Author: TechBrunch

AI is becoming increasingly expensive to develop and run. OpenAI's AI operating costs could reach $7 billion this year, while Anthropic's CEO recently suggested that a $10 billion-plus model could soon arrive. Therefore, we are looking for ways to make AI more affordable. Some researchers focus on techniques to optimize existing model architectures, the structures and components that make a model work. Some companies are developing new architectures that they believe will allow them to scale up affordably. Karan Goel belongs to the latter camp. At the startup he helped co-found, Cartesia, Goel works on what he calls state-space models…

Security researchers have discovered multiple vulnerabilities in the infotainment units used in some Skoda cars. This vulnerability could allow a malicious attacker to remotely trigger certain controls and track the vehicle's location in real time. PCAutomotive, a cybersecurity company specializing in the automotive sector, revealed 12 new security vulnerabilities affecting the latest model of the Skoda Superb III sedan this week at Black Hat Europe. This comes a year after the organization disclosed nine other vulnerabilities affecting the same model. Skoda is a car brand owned by German car giant Volkswagen. Danila Parnyshev, head of security assessment at PCAutomotive, told…

In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of mental health startups these days, many of which were prompted by the pandemic and subsequent increased attention to mental health. is. However, in many cases there is little connection to clinical trials or health care systems. A new venture from Britain's KHP Ventures is tackling this issue with new £20 million ($25.5 million) funding specifically aimed at accelerating start-ups tackling depression, anxiety and mental illness. I'm planning on fixing it. The charity foundation Wellcome is supporting the fund as an anchor investor, contributing £8 million ($10.2 million). The fund is…

This summer, shortly after BeReal was acquired by French mobile game publisher Voodoo, the candid selfie-sharing app popular with Gen Z changed the way it asks users for consent to be tracked. The resulting pop-up is currently the subject of a privacy violation complaint in Europe. Confirmed violations of the bloc's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) could result in fines of up to 4% of annual global revenue. European privacy nonprofit noyb is behind the complaint, accusing BeReal of using manipulative tactics (also known as “dark patterns”) to pressure users into consenting to ad tracking. This violates the GDPR standard…

Tom Gardiner and Harry Marshall founded Trevor.io in 2016 as a no-code business intelligence platform that enables people without data to perform analytics on internal data. While its business was strong, customers increasingly asked the company for access to the same tools for customer-facing data. Gardiner told TechCrunch that the company initially resisted calls to build new products, keeping its head down and focusing on internal data tools. But soon the demand became too great to ignore, Gardiner said. “Bigger companies started knocking on our door and were like, 'Okay, we need to look into this,'” Gardiner said. As a…

Byte Federal, one of the largest Bitcoin ATM operators in the United States, said the personal data of thousands of customers may have been compromised in a recent breach. In documents filed with the Maine attorney general, Florida-based Byte Federal said the hackers had access to names, addresses, phone numbers, government-issued IDs, social security numbers, transaction activity and photos of users. It said it attempted to access the data of 58,000 customers. The company said the breach occurred on September 30th and was discovered by Byte Federal on November 18th. It said an anonymous attacker gained access to the company's…

Swiss robotics company Anybotics has raised an additional $60 million, closing its Series B round at $110 million, nearly 18 months after first announcing it had raised $50 million in Series B funding. . Anybotics, which was spun out of Research University Zurich in 2016, has built a quadrupedal autonomous inspection robot called Anymal, packed with sensors and cameras to monitor equipment on industrial sites. This includes everything from tracking thermal anomalies to detecting the presence of flammable gases as part of a preventive maintenance plan. “Anybotics addresses the challenges of performing routine tests in complex and hazardous industrial environments,”…

For those who don't pay attention to the fintech industry, Upvest may not be a familiar name, but chances are you've already used the company's products. Founded by Martin Kassing (pictured above), the Berlin-based startup is building a white-label investment platform used by some of Europe's biggest fintech companies. Upvest's customers include Bunq, N26, Plum, Raisin, Revolut, Shares, and Vivid. Overall, 50 million people have access to Upvest's trading platform. The signing of all these celebrities as clients led to today's news. Upvest announced a Series C round of €100 million (approximately $105 million at current exchange rates). A VC…

Demand for South Asian fashion is increasing globally as more South Asians migrate and settle in new markets and purchase ethnic costumes for events such as local festivals and weddings. However, today there are not many online platforms that sell an extensive catalog of apparel and footwear from local South Indian sellers to the global market. These often have limited design options and are usually focused on a specific age group or gender. Arif Iqbal is trying to solve this problem with a Lahore-based online marketplace called Laam. Laam just raised $5.5 million in a new all-equity seed round led…

According to OpenAI's status page, OpenAI says it is experiencing a major outage with ChatGPT, Sora, and its developer APIs. The company says it has identified a path to recovery and is working on a fix as of 4:55pm PT Wednesday evening, but the service was still down as of press time. The service has now been down for more than two hours, but the cause of the outage is unknown. I saw this message when I logged on to ChatGPT on Wednesday. (Image credit: OpenAI) The ChatGPT outage occurred on the same day that OpenAI began integrating with Apple…