Author: TechBrunch

YouTube announced Tuesday that its automatic dubbing feature, which allows creators to generate translated audio tracks for their videos, will be rolled out to hundreds of thousands more channels. YouTube first introduced an AI-powered auto-dubbing tool at Vidcon last year, but the tool was only tested with a limited group of creators. This tool can help make content on the platform more accessible and understandable to people around the world. The auto-dubbing feature is now available for channels that focus on informational content, such as videos that teach viewers how to cook or sew. We plan to expand it to…

The future of audiobooks and the impact of AI on the publishing industry was a talking point for HarperCollins, whose CEO Brian Murray spoke at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference on Tuesday. During the event, the executive praised Spotify's entry into the audiobook market and detailed its future growth plans in this space. He also touched on how AI technology could threaten and harm publishers in the future. Notably, Murray said audiobooks continue to outpace e-books in terms of total revenue, making up for the decline due to slower e-book sales. Regarding AI, the CEO declined to discuss…

On this week's episode of Found, Dom and Becca are joined by former Bonobos CEO Andy Dunn about his mission to reverse America's loneliness epidemic through Pi, an app built to foster real-world connections. talk about. During this conversation, they talk about Dan's personal experience moving to a new city, which served as the inspiration for the app. The idea behind Pie is to allow people to connect directly by allowing users to promote events based on shared interests. Dunn calls these users “IRL creators.” “We need to stimulate a new gig economy,” Dunn said. “These are people who are…

Tiger Global famously fueled the pandemic-era venture capital boom, investing heavily in a wide range of startups, launching bidding wars for even the most unproven startups, and driving them to sky-high valuations. Hedge funds backed 315 startups in 2021 alone, according to PitchBook data. And many in the VC industry weren't happy about this even back then. Towards the end of 2021, the New York company persuaded investors to commit $12.7 billion to its 15th venture fund (named PIP 15), and in the months that followed put most of that money into even more funds. Started pouring into startups. By…

The United States has sanctioned a Chinese cybersecurity company and one of its employees for exploiting a zero-day vulnerability in the Sophos firewall to target American organizations. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday that Guan Tianfeng, an employee of Sichuan Silence, used the vulnerability to breach approximately 81,000 firewalls in April 2020. The hacking campaign, detailed by Sophos in November, led to the breach of more than 23,000 firewalls in China. In the United States, dozens of them were used by government agencies and critical infrastructure companies. One of the companies was an energy company involved in drilling operations. The…

A U.S. appeals court has overturned the ruling in an antitrust lawsuit filed by long-shuttered social app Phhoto against Meta in late 2021. The company argued in court that Meta violated U.S. antitrust laws by copying core functionality and stifling competition. In 2023, U.S. District Judge Kiyo Matsumoto granted Mr. Mehta's motion to dismiss the complaint, citing related statute of limitations limitations. However, on appeal, the court found that these deadlines should not have applied and the case should have been heard. The decision could once again be challenged by Phhoto, who argued that Meta acted in an anti-competitive manner,…

OpenAI seems to be in the holiday spirit. The series of ChatGPT rollouts, dubbed “12 Days of OpenAI,” will be livestreamed every weekday through December 23 at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. So far, we've seen the full version of OpenAI's $200/month subscription plan, ChatGPT Pro, released. The long-awaited public release of its “inference” o1 model and text-to-video generator Sora. We don't know what other announcements or product launches are planned, but we could see details about updates to Advanced Voice Modes, potential work on AI agents, and other surprises. there is. Below, we'll explain how you can watch the event…

U.S. Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden announced a new plan aimed at protecting the U.S. telephone network and Americans' communications in response to a massive hack of telecommunications providers allegedly carried out by Chinese government hackers. announced the bill. Wyden announced the Secure America Communications Act in a press release Tuesday. The bill would direct the Federal Communications Commission to “implement certain cybersecurity requirements” and require telecommunications providers to conduct annual tests to assess network vulnerabilities. Hiring independent auditors to ensure carriers are compliant with new FCC cybersecurity rules. and submit documentation from tests and audits, as well as statements from…

Over the past few months, nuclear power may have received the most attention from energy-hungry technology companies, including Google. But these new reactors don't seem to be enough for AI's ambitions. Google is currently working with partners to build gigawatts of renewable power, battery storage, and grid upgrades to power its data centers. Google announced Tuesday that it has signed a deal with renewable energy developer Intersect Power and investment fund TPG Rise Climate to ramp up enough carbon-free electricity to power multiple gigawatt-sized data centers. Investments in renewable power total approximately $20 billion, and Intersect has already funded the…

Instagram is officially rolling out “Trial Reels,” a way for creators to test new content by publishing videos that aren't visible to followers. The feature, which began testing in May, allows creators to try new ideas and see what works best without worrying about how their followers will react. Trial Reels are visible to more than just your followers, and creators who are happy with how their content is performing can choose to share it with their followers. This feature could give Instagram a bit of an edge over TikTok, which currently doesn't offer users a way to experiment with…