Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis gets UK knighthood for ‘services to artificial intelligence’
Demis Hassabis, CEO and one of three founders of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary DeepMind, has been awarded a knighthood in the U.K. for “services to artificial intelligence.” Ian Hogarth, chair of the U.K. government’s recently launched AI Safety Institute and previously founder of music startup Songkick, was awarded Commander of
Read moreInstagram is developing ‘Blend,’ recommended Reels for you and a friend
Instagram is developing a “Blend” feature that creates a private feed of Reels recommended for you and a friend. The company told TechCrunch on Friday that the feature is an internal prototype and is not being tested externally. The feature was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, who regularly
Read moreOpenAI built a voice cloning tool, but you can’t use it… yet
As deepfakes proliferate, OpenAI is refining the tech used to clone voices — but the company insists it’s doing so responsibly. Today marks the preview debut of OpenAI’s Voice Engine, an expansion of the company’s existing text-to-speech API. Under development for about two years, Voice Engine allows users to upload
Read morePitch Deck Teardown: Plantee Innovations’ $1.4M seed deck
It’s rare that I come across a pitch deck that ticks almost all the boxes. It’s so good, in fact, that I fed Plantee’s deck into an AI tool I built, and it determined there was a 97.7% chance that Plantee would raise money. This tool generally determines that only
Read moreTechCrunch Minute: Sam Bankman-Fried’s sentencing marks an end to the FTX saga
After a lengthy trial and conviction, we finally learned how long former crypto baron Sam Bankman-Fried will be behind bars: up to 25 years. It’s a lengthy sentence, but one that given the scale of the crimes he was convicted of, doesn’t come as a shock. For the crypto industry,
Read moreDatabricks’ GPT rival and who’s investing in ‘underdog’ founders
Hello, and welcome to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Friday episode, in which we dig through the most critical stories and themes from the week. As the week comes to a close, we’re also shutting
Read moreHow a tiny 4-person startup, Supaglue, caught Stripe’s eye
Supaglue's team will accelerate the work Stripe's been working on real-time analytics and reporting across its platform. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreWhat is Elon Musk’s Grok chatbot and how does it work?
You might’ve heard of Grok, X’s answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It’s a chatbot and, in that sense, behaves as you’d expect — answering questions about current events, pop culture and so on. But unlike other chatbots, Grok has “a bit of wit,” as X owner Elon Musk puts it, and
Read moreThe final countdown: Early Stage 2024 ticket savings end tonight
The final countdown is on! Today, March 29, marks the final opportunity to grab your early-bird savings for TechCrunch Early Stage 2024 — a one-day event set to ignite your entrepreneurial journey on April 25 in Boston. Don’t miss out on this exclusive opportunity to gain invaluable insights, resources, and
Read moreSam Bankman-Fried is still gambling
“I’ve never seen a performance quite like that.” | Collage by Cath Virginia / The Verge | Photo by Victor J. Blue, Bloomberg, Getty Images ‘It’s his nature.’ Sam Bankman-Fried has learned nothing, and I’m not sure any of the rest of us have, either. At his sentencing, I sat
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