Author: TechBrunch
Google says its new family of AI models has an interesting feature: the ability to “identify” emotions. The PaliGemma 2 family of models announced Thursday can analyze images, allowing AI to generate captions and answer questions about the people “in” the photo. “PaliGemma 2 generates detailed, contextual captions for images that go beyond simple object identification to describe the action, emotion, and overall story of a scene,” Google said in a blog post shared with TechCrunch. ” he wrote. Google says that PaliGemma 2 is based on the Gemma open model set, specifically the Gemma 2 series. Image credit: Google…
Ladder, the Austin, Texas-based fitness startup that makes the popular strength-training app, accuses Peloton of plagiarizing its work with the release of Peloton's new app, “Strength+,” which exited beta on Wednesday. I am doing it. After receiving feedback from Peloton's beta testers that the app was very similar to Ladder's, similar in look, feel, and functionality, the company investigated further and found that members of Peloton's product, engineering, and design teams It said 15 people were found to have been using Ladder's app since January 2024. Of course, forcing employees of competing fitness-focused companies to use popular workout apps isn't…
The startup, whose founder previously served in the German military, has developed a product similar to Amazon Firestick for traditional defense equipment with a software stack. ARX Robotics claims its system can turn old equipment into AI-powered devices, such as self-driving trucks. Back in June of this year, ARX raised a €9 million seed round with support from Project A Ventures and Discovery Ventures, and lead investor NATO Innovation Fund. ARX first developed an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) and won a very large contract with the German military government, in this case for deployment to Ukraine. The company has now…
To give female academics and others focused on AI their well-deserved and overdue spotlight time, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews highlighting notable women who have contributed to the AI revolution. Start. Tamar Ailam has worked at IBM for the past 24 years. She is currently an IBM Fellow and Principal Scientist for Sustainable Computing, helping teams reduce the amount of energy consumed by computing. The work she is most proud of is an open source project called Kepler that helps quantify the energy consumption of a single containerized application. In many ways, she was ahead of her time.…
More than 100 universities and high schools are turning to a new AI tool called Nectir, which lets teachers create personalized learning partners trained on syllabi, textbooks, and assignments to ask questions related to coursework. You will be able to support your students from writing to essay writing. and future career guidance. The company announced a $4 million seed funding round on Thursday, bringing its total funding to $6.3 million. The new capital will be used to develop new features and expand the team. The continuing teacher shortage is making it increasingly difficult for educators to provide individualized, one-on-one feedback…
Google announced Thursday that it is rolling out multiple updates to Pixel and Android devices as part of its December feature rollout. These features include the new Gemini extension, updated Pixel Screenshots app, expressive captions, and accessibility improvements. android Google is introducing new Gemini extensions for Spotify, Messaging, Calling, Smart Home, and more. This allows users to explore songs and playlists through Gemini. You can also use Gemini to send messages and make calls through your default messaging and calling apps. The company said that users will soon be able to control their smart home devices through Gemini. The company…
Microsoft's AI can now read your screen, and therefore the websites you're viewing. The company on Thursday began rolling out a limited, U.S.-only preview of Copilot Vision, a tool that lets you use Microsoft Edge to understand and answer questions about the sites you're visiting. Gated behind Copilot Labs, an opt-in program for experimental AI capabilities, Copilot Vision analyzes text and images on web pages to answer questions like “What's the recipe for this lasagna?” I can answer. Note that Copilot Labs requires a subscription to Microsoft's Copilot Pro plan, which costs $20 per month. In addition to answering questions,…
OpenAI's “12 Days of Shipmas'' event is hours away from starting, but the first big announcement may have been revealed early. The staging page on the website used by OpenAI points to the “ChatGPT Pro” plan, which includes all the benefits of ChatGPT Plus and new benefits. Recall that ChatGPT Plus is an upgraded version of ChatGPT, OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot platform. https://t.co/VkokDtYfkB pic.twitter.com/zXf2mQN2y8 — Tibor Blaho (@btibor91) December 5, 2024 According to a leaked page discovered by software engineer Tibor Blaho on We provide. and GPT-4o. Unlike most AIs, o1, o1-mini, and other inference models effectively fact-check themselves. This helps…
TikTok has partnered with Nielsen to enable advertisers and agencies to directly compare ad performance on TikTok across all screens, including digital, CTV and linear. Nielsen said the partnership will give advertisers a better understanding of TikTok's contribution to audience reach, while also allowing them to better place their ads across a variety of media. The company notes that capturing audience engagement on TikTok is important as people move across different platforms and devices. Nielsen says it has the ability to provide cross-media measurement through Nielsen ONE, a platform that provides cross-platform audience measurement insights. “In a fragmented ecosystem, advertisers…
The most important promise of companies working on AI-powered productivity tools is to build solutions that perform tasks on behalf of users. Some of the early demos we've seen don't quite live up to these promises. A to-do list app called Twos approaches this problem differently. When you add a task, possible related actions may be suggested. Examples include adding a link to your site or helping you write text to complete a task. The purpose is to recommend sites and apps to complete tasks. To use the AI-powered suggestions feature, simply write down a task as you normally would,…