With LakeFlow, Databricks users will soon be able to build their data pipelines and ingest data from databases like MySQL, Postgres, SQL Server and Oracle, as well as enterprise applications like Salesforce, Dynamics, Sharepoint, Workday, NetSuite and Google Analytics.
In a way, getting data into a data warehouse or data lake should indeed be table stakes because the real value creation happens down the line.
The first is LakeFlow Connect, which provides the connectors between the different data sources and the Databricks service.
It’s fully integrated with Databricks’ Unity Data Catalog data governance solution and relies in part of technology from Arcion.
Databricks is rolling out the LakeFlow service in phases.
“Big tech companies have ‘mis-set’ expectations when it comes to AI,” Heltewig told TechCrunch.
According to one survey, over half of businesses have already invested in AI capabilities to support their customer service operations.
Per market research firm Markets and Markets, revenue in the market for call center AI alone is set to climb from $1.6 billion in 2022 to $4.1 billion by year-end 2027.
And it’s scalable; Cognigy manages AI agents that can handle up to tens of thousands of customer conversations at once.
Image Credits: Cognigy“Cognigy provides a platform to build, operate and analyze AI agents for customer experiences in the contact center,” Heltewig said.
Meta on Thursday said it is rolling out its Meta Verified program for WhatsApp Business users in Brazil, India, Indonesia and Colombia, and eventually to more countries.
The plan also lets businesses use their WhatsApp Business account from multiple devices.
Until now, WhatsApp Business users had to use their personal phone numbers to service customer calls.
With more than 200 million monthly users on WhatsApp Business, Meta is trying to build a full suite of solutions that businesses can tap for communicating with their customers.
The company said existing commerce and payment services only cater to the top 200 million users.
And it started an all-Tesla, all-employee ride-hail service, in part so its charging infrastructure would see guaranteed utilization.
The move comes after Revel successfully piloted the model in late February with 100 Revel drivers and has since brought on 100 more.
The question of flexibility has been at the heart of the debate over whether ride-hail drivers should be classified as gig workers or employees.
That said, Rubinson says Revel’s ride-hail portion of the business recently hit gross margin positivity and was tracking to be EBITDA positive by the end of the year.
In 2022, Frank Reig, Revel’s CEO, told TechCrunch that over 90% of its charging hub utilization came from Revel’s own ride-hail fleet.
Amazon is acquiring some assets of MX Player, but not the entire firm, which also counts Tencent among its backers.
TechCrunch reported in February last year that Amazon and MX Player were engaging for a deal.
MX Player is especially popular among such demographic groups, and Amazon’s e-commerce service has long only been popular among the urban city consumers.
An Amazon spokesperson confirmed it has agreed to purchase some assets of MX Player after publication of this story.
Following the acquisition, Times Internet made strategic moves to transform MX Player from a local video playback app into a comprehensive video streaming platform.
The company first started working with Mr. Bricolage, a popular DIY retailer in France.
Dealt operates a white-label platform for Mr. Bricolage so that it can upsell its own clients with services.
After that, retailers like Mr. Bricolage can provide services and generate new revenue lines as they take a cut on each transaction.
Other Dealt clients include Fnac-Darty, Orange, E.Leclerc, Conforama, Boulanger, 3Suisses and Rue du Commerce.
Some of these retailers work with Dealt to provide services that aren’t necessarily related to a new purchase.
That’s privacy by design.”The funding is notable in part because Cape appeal to users is not yet proven.
The latest round is being co-led by A* and Andreessen Horowitz, with XYZ Ventures, ex/ante, Costanoa Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Forward Deployed VC, and Karman Ventures also participating.
Those jobs may exposed him to users (government departments) who treated the security of personal information and privacy around data usage as essential.
(Cape today also announced a partnership with USCellular — which itself provides a MNVO covering 12 cellular networks, and Doyle said that it’s talking with other telcos, too).
Although payments for this might be anonymous, a user’s data is still routed through the network infrastructure of the underlying carrier, making a users movements and usage observable.
Waymo, the self-driving company under Alphabet, began testing its robotaxis in Atlanta on Tuesday, adding another city to its ever-expanding testing and deployment domain.
Read about our cross-country training program:… pic.twitter.com/ORNxAbjJ3A — Waymo (@Waymo) April 16, 2024Like many other states, Georgia’s regulation of AVs is almost nonexistent, meaning Waymo can technically drop fully autonomous vehicles on the streets today without a safety driver, provided it meets the state’s minimal risk conditions.
Earlier this month, Waymo began mapping Washington, D.C., and in November 2023, the company began winter testing robotaxis in Buffalo.
In March, California regulators approved Waymo to grow its commercial robotaxi service across the San Francisco peninsula and on San Francisco freeways, which unlocks a route to San Francisco International Airport.
A Waymo robotaxi also hit and killed a dog in June 2023.
Truth Social, the social media platform owned by Donald Trump’s media company, has announced plans to launch a live TV streaming platform.
The streaming service will launch in three phases.
The company first plans to introduce Truth Social’s CDN (content delivery network) for streaming to the Truth Social app for Android, iOS and the web.
Next, Truth Social plans to release over-the-top (“OTT”) streaming apps for phones, tablets and other devices.
Truth Social went public last month after shareholders approved a merger of TMTG and Digital World Acquisition, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).
Meta said on Monday that it plans to “temporarily” shutter Threads in Turkey from April 29, in response to an interim injunction imposed by the Turkish competition authority last month over the way Meta shares data between Threads and Instagram.
In 2022, Turkey imposed a $18.6 million fine on Meta for combining user data across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Initially, the only way Meta allowed users to delete a Threads profile was by deleting their whole Instagram account, though it later introduced a separate mechanism for those wishing to ditch their Threads profile only.
Turkish regulators had announced the investigation on the way Meta linked Threads with Instagram in December, concluding last month that there was a strong case to answer for.
The latter of these options means a user’s profile can be resurrected when and if Threads is available in the country again.
