Author: TechBrunch

By turning sunflower seeds into sustainable, cocoa-free chocolate, Munich-based B2B food technology startup Planet A Foods (formerly QOA) has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round. The Y Combinator graduate is now gearing up for industrialization, with funding to expand its production capacity by about 7.5 times. This round follows a $15.4 million Series A in February. The startup currently produces 2,000 tonnes of ChoViva, a cocoa-free, low-carbon chocolate alternative, per year. The company plans to increase this amount to more than 15,000 tonnes as it adds production capacity and begins international expansion beyond its three initial European…

Uber has 30 days to require certain drivers to be fingerprinted if it intends to continue transporting unaccompanied teens in California. The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) on Thursday issued a ruling requiring taxi and ride-hailing drivers who transport unaccompanied minors in the state to pass fingerprint background checks. The ruling also requires trucking companies to pay for these background checks. Uber has a history of fighting back against mandatory fingerprint-based background checks for drivers. Seven years ago, Uber and Lyft blocked a similar effort to fingerprint drivers in California. The company argued that current name-based background checks and other…

If OpenAI works well, the next online course you take could include a chatbot component. Siya Raj Purohit, a member of OpenAI's education market development team, spoke at a fireside event hosted by Coeus Collective on Monday, discussing how OpenAI can help e-learning instructors create custom “GPTs” that tie into online curriculum. He said there is a possibility of exploring. . “What I hope will happen is that professors will be able to create custom GPTs for the public, and people will be able to engage with the content for a lifetime,” Purohit said. . “It’s not part of the…

Elon Musk's AI company xAI has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Investors contributed at least $77,593, according to the filing. Ninety-seven people participated, but their identities are not disclosed in the document. The Wall Street Journal previously reported that Valor Equity Partners, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz are expected to contribute to the round, as well as Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund. This new cash brings xAI's total funding to $12 billion, joining the $6 billion tranche xAI raised this spring. CNBC reported in November that xAI…

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies. That growth has propelled OpenAI itself into becoming one of the most-hyped companies in recent memory. And its latest partnership with Apple for its upcoming generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, has given the company another significant bump in the AI race. 2024 also saw the release of GPT-4o, OpenAI’s new flagship omni…

Getting into the holiday spirit but still feeling stuck at work? With a cute new macOS called Festivitas, you can decorate your Mac computer screen with twinkling holiday lights that hang from your menu bar and illuminate your dock. You can. This quirky holiday treat was created by software developer Simon B. Støvring, creator of other developer-favorite iOS apps like text editor Runestone, scripting app Scriptable, and JSON editor Jayson. It was done. He's been teasing the app on social media for days before its release, showing off the various customizations he's added. At startup, you can adjust cable thickness,…

Threads is testing a feature that allows users to see how individual posts are performing on the social network. Previously, Threads' Insights feature only showed aggregated metrics across all posts. This feature now allows you to view metrics for each post. If you are testing, please check the number of views and likes received. , you can sort posts by highest or lowest number of replies. Additionally, you can see a breakdown of views and interactions by followers and non-followers for each post. You can also see how many people followed you from a particular post. Instagram head Adam Mosseri…

OpenAI has launched a new subscription plan for its AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT, which is quite expensive. OpenAI, which confirmed the leak this morning, announced ChatGPT Pro, a new $200/month subscription tier that provides unlimited access to all of OpenAI's models, including the full version of the o1 “inference” model. Unlike most AIs, o1 and other inference models effectively fact check. This helps avoid some of the pitfalls that models usually stumble upon, but the downside is that it often takes a long time to reach a solution. O1 reasons through tasks, plans ahead, and performs a series of actions…

OpenAI seems to be in the holiday spirit. The creators of ChatGPT have announced “12 Days of OpenAI.” This is a series of reveals that will be livestreamed starting December 5, 2024 at 10:00 AM PT and will continue for the next 12 days. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said the company's event will feature a variety of announcements, from new demos to product launches and even “Christmas presents.” It remains to be seen what OpenAI plans to reveal, but we could see more information about a possible $200/month ChatGPT Pro plan, an update to Advanced Voice Mode, or the long-awaited…

OpenAI's 12 days of announcements begin OpenAI's year-end event is about to begin. You can follow all the announcements on our live blog here or watch the livestream through OpenAI's YouTube channel. The first stream starts today at 10 a.m. PT, with new streams starting over the next 12 weekdays. The big question is, what will we actually see from OpenAI in the coming weeks? In this surprise announcement, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman hinted that it would include updates to existing products, new product launches, and demos. Stay with us — and be sure to follow us ×、 LinkedIn, Instagram,…