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Hello Wonder Creates AI-Powered Browser for Kids

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Around the world, regulators have stepped up their efforts to attempt to make children safer online. Major social networks are coming under scrutiny, and as a countermeasure, they try to implement child protection tools. The major issue we’re specializing in is the content that’s displayed on kid’s screens and learn how to keep it protected.

While a lot of these efforts are aimed toward teens, toddlers are also using devices to devour content. So the trio of founders, who’ve worked at firms like Google and Amazon, try to create an AI-powered browser/companion to create a protected environment for kids to learn and explore through Hello Miracle.

The company currently has an iPad app — which folks have full control over — that lets kids ask inquiries to an AI chatbot and receive answers, videos, and interactive experiences which might be protected for them. The startup believes that current content tools like YouTube Kids deal with more engagement and don’t give parents enough insight into what their kids are consuming. That’s an issue the corporate goals to unravel.

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Hello Wonder has raised $2.1 million from investors including Designer Fund, A16Z Scout Fund, GroundUp Ventures and Chasing Rainbows. Other investors include Pocket Watch kids content studio CEO Chris Williams, Things Inc. founder Jason Toff and MESH electronics fund CEO Tony Fai.

Hello Wonder’s founders are Seth Raphael, who led AI prototyping teams at Google and helped create the primary version of Google Photos; Brian Backus, who has worked as a games producer at Amazon, Disney, DreamWorks, and NBCUniversal; and Daniel Shiplacoff, a product designer who worked on Google’s Material Design guidelines.

Raphael created the app while struggling to boost five children under the age of 12 through the COVID-19 pandemic. He told TechCrunch that while he saw the potential for AI to assist children through university, the technology was not yet mature.

“The fundamental problem is that you and I use the Internet wonderfully every day and get a lot of value from it. But we can’t allow our children to do that because it’s a real disservice. Furthermore, young children don’t have the ability or the tools to find content that is helpful to them,” he said.

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Image sources: Hello Miracle

Raphael said he began by trying to seek out one of the best content for his kids. But that was limiting when kids desired to dig deeper right into a topic. Then he was inspired by the Montessori teaching method, which involves hands-on learning and activities based on kids’ interests. That led the corporate to construct an AI-powered environment to soundly deliver content from all corners of the web.

The company lets parents control what content—movies, games, and web sites—their children devour. They can receive texts about all sorts of videos or opt for a day by day or weekly summary of consumption. Parents and guardians can tell the AI ​​what content they need and don’t want their children to devour through a natural-language parent interface.

For example, if a family desires to help their child learn to play the violin, they will let Hello Wonder know and the tool will occasionally find and insert content about learning to play the violin.

Aimed at children aged 5 to 10, the Hello Wonder app also allows them to remain in contact with trusted relations via in-app messaging and video calls.

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Jordan Odinsky, a partner at GroundUp Venture, said Hello Wonder solves the issue of kids viewing unsafe content by employing artificial intelligence that scans content for safety before it’s exhibited to children.

“The safety features in today’s kids apps are not enough. As a browser, Hello Wonder does not limit kids to any format. They can explore freely, with AI watching over them. They can consume any type of content as long as it aligns with the parent’s values, giving them a true online experience,” he told TechCrunch in a phone interview.

Odinsky added that the app can even adapt as a toddler matures and show content that reflects that growth. He said the app has no problem presenting children with an empty search box and leaving them with no idea what they wish to ask.

“Wonder is built differently. When kids log in, they’re encouraged to search for ideas every time. From there, new ideas emerge for them to explore, which you simply introduce by speaking. A lot of the things that browsers handle, from exploration to discovery to figuring out the best prompt to achieve a desired outcome, are removed from the Wonder experience,” he noted.

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The company doesn’t currently charge for the app, but will introduce a subscription tier in the longer term. It’s also testing expanding the app to Android tablets and Chromebooks.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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This is the shipping of products from China to the USA

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Shein and Temu icons are seen displayed on a phone screen in this illustration photo

The Chinese retailer has modified the strategy in the face of American tariffs.

Thanks to the executive ordinance, President Donald Trump ended the so -called de minimis principle, which allowed goods value 800 USD or less entering the country without tariffs. It also increases tariffs to Chinese goods by over 100%, forcing each Chinese firms and Shein, in addition to American giants, similar to Amazon to adapt plans and price increases.

CNBC reports that this was also affected, and American buyers see “import fees” from 130% to 150% added to their accounts. Now, nevertheless, the company is not sending the goods directly from China to the United States. Instead, it only displays the offers of products available in American warehouses, while goods sent from China are listed as outside the warehouse.

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“He actively recruits American sellers to join the platform,” said the spokesman ago. “The transfer is to help local sellers reach more customers and develop their companies.”

(tagstotransate) tariffs

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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One of the last AI Google models is worse in terms of safety

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The Google Gemini generative AI logo on a smartphone.

The recently released Google AI model is worse in some security tests than its predecessor, in line with the company’s internal comparative test.

IN Technical report Google, published this week, reveals that his Flash Gemini 2.5 model is more likely that he generates a text that violates its security guidelines than Gemini 2.0 Flash. In two indicators “text security for text” and “image security to the text”, Flash Gemini 2.5 will withdraw 4.1% and 9.6% respectively.

Text safety for the text measures how often the model violates Google guidelines, making an allowance for the prompt, while image security to the text assesses how close the model adheres to those boundaries after displaying the monitors using the image. Both tests are automated, not supervised by man.

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In an e-mail, Google spokesman confirmed that Gemini 2.5 Flash “performs worse in terms of text safety for text and image.”

These surprising comparative results appear when AI is passing in order that their models are more acceptable – in other words, less often refuse to answer controversial or sensitive. In the case of the latest Llam Meta models, he said that he fought models in order to not support “some views on others” and answers to more “debated” political hints. Opeli said at the starting of this yr that he would improve future models, in order to not adopt an editorial attitude and offers many prospects on controversial topics.

Sometimes these efforts were refundable. TechCrunch announced on Monday that the default CHATGPT OPENAI power supply model allowed juvenile to generate erotic conversations. Opeli blamed his behavior for a “mistake”.

According to Google Technical Report, Gemini 2.5 Flash, which is still in view, follows instructions more faithfully than Gemini 2.0 Flash, including instructions exceeding problematic lines. The company claims that regression might be partially attributed to false positives, but in addition admits that Gemini 2.5 Flash sometimes generates “content of violation” when it is clearly asked.

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“Of course, there is a tension between (after instructions) on sensitive topics and violations of security policy, which is reflected in our assessment,” we read in the report.

The results from Meepmap, reference, which can examine how models react to sensitive and controversial hints, also suggest that Flash Gemini 2.5 is much less willing to refuse to reply controversial questions than Flash Gemini 2.0. Testing the TechCrunch model through the AI ​​OpenRoutter platform has shown that he unsuccessfully writes essays to support human artificial intelligence judges, weakening the protection of due protection in the US and the implementation of universal government supervisory programs.

Thomas Woodside, co -founder of the Secure AI Project, said that the limited details given by Google in their technical report show the need for greater transparency in testing models.

“There is a compromise between the instruction support and the observation of politics, because some users may ask for content that would violate the rules,” said Woodside Techcrunch. “In this case, the latest Flash model Google warns the instructions more, while breaking more. Google does not present many details about specific cases in which the rules have been violated, although they claim that they are not serious. Not knowing more, independent analysts are difficult to know if there is a problem.”

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Google was already under fire for his models of security reporting practices.

The company took weeks to publish a technical report for the most talented model, Gemini 2.5 Pro. When the report was finally published, it initially omitted the key details of the security tests.

On Monday, Google published a more detailed report with additional security information.

(Tagstotransate) Gemini

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Aurora launches a commercial self -propelled truck service in Texas

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The autonomous startup of the Aurora Innovation vehicle technology claims that it has successfully launched a self -propelled truck service in Texas, which makes it the primary company that she implemented without drivers, heavy trucks for commercial use on public roads in the USA

The premiere appears when Aurora gets the term: In October, the corporate delayed the planned debut 2024 to April 2025. The debut also appears five months after the rival Kodiak Robotics provided its first autonomous trucks to clients commercial for operations without a driver in field environments.

Aurora claims that this week she began to freight between Dallas and Houston with Hirschbach Motor Lines and Uber Freight starters, and that she has finished 1200 miles without a driver to this point. The company plans to expand to El Paso and Phoenix until the top of 2025.

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TechCrunch contacted for more detailed information concerning the premiere, for instance, the variety of vehicles implemented Aurora and whether the system needed to implement the Pullover maneuver or the required distant human assistance.

The commercial premiere of Aurora takes place in a difficult time. Self -propelled trucks have long been related to the necessity for his or her technology attributable to labor deficiencies in the chairman’s transport and the expected increase in freigh shipping. Trump’s tariffs modified this attitude, not less than in a short period. According to the April analytical company report from the commercial vehicle industry ACT researchThe freight is predicted to fall this yr in the USA with a decrease in volume and consumer expenditure.

Aurora will report its results in the primary quarter next week, i.e. when he shares how he expects the present trade war will affect his future activity. TechCrunch contacted to learn more about how tariffs affect Auror’s activities.

For now, Aurora will probably concentrate on further proving his safety case without a driver and cooperation with state and federal legislators to just accept favorable politicians to assist her develop.

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At the start of 2025, Aurora filed a lawsuit against federal regulatory bodies after the court refused to release the appliance for release from the protection requirement, which consists in placing warning triangles on the road, when the truck must stop on the highway – something that’s difficult to do when there isn’t a driver in the vehicle. To maintain compliance with this principle and proceed to totally implement without service drivers, Aurora probably has a man -driven automotive trail after they are working.

(Tagstranslate) Aurora Innovation

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
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