Category: Enterprise
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X sues to block California anti-deepfakes bill
Per Bloomberg, X, Elon Musk’s social media company, has sued to block California law AB 2655, which requires large online platforms to remove or label AI deepfakes related to elections. X argues that the law, also known as the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” will lead to widespread censorship of political speech.…
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Microsoft bets a carbon removal bake-off will help offset its skyrocketing AI emissions
Microsoft is buying 10,000 tons of carbon credits from Deep Sky, a direct air capture developer. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Microsoft is in a pickle: It has committed to being carbon negative by 2030, but its emissions have skyrocketed more than 40% since 2020, thanks in part to…
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After raising nearly half a billion dollars, ABL Space pivots from launch vehicles to missiles
Significant changes are coming to ABL Space Systems. The leader of the 7-year-old startup took to social media last night to make a big announcement: The company will no longer be focusing on the commercial launch market but will be turning instead to missile defense. ABL had been developing a small launch vehicle called RS1…
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Drone manufacturer Skydio raises $170 million extension round
American drone manufacturer Skydio has raised an extension round of $170 million, adding onto the $230 million Series E it closed early last year. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. American drone manufacturer Skydio has raised an extension round of $170 million, adding onto the $230 million Series E it…
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‘AI granny’ scambaiter wastes telephone fraudsters’ time with boring chat
Telephone scams are nothing new, but with the advent of AI, it has become harder than ever for people to know whether the person they’re speaking to is in fact who they say they are. But U.K. mobile network O2 is turning the tables, creating what it calls an “AI granny” to keep scammers on…
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The $7,500 EV tax credit is on Trump’s chopping block
Republicans have long opposed the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles contained in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Now, it seems President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has made that a priority with plans to end the tax credit as part of broader tax reform legislation, Reuters reported citing two unnamed sources. TechCrunch has confirmed…
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Bluesky is courting the Swifties
Bluesky has grown by 2 million users — about 15% — since Donald Trump won the U.S. election last week. But the emerging social platform isn’t just acting as a refuge for left-leaning X users who are disappointed in Elon Musk’s alliance with the president-elect. A community of Taylor Swift fans, or Swifites, has also…
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Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony AI seeks up to $224M in US IPO
Pony AI is inching closer to its initial public offering in the U.S., but as it does so, it continues to drop its minimum target for what it hopes to raise in the transaction. Pony operates a fleet of 190 “robotrucks” in Beijing and Guangzhou and more than 250 robotaxis in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and…
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How to use Bluesky, the Twitter-like app that’s taking on Elon Musk’s X
Bluesky is continuing to blow up. The Twitter-like service and alternative to Elon Musk’s X, has now surpassed 16 million users after seeing rapid growth in the days following the U.S. presidential election. While many are leaving X over the service’s increasing right-wing leanings and Musk’s campaigning for Trump, others are unhappy with other changes…
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Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive AI Health assistant has a bare-bones demo
In a splashy op-ed in Time published this summer, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Thrive AI Health, a venture with the goal of building an AI-powered assistant to promote healthier lifestyles. Backed by Huffington’s mental wellness firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive AI Health would seek to…