Author: TechBrunch
It started with drawing on a napkin. AirLoom Energy has now raised $12.7 million in new funding, according to TechCrunch. The funding came from 21 investors, which are not named, according to a regulatory filing. The company did not respond to requests for comment. This Wyoming-based startup is taking a novel approach to wind power. Rather than installing giant turbines atop towers more than 100 meters high, vertical blades will be attached to cables that run along oval tracks just 25 meters (82 feet) above the ground. The company wants to generate electricity for $13 per megawatt hour, more than…
Generative AI creates something. I may be biased. In some cases, they may spew out harmful text. Can we call it “safe” then? Rick Caccia, CEO of WitnessAI, believes it's possible. “Protecting AI models is a real issue, and one of particular concern to AI researchers, but it's different from protecting their use,” Caccia, former senior vice president of marketing at Palo Alto Networks, told TechCrunch. said in an interview. “I think of it like a sports car. Even if you have a more powerful engine, model, you don't get anything without good brakes and steering. It’s just as important.”…
It's not often that you hear about seed rounds exceeding $10 million. H is a Paris-based startup formerly known as Holistic AI, where he announced a $220 million seed round just a few months after founding it. The reason the company was able to raise so much money in such a short period of time is because it is an AI startup working on a new model with a great founding team. The startup's co-founder and CEO, Charles Cantor, was a researcher at Stanford University. The other four co-founders all previously worked at Google-owned AI company DeepMind. Karl Tuyls is…
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Generative AI is a big focus for Microsoft at this year's Build conference. And to that end, the tech giant announced a series of updates to Azure AI Studio and Copilot Studio, its platforms for building generative AI-powered apps and experiences. First, a quick refresher on Azure AI Studio and Copilot Studio. Azure AI Studio is a toolset within Microsoft's Azure OpenAI service that allows customers to combine their own data with AI models, like OpenAI's recently announced GPT-4o, to make inferences about that data. ” You can build chat assistants and other types of apps. Copilot Studio, on the…
Microsoft wants to make its branded generative AI even more useful for teams, especially those in enterprises and large enterprise organizations. This morning, Microsoft announced Team Copilot, the latest expansion of the Copilot family of generative AI technologies, at its annual Build Development Conference. Unlike Microsoft's previous Copilot-branded products, Team Copilot is less a point solution and more a set of features aimed at “improving collaboration” and “streamlining project management.” “[Team] “Copilot enables teams to be more productive and creative by taking over time-consuming and costly administrative tasks,” Jared Spataro, CVP of AI at Microsoft, said in a blog post…
Britain's data protection watchdog has concluded a nearly year-long investigation into Snap's AI chatbot My AI, saying it is satisfied the social media company has addressed concerns about risks to children's privacy. Ta. At the same time, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) has issued a general warning to the industry to proactively assess the risks to people's rights before bringing generative AI tools to market. GenAI often refers to a type of AI that fronts content creation. In Snap's case, the tech powers chatbots that can respond to users in human-like ways, like sending text messages and snaps, allowing the…
US mobile phone company Patriot Mobile experienced a data breach that included subscriber personal information such as names, email addresses, home zip codes, and account PINs, TechCrunch has learned. Patriot Mobile, which reportedly has less than 100,000 subscribers, describes itself as “America's only Christian conservative wireless provider, and our mission is to… and the zealous defense of our God-given constitutional rights and freedoms.” The wireless carrier, whose website features photos of former Fox News host Glenn Beck and former Trump administration officials Sebastian Gorka and Steve Bannon, recently began spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to support conservative and pro-Christian…
It's been three years since Spotify acquired live audio startup Betty Labs, but the music streaming service hasn't, at least in our opinion, made the most of the technology. Locker Room, owned by Betty Labs, launched in 2020 as a sports-focused social audio app that allows sports fans to have live conversations, host watch parties, and react to games in real time. . When Spotify acquired the app, it rebranded it as Greenroom, a Clubhouse clone that caters to all types of fans, whether they're interested in sports, fantasy football, music, or other topics. Similar to other social audio apps,…
At the Alchemist Accelerator, AI leading companies are demonstrating their products today. Please take a look if you are interested. The program itself also adds an international twist to Tokyo and Doha. Read on for Bach's picks. Speaking to Alchemist CEO and founder Ravi Belani about the group ahead of Demo Day (10:30 a.m. PT today), it's clear that the AI startup's ambitions are shrinking. Yes, and that's not a bad thing. Right now, there's no chance that an early-stage startup will become the next OpenAI or Anthropic. They currently have too much of a lead in the area of…