Alan unveils AI health assistant for its 680k health insurance members

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 09:27:54 +0000

Alan wants to build a super app for healthcare, so it's rolling out three new product updates, including an AI chatbot that's vetted by doctors.

Coatue is raising $1B for AI bets

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 00:52:54 +0000

Coatue Management, a hedge fund that invested heavily in tech startups during the pandemic-infused boom, is raising $1 billion to back AI-focused companies, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The funding, which will top up the firm’s flagship fund, will be raised primarily from institutional investors. However, high-net-worth individuals with accounts at the brokerage Raymond James and […]

Meta’s former hardware lead for Orion is joining OpenAI

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 00:30:47 +0000

The former head of Meta’s augmented reality glasses efforts announced on Monday she is joining OpenAI to lead robotics and consumer hardware, according to a post on LinkedIn. OpenAI confirmed to TechCrunch that Caitlin Kalinowski will be joining the startup. Kalinowski is a hardware executive who began leading Meta’s AR glasses team in March 2022. […]

Datadog challenger Dash0 aims to dash observability bill shock

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 00:00:46 +0000

The end of zero-interest rates has driven companies to look for savings wherever they can, but one area continues to be a major budget drain. Observability — collecting and understanding data and systems — typically remains an organization’s second-highest cloud expenditure, right after cloud provisioning itself. People have even gone so far as to talk […]

Bowery Farming is ceasing operations

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 22:43:27 +0000

Agtech unicorn Bowery Farming is shutting down, according to PitchBook, which cited internal documents and multiple company employees. The New York-based agtech company was known for building vertical farms that could produce crops, including lettuces, herbs, and berries. Per Pitchbook, Bowery Farming has raised more than $700 million in funding from First Round Capital, General […]

Apple users can soon upgrade to ChatGPT Plus within the Settings app

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 22:18:02 +0000

Apple products are getting an integration with OpenAI’s ChatGPT in December when iOS 18.2 rolls out, which should supercharge Siri and a few other features with smarter AI. On Monday, iOS 18.2 beta testers got a taste of how OpenAI could profit off of its Apple partnership. Apple is including an option to upgrade to […]

Perplexity CEO offers AI company’s services to replace striking NYT staff

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 21:43:30 +0000

The CEO of AI search company Perplexity, Aravind Srinivas, has offered to cross picket lines and provide services to mitigate the effect of a strike by New York Times tech workers. The NYT Tech Guild announced its strike Monday, after setting November 4 as its deadline months earlier. The workers represented provide software support and […]

Bluesky gears up for Election Day as X goes pro-Trump

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:20:09 +0000

As Election Day in the U.S. nears, social networking startup Bluesky, now flush with new capital, hopes to demonstrate that its platform can serve as a more trusted, fact-checked alternative to Elon Musk’s X. While the latter is dominated by Musk’s support for the Trump campaign, Bluesky tends to lean left, thanks to its influx […]

Amazon brings generative AI-powered recaps to Prime Video

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:07:09 +0000

Instead of scouring the internet for a summary of a TV show, which often risks unintentionally revealing major plot points, Prime Video’s latest feature aims to save viewers from encountering any spoilers. Amazon announced on Monday the launch of “X-Ray Recaps,” a generative AI-powered feature that creates concise summaries of entire seasons, single episodes, and […]

Amazon acknowledges screen issues on a ‘small number’ of Kindle Colorsoft units

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:06:05 +0000

After more than a decade of waiting, Amazon’s first color Kindle has stumbled out of the gate. An issue with the new display has left Colorsoft buyers leaving unfavorable reviews. At last count, the e-reader is hovering around 2.7 stars. The company confirmed the display issues that are affecting a “small number” of units in […]

Regulators deliver successive blows to Amazon and Meta’s nuclear power ambitions

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:00:21 +0000

A series of recent rulings from regulators dashed the Big Tech companies' hopes of finding a quick fix for their electricity needs.

From Lime to Uber to Hertz: Free and discounted Election Day rides

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Election Day is nearly here, and if you haven’t already mailed in your ballot or gone in for early voting, you might need a ride come November 5. Here’s a roundup of all the freebies, discounts, and information on getting to the polls that transportation companies are offering. Micromobility Lime is offering free rides to […]

Anthropic hikes the price of its Haiku model

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 18:24:08 +0000

Anthropic’s newest AI model has arrived. But it’s pricier than the last generation, and unlike Anthropic’s other models, it can’t analyze images just yet. Claude 3.5 Haiku, which Anthropic announced last month, matches or bests the performance of Anthropic’s flagship model, Claude 3 Opus, on specific benchmarks. Available through Anthropic’s API and a number of […]

The brightest bling of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 17:53:48 +0000

At TechCrunch Disrupt, our team sits front and center, furiously typing away at our laptops to publish real-time news from impressive speakers like NFL quarterback-turned-founder Colin Kaepernick, Perplexity AI founder Aravind Srinivas, and Ashton Kutcher. We are a well-oiled machine. Some writers have been covering Disrupt since the old days, before Meta was Meta and […]

Anduril is considering Arizona, Ohio, or Texas for its massive manufacturing facility, source says

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 17:49:15 +0000

Anduril, the defense tech company co-founded by Palmer Luckey, is considering building its first major manufacturing plant, a 5-million-square-foot facility known as “Arsenal-1,” in Arizona, Ohio, or Texas, according to someone familiar with the matter. The company, which is developing autonomous drones, planes, and submarines, had announced $1.5 billion at a $14 billion post-money valuation […]

Meta says it’s making its Llama models available for US national security applications

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 17:19:59 +0000

To combat the perception that its “open” AI is aiding foreign adversaries, Meta today said that it’s making its Llama series of AI models available to U.S. government agencies and contractors in national security. “We are pleased to confirm that we’re making Llama available to U.S. government agencies, including those that are working on defense […]

DeepRoute raises $100M in push to beat Tesla’s FSD in China

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 17:11:34 +0000

DeepRoute.ai, a Shenzhen-based autonomous driving technology startup, raised $100 million from an unidentified Chinese automaker. The company aims to get its automated driving systems into as many vehicles in China before Tesla takes off next year, according to a Reuters report. China lifted certain restrictions on Tesla vehicles in April, clearing a path for the […]

Built in four days, this $120 robot arm cleans a spill with help from GPT-4o

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 16:36:32 +0000

Large language models have already proven transformative for robotics. While researchers and companies alike utilize the platforms to supercharge robotic learning, a pair of roboticists at UC Berkeley and ETH Zurich challenged themselves by leveraging generative AI to put a cheap robot arm to work. Jannik Grothusen and Kaspar Janssen trained a pair of $120 […]

Columbus says ransomware gang stole personal data of 500,000 Ohio residents

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 14:51:37 +0000

Columbus says hackers accessed resident's Social Security numbers and bank account details

No, startups shouldn’t always take the highest valuation, seed VCs say

Mon, 04 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

One of the lessons that the wild Silicon Valley venture funding environment of the past few years has clearly taught is this: Bigger valuations are not always better. “I think we’ve all kind of seen the negative impact of having a valuation too high from the last, call it, three years,” Elizabeth Yin, co-founder of […]