Tag Archives: TechCrunch

Boston Dynamics joins forces with firm behind ‘Avatar,’ ‘Jurassic Park’ animatronics

Since the company’s earliest days as an MIT spinoff, Boston Dynamics’ systems have always provided entertainment value. It’s something the Hyundai-owned firm has long embraced by releasing dozens of wildly viral videos over the decades. With a few exceptions, however, … Continue reading

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Cruise slashes 24% of self-driving car workforce in sweeping layoffs

Cruise, the embattled GM self-driving car subsidiary, is laying off 900 employees, or about 24% of its workforce, as part of a plan to slash costs and attempt to revamp the company following an October 2 incident that left a … Continue reading

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Apple again targets iMessage-on-Android app Beeper, but company claims it has a fix

A few days ago, the mobile app Beeper Mini went back into operation after an attempt by Apple to shut down its service that brings iMessage’s blue bubble texts to Android users. Now, Apple is again targeting Beeper’s users, the … Continue reading

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AI isn’t and won’t soon be evil or even smart, but it’s also irreversibly pervasive

Artificial intelligence – or rather, the variety based on large language models we’re currently enthralled with – is already in the autumn of its hype cycle, but unlike crypto, it won’t just disappear into the murky, undignified corners of the … Continue reading

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BoxGroup closes on $425M for two funds to back early-stage startups

Each fund is $212.5 million and will invest in pre-seed, seed and Series A companies across consumer enterprise, healthcare, financial, biotech and climate. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

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Microsoft disrupts cybercrime operation selling fraudulent accounts to notorious hacking gang

Microsoft says it has successfully dismantled the infrastructure of a cybercrime operation that sold access to fraudulent Outlook accounts to other hackers, including the notorious Scattered Spider gang. The group, tracked by Microsoft as “Storm-1152”, is described as a major … Continue reading

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Playground Global closes Fund III with $410M for early-stage deep tech investments

The new fund invests across the computing, automation, infrastructure, logistics, decarbonization and engineered biology industries. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

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Paris-based VC firm Singular raises $435 million for its second fund

For a VC firm, the second fund is a make-or-break moment. With the initial fund, you raise money based on an investment thesis because you don’t have any track record, any return on investment to prove that you’re a capable … Continue reading

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Threads is finally available to users in the EU

Five months after its launch in July, Meta’s social network Threads is now finally available to people living in the European Union. In a post on Threads, Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta is opening up Threads to more countries in … Continue reading

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Instagram introduces gen-AI powered background editing tool

Instagram introduced its generative AI-powered background editing tool to U.S.-based users Wednesday. Meta’s lead for generative AI Ahmad Al-Dahle posted on Threads saying that the tool will let users change the background to their images through prompts for Stories. When … Continue reading

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