Author: TechBrunch
centered on AI As it's a well-deserved and overdue time for female academics and others in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews highlighting notable women who have contributed to the AI revolution. As the AI boom continues, we'll be publishing several articles throughout the year highlighting key research that may go unrecognized. Click here for a detailed profile. As a reader, if you see a name we missed and think it should be on the list, please email us. I will try to add more. Here are the key players you should know about. Gender gap in…
for many organizations 2023 was a tough year economically, with some companies struggling to raise funds and cutting staff to survive. Meanwhile, ransomware and extortion gangs had a record year of revenue, according to recent reports. If you look at the current state of ransomware, that's not surprising. Over the past year, hackers have continued to evolve their tactics to become more sneaky and extreme in an attempt to pressure victims into paying increasingly exorbitant ransom demands. This escalation of tactics, and the fact that governments stopped short of banning ransom payments, made 2023 the most lucrative year for ransomware…
About a year ago, Alphabet's growth-stage venture arm, Capital G, named partner Laela Sturdy as its new head, just as the division's founder, David Loewy, stepped down. Few were surprised by Sturdy's promotion to the post. She joined Google in her marketing role in 2007 and was pulled into many departments over the next few years, and in 2013 she was hired by Rowley when CapitalG was launched. Ta. Lowry told CNBC in 2021, Laella's name came up a lot when it came to figuring out who the stars were within Google. ” Of course, for many investors, the past…
Managing your social presence can be difficult these days. It's even harder for those experimenting with the new wave of Twitter-like services, such as Mastodon, Nostr, and Bluesky. Because staying active requires a lot of duplicate posting on different networks. Thankfully, developers are starting to address our need for cross-posting tools. In addition to scheduling services like Fedica and Postpone, there's a new app, Nootti, that lets you post to Mastodon, Nostr, and Bluesky from one interface. While we're still waiting for the release of a multi-service social networking and news tracker like Tapestry, Nootti's iOS app lets you share…
The global video game industry makes more money each year than movies and music combined. But that doesn't mean the sector has been immune to the macroeconomic impacts of the past few years. Gaming companies are implementing large-scale layoffs, and venture funding in the sector will reach a five-year low in 2023. But venture capitalists are optimistic that things will improve this year. Gaming startups raised $2 billion last year, according to a report from video game-focused VC Convoy Ventures. The total amount for 2023 was significantly lower than $9.9 billion in 2021 and $6.7 billion in 2022. Many venture…
Threads, Meta's Twitter-like service and competitor to X, may be distancing itself from politics, but that means it's not trying to tackle the misinformation spreading on social media, especially in the run-up to national elections. isn't it. Following user reports of fact checks being discovered on the network, the company confirmed that it is working with fact-checking organizations to combat false information circulating on Threads, but at this time We haven't fully deployed direct fact-checking of Threads content. Meta announced in December that fact-checking partners will be able to directly review and rate false content on threads in early 2024.…
In a little while Mobile World Congress 2024 will bring around 85,000 participants to Fira de Barcelona over the course of one week (February 26-29). Over the past few years, this show has become arguably the most important mobile event of the year. Mobile phone manufacturers, carriers, and various other technology vendors, journalists, and analysts come together to discuss what's going to happen to the industry next year. Like other major in-person events, the past few years have been eventful for MWC. Attendance for the 2019 show reached 109,000, which wasn't close to CES's numbers (it reached about 175,000 that…
Welcome to Startups Weekly — Every week, we bring you must-sees from the world of startups. sign up here Delivered to your inbox every Friday. I have a week where I just shake my head very slowly at people. Reading every article on TechCrunch and sitting down to write the Startups Weekly newsletter didn't help things. Just when you thought the dating scene couldn't get any more exclusive, along comes Score, the app that says “love is in the air.” . . But only if you have the credit score to breathe it. That's right, folks, in a world where…
Tech companies are pledging to fight election-related deepfakes as policymakers increase pressure. Today at the Munich Security Conference, vendors including Microsoft, Meta, Google, Amazon, Adobe and IBM announced their intention to adopt a common framework to address AI-generated deepfakes aimed at misleading voters. signed an agreement indicating that Thirteen other companies, including AI startups OpenAI, Anthropic, Inflection AI, Eleven Labs, Stability AI, and social media platforms X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and Snap, join chipmaker Arm and security companies McAfee and TrendMicro in the deal. participated in the signature. The signatories share best practices with each other on how to detect…
Google is trying to create a buzz with Gemini, its flagship suite of GenAI models, apps, and services. However, as our unofficial review revealed, Gemini seems promising in some aspects, but falls short in others. So what is Gemini? How can it be used? And how does it compare to its competitors? We've created this handy guide to help you easily stay up to date with the latest developments in Gemini. This guide will be updated as new Gemini models and features are released. What is Gemini? Gemini is Google's long-promised next-generation GenAI model family, developed by Google's AI research…