Can AI judge journalism? Teal-backed startup says yes, even at risk of intimidating whistleblowers
Aaron D’Souza says he saw something broken in America’s media system after he helped lead the lawsuit that bankrupted media company Gawker. Those who felt hurt by the coverage had little recourse to fight back. His solution is software. D’Souza says his latest startup, Objection, aims to use AI to determine truth in journalism. And […]
Anthropic is currently valued at more than $800 billion and is ignoring funding offers from VCs.
VCs like to go after the hottest startups, but startups aren’t always interested in selling more shares. The same goes for Anthropic, sources told Bloomberg. Venture capital firms have offered upfront funding rounds to OpenAI’s competitors that would value the company at more than $800 billion, roughly matching or exceeding its competitors. OpenAI closed a […]
Motorola sues social platforms and creators over posts as speech concerns grow in India
Motorola is suing social media platforms and content creators in India over allegedly defamatory posts, raising concerns that critical coverage of the company could be weakened, experts said. The lawsuit, filed in a Bengaluru court and obtained by TechCrunch, names platforms including X, YouTube, and Instagram, as well as dozens of content creators, and seeks […]
Airwallex seeks to take on Stripe and the rest of the payments industry in the physical world
After spending a decade quietly building a global payments infrastructure, Australian fintech company Airwallex is moving towards in-person payments. The move deepens the conflict with Stripe across the payments stack, allowing the startup to take direct aim at Square and Adyen in one of the last major battlegrounds in financial technology. Airwallex launches POS products […]
After selling its shoe business, Allbirds shifts focus to AI
After selling its shoe brand and assets for $39 million last month, Allbirds is pivoting to AI. Of course, since shoe brand Allbirds was also participating in the sale, the company will also change its name. Introduction: NewBird AI, a “fully integrated GPU-as-a-Service and AI-native cloud solutions provider,” the company announced Wednesday via its investor […]
Snap cuts 1,000 jobs, or 16% of its workforce
Snap will lay off about 16% of its global workforce, impacting about 1,000 full-time employees, according to a memo sent to employees Wednesday by Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. The company cites advances in AI as the reduction effect. “While these changes are necessary to realize Snap’s long-term potential, we believe rapid advances in artificial intelligence […]
Reid Hoffman weighs in on the ‘token maxing’ debate
Days after Meta shut down its internal “tokenmaxxing” dashboard following news that its AI leaderboards had been leaked to the press, LinkedIn co-founder and venture capitalist Reid Hoffman has voiced support for the concept that has recently taken Silicon Valley by storm. AI tokens are small chunks of data that an AI model processes as […]
This energy startup’s 100-year bet on grid technology is paying off
Demand for transformers, fueled in part by AI data centers, has grown so much that one prominent investor is backing a startup using very old technology. Ayr Energy manufactures transformers with iron cores, the same basic technology used in the power grid for more than a century. Although many other startups have emerged to take […]
HBO Max comes to India with exclusive deal from JioHotstar
JioHotstar, the Indian streaming service owned by conglomerate Reliance Industries, announced on Wednesday that it is expanding its partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery to offer HBO Max in India. HBO Max will be available to JioHotstar subscribers as an add-on starting at 49 ₹49 (approximately $0.50) per month and will feature content from HBO, Max […]
Spotify launches physical book purchase feature in US and UK
In February, Spotify made an exciting (and somewhat unusual) move by entering the world of physical bookselling. As of this week, the new feature has been officially rolled out in the US and UK, allowing users to purchase physical books through the Spotify app. This collaboration is with Bookshop.org, an online marketplace dedicated to supporting […]