Spotify updates its AI DJ to let you use voice commands
In a bid to make its AI DJ feel more interactive, Spotify is updating the feature to let users request music or change the mood of a playlist using voice commands. The company is rolling out this feature, supported only in English, in over 60 markets for its premium subscribers.
Read moreInsurtech Bestow lands $120M Series D from Goldman Sachs, Smith Point Capital
Melbourne O’Banion co-founded insurtech Bestow with Jonathan Abelmann in 2017 after struggling to secure his own life insurance policy. His goal was to make it easier for people to obtain life insurance and make the process more tech-enabled. Initially, Bestow operated as a direct-to-consumer insurance provider — selling, underwriting, and
Read moreRobinhood grows its footprint in Canada by acquiring WonderFi
Robinhood revealed Tuesday that it’s acquiring Canadian crypto leader WonderFi for CA$250 million (around $178.56 million) in an all-cash deal as it pushes into Canada’s growing digital asset market. WonderFi operates two regulated crypto platforms, Bitbuy and Coinsquare, with over CA$2.1 billion in assets under custody. The transaction offers WonderFi
Read moreMarks & Spencer confirms customers’ personal data was stolen in hack
A ransomware gang reportedly took credit for the data breach.
Read moreA crowded little chess puzzle
Here’s a puzzle by Martin Garnder [1]. Can a queen, king, rook, bishop, and knight be placed on a 4² board so no piece attacks another? There are two solutions, plus symmetries. Note that in all non-attacking chess puzzles, the colors of the pieces are irrelevant. In the solutions I
Read moreRealta Fusion taps $36M in fresh funds for its fusion-in-a-bottle reactor
Realta hopes to build power plants cheaply enough to supply power as low as $40 per megawatt-hour.
Read moreIs the enterprise (actually) ready for AI?
Maryam Ashoori, Head of Product for watsonx.ai at IBM, joins Ryan and Eira to talk about the complexity of enterprise AI, the role of governance, the AI skill gap among developers, how AI coding tools impact developer productivity, what chain-of-thought reasoning entails, and what observability and monitoring look like for
Read moreMeta to start selling its Ray-Ban smart glasses in India from May 19
The smart glasses are available for pre-order on Ray-Ban's site, and will retail for ₹29,990 at Ray-Ban stores at launch.
Read moreAnthropic co-founder Jared Kaplan is coming to TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Hungry to learn more about Anthropic, directly from Anthropic? You aren’t alone if so, which is why we’re so delighted to announce that Anthropic co-founder and Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan is joining the main stage at TechCrunch Sessions: AI on June 5 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. And TechCrunch
Read moreImprovements in ‘reasoning’ AI models may slow down soon, analysis finds
An analysis by Epoch AI, a nonprofit AI research institute, suggests the AI industry may not be able to eke massive performance gains out of reasoning AI models for much longer. As soon as within a year, progress from reasoning models could slow down, according to the report’s findings. Reasoning
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