Still, Yahoo has more AI plans in the works, including for its Yahoo News property on the web.
However, while the Yahoo News app is taking learnings from Artifact when it comes to offering AI features, the AI summaries feature found on its Yahoo News is not related to its acquisition of the well-liked AI news app that had been created by Instagram’s founders, but had shut down after failing to reach a wider audience.
That would explain why most visitors to the Yahoo News website would not have likely encountered these AI summaries as of yet.
The code doesn’t reveal much about the underlying technology Yahoo is using for the AI summaries, only how they would appear to site visitors — in a lightbox, a type of web component used for displaying content.
Combined with the Artifact-inspired revamp of Yahoo News and the AI features that arrived on Yahoo Mail, it’s clear that Yahoo is betting on AI to give its older web products and services a push.
“We’ve got an increased threat from foreign adversaries who have shown capabilities to jam, to destroy, to spoof the signals of GPS, which is scary,” Shaun Moore, CEO and co-founder of Tern AI, a startup that wants to provide an alternative to GPS, told TechCrunch.
The current system works by having GPS receivers in cars or phones pick up signals from satellites orbiting the earth.
The GPS receivers then use the time it took for each signal to travel to calculate the distance to each satellite.
“GPS technology has not meaningfully changed in 50 years, and what we’re seeing put forth as solutions to resolve or mitigate risk are just marginal improvements.
“When we first met Tern AI, what stood out the most was how differentiated and scalable their approach was to solving a critical problem in national security,” said Stephen DiBartolomeo, principal at Scout Ventures.
Earlier that same year, the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which establishes federal technology standards, published a roadmap for identifying and mitigating the emerging risks of AI.
But Congress has yet to pass legislation on AI — or even propose any law as comprehensive as regulations like the EU’s recently enacted AI Act.
Colorado recently approved a measure that requires AI companies to use “reasonable care” while developing the tech to avoid discrimination.
Consider this example: in many state laws regulating AI, “automated decision making” — a term broadly referring to AI algorithms making some sort of decision, like whether a business receives a loan — is defined differently.
Toner thinks that even a high-level federal mandate would be preferable to the current state of affairs.
“The predominant traveler today was born in an age where they are very comfortable with technology,” Harman Singh Narula, Canary Technologies co-founder and CEO, said.
Narula started Canary Technologies with longtime friend SJ Sawhney to provide that technology so hotels can offer better guest experiences, augmented by technology.
Today, the hotel guest management technology company’s platform digitizes the hotel guest journey from post-booking through checkout with tools that manage mobile check-in/checkout, registrations, upsells, guest messaging and digital tipping.
Canary now works with over 20,000 hoteliers globally at brands like Marriott International, Four Seasons, Choice Hotels, Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Rosewood and Intercontinental Hotel Group.
Though he didn’t give a specific valuation, Narula did say the valuation has now more than doubled since the company’s $30 million Series B round in 2022.
Tech sovereignty has become a looming priority for a number of nations these days, and now a startup working in semiconductors has received a major boost in aid of that effort for Germany and Europe.
The sum is one of the largest to date raised by a European startup working in semiconductors.
Black is a spin-out from the University of Aachen co-founded by brothers Daniel and Sebastian Schall (respectively the CEO and CFO).
The funding, a Series A, is important not just for its size but also because of the intention behind it.
Porsche Ventures and Project A Ventures are co-leads, with participation from Scania Growth, Capnamic, Tech Vision Fonds, and NRW.BANK.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will examine the rise of AI technology across all fronts, said FTC Chair Lina Khan, speaking at TechCrunch’s StrictlyVC event in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday.
In fact, it’s already seeing an uptick in consumer complaint cases in some areas, like voice cloning fraud, Khan said.
Asked what areas of AI the FTC was watching, Khan explained that it was everything.
Of course, policing AI comes with its challenges, despite the number of technologists the FTC has hired to help in this area.
Another area of focus for the FTC is the focus on what openness really means in the AI context, Khan explained.
Light, the maker of the minimalist phone with an e-paper screen, is announcing its newest model, the Light Phone III.
Like its earlier counterpart, the Light Phone III offers a simple black-and-white display, without access to social media, the internet or email.
Between the first two models, the Light Phone I and Light Phone II, the company has shipped over 100,000 devices, with the latter accounting for roughly two-thirds of those sales.
The Light Phone III will target the larger demographic that are already using the non-smartphone as their main device.
Image Credits: LightAll the upgrades make the new device more expensive: The Light Phone III is $799 compared with the $299 Light Phone II.
The early-stage venture capital firm took a unique take on the industry by spearheading public relations for its portfolio companies.
Through Fund I ($20 million) and Fund II ($50 million), the Silicon Valley firm’s portfolio has had 22 exits, including an IPO with Terran Orbital.
It also has backed eight unicorns, including Superhuman, Remote, Worldcoin, Truebill (which exited to Rocket Companies in 2021) and DuckDuckGo.
“When we connected, he was already the founder of three unicorns, which was quite surprising,” Bucher told TechCrunch.
A year later, Bucher exited M&A PR Studio and started Day One Ventures.
Torpago, a commercial credit card and spend management provider, is no different, but with one caveat — banks are who it builds technology for, particularly community banks.
“We started as a competitor with Brex and Ramp, as well as American Express and Capital One,” Jackson told TechCrunch.
The Torpago Powered By tools and infrastructure enable means that those banks’ to customers don’t have to leave the bank’s brand domain to get sophisticated fintech features.
Banks have all the customers, and they have all the card volume, but “they have the absolute worst credit card tools and technology,” he said.
Since making the shift to banks as customers, that was whittled down to 300 companies while it goes after bank customers.
That means that they first need an eye exam from an optometrist to receive that prescription.
But, due to a nationwide shortage of eye care practitioners, it may take weeks, especially in rural areas, to get an appointment.
Eyebot, a new startup coming out of stealth on Thursday, wants to reduce the time it takes to receive an eye exam to about 90 seconds without the direct involvement of an optometrist.
But if they purchase glasses from one of Eyebot’s partner brands, the eye exam is free.
The company hopes that major eyeglass brands will rent Eyebot terminals and put them in the retail locations of their choice.
