Author: TechBrunch

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…

TLDR: BNED is up ~75% today and shows strong potential to continue rising, driven by retail investor momentum similar to GME and AMC. With high short interest and a reduced free float, the stock is primed for a short squeeze. Recent strategic initiatives and potential transactions add to the bullish outlook, and we estimate BNED could reach a share price between $8 – $12 if the current momentum continues into the coming weeks – similar to how we’ve seen historic meme plays play out. And with BNED having striking similarities to GME and AMC being a household name, we believe a…

HoundDog.ai, a startup that helps developers keep their code from leaking personally identifiable information (PII), came out of stealth on Wednesday with a $3.1 million seed round led by E14, Mozilla Ventures, and XAnti. announced the round. Number of angel investors. Unlike other scanning tools, HoundDog actually looks at the code that developers are writing and uses both traditional pattern matching and large-scale language models (LLM) to find potential problems. . HoundDog was founded by Amjad Afanah. He was previously a co-founder of DCHQ, which in 2016 was acquired by Gridstore (which, confusingly, has since been renamed HyperGrid). Afanah is…

Few people in the technology industry have achieved the same stature as Vinod Khosla, founder and partner at Khosla Ventures. For more than 40 years, he has been at the heart of Silicon Valley, founding or backing some of the largest and most influential technology companies. His career dates back to his time as a founder of Sun Microsystems and spans decades of venture investing. Today, Khosla's firm is known for investing in companies such as Affirm, Block, DoorDash, GitLab, Okta and Opendoor, to name a few among hundreds of successful portfolio companies. Today, he's at the heart of OpenAI…

AI has already started replacing the jobs of voice agents. Now, companies are exploring ways to replace their existing computer-generated voice models with synthetic versions of human voices. Truecaller, a widely known caller ID service, is the latest to adopt this approach, announcing that its customers will be able to use an AI-powered assistant to answer calls with their own voice. The new experience comes through a partnership with Microsoft, which gives the Swedish company access to the Redmond giant's Personal Voice technology, which was introduced in November as part of Azure AI Speech. Microsoft's Personal Voice allows Truecaller's assistant,…

Spotify has launched its own font, the company announced Wednesday. The music streaming service hopes its new typeface, “Spotify Mix,'' will help highlight Spotify's unique visual identity. Spotify Mix is ​​a sans-serif typeface designed in partnership with Dinamo Typefaces, a Berlin-based type design studio that has worked with major companies such as Burberry, Discord, Nike, Patreon, and Tumblr. Sans serif fonts are simpler in appearance than serif fonts and are popular with many brands, including tech giants Google and Microsoft. This font type is also known for its accessibility, as it is easy to read on small devices. Spotify describes…

In 2008, Marty Kagan, who previously worked at Cisco and Akamai, co-founded Cedexis, a company (now owned by Cisco) that develops observability technology for content delivery networks. Cisco veteran Hasan Aleyli joined Kagan at his Cedexis as a technology lead in 2012, and the two worked together for several years. As Cedexis grows and works with larger and larger partners, both Kagan and Alayli become acutely aware of the cost of data storage, especially the cost of storing data logs from services and infrastructure. Now it looks like this. “The cost of storing logs that are critical to our business…

Dangerous emails containing links that look “legitimate” but are actually malicious remain one of the most dangerous yet successful tricks in a cybercriminal's handbook. Now, an AI startup called Bolster that has built a novel approach to combating that trick has launched a popular free phishing portal called (appropriately) CheckPhish, which it runs, and funding to expand its efforts. He raised $14 million. Main paying customers: Brands and other businesses. Microsoft's venture fund M12 led the round as the company's new backer, with participation from Thomvest Ventures, Crosslink Capital, Liberty Global Ventures, Cheyenne Ventures, Cervin Ventures, and Transform Capital. Bolster…

TikTok is the latest technology company to incorporate generative AI into its advertising business, announcing Tuesday the release of a new AI suite for brands called TikTok Symphony. This tool will help marketers write scripts, create videos, and enhance their current assets. The suite includes a new AI video generator called “Symphony Creative Studio,” which the company claims can generate TikTok-ready videos with just a little input from advertisers. The studio also provides brands with ready-to-use videos for ad campaigns based on TikTok Ads Manager assets and product information. Image credit: TikTok The new Symphony Assistant is an AI assistant…

These days, every company wants to ensure that its large-scale language models comply with the rules, laws, or regulatory requirements that it considers important. The need is even more acute if you are in a regulated industry. Perhaps that's why Patronus AI is finding early success in the market. The company, which helps customers ensure their models are compliant in many ways, announced a $17 million Series A on Wednesday, just eight months after announcing a $3 million seed round. . “What excited our investors was that we are the clear leader in this space, and it's a very large…