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Today — 4 March 2025TechCrunch News

Klarna CEO doubts that other companies will replace Salesforce with AI

4 March 2025 at 11:30

The founder and CEO of IPO-bound fintech Klarna took to X to once again explain why his company ditched Salesforce’s flagship CRM product about a year ago in favor of its own homegrown AI system.  But this time, Sebastian Siemiatkowski emphasized that he doesn’t think others will — or should — follow his lead. “I […]

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Amazon is reportedly developing its own AI ‘reasoning’ model

4 March 2025 at 11:27

Amazon reportedly wants to get in on the AI “reasoning” model game. According to Business Insider, Amazon is developing an AI model that incorporates advanced “reasoning” capabilities, similar to models like OpenAI’s o3-mini and Chinese AI lab DeepSeek’s R1. The model may launch as soon as June under Amazon’s Nova brand, which the company introduced […]

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Google still limits how Gemini answers political questions

4 March 2025 at 11:25

While several of Google’s rivals, including OpenAI, have tweaked their AI chatbots to discuss politically sensitive subjects in recent months, Google appears to be embracing a more conservative approach. When asked to answer certain political questions, Google’s AI-powered chatbot, Gemini, often says it “can’t help with responses on elections and political figures right now,” TechCrunch’s […]

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Hackers launder most of Bybit’s stolen crypto worth $1.4B

Experts note that this is just the first step for the alleged North Korean hackers to profit from the historic heist.

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OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor lays out the bull case for AI agents

4 March 2025 at 10:06

We still didn’t get a straight-up definition of exactly what an AI agent is during Bret Taylor’s Mobile World Congress fireside chat in Barcelona on Tuesday. The Sierra founder and OpenAI board chair preferred to sidestep CNN moderator Anna Stewart’s question asking how “agentic AI” is “any different to a GenAI chatbot” by suggesting everyone […]

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Google’s March Pixel Drop adds AI-powered scam detection and live location sharing with friends

4 March 2025 at 09:00

Google on Tuesday announced new software updates for the Pixel phones as part of its “Pixel Drop” program for March. Pixel Watches and all Android devices are also receiving some new features with this release. The most notable parts of the update include using AI to detect scams in messages and calls, better categorization in […]

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Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg talks succession — ‘I don’t want to pass it to a committee’

4 March 2025 at 08:38

Calls for WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg to step down from his leadership role have increased in recent months amid his controversial fight and legal battle with hosting company WP Engine. Mullenweg not only intends to stay, he’s also thinking about how he plans to manage succession planning. He doesn’t want to pass […]

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Cohere claims its new Aya Vision AI model is best-in-class

4 March 2025 at 08:33

Cohere For AI, AI startup Cohere’s nonprofit research lab, this week released a multimodal “open” AI model, Aya Vision, the lab claimed is best-in-class. Aya Vision can perform tasks like writing image captions, answering questions about photos, translating text, and generating summaries in 23 major languages. Cohere, which is also making Aya Vision available for […]

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Didi reportedly seeking funds for self-driving unit at $5B valuation

4 March 2025 at 08:17

Chinese ride-hail firm Didi is on the hunt for fresh funds for its autonomous vehicle technology unit that could value it at $5 billion, according to Bloomberg News. Investor interest in self-driving cars is high in China on the backs of IPOs from WeRide and Pony AI, which have a market capitalization of $4.7 billion […]

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On a quest to revive the woolly mammoth, Colossal Biosciences has created a woolly mouse

4 March 2025 at 06:53

Colossal Biosciences, known for its outlandish goal to resurrect the woolly mammoth by 2028, is claiming steady progress. Its evidence: genetically engineering mice to have mammoth-like fur. To engineer the woolly mouse, the company’s scientists found mouse versions of mammoth genes and then used CRISPR to edit mice embryos, Dr. Beth Shapiro, chief science officer […]

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OpenAI launches $50M grant program to help fund academic research

4 March 2025 at 06:30

OpenAI on Monday said it is supporting a new consortium called NextGenAI that would focus on supporting AI-assisted research at top universities. NextGenAI, whose 15 founding academic partners include Harvard, the University of Oxford and MIT, will be funded with $50 million in research grants, compute funding, and API access from OpenAI, the company said. […]

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Funding to women-founded startups declined 12% in 2024, but that wasn’t far behind the broader market

4 March 2025 at 06:27

Venture investment to startups founded by women in Europe declined 12% in 2024, but it was in line with the 11% decrease in venture investment overall.

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Polish space agency says it’s investigating a cyberattack

4 March 2025 at 06:18

Poland’s space agency (POLSA) says it is working to restore services following a cybersecurity incident. POLSA, the Polish government agency responsible for the country’s space activities, said in a post on X that it had “immediately disconnected” its network from the internet after detecting the cyberattack on Sunday. POLSA’s website remains offline at the time […]

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Apple launches a new iPad Air with M3 chip

4 March 2025 at 06:15

Apple has introduced new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models with the M3 chip. The new iPad Air can be preordered starting Tuesday, and will launch on March 12. The device starts at $599 for the 11-inch model and $799 for the 13-inch model. It comes in four colors: blue, purple, starlight, and space gray, […]

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Swap banks $40M to build tools for merchants to deal with tariffs and other cross-border trading nightmares

4 March 2025 at 06:06

Cross-border trade could become significantly more challenging with the wave of new tariffs getting introduced across different markets. Today, in a timely piece of news, a London-founded startup called Swap — which is building tools for e-commerce companies to better navigate the cross-border trading world — is announcing $40 million in funding to expand. Iconiq […]

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Scrunch AI is helping companies stand out in AI search

4 March 2025 at 06:00

As more people turn to AI chatbots like ChatGPT to look things up on the internet, the way companies approach their online presence has to change. Scrunch AI wants to help enterprises better prepare for a world in which more AI bots and agents visit their website than humans do. Scrunch AI says its platform […]

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LlamaIndex launches a cloud service for building unstructured data agents

4 March 2025 at 05:00

Agents are the next big thing in AI. Some define these “agents” differently from others, but the general idea is, they’re AI-powered tools that can perform tasks autonomously. The agent hype has reached a fever pitch, but one startup was relatively early to the game: LlamaIndex. Founded by former Uber research scientists Jerry Liu and […]

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Hotel management platform Mews books $75M round led by Tiger Global

4 March 2025 at 04:16

Despite clouds of uncertainty looming over the economy and geopolitics, people still want to travel. To meet that demand, Mews, an Amsterdam-founded “unicorn” building an SaaS platform for hotel management, has raised a fresh $75 million. The funding is coming at a crossroads in the travel industry. From one direction, the positive signals: Analysts at […]

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Uber users in Austin are getting matched with Waymo robotaxis

4 March 2025 at 04:00

Uber users in Austin now have a choice between a Waymo robotaxi and a human driver. The two companies officially launched Tuesday the “Waymo on Uber” robotaxi service in Austin as part of a partnership that has deepened in recent months. The launch comes just days before SXSW, the annual tech, music, film, and comedy […]

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