Author: user
If it sounds like an exciting way to live like a Le Carré character when you become a spy, this latest affidavit from confessed wavy spy Keith O’Brien serves as a warning. On Friday, an Irish judge granted O’Brien a restraining order against several men who have not yet been identified, according to a court order seen by TechCrunch. O’Brien testified that multiple men (sometimes two in great scordas, more often, men with short hair in black SUVs, with heavy sets of short hair, followed the car repeatedly and looked at the house, sometimes with a big dog. O’Brien’s story…
Mira Murati, former CTO at Openai, raised $2 billion for its new AI venture, Thinking Machines Lab, just six months after its launch. The eye-opening round round values the company at $10 billion. That’s a huge number for startups that are still in their early stages. The deal, first reported by the Financial Times, is one of the largest seed rounds in Silicon Valley history. With participation from Sarah Guo’s conviction partner, the Rais, led by Andreessen Horowitz, doubled the company’s original $1 billion target. Investors had to commit at least $50 million to participate, according to Business Insider. The…
The University of Wisconsin and its NIL Collective VC Connect filed a joint lawsuit against the University of Miami on Friday, claiming it intentionally led them to deliberately renounce their favourable name, image and likeness contract to play for Florida this season. Tampering allegations rarely reach this level, and the 23-page lawsuit filed in Wisconsin state court and obtained by the Associated Press is unusual. Depending on that solution, it could have a major impact on future trading for the university’s overall athletics. The player in filing issues is only referred to as “Student Athlete A.” However, the case outline…
According to the Financial Times, Thinking Machines Lab, a secret AI startup founded by former Openai Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati, has closed its $2 billion seed round. The deal values the six-month startup at $10 billion. The company’s work remains unknown. The startup leveraged Murati’s reputation and other well-known AI researchers who joined the team to attract investors to the biggest seed round in history. According to sources familiar with the deals cited by FT, Andreessen Horowitz led the round and joined from Sarah Guo’s conviction partner. Murati left Openai in September last year after leading the development of…
Cluely, a startup that claims to help users “cheat” in job interviews, exams and sales calls, has raised a $15 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz. Two investors who were not part of the transaction have told TechCrunch, which believes Cluely’s money post money valuation is around $120 million. Andreessen Horowitz declined to comment on the numbers. CEO Roy Lee did not respond to requests for comment. Cluely’s new funding comes about two months after raising $5.3 million from the Seed Funding co-led by Abstract Venture and SUSA Ventures. The startup was co-founded earlier this year by 21-year-olds Roy…
BOSTON (AP) – A federal judge on Friday blocked Trump administration efforts to keep it up Harvard University From hosting international students.An order from US District Judge Alison Burrows maintains Harvard’s ability to host foreign students while cases are being determined. It has achieved another victory for Ivy League schools as it challenges multiple government sanctions amid the fight against the White House.Harvard sued the Department of Homeland Security in May after the agency revoked the school’s accreditation, hosted foreign students, and revoked the school’s accreditation to issue visa documents. Action would have roughly forced Harvard University 7,000 foreign students…
A few weeks after Humanity was announced, it has been published in a new study suggesting that the company is more widespread among major AI models, claiming that it relied on threatening engineers who tried to turn the model off in a controlled test scenario. On Friday, humanity unveiled 16 major AI models from Openai, Google, Xai, Deepseek and Meta with 16 major AI models. The simulated controlled environment provided the ability to test anthropological environment individually, broadly access to fictional corporate emails, and to send emails without human approval. Humanity says blackmail is an unlikely event for today’s AI…
Charles Hudson had just shut down his fifth fund a few months ago. This is when one of the limited partners asks him to do the exercise. I wondered if Hudson sold all the portfolio companies in Series A. How about Series B? Or Series C? The questions were not academic. Twenty years in venture capital, Hudson is permanently looking at the mathematics of seed investment changes. LPS, who previously had a hold period of 7-8 years, suddenly asked about interim fluidity. “Seven or eight years feels like a really long time,” says Hudson. Why: The steady flow of venture…
HEMPSTED, NY (AP) — A high school located on the outskirts of New York City will double the day of graduation this weekend. Of the nearly 500 students in their graduation class, 30 are twins.It’s a tight knit group. Some of the students at Beth Page John F. Kennedy High School in Plain View, Long Island, have known each other since their parents met through their local Twins club. Some still plan family vacations together.Recently, some of the twins have been on the group text chain, which has helped them deal with their new infamies as graduation date approaches.”To be…
Character.ai, a Google-backed AI chatbot provider with tens of millions of monthly active users, announced on Friday that Meta’s previous business product, Karandeep Anand, has joined the CEO. Previously, Anand, a board advisor at Charach.ai, has stepped into the CEO role at a pivotal moment for chatbot providers. Over the past few months, Charition.AI has added a number of new safety features in light of aggressive lawsuits. This claims that one of the company’s chatbots played a role in the death of a 14-year-old Florida boy. Anand comes to Character.ai with experience running advertising products that have reached billions of…