Google on Thursday is issuing new guidance for developers building AI apps distributed through Google Play, in hopes of cutting down on inappropriate and otherwise prohibited content.
Schools across the U.S. are reporting problems with students passing around AI deepfake nudes of other students (and sometimes teachers) for bullying and harassment, alongside other sorts of inappropriate AI content.
Google says that its policies will help to keep out apps from Google Play that feature AI-generated content that can be inappropriate or harmful to users.
It points to its existing AI-Generated Content Policy as a place to check its requirements for app approval on Google Play.
The company is also publishing other resources and best practices, like its People + AI Guidebook, which aims to support developers building AI apps.
Twitch has come up with a solution for the ongoing copyright issues that DJs encounter on the platform.
Participating DJs in the program must contribute a percentage of their earnings from streams to cover some of the music rights costs.
Twitch partnered with all major labels to bring a majority of popular music to the offering, including Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony Music, as well as several independent labels represented by music licensing partner Merlin.
Additionally, a one-year subsidy is being offered to existing Twitch DJs, providing financial support and a transition period to adapt to the new program.
Twitch will soon require DJs to share part of their revenue with the music industry.
But look beyond the hype and high-profile deals like the one between OpenAI and PwC last week, and you’ll see that the world is already years into using customer-facing, no-code AI tools for extracting information and working faster.
The deal underscores not just the opportunity around increasing demand for AI in the B2B market, but also a wider trend in enterprise IT.
Eigen and Sirion are not disclosing the financial terms of the deal, but below is relevant context that tells some of the story.
London-based Eigen is led and co-founded by Dr Lewis Liu, an Oxford PhD who studied both art and physics.
It says that it works with over 250 large enterprises manages more than 7 million contracts worth $800 billion.
Apple finally updated its App Store guidelines to allow global developers to host retro game emulators on iOS.
Now, at long last, Testut has released a Game Boy emulator directly into the iOS App Store, where it’s already climbed to #1 on the entertainment charts.
Delta, the emulator, even supports DS, N64, SNES and NES games, in addition to Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance games.
If you’re a Paladin-esque rule follower, you can use a tool like Epilogue’s GB Operator, which can rip .ROM files directly from the Game Boy games that you already own.
So, now that you have legally obtained your .ROM file, how do you get it onto your phone?
Inside LemFi’s play to be fintech to the Global South diaspora First, the Nigerian startup focused on migrants from Africa.
These events spotlight the company’s growing influence in Africa’s remittance market, fuelled by a $33 million Series A funding round and the launch of services in the U.S. corridor, both announced last August.
LemFi later expanded to serve other African diaspora communities in the country before entering the U.K. market in 2021 by acquiring RightCard for $2.5 million.
Additionally, Daiyaan Alam, formerly leading partnerships at Delivery Hero subsidiary Foodpanda in Pakistan, is spearheading LemFi’s expansion efforts into Pakistan and South Asia.
They join Allen Qu, former COO at Chinese-backed African fintech OPay, who leads the fintech’s growth among the Chinese diaspora.
A new social media app called Indaband lets musicians and vocalists collaborate with others and make music with people all over the world.
You can record and mix unlimited video tracks in different sessions using the app’s multi-track video studio and share them with your community.
The app is the brainchild of CEO Daniel Murta, CTO Andrews Medina, Head of Engineering Helielson Santos and Design Leader Emerson Farias.
They all used to get together to play music during happy hours after work, and once the pandemic hit, they came up with the idea for Indaband so they could still play music together while in quarantine.
Circles will allow users to build their own communities on the app and possibly even hold live events.
They can both sell out Madison Square Garden (… and also, their fans kind of hate Ticketmaster now).
Dropout’s Dungeons & Dragons actual play show, Dimension 20, is getting pretty close to selling out a 19,000-seat venue just hours after ticket sales opened to the general public.
When I was playing D&D in the early eighties, I would have never believed that there was a future where people would watch live D&D at Madison Square Garden.
About an hour after the Madison Square Garden tickets went on sale, the few dozen upper bowl tickets left were $800.
Creators can sell out Madison Square Garden.
Well-known startup accelerator Y Combinator held one of its two yearly demo day events this week, showcasing hundreds of startups that recently went through its program.
Judging from our coverage of the two-day event, TechCrunch found lots to like in the presenting companies.
There was lots more than just AI on display, so for today’s TechCrunch Minute I compiled a few trends and vibes from the shindig for your enjoyment.
Accelerators play an important role in the startup world, giving founders early capital and advice as they get off the ground.
Y Combinator competes with Techstars and other platforms globally.
India’s antitrust regulator has ordered an investigation into Alphabet’s Google, alleging the U.S. tech giant abused its dominant position in the country’s online market by imposing unfair terms and discriminatory practices in its popular app store.
The order came in response to complaint filed by multiple Indian app developers and industry groups, many of whom have also publicly raised concerns about what they allege is unfair practices by Google.
CCI’s allegations centre around Google’s billing system for in-app purchases and paid apps on its Play Store.
The watchdog’s decision is the latest headache for Google in India, its biggest market by users but one where it has long faced allegations of anti-competitive practices.
The U.S. giant has previously defended its Play Store policies, saying the service fee supports its investments in Android and Play Store, allowing it to provide developers with tools and a global platform to access billions of consumers around the world.
AI models that play games go back decades, but they generally specialize in one game and always play to win.
From this data — and the annotations provided by data labelers — the model learns to associate certain visual representations of actions, objects, and interactions.
AI agents trained on multiple games performed better on games they hadn’t been exposed to.
But of course many games involve specific and unique mechanics or terms that will stymie the best-prepared AI.
And simple improvised actions or interactions are also being simulated and tracked by AI in some really interesting research into agents.
