AI

Google is using Anthropic’s Claude to improve its Gemini AI

AI /

Contractors working to improve Google’s Gemini AI are comparing its answers against outputs produced by Anthropic’s competitor model Claude, according to internal correspondence seen by TechCrunch.  Google would not say, when reached by TechCrunch for comment, if it had obtained permission for its use of Claude in testing against Gemini. As tech companies race to […]

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Elon Musk’s xAI lands $6B in new cash to fuel AI ambitions

Fundraising /

xAI, Elon Musk’s AI company, has raised $6 billion, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday. Investors gave a minimum of $77,593, per the filing (97 participated, but the document doesn’t reveal their identities). xAI later announced (confirming some earlier reporting) that Andreessen Horowitz , Blackrock, Fidelity, Kingdom Holdings,

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‘Genius Girl’ goes from inspiring a Korean TV show character to raising a $100 million AI fund

Venture /

On the weekend, as most students were stumbling back from the bars, Songyee Yoon was rushing across her South Korean campus. Around dinner time, she would run some programs on her college’s supercomputer and then, as the computer chugged through her program, she’d wait sleepless in her dorm. “I woke up at like 2 am,

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Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500M funding round

Fundraising /

AI-powered search engine Perplexity has reportedly closed a $500 million funding round, valuing the startup at $9 billion. Bloomberg, citing sources familiar, reports that the round was led by Institutional Venture Partners, and that it closed earlier in December. In an email to TechCrunch, a Perplexity spokesperson declined to comment. The mammoth tranche comes as

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TuSimple pivot from self-driving to AI animation is complete with CreateAI rebrand

Gaming /

TuSimple has completed its pivot away from autonomous trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The company shall henceforth be known as CreateAI.  The rebrand comes as TuSimple is embroiled in controversy over the company’s plans to move its remaining U.S. assets to China to fund the new business, which it initially announced

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Backed by a16z and NEA, Backflip raises $30M Series A to turn text into AI-generated designs

Startups /

What if it were as easy to generate a usable 3D design as prompting ChatGPT? That’s the mission of Backflip, a startup founded by 3D printing veterans that’s just scored $30 million from Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, and a host of other big names in tech.  Designing physical objects often requires hours or days

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Instagram teases AI tools for editing appearances, backgrounds in videos using prompts

Apps /

Instagram head Adam Mosseri is teasing upcoming generative AI features for the social app that will allow creators to “change nearly any aspect” of their videos using text prompts. The editing tools will be powered by Meta’s Movie Gen AI model, and are expected to launch on the social network sometime next year, Mosseri said

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