Just a day after Google inked a deal with The Associated Press, Mistral is also announcing a content deal with the Agence France-Presse (AFP) to improve the accuracy of answers in Le Chat, Mistral’s chatbot product. This is the first deal of this kind for the Paris-based artificial intelligence company. And it indicates that Mistral […]

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With inflation still stubbornly high in comparison to previous years, and the siren voices of subscription services like Netflix and Spotify continuing to lure, consumers have understandably turned to alternative forms of payment to manage their household bills. As a result, online prepaid payment platforms have benefited.  That’s the bet being laid today by Recharge, […]

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Google has agreed to purchase 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal credits from Indian startup Varaha.

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French startup Hyperline wants to build the next-generation Chargebee. Over the past two years, the startup has built a new billing platform that can be used for recurring subscriptions, one-off purchases, usage-based billing and more. Hyperline raised an initial €4 million funding round from Index Ventures back in 2023 ($4.1 million at today’s exchange rate). […]

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Amazon has agreed to acquire Indian buy-now, pay-later startup Axio, deepening its push into financial services in one of its fastest-growing markets. The e-commerce group, which has held an equity stake in Axio for six years, signed the acquisition agreement in December after completing due diligence, the Indian startup said in a blog post. Financial […]

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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears to have used YouTube’s battle to remove pirated content to defend his own company’s use of a data set containing copyrighted e-books, reveals newly released snippets of a deposition he gave late last year. The deposition, which was part of a complaint submitted to the court by plaintiffs’ attorneys, is […]

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Chinese firms continue to release AI models that rival the capabilities of systems developed by OpenAI and other U.S.-based AI companies. This week, MiniMax, an Alibaba- and Tencent-backed startup that has raised around $850 million in venture capital and is valued at more than $2.5 billion, debuted three new models: MiniMax-Text-01, MiniMax-VL-01, and T2A-01-HD. MiniMax-Text-01 […]

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When Hindenburg Research posts a blog on its website, it often means a company’s final days are near. Today, that company is Hindenburg Research. Nate Anderson announced Wednesday he has shut down short-selling firm Hindenburg Research after a seven-year run issuing damning reports about high-profile companies, including many of the technology world’s giants and buzzy […]

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Y Combinator alum Stoke has an ambitious goal to build the first fully reusable rocket and VCs have opened their wallets wide.

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Several governments participated in a meeting on the proliferation of commercial spyware at the United Nations Security Council.

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Younger Gen Zers are embracing OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot, ChatGPT, for schoolwork, according to a new survey by the Pew Research Center. But it’s not clear that they’re fully aware of the tech’s pitfalls. In a follow-up to its 2023 poll on ChatGPT usage among young people, Pew asked ~1,400 U.S.-based teens ages 13 to 17 […]

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The biggest reveal from last week’s Samsung CES press conference may well have been another press conference. The hardware giant closed out the main event by teasing the company’s upcoming show. The next Samsung Unpacked event is set for January 22 at 10 a.m. PT. As with all recent Unpacked events, next week’s big show […]

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TikTok U.S. users have been learning Chinese on Duolingo in increasing numbers amid their adoption of a Chinese social app called RedNote ahead of the TikTok ban. The U.S. law, scheduled to go into effect on January 19, unless halted by the Supreme Court, will see TikTok removed from U.S. app stores and will stop […]

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The news comes as tech companies ramp up their AI ambitions, adding data centers at a breakneck pace and boosting demand for power.

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Numerous tech companies have pledged millions in donations to help LA recover from wildfires that caused widespread devastation and forced thousands to evacuate the region. Those offering aid include YouTube/Google, Meta, Snap, Amazon, Netflix, and Sony.  Here’s an overview of what each company is doing to aid relief efforts in the region: YouTube and Google: […]

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Loft Orbital has raised $170 million in Series C funding to grow its satellite and space missions as a service.

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The AI embedded in a popular e-reader was spouting Chinese propaganda.

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OpenAI is getting into the local news game. Newsletter-based media organization Axios announced a partnership with OpenAI on Wednesday. As part of this three-year deal, the AI giant will fund Axios’ expansion of its local newsletters into four new cities: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Kansas City, Missouri; Boulder, Colorado; and Huntsville, Alabama. While OpenAI has inked content-sharing […]

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Tesla, along with three other industry partners, quietly backed an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency application that won $100 million in funding to build electric truck charging stations across the state, TechCrunch has learned. The award was the biggest given out by the Biden administration’s Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) last week in the second round of […]

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Days after pushing for sweeping AI chip export restriction, the Biden administration has added 14 Chinese companies to its restricted trade list. Sophgo is, perhaps, the highest-profile addition. An entity of Bitmain, the firm sparked international headlines when it was identified as an intermediary between embattled Chinese hardware giant Huawei and Taiwanese chipmaker TSMC. Suspicions […]

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