known as a therapy robot for the elderly. In 2011, the robot reached the height of pop-culture fame when it made an unofficial cameo appearance on “The Simpsons.” Japan has dominated the elderly robotics market for decades, due to its aggressive adoption of new technologies and its aging population. 29% of the population is over 65 years old. The increase in life expectancy is, of…

Apple's AI plans go beyond the already-announced release of Apple Intelligence for iPhones, iPads, and Macs, as the company is also working to bring these features to its Vision Pro headsets, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. This isn't a particularly surprising move: if Apple Intelligence (a suite of features that includes an improved Siri, proofing tools, and custom emoji) is key to Apple's future, why isn't it available in all of Apple's latest products? But while there's a lot to like about the Vision Pro, it's still a very expensive device that's (for now) only available to a select few.…

If data is truly what drives generative AI, and one of the keys to successful implementation is access to data that is meaningful to business operations, it would seem that certain SaaS vendors have an inherent advantage when it comes to data. Execution is another matter, but with the data, your models can at least process more meaningful things. One SaaS company that was an early proponent of generative AI was ServiceNow, which has been leveraging data from its platform to help build more business-centric models. For CIO Chris Bedi, it's about building actionable experiences that help people do their…

While India is far from San Francisco's “uncanny valley,” it has a huge pool of engineering talent, some of which is hopping on the train to become founders and builders of AI startups. The state of India's AI startup ecosystem today is reminiscent of the early days of SaaS in the country. Funding is limited, especially compared to the billions of dollars raised by AI startups in the U.S. and Europe. But in areas like generative AI, there are signs of where venture capital money is flowing: it's going to home-grown talent solving uniquely local problems and bringing new approaches…

We live in a very different world since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7. Global military spending hit $2.4 trillion last year, startups want a share of it, and previously reluctant investors are eager to back them. The U.S. budget is by far the largest, awarding $53 billion worth of contracts to major tech companies between 2019 and 2022. But the rise of defense tech as an investment trend is truly global. Germany-based AI startup Helsing is a prime example of the unprecedented scale of capital available to technology companies with military…

One of the selling points of Google's flagship generative AI models, Gemini 1.5 Pro and 1.5 Flash, is the amount of data they can allegedly process and analyze. During press conferences and demos, Google has repeatedly claimed that these models can achieve previously impossible tasks, like summarizing multiple documents spanning hundreds of pages or searching for scenes in movies, thanks to “long context.” But new research suggests that the model isn't actually very good at those things. Two separate studies looked at how well Google's Gemini model and other models could interpret huge amounts of data (think works the length…

We're halfway through 2024, but this year has already seen some of the largest and most damaging data breaches in recent history. And just when you thought these hacks couldn't get any worse, they do. From untold amounts of personal customer information being scraped, stolen and posted online to the mass theft of medical data for most people in the United States, the worst data breaches to date in 2024 have already seen at least a billion records stolen and counting. These breaches not only impact the individuals whose data has been irretrievably compromised, but they also embolden criminals who…