SparkLabs — an early-stage venture capital firm that has made a name for itself for backing OpenAI as well as a host of other AI startups such as Vectara, Allganize, Kneron, Anthropic, xAI, Glade (YC S23) and Lucidya AI — is gearing up to double down more startups in the space. The VC firm announced […]
SparkLabs closes $50M fund to back AI startups Read More »
A controversial California bill to prevent AI disasters, SB 1047, has passed final votes in the state’s Senate and now proceeds to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. He must weigh the most extreme theoretical risks of AI systems — including their potential role in human deaths — against potentially thwarting California’s AI boom. He has until
Sign or veto: What’s next for California’s AI disaster bill, SB 1047? Read More »
No matter who powerful generative AI becomes, writer Ted Chiang says it will never create true art. Chiang is one of the most admired science fiction authors writing today, best known for the novella “Story Of Your Life” (which was adapted into the movie “Arrival”). But he’s also published terrific pieces for The New Yorker
The case against AI art Read More »
“The Jetsons” debuted September 23, 1962. The first episode, titled “Rosey the Robot,” was an origin story of sorts for the titular character, describing how an overworked Jane hired the housekeeper. Sixty-two years after her debut, Rosey remains an important pop cultural touchstone for the unfulfilled promise of home robots. The home of 2024 isn’t
Why do so many home robots still suck? Read More »
Harvey Mason Jr., CEO of the Recording Academy, caused a stir a few months ago. He announced that the organization’s prestigious Grammy Awards would finally accept music made with artificial intelligence. At first, people were confused, and then Mason came out to clarify that he meant only humans can submit to the awards, but that
Grammy CEO says music industry also has AI concerns Read More »
Update: California’s Appropriations Committee passed SB 1047 with significant amendments that change the bill on Thursday, August 15. You can read about them here. Outside of sci-fi films, there’s no precedent for AI systems killing people or being used in massive cyberattacks. However, some lawmakers want to implement safeguards before bad actors make that dystopian
LAION, the German research org that created the data used to train Stable Diffusion, among other generative AI models, has released a new data set that it claims has been “thoroughly cleaned of known links to suspected child sexual abuse material (CSAM).” The new data set, Re-LAION-5B, is actually a re-release of an old data
The org behind the data set used to train Stable Diffusion claims it has removed CSAM Read More »
On today’s episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Devin Coldeway kicked off our Deals of the Week rundown with Piramidal, a startup that offers a foundational model for analyzing brain scan data and just raised $6 million. The premise behind the company is fascinating — its technology aims to help complement the work of nurses and doctors
Telegram founder’s arrest, and who’s using acqui-hires to tip-toe around antitrust Read More »
Nvidia and Apple are reportedly in talks to contribute to OpenAI’s next fundraising round — a round that could value the ChatGPT maker at $100 billion. Per its sources, the New York Times says earlier OpenAI investor Thrive Capital would lead the deal should it happen. (Bloomberg was the first to report Nvidia’s involvement, and
Apple and Nvidia could be OpenAI’s next big investors Read More »
Magic, an AI startup developing models to generate code and automate a range of software development tasks, says that it’s raised a large tranche of cash from investors including ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt. In a blog post on Thursday, Magic said that it closed a $320 million fundraising round with contributions from Schmidt, Jane Street,
