Perplexity is reportedly looking to fundraise at an $8B valuation
AI search engine Perplexity is in fundraising talks and hopes to raise around $500 million at an $8 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal. If a deal happens with those terms, it would more than double Perplexity’s valuation from its $3 billion valuation when it raised from SoftBank
Read moreWomen in AI: Marissa Hummon thinks AI will help make the power grid greener
This is part of TechCrunch’s ongoing Women in AI series, which seeks to give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved time in the spotlight. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreElon Musk is offering people $1 million to vote
Image: Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images Tech billionaire Elon Musk gave a $1 million check to an audience member at a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he’s been Trump-stumping, on Saturday. And he said he will continue to give that prize to one random voter per day until
Read moreLyft is working on a ‘service animal opt-in feature’ for passengers
Uber and Lyft need to do more to support disabled passengers, especially those who are blind or visually impaired, according to protesters who gathered outside the companies’ headquarters on October 15. Wired spoke to protesters who shared stories about drivers passing them by or refusing to let them bring their
Read moreCan AI sandbag safety checks to sabotage users? Yes, but not very well — for now
AI companies claim to have robust safety checks in place that ensure that models don’t say or do weird, illegal, or unsafe stuff. But what if the models were capable of evading those checks and, for some reason, trying to sabotage or mislead users? Turns out they can do this,
Read moreGusto’s head of technology says hiring an army of specialists is the wrong approach to AI
As founders plan for an increasingly AI-centric future, Gusto co-founder and head of technology Edward Kim said that cutting existing teams and hiring a bunch of specially trained AI engineers is “the wrong way to go.” Instead, he argued that non-technical team members can “actually have a much deeper understanding
Read moreInvestments in generative AI startups topped $3.9B in Q3 2024
Not everyone is convinced of generative AI’s return on investment. But many investors are, judging by the latest figures from funding tracker PitchBook. In Q3 2024, VCs invested $3.9 billion in generative AI startups across 206 deals, per PitchBook. (That’s not counting OpenAI‘s $6.6 billion round.) And $2.9 billion of
Read moreJoseph Jacks bets on open source startups, a ‘paradox of philanthropy and capitalism’
Open source might be many things, but one thing it’s not is a business model — by most estimations, at least. However, that hasn’t stopped Joseph Jacks and OSS Capital from seeking some of the earliest-stage, open source startups and funding them through their formative years. These include the likes
Read moreThe Internet Archive hackers still have access to its internal emailing tools
Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge Early this morning, I received an email from “The Internet Archive Team,” replying to a message I’d sent on October 9th. Except its author doesn’t seem to have been the digital archivists’ support team — it was apparently written by the hackers
Read moreThrone’s toilet camera takes pictures of your poop
Throne is an Austin-based health startup. It sells a camera. That clips onto the side of a toilet bowl. It takes pictures of your poop. Currently in beta, the system utilizes artificial intelligence to examine your dookie as a way of determining things like gut health and hydration. Turns out
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