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ElevenLabs’ AI voice generation ‘very likely’ used in a Russian influence operation

AI /

Generative AI has a plethora of well-documented misuses, from making up academic papers to copying artists. And now, it appears to be cropping up in state influence operations. One recent campaign was “very likely” helped by commercial AI voice generation products, including tech publicly released by the hot startup ElevenLabs, according to a recent report […]

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Stainless helps build SDKs for OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta

Fundraising /

Devs expect tech vendors to supply software development kits, or SDKs, alongside their products to make it easier to create apps using those products. But many vendors only offer APIs, which are simply protocols that enable software components to communicate with each other. Alex Rattray, the founder of Stainless, thinks AI can assist, here. Stainless

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A new wave of desalination startups argues that deeper is better

Climate /

It’s a cruel reality that only about 3% of the world’s water is fresh, and of that, only a fraction is readily available. Yet as the world’s arid regions encounter intensifying droughts, more people are eyeing the other 97% that’s sloshing around in the oceans. Islands, cities, and water districts have been using desalination to

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Nexalus has a new method for liquid-cooling data centers that could make the waste heat useful

Enterprise /

As data center power demand surges, tech companies are looking for ways to trim electricity use wherever they can. Cooling is an obvious place to start, since it can account for around 40% of a data center’s energy consumption, according to McKinsey. Most data centers are cooled by blowing chilled air through their servers. The

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WhatsApp fixes bug that let users bypass ‘View Once’ privacy feature

Security /

WhatsApp fixed a bug that allowed malicious users to save pictures and videos that were supposed to be viewed only once and then vanish.  In September, TechCrunch reported that a bug in the implementation of the “View Once” privacy  feature allowed people using WhatsApp’s browser-based web app to display and then keep the picture or

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If you can make this AI bot fall in love, you could win thousands of dollars

AI /

Ever wondered if you could get an AI bot to fall in love with you? Now you have the chance.  Freysa.ai is a team of anonymous developers building a series of increasingly meta challenges, designed to influence how humans think about AI safety. The third challenge is starting sometime in the next 24 hours (you can

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A16z-backed Toka wants to help US agencies hack into security cameras and other IoT devices

Security /

U.S. government agencies legally hack into cellphones or emails all the time: think of the FBI wiretapping a suspected drug lord or the NSA monitoring emails for terrorism plots.  But now, there’s rising interest in hacking other kinds of devices people often use like WiFi-connected security cameras and other IoT products. Toka, an Israeli startup

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Planet A Foods nabs $30M to make tons more cocoa-free chocolate

Climate /

Turning sunflower seeds into sustainable, cocoa-free chocolate has netted Munich-based B2B foodtech startup Planet A Foods (formerly QOA) a $30 million Series B funding round. Now, the Y Combinator alum is gearing up for industrialization, with the funds set to be deployed to scale its production capacity by around 7.5x. The round fast follows a

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