Connect with us

Technology

OpenAI secured another billions, but there was capital left for other startups

Published

on

This week once more brought us news regarding AI funding, in addition to some warnings: some categories and stages are showing signs of overheating. Luckily, we also spotted some cool startups – literally.

The most interesting startup stories of the week

Image credits:Whatnot

It could also be hard to imagine, but OpenAI continues to be a startup, hence its repeated first place. There were other interesting stories this week, nevertheless.

A billion AI: OpenAI raised $6.6 billion at a post-money valuation of $157 billion, and likewise secured a $4 billion revolving credit facility and launched a brand new interface. Business apparently has asked investors to not back rivals corresponding to Anthropic and xAI, but OpenAI has not confirmed this. Meanwhile, Anthropic has hired OpenAI co-founder Durk Kingma for a distant position.

Attack of the Clones: Y Combinator faced criticism for supporting AI code editor PearAI, whose CEO apologized for cloning another YC-backed open source project without proper attribution and with a “garbled” license.

Shopping broadcast live: Live shopping app Whatnot says its annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) has surpassed $2 billion this 12 months, meaning there’s still hope for live commerce within the US

The most interesting collections this week

CEO of Series Entertainment, Pany Haritatos
Image credits:Entertainment Series

Some firms prefer to boost funds secretly; others even work underwater.

Deep end: Artificial intelligence coding startup Poolside raised a $500 million Series B funding round led by Bain Capital Ventures, with participation from eBay and Nvidia. This enabled Poolside to bring 10,000 Nvidia GPUs online to coach future models, CEO Jason Warner said.

Cool water: Barcelona-based immersion cooling startup Submer raised $55.5 million to draw more customers to its solution already utilized by hyperscalers, telecommunications firms and other large corporations.

11x meets a16zTechCrunch has learned that 11x.ai, a startup that creates AI-powered sales bots, has secured a Series B funding round of roughly $50 million led by Andreessen Horowitz.

Hidden financing: Cloud backup startup Eon has come out of hiding to disclose that it has already achieved a post-money valuation of $750 million after raising three rounds of funding, including a $77 million Series B.

More hidden financing: Series, an AI-powered generative game development platform, has quietly raised a $28 million Series A funding round from Netflix, Dell, a16z and others.

The most interesting VC and funding news this week

startups, venture capital, Ali Rowghani
Image credits:Kimberly White/Stringer/Getty Images

Pruning season: Veteran enterprise capital firm CRV returned $275 million of its $500 million late-stage Select fund to investors, citing overvaluation of mature startups. It follows the same move by India’s Peak XV, which reduced its fund size and costs amid signs of overheating.

Launching: Former Y Combinator CEO and Twitter executive Ali Rowghani is launching Maxq, a brand new enterprise capital firm with a debut fund of $250 million.

NOT bullish: Index Ventures is looking for another New York investor and plans so as to add three or 4 latest people to its local team over the following 12 months, partner Shardul Shah told TechCrunch.

No less necessary

Image credits:Kevin Ryan

Speaking with TechCrunch Global Managing Editor Matt Rosoff ahead of this 12 months’s Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt, New York tech investor and serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan shared his thoughts on when and if founders should sell their company. His belief: there ought to be more of them.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Technology

Federal prosecutors have charged another Forbes 30 Under 30 alum with fraud

Published

on

By

Studio image of a padlock on top of a credit cardchampagne coloured background, could symbolize ideas around encryption, credit card safety, security and passwords

FBI yesterday he unveiled the indictment which accused Joanna Smith-Griffin, founding father of the bogus intelligence startup AllHere Education, of engaging in “securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with defrauding investors” of nearly $10 million. The FBI alleges that from a minimum of November 2020 through June 2024, she misrepresented her company’s revenue, customer base and money to investors.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the corporate is in Chapter 7 bankruptcy. If convicted, Smith-Griffin faces prison sentences that include a maximum sentence of 20 years for securities fraud, a maximum sentence of 20 years for wire fraud, and a compulsory sentence two years for a professional identity thief. Smith-Griffin couldn’t be reached for comment.

The Forbes 30 Under 30 list has change into a meme over the past few years as several winners have been accused of fraud. The The Forbes-for-scam pipeline includes FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison, co-CEO of (*30*) Research; Fintech founder Frank, Charlie Javice, and “Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading

Technology

UK open to banning social media for children as government launches feasibility study

Published

on

By

The UK government just isn’t ruling out further tightening existing web safety rules by adding an Australian social media ban for under-16s, Technology Secretary Peter Kyle has said.

The government warned in the summertime that it could tighten rules on tech platforms within the wake of unrest that was deemed to be sparked by online disinformation following a stabbing attack that left three young girls dead.

It has since emerged that a few of those charged within the riots are minors, increasing concerns in regards to the impact of social media on impressionable, developing minds.

I’m talking to Today program on BBC Radio 4 on Wednesday, Kyle was asked whether the government would ban people under 16 from using social media. He responded by saying, “Everything is on the table for me.”

Kyle was interviewed as the Department of Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) presented its position priorities for enforcing the Internet Safety Act (OSA), which Parliament adopted last yr.

OSA targets a big selection of online harms, from cyberbullying and hate speech to the usage of intimate images, deceptive promoting and cruelty to animalsand British lawmakers say they need to make the country the safest place on this planet to use the web. While child protection was the strongest factor, lawmakers responded to concerns that children were accessing harmful and inappropriate content.

DSIT’s Statement of Strategic Priorities continues this theme by placing child safety at the highest of the list.

Strategic Internet security priorities

Here are DSIT’s five priorities for OSA in full:

1. Safety by design: Integrate security by design to ensure a secure online experience for all users, but especially children, combat violence against women and girls, and work to ensure there aren’t any secure havens for illegal content and activities, including fraud, child sexual exploitation and child abuse and illegal disinformation.

2. Transparency and accountability: Ensure industry transparency and accountability from platforms to deliver online safety outcomes, promoting greater trust and expanding the evidence base to provide safer user experiences.

3. Agile regulation: Ensure a versatile approach to regulation by providing a sturdy framework for monitoring and addressing emerging harms – such as AI-generated content.

4. Inclusion and resilience: Create an inclusive, informed and vibrant digital world that’s resilient to potential harm, including disinformation.

5. Technology and innovation: Supporting innovation in web security technologies to improve user safety and drive development.

The mention of “illegal disinformation” is interesting since the last government removed clauses from the bill that focused on this area somewhat than free speech issues.

In ministerial attacker In an accompanying statement, Kyle also wrote:

“A particular area of ​​concern for the government is the enormous amount of misinformation and disinformation that users may encounter online. Platforms should have robust policies and tools in place to minimize such content where it relates to their obligations under the Act. Combating disinformation and disinformation is a challenge for services, given the need to preserve legitimate debate and freedom of expression on the Internet. However, the growing presence of disinformation poses a unique threat to our democratic processes and social cohesion in the UK that must be vigorously countered. Services should also respond to emerging information threats, providing the flexibility to respond quickly and decisively and minimize harmful effects on users, especially vulnerable groups.”

DSIT’s intervention may have an impact on how Ofcom enforces the law, requiring it to report on the government’s priorities.

For over a yr, Ofcom, the regulatory body tasked with supervising the compliance of online platforms and services with the OSA, has been preparing for the implementation of the OSA by consulting and developing detailed guidelines, including: in areas such as age verification technology.

Enforcement of the regime is predicted to start next spring when Ofcom actively takes over the powers, which could lead to financial penalties of up to 10% of worldwide annual turnover on technology corporations that fail to comply with their legal duty of care.

“I want to look at the evidence,” Kyle said in an interview with children and on social media, pointing to the simultaneous launch of a “feasibility study” that he said “will look at areas where the evidence is lacking.”

According to DSIT, this study “will examine the impact of smartphone and social media use on children to help strengthen the research and evidence needed to build a safer online world.”

“There are assumptions about the impact of social media on children and young people, but there is no solid, peer-reviewed evidence,” Kyle also told the BBC, suggesting that any UK ban on children using social media have to be evidence-based.

During an interview with the BBC’s Emma Barnett, Kyle was also pressed about what the government is doing to close loopholes he believes were previously present in web safety laws. In response, he signaled the introduction of a change that requires platforms to be more proactive in combating the abuse of intimate images.

Combating abuse related to intimate images

IN September DSIT has announced that it recognizes the non-consensual sharing of intimate images as a “priority offense” under the OSA – requiring social media and other covered platforms and services to clamp down on abuse or face heavy financial penalties.

“This move effectively increases the seriousness of the offense of sharing intimate images under the Online Safety Act, so platforms must proactively remove content and prevent it from appearing in the first place,” confirmed DSIT spokesman Glen Mcalpine.

In further comments to the BBC, Kyle said the change means social media corporations must use algorithms to prevent the upload of intimate photos in the primary place.

“They had to actively display to our regulator Ofcom that the algorithms would prevent the spread of this material in the primary place. And if the photo did appear on the Internet, it must have been removed as quickly as could reasonably be expected after receiving the warning,” he said, warning of “heavy penalties” for non-compliance.

“This is one area where you can see that harm is being prevented, rather than leaking into society and then dealing with it, which was the case before,” he added. “Now thousands of women are now protected – prevented from being degraded, humiliated and sometimes pushed towards suicidal thoughts because of this one power I introduced.”

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading

Technology

You have a few hours left to place a bid on this scorched shell in San Francisco

Published

on

By

Homes in San Francisco are extremely expensive, with the common home price starting from $1.26 million. No wonder no less than one person died in a fire-damaged $299,000 cabin in certainly one of San Francisco’s southernmost neighborhoods. 20 people to go sightseeing property According to The San Francisco Standard, last weekend.

As the outlet notes, potential buyers were asked to sign a liability waiver before entering the burned stays of the constructing. The real estate agent representing the property – a “handyman’s gem” that was reportedly occupied by tenants before the fireplace broke out – expects it to also fetch greater than the asking price. (All bids were due on Tuesday.)

Of course, buyers in San Francisco are used to even dilapidated buildings costing a small fortune. In early 2022, before many tech staff who left town due to the pandemic returned, a decaying, 122-year-old Victorian touted as San Francisco’s “worst house in the best neighborhood” sold for nearly $2 million.

This article was originally published on : techcrunch.com
Continue Reading
Advertisement

OUR NEWSLETTER

Subscribe Us To Receive Our Latest News Directly In Your Inbox!

We don’t spam! Read our privacy policy for more info.

Trending