Google implements AI safeguards around upcoming election

Friday, August 30, 2024 Posted by bloggerdaddy 0 comments

Friday, August 30, 2024

Welcome to TC PM! Today we are looking into new AI safeguards that Google released in preparation for the upcoming election; a new crypto hack; and why Apple is doubling down on its decision to ban a group of developers from the App Store. Happy Friday!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

🤖 AI safeguards: Today Google announced a new slate of restrictions to its AI products in light of the upcoming election. The company previously announced it would restrict questions about the election to its Gemini model, and now it's adding safeguards to its other AI products. Read more

💻 Crypto hack: Today Microsoft released a report that stated it found evidence that Citrine Sleet, a North Korean hacking group, had exploited a previously unknown bug on Chrome with the mission to steal cryptocurrency. Read more

😮 WWDC developer banned: Apple is causing quite the kerfuffle in the app developer community this week. The company stood by its decision to ban one of its winning student developer teams from its 2021 Worldwide Developers Conference with claims the group's app violated its App Store policy. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images

🚗 Long road: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced today that the company plans to double down on its ride-sharing business in South Korea. While Uber has seen double-digit growth in the region, it will be an uphill battle to take market share from local ride-hailing company Kakao Taxi. Read more

📱 Today's topic: TikTok is giving its users more control over what posts they see in their "For You" feed. The company announced a new feature today that allows users to manage the topics they see by using a slider to adjust how much they want to see of a certain topic. Read more

🎙️ Equity: On today's episode of Equity, the gang got into the recent arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov, the drama over at Fluid Truck and the recent rise of acquihires. Read more

🍵 Generative Jam: Video game studios continue to embrace generative AI. Jam & Tea Studios is implementing the tech for the non-playable characters in its games. This will allow these NPCs to converse with a game player as opposed to sticking to a predetermined script. Read more

🧸 KidGPT: Google and Amazon alumni have launched Hello Wonder, an AI-powered web browser for children. Hello Wonder's child-safe search engine was partially inspired by the Montessori method of learning, which involves letting children learn through the topics they are interested in. Read more

🗞️ Valuation haircut: Indian tech startup VerSe, which operates popular news aggregator Dailyhunt, isn't getting much love from its investors. One of the company's backers, 360 One, just internally marked the company's valuation down by 42%. Read more

🏠 Fee fight: Wow. Redfin moves fast. After TechCrunch posted a story yesterday about Landian, a startup offering a flat fee to folks looking at and putting offers on homes, Redfin spoke out today about why that model doesn't work. Read more

🤐 Come clean: Back in January, Carta was accused of using its customers' cap table data to support its secondary trading business. Investors got mad, and Carta shut down its secondary trading strategy. Today, Public announced it bought Carta's brokerage accounts. Read more

Around the web

🚦 Proceed with caution: Elon Musk is apparently a bit shaken up by the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov. Today, Business Insider reported that Musk is going to be more cautious about where he travels and plans to stick to countries that have freedom of speech laws. Read more

📰 AI versus publications: The Verge has an interesting story out today that looks at the recent licensing deals between large AI models like OpenAI and the publications the AI companies already stole the data from to build their models. Read more

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Atlassian acquires AI note-taking startup Rewatch

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By Rebecca Bellan

Friday, August 30, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we're looking at Atlassian's latest buy; a new way for creators to join the fediverse; and Intuitive Machine's latest win. Also: Nvidia and Apple are reportedly in talks to invest into OpenAI; a startup is digitizing the agricultural buy-and-sell space; Google's facing some back-to-back monopoly cases; and more drama around Elon Musk in Brazil. Let's get to work! — Rebecca

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Atlassian

1. Big SaaS bets the house on AI: Atlassian is acquiring Rewatch, an AI-powered meeting notetaker, screen recording tool and video hub. It's the latest example of SaaS providers working to integrate AI tools that aim to help businesses improve workflows. Read More

2. Creators are coming to the fediverse: Sub.club is a new service from the makers of the Mammoth app for Mastodon, and it hopes to support creators in the fediverse by letting them set up subscriptions for premium content. That's hard to do today on the decentralized web, so this new service is likely to see some traction. Read More

3. The dark side of the moon: Intuitive Machines has secured a $116.9 million contract from NASA to send a moon lander to the lunar south pole in 2027. It's the startup's fourth award under this program. Read More

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Morning Must-Reads

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🤑 OpenAI's next big investors: Nvidia and Apple are reportedly in talks to contribute to OpenAI's next funding round, which could value the company at $100 billion. To me, this has antitrust scrutiny written all over it. Regulators are already investigating both Google and Amazon's investments in Anthropic as well as Microsoft's involvement with Mistral AI. Read More

🤧 Allergies or a cold? Google is working with an Indian respiratory healthcare AI startup to train a foundational model that can identify sounds as early signs of disease. Is that labored breathing just you panting after a run or is it something more serious? Read More

🌱 Digitizing the local agri market: Back in the day, farmers would buy seeds and harvesting tools from local markets and fairs. Agrim is bringing that energy to the digital space by creating a marketplace and supply chain to help retailers buy agricultural inputs when they need them. Read More

🧑‍⚖️ Google's back-to-back monopoly cases: On Wednesday's episode of Equity, I chatted with Neil Chilson of The Abundance Institute about the potential outcome of the ruling that found Google maintained a monopoly on online search, what to expect for its upcoming ad tech antitrust case, and how AI is changing the game. Read More

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Around the Web

💪 ChatGPT on top: OpenAI said ChatGPT has more than 200 million weekly active users, which is up 2x since November, according to Axios. The company said 92% of Fortune 500 companies use its products, and that people use the tool today as part of their daily lives. Read More

🌠 Brazil blocks Starlink financial transactions: CNBC reports that Starlink has been caught in the crosshairs of a free speech fight between Elon Musk and Brazil's highest court over X's refusal to appoint a legal representative who can consider government takedowns. Read More

😥 And you thought Snapchat bullying was bad: One in 10 minors say their friends or classmates have used AI tools to generate nudes of other kids, reports 404 Media. The result has been absolute chaos, and my question is, can this be considered distributing child porn? Read More

Before You Go

Image Credits: Medesulda / Getty Images

💻 Big tech embraces Web3: South Korean internet giant Naver has launched a digital asset wallet in partnership with Chiliz, a blockchain provider. It's Naver's first crypto wallet, but the company says it's more about building a service around utility and blockchain tech. Read More