IRL’s ex-CEO says he’s ‘shocked’ about the company’s fake users
IRL’s company logo. | Photo illustration by William Joel/The Verge I have a packed issue this week, starting with the implosion of a once-hot social media startup called IRL. It raised $200 million at over a $1 billion valuation, and now its board is dissolving the company after finding that
Read MoreMontreal-based Maxa wins the Snowflake Startup Challenge in Las Vegas
Maxa, a Montreal-based startup that offers an AI-enabled cloud-based financial analysis application, won the Snowflake Startup Challenge, a competition for startups that create innovative applications and products powered by Snowflake’s Data Cloud. Maxa was the first ever Canadian company to reach the finals of this competition, where it faced Germany’s
Read MoreConnecting Unity3D With AWS Services
3 ways of doing it!Illustration by Gianca ChavestIn my last articles, I realized direct integrations between Unity3D and AWS using the AWS SDK for .NET. I generally don’t dive into details about how the connection between Unity3D and the AWS services is made in order to focus on the primary topic. Still, it
Read MoreGM buys software startup that predicts EV battery fires
General Motors said Friday it has acquired Algolion, an Israel-based software startup that can detect potential hazards in battery cells. Financial terms were not disclosed. The automaker did say that Algolion six employees, including the company’s founders, will remain based in Israel and join more than 850 employees at the
Read MoreSchools say US teachers’ retirement fund was breached by MOVEit hackers
Two U.S. schools have confirmed that TIAA, a non-profit organization that provides financial services for individuals in academic fields, has been caught up in the mass-hacks targeting MOVEit file transfer tools. Middlebury College in Vermont and Trinity College in Connecticut both released security notices confirming they experienced data breaches as
Read MoreGenerative AI front and center at Databricks’ Data + AI summit, following MosaicML acquisition
Databricks turned the spotlight on generative AI at its annual Data + AI summit, as it announced a host of new Lakehouse AI innovations. This focus on generative AI, the company said, “highlights the inflection point reached with the rise in the popularity of large language models (LLMs)”. In April,
Read MoreWhy automakers are rushing to adopt Tesla’s NACS plug and what it means to drivers
How did the North American electric vehicle market finally decide on a charging port? Gradually, then suddenly, to paraphrase Ernest Hemingway. The war isn’t over yet, but with Electrify America announcing this week that it would add Tesla’s North American Charging Standard (NACS) plugs, it’s close. Electrify America’s decision is
Read MoreVoice.ai raises $6M as its real-time voice changer approaches 500k users
Services like Midjourney and ChatGPT have pushed the boundaries of how AI can create images and text out of basic text prompts. Now, audio appears to be the inevitable next frontier. Music generation based on word prompts, AI tutors for language learning, and voice simulators have all seen developments in
Read MoreCSE stopped billions of malicious actions against federal IT networks: Report
Canada’s signals intelligence agency protected federal IT networks from an average of 6.3 billion malicious actions a day — such as attempts to deploy malware — in the last fiscal year, as well undertaking three foreign cyber operations against targets outside the country, according to its latest annual report. The
Read MoreApple’s market cap hits $3 trillion once again
Apple’s market cap hit $3 trillion on Friday, as the company’s shares rose around 1% to a new high and passed the $190.73 price required in order to reach the milestone. The tech giant first reached this milestone back in January 2022, before closing the session just below that mark.
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