Author: TechBrunch

Deepgram has made a name for itself as one of the go-to startups for voice recognition. Today, the well-funded company announced the launch of Aura, a new real-time text-to-speech API. Aura combines highly realistic voice models with low-latency APIs to enable developers to build real-time conversational AI agents. Powered by large-scale language models (LLMs), these agents can replace customer service agents in call centers and other customer-facing settings. As Deepgram co-founder and CEO Scott Stephenson told me, access to good voice models has been available for a long time, but they were expensive and took a long time to compute.…

A young startup is trying to help companies reduce cloud costs by writing “more efficient” code. And the company has secured $6.8 million in new funding from notable backers including Alphabet's GV, Spark Capital, and Lightspeed. The company, called Polar Signals, launched a $4 million seed round from GV and Lightspeed in 2021 and has now closed its roundout with $10.8 million. Here are the problems Polar Signals is trying to solve: Applications consume system resources such as CPU and memory. The more resources an application consumes, the more a company's cloud bill will increase. This is because large platform…

Decentralized Twitter/X rival Bluesky is increasing its standing by acquiring members of the developer community. London-based software engineer Samuel Newman, who built his popular third-party Bluesky client Graysky, has joined the startup and, along with the rest of his frontend team, will be working on Bluesky's official website. It will support the development of the app. Given his change in position, the future of the Graysky app is uncertain. Newman said he will keep the app alive and well maintained for the time being, but will not be adding any “ambitious new features” in the future as he is committed…

Apple plans to allow iOS developers in the European Union to distribute apps from the web rather than through the App Store. The option will be available to qualifying developers “later this spring,” according to the Digital Markets Act, which imposes obligations on how Apple can operate designated App Stores and iOS. DMA). It is treated as a “core platform service” under the law. “Web distribution, available in a software update later this spring, will allow authorized developers to distribute iOS apps directly to EU users from a developer-owned and operated website,” it reads. . “Apple provides access to APIs…

As the famous saying goes, death is one of life's inevitable certainties. But that doesn't mean it's any easier to deal with. Especially since while their loved ones are grieving, they also have to juggle a dizzying array of practical tasks, from arranging funerals to settling the deceased's finances. A startup called Empathy has built a platform to help navigate this difficult space, with about 40 million people currently using it, and has raised an additional $47 million in funding to grow. I am. The Series B equity round is led by new backer Index Ventures, which includes several major…

After competing with music streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple music with TikTok Music, code found within the TikTok app suggests that ByteDance may be considering creating an Instagram competitor named TikTok Photos. Suggested. As The SpAndroid Blog discovered, TikTok's APK file (the installable file format for Android) includes a reference and icon to a new app named TikTok Photos. According to the description of APK version 33.8.4, the app can cater to “like-minded people who enjoy posting photos.” However, TechCrunch found a slightly different language in the new 33.8.5 version. “Whether you're a world traveler, a food blogger,…

Recalls are costly and damaging to any company, regardless of size or market. For example, McKinsey estimates that recalls for companies that manufacture medical devices have cost $600 million in recent decades. The reputational impact tends to be long-lasting. Customers won't forgive you right away. According to a Harris Interactive poll, 55% of buyers said they would change brands after a recall, and 21% said they would avoid buying brands made by the manufacturer of the recalled product. So what should a business do? Well, perhaps you should look to AI, suggests Daniel Furst. The first is the CEO of…

Scientific advances are accelerating the pace of new drug development. Tierra Bioscience believes the pace could be even faster. The San Leandro-based company has developed an AI-guided custom protein synthesis platform to help pharmaceutical, industrial, and agricultural organizations develop new proteins in weeks instead of months. Simply put, Tierra allows customers to order proteins online that can make everything from antibodies to food growth factors. This platform creates cell-free reagents or digital arrays of proteins. Tierra creates her DNA, the code for proteins. That reagent is combined with the customer's protein sequence and fed into a robotic platform to create…

DoorDash hopes to reduce abusive and inappropriate interactions between consumers and delivery workers with a new AI-powered feature that automatically detects offensive language. Dubbed “SafeChat+,” DoorDash leverages AI technology to review in-app conversations to determine if a customer or Dasher is being harassed. Depending on the scenario, you have the option to report an incident and contact DoorDash's support team if you are a customer, or cancel your order immediately if you are a delivery person. If a driver is on the receiving end of abuse, they can cancel the delivery without affecting their rating. DoorDash also sends warnings to…

If you want to ask Google's AI chatbot a question about an upcoming election, you'll need to do so from a country that doesn't hold an election. TechCrunch has learned that the search giant has begun restricting queries made on Gemini when related to elections in any market around the world where elections are being held. The search giant confirmed to TechCrunch that it has begun rolling out restrictions on Gemini to limit the surfacing of answers to election-related queries globally. TechCrunch understands that the update has already been rolled out in the US and is starting to roll out…