MDC is building a surgical robot that operates inside an MRI
MRIs are an indispensable tool for surgeons, though the technology certainly has its limitations. Take, for instance, surgeons using the machines to guide their procedures. The current process entails putting the patient into a machine to get an image, before pulling them out to advance a needle one centimeter at a time. It’s a time-consuming and frankly inefficient use of resources. Boasting the tagline “Creating a new chapter in minimally invasive surgery,” Bay Area-based MDC believes the answer lies in...
about 1 hour ago
Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures backs Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs in continued AI push
Ashton Kutcher’s VC firm, Sound Ventures, co-led by general partners Guy Oseary and Effie Epstein, is betting on AI — including with an investment in Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, the investors confirmed on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday. The startup, founded by Li, the Stanford professor dubbed the “Godmother of AI,” has already raised $230 million from investors including a16z, NEA, and Radical Ventures, valuing the company at over $1 billion. It aims to develop “large world models”...
about 1 hour ago
Haptic’s touch-based navigation helps blind and sighted alike get around without looking
Smartphones and navigation apps have become second nature these days. But for those with blindness and low vision, it’s not quite so convenient. Haptic Works has been building a non-visual, non-verbal way of telling people where to go, and they’ve decided it’s time to scale up and take it global. Haptic presented onstage today as part of the Startup Battlefield at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, showing their progress from concept to prototype to platform. The company got started in 2017 when,...
about 1 hour ago
Ashton Kutcher explains why he’s betting on AI, but not trying to pick a ‘winner’
Ashton Kutcher, co-founder of Sound Ventures, believes that every company is going to become an AI company, but that there might not be a winner in the space. The actor and investor spoke at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday alongside Sound co-founder Guy Oseary and partner Effie Epstein to detail what the firm is looking for in founders and startups, and how they believe foundational AI companies are going to become the most valuable companies in history. “There will not...
about 1 hour ago
Gecko Materials wants to sell you the next Velcro
It looks fake, or at least like a good illusion: There’s Gecko Materials founder Capella Kerst dangling a full wine bottle from her pinky finger, the only thing keeping it from smashing to pieces being the super-strong dry-adhesive her startup has brought to market. But it’s no trick. It’s the result of years of academic research that Kerst built on by inventing a method to mass-manufacture the adhesive. Inspired by the way real-life gecko feet grip surfaces, you could think...
about 1 hour ago
ForceField helps detect deepfakes and digital deception by verifying source data
A new startup setting out to combat the scourge of deepfakes and spoofed evidence in the age of AI is showing off its wares on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 this week. ForceField is building a set of “patent-pending” APIs dubbed MARQ, the first of which is designed to authenticate content. For context, a 2022 report from European law enforcement agency Europol predicted that 90% of all online content will be AI-generated by 2026. The internet is...
about 2 hours ago
How The Chainsmokers built a fund that doesn’t rely on their celebrity status
While a lot of celebrities invest in startups, the Chainsmokers are different. Instead of angel investing, Drew Taggart and Alex Pall launched a formal fund, Mantis Venture Capital, invest out of a formal closed-end fund, and back companies in industries their celebrity prowess can’t always help in, like security startups and analytics platforms. Watch as Taggart, Pall and Chainguard founder Dan Lorenc discuss how they are an asset to their B2B startups at Disrupt 2024. Subscribe for more on YouTube:...
about 2 hours ago
BANF’s smart tires for trucks promise to save fuel and lives
Tire health has a huge impact on a truck’s fuel efficiency and safety on the road. And yet, with all of the arguably sexier solutions out there offering driver assist features and self-driving software, tires don’t get the attention they deserve. At least, so says Ron Lee, the head of business development at BANF, a startup that builds hardware and software to monitor tire health. Korea-based BANF, which stands for Begin A New Feature, uses sensors to collect data on...
about 2 hours ago
Google says its next-gen AI agents won’t launch until 2025 at the earliest
Google won’t ship tech from Project Astra, its wide-ranging effort to build AI apps and “agents” for real-time, multimodal understanding, until next year at the earliest. Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed the timeline in remarks during Google’s Q3 earnings call today. “[Google is] building out experiences where AI can see and reason about the world around you,” he said. “Project Astra is a glimpse of that future. We’re working to ship experiences like this as early as 2025.” Project Astra,...
about 2 hours ago
Aesthetic launches the ‘Shazam for fashion’
Aesthetic, a new fashion company looking to be the “Shazam for clothes,” launched this week and is using AI to help people identify and shop for clothing they sourced on social media. The fashion concierge, called Alma, makes it easy for people to buy clothes that might otherwise be hard to find. Say you see an outfit you like on Instagram. You send a link to the post in a direct message to the Aesthetic account on TikTok or Instagram....
about 2 hours ago
ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. It’s able to write essays, code and more given short text prompts, hyper-charging productivity. But it also has a more…nefarious side. In any case, AI tools are not going away — and indeed has expanded dramatically since its launch just a few months ago. Major brands are experimenting with it, using the AI to generate ad and marketing copy, for example. And OpenAI is heavily investing in it. ChatGPT...
about 2 hours ago
OpenAI reportedly planning to build its first AI chip in 2026
In Brief Posted: 1:10 PM PDT · October 29, 2024 OpenAI is reportedly working with TSMC and Broadcom to build an in-house AI chip — and beginning to use AMD chips alongside Nvidia’s to train its AI. Reuters reports that OpenAI has — at least for now — abandoned plans to establish a network of factories for chip manufacturing. Instead, the company will focus on in-house chip design. OpenAI has for months been working with Broadcom to create an AI...
about 3 hours ago
Actor and director Olivia Wilde launches a VC firm
In Brief Posted: 12:42 PM PDT · October 29, 2024 Actor and director Olivia Wilde, famous for in “Tron: Legacy” and “Don’t Worry Darling,” quietly launched venture firm Proximity Ventures late last year, according to Bloomberg. She launched the early- and growth-stage investment fund with Neil Sirni, formerly of Roc Nation’s venture division Arrive; Jason Mack, formerly of Mack Ventures; and Santi White, the musician also known as Santigold. The firm plans to invest in companies that are in the...
about 3 hours ago
Elon Musk’s xAI is reportedly trying to raise billions more
In Brief Posted: 12:40 PM PDT · October 29, 2024 Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, is in talks to raise new funding at a valuation around $40 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. xAI hopes to raise several billion dollars in the round, adding to the $6 billion in Series B funding that the company raised in May. The rumored valuation would nearly double xAI’s current post-money valuation of $24 billion. Musk formed xAI last year. Soon after, the...
about 4 hours ago
Mary Barra still thinks GM will make an AV with no steering wheel
General Motors CEO Mary Barra still believes an autonomous vehicle with no steering wheel and pedals is “definitely” in her company’s future, despite recently cancelling the purpose-built Origin. Barra told the crowd at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday that she still has an eye on a purpose-built robotaxi, but that she made the call to kill the Origin after an exhausting, years-long attempt to change the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS). “I’ve probably been working on it for six,...
about 4 hours ago
ElevenLabs has hired the team behind Omnivore, a reader app
Generative AI audio company ElevenLabs has hired the team behind Omnivore, an open source save-it-later reader app. In a blog post, co-founders Jackson Harper and Hongbu Wu said that joining ElevenLabs would give them “an even larger platform to create accessible and engaging experiences for serious readers.” “ElevenLabs is committed to the developer community and the Omnivore codebase will remain 100% open-source for all users,” Harper and Wu wrote. “This decision ensures that the broader development community can continue to...
about 4 hours ago
How a series of opsec failures led US authorities to the alleged developer of the Redline password-stealing malware
U.S. prosecutors have charged Russian national Maxim Rudometov over his alleged involvement in developing and distributing the notorious Redline password-stealing malware. The charges were announced as part of “Operation Magnus,” first unveiled by the Dutch National Police on Monday. This years-in-the-making operation saw international law enforcement agencies dismantle the infrastructure of Redline and Meta, two prolific malware strains that have been used to steal sensitive information from millions of people. A complaint unsealed on Tuesday revealed how a series of...
about 5 hours ago
Salva Health wants to lower breast cancer mortality with its affordable screening device
Six years ago, while researching for a college entrepreneurship competition, Valentina Agudelo identified a troubling gap in breast cancer survival rates between Latin America and the developed world, with women in her native Colombia and the rest of the continent dying at higher rates due to late detection. She realized that breast cancer is highly treatable when diagnosed early, yet many Latin American countries have large rural populations lacking access to mammograms and other diagnostic tools. So Agudelo (pictured above)...
about 5 hours ago
Narada AI’s enterprise agent will use workplace tools for you
There’s no shortage of startups trying to create enterprise AI assistants. What’s less common is an AI assistant that can actually execute tasks across several of your work apps at once. That’s the promise of Narada AI, a startup building an AI assistant based on new research out of UC Berkeley. Narada has been operating in stealth mode for two years, and made its public debut onstage today as part of the Startup Battlefield 20 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. Two...
about 5 hours ago
Apple Intelligence is more about convenience with initial iOS 18.1 launch
After much hype, Apple Intelligence, the company’s suite of AI features, finally shipped to users this week with the iOS 18.1 update. I used these features for months through beta software and realized that the feature set rolling out this week is more about creating convenience for users rather than letting users plan or brainstorm ideas with ChatGPT or search the web with Perplexity. One of my favorite features in the rollout is the ability to type and talk to...
about 5 hours ago
Luna wants to help young girls navigate their health and well-being
Meet Luna, a health and well-being app for teen girls that is designed to help them navigate teenhood. The app lets teens ask questions about their health and wellness and get responses from experts. It also lets them track their periods, moods, and skin. The London-based startup presented today at on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 to detail its mission to educate and support teen girls. Luna is the brainchild of best friend duo Jas Schembri-Stothart and...
about 5 hours ago
CTGT aims to make AI models safer
Growing up as an immigrant, Cyril Gorlla taught himself how to code — and practiced as if a man possessed. “I aced my mother’s community college programming course at 11, amidst periodically disconnected household utilities,” he told TechCrunch. In high school, Gorlla learned about AI, and became so obsessed with the idea of training his own AI models that he took apart his laptop to upgrade the internal cooling. This tinkering led to an internship at Intel during Gorlla’s second...
about 6 hours ago
How Slice entered India’s regulated banking sector
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week we’re looking at a company making a rare entrance into India’s significant — but locked-down — banking market and a new lawsuit facing SoLo Funds. If you’d like to receive the Fintech newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here! The big story Slice has completed its merger with North East Small Finance Bank, marking a rare instance of a startup successfully entering India’s tightly regulated banking sector. The merger transforms Slice into...
about 6 hours ago
HILOS is making footwear more sustainable without skimping on style
When people imagine what 3D printing is, they might think of plastic knickknacks and miniature figurines that teenagers make in their high school libraries. For HILOS (Human Innovation Lab Operating System), 3D printing means creating footwear that’s chic, low-waste, and runway ready. “Brands are overproducing 20% because they don’t know what size and styles are going to be needed when, and so they have to overproduce, and they’re still missing sales,” HILOS CEO Elias Stahl told TechCrunch. HILOS pitched today on...
about 6 hours ago
Amazon brings its Rufus AI shopping assistant to more international markets
Amazon is extending the availability of its AI-enabled shopping assistant, Rufus, to more markets in Europe and the Americas. The ecommerce giant has been widely considered to be playing catchup with its Big Tech brethren in the AI sphere, particularly against the backdrop of the generative AI hype these past couple of years. Rufus is one of the ways Amazon is showing that it’s up for the game. Key features the tool offers include product search support, product comparisons, and...
about 6 hours ago
LinkedIn launches its first AI agent to take on the role of job recruiters
LinkedIn, the social platform used by the working world to connect with others in their field, hunt for jobs, and develop skills, is taking the wraps off its latest effort to build artificial intelligence tools for its users: Hiring Assistant, a new product designed to take on a wide array of recruitment tasks, from ingesting scrappy notes and thoughts into longer job descriptions, through to sourcing candidates and then engaging with them. LinkedIn is describing the new product as a...
about 7 hours ago
GitHub Spark lets you build web apps in plain English
When GitHub Copilot launched and started autocompleting lines of code — and, later, entire code snippets — the question many people were asking was: how long until we can just describe an app in natural language and Copilot will build it for us? We’ve seen quite a few experiments in this arena in recent months, but now, GitHub itself is throwing its weight behind this idea with the announcement of GitHub Spark at the company’s annual GitHub Universe conference in...
about 7 hours ago
GitHub’s Copilot comes to Apple’s Xcode
At its Universe conference, GitHub today announced a number of major new products, including the Spark project for writing applications entirely with AI, as well as multi-model support for its Copilot service. But Copilot itself is also getting quite a few updates. With this release, Microsoft-owned GitHub is bringing Copilot to Apple’s Xcode environment for the first time. Now in public preview, this will allow developers who build apps in Apple’s IDE with the assistance of Copilot. For now, the...
about 7 hours ago
GitHub’s Copilot goes multi-model and adds support for Anthropic’s Claude and Google’s Gemini
GitHub today announced that it will now allow developers to switch between a number of large language models when they use Copilot Chat, its code-centric ChatGPT-like service. Until now, Copilot Chat was powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4. Going forward, developers can choose between Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet, Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro, and OpenAI’s GPT-4o, o1-preview, and o1-mini. Anthropic will launch first, with Gemini following in a few weeks. Some pundits may see this as yet another way for Microsoft to reduce...
about 7 hours ago
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
Social 8 seconds ago The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight between WordPress… Image Credits: TechCrunch Transportation 44 mins ago Despite hydrogen’s challenges, BMW thinks the only way to actually achieve a shift to zero-emissions transportation is through a mix of BEVs and hydrogen vehicles. AI 46 mins ago Google’s NotebookLM has been updated with YouTube and audio files...
about 7 hours ago
Apple’s new M4 Mac Mini really lives up to its name
The week of Macs keep rolling along with a brand-new Mac Mini. The rumors were true: The M4 edition finds the company scaling the little desktop down to not much larger than an Apple TV. The Mini enclosure measures 5 x 5 inches, versus the Apple TV 4K’s 3.66 x 3.66. The significantly smaller size was made possible by the efficiency of Apple’s in-house silicon. In spite of the smaller size, there’s still a fan onboard, with the thermal vents...
about 8 hours ago
Apple introduces M4 Pro chip, debuting on the new Mac Mini
The week of Mac announcements chugs along, as Apple introduces the latest addition to its line of first-party silicon. The new M4 is debuting as an upgradeable option for the just-announced palm-size Mac Mini. The Pro follows the May release of the original M4. That chip bucked the standard Apple Silicon cycle by debuting on the new iPad Pro prior to its addition to the Mac line. The new chip is the first bit of Apple Silicon to support Thunderbolt...
about 8 hours ago
EU boosts EIC budget for supporting deep tech R and strategic scale-ups
The European Union will spend €1.4 billion (about $1.5 billion) next year to bolster deeptech research and support scale-ups in strategic areas like AI, low-carbon technologies, agritech and biotech, the European Commission said on Tuesday. The budget for the 2025 Work Program of the European Innovation Council (EIC), part of the bloc’s flagship Horizon Europe research program, has been increased by nearly €200 million compared to last year. The Commission highlighted several other “improvements” on the 2024 program, including better access...
about 9 hours ago
Why Crosscut Ventures is ‘following the founders’ into climate, space, and beyond
Eight years ago, Brian Garrett and his partners sensed the ground shifting. At the time, Crosscut Ventures, where Garrett is co-founder and managing partner, had been investing in early stage startups in Los Angeles and Southern California for nearly a decade. It focused mostly on software companies, but it started shifting its attention to hardware, too, as promising founders gravitated toward it. “At that point, SpaceX was very established,” he told TechCrunch. “Mostly, people started to spin out of SpaceX...
about 9 hours ago
Popular calendar app Fantastical lands on Windows
Buzzy calendar apps tend to make a big splash and disappear after a while. Sometimes they get acquired, sometimes the company pivots to something else. That’s not the case with Fantastical, a popular calendar app for macOS, iOS, and other Apple platforms. Originally launched as a Mac app in 2011, the team behind Fantastical has made the app better, update after update. Over the past 13 years, Flexibits, the company behind Fantastical, also launched its calendar app on other Apple...
about 9 hours ago
US finalizing rules to ban certain investments in AI tech in China
In Brief Posted: 6:50 AM PDT · October 29, 2024 President Joe Biden’s administration says it’s finalizing rules to curb investments in AI and other tech sectors in China, Reuters reports. The rules, which were first proposed in June by the U.S. Treasury and directed by an executive order President Biden signed in August 2023, cover certain AI systems, quantum information systems, and semiconductors and microelectronics. Specifically, the rules pertain to technologies core to military and surveillance systems, like code-breaking...
about 9 hours ago
MoneyGram replaces CEO weeks after massive customer data breach
Money transfer giant MoneyGram has replaced its chief executive less than a month after confirming that hackers stole reams of customers’ personal information and transaction records in a data breach. In a statement Monday, MoneyGram said it appointed Anthony Soohoo as the company’s chief executive with immediate effect. Soohoo replaces Alex Holmes, who joined MoneyGram in 2009 and served as its chief financial officer then chief operating officer, before being appointed CEO and chairman in 2016. Holmes will remain on...
about 10 hours ago
Brightwave’s AI agent helps asset managers find signal, and it’s fundraising fast
The finance world is constantly looking for signal: indicators of a buying or selling opportunities in the markets. Some seek out signal in pricey analyst reports, while others might find it in backdoor conversations with insiders. But sometimes, investors just need help seeing such indicators hiding in plain sight. That’s what Brightwave promises its AI agent can find: signal in public data. “There’s a hell of a lot of signal in the world that is not currently being transacted upon,”...
about 10 hours ago
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024: Day 2
Day 2 of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 has arrived, and the energy from day 1 is still electrifying across San Francisco! We’re only partway through the 250+ speakers, 200+ sessions, and 350+ exhibiting startups at Disrupt. As expected, yesterday saw over 10,000 tech enthusiasts, startup founders, and investors filling Moscone West with energy — we’re not slowing down this momentum! Gear up for another action-packed day filled with immersive experiences. Dive in, make meaningful connections, and enjoy your time at the...
about 10 hours ago
GMI Cloud secures $82M in Series A for its GPU cloud infrastructure
The AI boom has spurred massive demand for graphics processing units (GPUs). As many enterprises seek to integrate AI technology into their systems, providers of GPU infrastructure are helping businesses get access to the chips they need. In the latest development, GMI Cloud, a San Jose-based startup that provides GPU cloud infrastructure, has raised an $82 million Series A led by Headline Asia with participation from strategic investors such as Banpu, a Thailand energy firm, and Wistron, a Taiwan-based electronics...
about 10 hours ago
Tabnine launches its code review agent
AI code assistant company Tabnine is launching a code review agent today that aims to help developers stick to their organization’s best practices and standards. It allows organizations to codify these rules either by providing the agent with documentation or by pointing it at a set of “golden code repos.” The agent will passively review the code as the developer works in the IDE, flag issues as it spots them, and offer fixes when able. As Tabnine President and CMO...
about 10 hours ago
Infinite Machine raises $9M a16z-led round to convince Americans to buy scooters
Infinite Machine turned many heads when it revealed its metallic, cyberpunk-style electric scooter in 2023. Now one of Silicon Valley’s biggest venture capital firms is backing the startup’s vision of filling the world’s cities with Infinite Machine’s futuristic vehicles in a big way. The New York-based startup has closed a $9 million seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism team as it preps for production and initial deliveries next year of the $10,000 “launch edition” of its P1 scooter....
about 10 hours ago
Salesforce AI chatbot Agentforce hits general availability
Salesforce on Tuesday announced the general availability of its AI agent development platform called Agentforce. The offering is, in essence, a low- or no-code method for deploying chatbots for employees or customers. Salesforce says the new platform is already being used by firms including OpenTable, Saks, and Wiley “Agentforce doesn’t depend on human engagement to get work done,” Salesforce writes in a release tied to the news. “These agents can be triggered by changes in data, business rules, or pre-built...
about 11 hours ago
Margaret Atwood’s verdict on AI poetry is in — and it’s not good
In Brief Posted: 4:50 AM PDT · October 29, 2024 Bestselling author Margaret Atwood isn’t worried about the indefatigable rise of generative AI — telling Reuters that she’s too old to be concerned about its impact on the arts. Her remarks follow a petition calling for an end to the unlicensed use of creative works to train AI models that’s now amassed over 31,000 signatures. But Atwood’s relaxed posture on the march of the machines isn’t solely down to age;...
about 11 hours ago
Threads is testing the ‘trending now’ view in Japan
In Brief Posted: 2:15 AM PDT · October 29, 2024 After rolling out the trending topics feature in the U.S. earlier this year, Threads is now testing out the feature in Japan. “Lots of folks outside the US have been asking for the “Trending Now” feature, and we’re working on bringing it to more countries. This week, we’ll begin testing the feature in Japan with a small number of people to start,” said Adam Mosseri, the Meta executive who heads...
about 14 hours ago
Google, DPI back African fintech Moniepoint in $110M round
Google’s Africa Investment Fund is a new investor in African fintech Moniepoint, which just closed $110 million in new financing. The Series C round, which involved an equity sale, per Bloomberg, was led by Development Partners International’s African Development Partners (ADP) III fund. Other investors, including African private equity firm Verod Capital and global impact firm Lightrock, and an existing investor, participated. Moniepoint, also backed by QED Investors, British International Investment (BII) and Endeavor Catalyst, has raised over $180 million since...
about 15 hours ago
Infraspeak raises $19.5M to bring collaboration to facilities management
It might not be the sexiest of subjects, but facilities management is central to any business that has a physical premises — the bigger that footprint becomes, the more complex it gets. Portuguese startup Infraspeak has set out to address that with an all-in-one platform that gives facility managers and associated service providers insights and operational control over everything that goes on in a given location. Founded in 2015, Infraspeak has hitherto raised around $20 million in funding, and secured...
about 16 hours ago
Emidat is building a tool to clean up construction by automating environmental reporting
Fixing the climate crisis is a vast, world-sized puzzle. But one particularly large piece of this ginormous conundrum is construction and real estate — which collectively amount for around 40% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Enter Munich-based data startup Emidat, which has built a software platform for automating the generation of validated Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) certificates for the construction sector. EPDs are a critical piece of the puzzle for understanding and mitigating the climate impact of the built environment....
about 16 hours ago
Krafton backs IMM Investment’s first India fund
In Brief Posted: 9:30 PM PDT · October 28, 2024 The India unit of gaming firm Krafton has backed IMM Investment’s maiden India fund as an anchor limited partner as the battle royale BGMI-maker broadens its investment bets in the South Asian market. Seoul-based IMM Investment, an early backer of Krafton and roughly half of South Korea’s unicorn startups, has made the first close for India fund and hired former Legend Capital partner Prakhar Khanduja to run the local unit....
about 19 hours ago
Despite risks, Vinod Khosla is optimistic about AI
Vinod Khosla has no doubts that humanity’s future with AI is bright. The Sun Microsystems co-founder turned prominent investor predicts that “the need to work will go away” almost entirely thanks to AI. “Almost all expertise, it doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about primary care physicians, mental health therapists, oncologists, structural engineers or accountants—all of it can be near free,” he said on Monday in a conversation with TechCrunch editor-in-chief, at the annual TechCrunch Disrupt conference. When asked why...
about 23 hours ago
Foster sisters explain why they haven’t invested in AI
Oversubscribed Ventures co-founder Sara Foster (above right) made a confession on stage on Monday at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “I don’t even have ChatGPT on my phone,” she said. It’s an unexpected comment from an investor, given that ChatGPT is arguably the most influential product to launch this decade. But what makes the Foster sisters different from career venture capitalists is also their greatest strength: they’re creatives first, and tech industry investors second. Across their careers, the Foster sisters, Erin and...
about 24 hours ago
Google-backed Open Cloud Coalition launches to lobby European lawmakers
Europe has a new lobbying body, one with a self-stated mission to “improve competition, transparency, and resilience” in the cloud computing sector. The Open Cloud Coalition (OCC) counts 10 members at launch, the most notable one being Google, supported by cloud providers spanning international and local markets including Centerprise International, Civo, Gigas, ControlPlane, DTP Group, Prolinx, Pulsant, Clairo and Room 101. Part of its work will involve conducting cloud market research and presenting the results to regulators both in the...
1 day ago
What’s driving the boom in national interest startups in Silicon Valley?
One fascinating trend these days is an area that has a number of names: national-interest startups, American Dynamism, New World. These startups are creating technologies in areas that are meant to be built, used, and create jobs in the country of origin, like the US. They cover everything from aerospace and critical infrastructure to government, manufacturing and national safety.This panel at Disrupt 2024 with Dcode Capital Managing Partner Rebecca Gevalt, Albedo Co-founder & CEO Topher Haddad, and Biofire Founder &...
1 day ago
This veteran couldn’t share 3D scans of a burnt naval ship, so he created a startup that can
In the summer of 2020, a fire broke out onboard a naval ship docked in San Diego Bay. For more than four days, the USS Bonhomme Richard burned as helicopters dropped buckets of water from above, boats spewed water from below, and firefighters rushed onboard to control the blaze. Before the embers had even cooled, lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) scans were taken to assess how bad the damage was and to figure out how the fire even started. But...
1 day ago
Vinod Khosla calls out Trump’s ‘depraved values’ and Musk’s role in spreading misinformation
Storied investor Vinod Khosla, founder and partner at Khosla Ventures, and more recently one of the first checks into OpenAI veered off topic during a Monday interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 focused on the future of AI. After talking about AI’s future and risks, he took a moment to deliver a stringent warning about the upcoming U.S. election and what’s at stake for the country. In short, “our democracy is definitely on the line,” he said, alongside other harsh words...
1 day ago
MabLab’s improved drug and drink testing strips could make for safer streets and venues
For anyone who parties or goes out dancing, the risk of accidentally taking adulterated drugs is a real one. MabLab, presenting today on the Startup Battlefield stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, has created a testing strip that detects the five most common and dangerous additives in minutes. Co-founders Vienna Sparks and Skye Lam met in high school, and during college the pair lost a friend to overdose. It’s a story that, sadly, many people (including myself) can identify with. Thankfully,...
1 day ago
Step aside, Zoom fatigue, VRTL wants to make virtual fan events fun again
VRTL founder Courtney Jeffries describes herself as a “recovering sports executive.” “That was my entire career before I threw it away to chase down my startup dreams,” Jeffries told TechCrunch. After playing softball at the University of Washington, she spent almost 20 years working in marketing and sales for teams like the Oakland Raiders and the New York Rangers. But while Jeffries was leading fan retention initiatives at Madison Square Garden, she noticed a glaring opportunity. “My whole job was...
1 day ago
DGLegacy wants to help you ensure your loved ones inherit your assets
DGLegacy, a company that’s designed a digital legacy planning and inheritance app, pitched today at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield to detail how it’s helping people ensure that their loved ones inherit their assets. Founded by husband-and-wife duo Ana Mineva and Peter Minev, DGLegacy allows users to proactively inform their beneficiaries of their assets and ensure they are aware of their passwords and other information in order to claim them. The idea behind the app is to minimize the chance of...
1 day ago
Vinod Khosla calls SB 1047 author ‘clueless’ and ‘not qualified’ to regulate the real dangers of AI
Vinod Khosla said the author of California’s recently vetoed AI bill, SB 1047, was clueless about the real dangers of AI, and not qualified to have an opinion on global national security issues. The comment about state Senator Scott Wiener was made during an on-stage interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “He’s clueless about the real dangers, which are national security issues,” said Khosla, referring to Senator Wiener, who represents San Francisco in California’s legislature. “I’m a huge supporter of of...
1 day ago
How Advex creates synthetic data to improve machine vision for manufacturers
Data is pretty much everything when it comes to training AI systems, but accessing enough data to produce quality products that live up to their promise is a major challenge, even for companies with the deepest of pockets. This is a problem that Advex AI is setting out to address, using generative AI and synthetic data to “solve the data problem,” as the company puts it. More specifically, Advex allows customers to train their computer vision systems using a small...
1 day ago
Microsoft accuses Google of ‘shadow campaign’ to influence cloud regulation in Europe
The European cloud wars are heating up. Microsoft has accused its old foe Google of waging a clandestine war against the Azure cloud company, to curry favor with policymakers and antitrust authorities in Europe. In a blog post today, Microsoft deputy general counsel Rima Alaily pre-empted the imminent launch of a new lobby group called the Open Cloud Coalition, which includes Google and several smaller cloud providers. Alaily called the outfit an “astroturf group organized by Google,” alleging that Google...
1 day ago
Bret Taylor’s customer service AI startup just raised $175M
Sierra, the AI startup co-founded by OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor, has raised $175 million in a funding round that values the startup at $4.5 billion. Sierra, founded by Taylor and longtime Google exec Clay Bavor, focuses on selling AI-powered customer service chatbots to brands like WeightWatchers and Sirius XM. There’s an “agent” component, as well. The platform connects to other enterprise systems to undertake tasks on behalf of the customer without humans being involved. There’s certainly no shortage of competition...
1 day ago
Netflix’s new ‘Moments’ feature lets you save and share clips from your favorite episodes
If you’ve ever struggled to explain a scene from your favorite Netflix series or movie to a friend because you couldn’t find the clip online, the streamer just came up with a solution. Netflix launched on Monday a new clipping feature called “Moments” on its iOS app, letting you quickly save your favorite scenes. Now, you can easily rewatch these scenes or share them on social media platforms with a single tap. Your followers can click the post and be...
1 day ago
Former Disney star Bridgit Mendler talks scaling connectivity and resilience for space
Former Disney Channel star and singer Bridgit Mendler took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Monday to detail how her startup, Northwood Space, is investing in a forgotten part of the space industry: ground infrastructure. Ground stations are the critical communication points for satellites to communicate with Earth. Northwood aims to mass produce ground stations, as the number and capacity of ground stations are a pressing bottleneck in the space industry. “To actually fulfill the benefit of people in the world,...
1 day ago
Solideon wants to decentralize rocket manufacturing through 3D printing
Nearly five years after COVID-19 ground the world to a halt, the global supply chain still hasn’t fully recovered. Specialty industries like space travel were particularly hard hit, given the impossibility of heading down to the corner to pick up spare rocket parts. Industries began taking a long, hard look at 3D printing as a solution to such woes. What additive manufacturing lacks in scale, it makes up for both in terms of creating specialty parts and decentralizing a manufacturing...
1 day ago
Level Zero Health is working on a potentially life-changing device for hormone health
Level Zero Health’s co-founders Ula Rustamova and Irene Jia are swinging for the fences. They are attempting to invent a never-achieved technology that could help millions of people. If they succeed — and there are some positive early indicators — they will create a continuous hormone monitoring medical device. Such a device could do for hormone health what continuous blood glucose monitors (CGM) have done for diabetes health. Hormones control just about every aspect of the body, from reproductive health...
1 day ago
Nintendo tries again on mobile with a $10 Animal Crossing game arriving in December
It was a sad day when Nintendo announced that its free mobile game, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, would soon shut down. The app is ending its service on November 28; however, it’s also getting a revival. This time, though, it’ll be a paid game. On December 3, Nintendo is launching a paid version of the app called Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp Complete. For $10, users are getting a new rendition of the game, which includes most of the same gameplay...
1 day ago
SpiralWave’s pulsing plasma towers transform carbon dioxide into liquid fuel
If there’s anything that came from one of the worlds that was promised to us in “Back to the Future” or “The Jetsons” or innumerable other sci-fi franchises, it’s what SpiralWave co-founder and CEO Abed Bukhari showed me on a video call. Purple-tinged waves of white plasma rhythmically rose and vanished within a metal-screened column, igniting in time with metronomic clicks coming from elsewhere in the chemistry kit. This isn’t some space propulsion system, but a device that can capture...
1 day ago