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ChatGPT doubled its weekly active users in under 6 months, thanks to new releases

OpenAI’s flagship AI chatbot, ChatGPT, returned to solid growth in the latter half of 2024, according to a new report published on Thursday by VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). While it took ChatGPT nine months to grow from 100 million weekly active users in November 2023 to 200 million in August 2024, it’s now taken […]

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Hugging Face’s chief science officer worries AI is becoming ‘yes-men on servers’

AI company founders have a reputation for making bold claims about the technology’s potential to reshape fields, particularly the sciences. But Thomas Wolf, Hugging Face’s co-founder and chief science officer, has a more measured take. In an essay published to X on Thursday, Wolf said that he feared AI becoming “yes-men on servers” absent a […]

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Christie’s AI art auction reportedly exceeds expectations

Nearly 6,500 artists demanded in an open letter that fine art auction house Christie’s cancel its first show dedicated solely to works created with AI. Yet, the show, Augmented Intelligence, went on — and reportedly exceeded expectations. According to Christie’s, the show brought in more than $700,000, with many lots reaching beyond their high estimates. […]

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Spotify says it’s fixing the bug that caused Premium users to hear ads

Spotify has acknowledged an issue that’s causing some of its paid Premium subscribers to encounter ads when trying to play music. In an X post published on Thursday by Spotify’s customer service account, the company said it’s looking into the problem and linked to its Community website where the issue has been documented by users […]

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VW’s cheapest EV will have Rivian DNA and who is bidding for Canoo’s assets

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! TechCrunch’s transportation team — well at least myself and senior reporter Rebecca Bellan — are hittin’ the road. Destination: SXSW, the annual tech, music, film, and culture […]

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OpenAI’s ex-policy lead criticizes the company for ‘rewriting’ its AI safety history

A high-profile ex-OpenAI policy researcher, Miles Brundage, took to social media on Wednesday to criticize OpenAI for “rewriting the history” of its deployment approach to potentially risky AI systems. Earlier this week, OpenAI published a document outlining its current philosophy on AI safety and alignment, the process of designing AI systems that behave in desirable […]

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Mistral adds a new API that turns any PDF document into an AI-ready Markdown file

On Thursday French large language model (LLM) developer Mistral launched a new API for developers who handle complex PDF documents. Mistral OCR is an optical character recognition (OCR) API that can turn any PDF into a text file to make it easier for AI models to ingest. LLMs, which underpin popular GenAI tools like OpenAI’s […]

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Intangible, a no-code 3D creation tool for filmmakers and game designers, raises $4M 

Intangible, now backed by $4 million in seed funding, offers an AI-powered creative tool that allows users to create 3D world concepts with text prompts to aid creative professionals across a variety of industries. The company’s mission is to make the creative process accessible to everyone, including professionals such as filmmakers, game designers, event planners, […]

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Why VCs ghost founders, or reject deals and never speak to the founder again

Getting ghosted is never fun. Especially if you’re a founder seeking capital from investors. It’s similar to dating. You might be left wondering “Why is this person not getting back to me? Did I do something wrong?” Did the investor hate the product? Did they not care for me personally?” It’s enough to drive anyone […]

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DuckDuckGo leans further into GenAI as its AI chat interface exits beta

Private search engine DuckDuckGo is leaning further into the generative AI opportunity. The non-tracking search engine has been dabbling with expanding the role of AI assistance in its product for the past year, including launching a chatbot-style interface last fall — available at Duck.ai. In a blog post Thursday, the company said the service is […]

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Armis buys Otorio for $120M to beef up cybersecurity in physical spaces

More consolidation is playing out in the security industry as platform players scoop up technology to give them deeper expertise in growing business areas. On Thursday, Armis, a $4.2 billion specialist in cyber-exposure management, said it would be acquiring Otorio, a specialist in securing industrial and physical environments.  Terms of the deal are not being […]

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How Uber’s new product chief is gearing up for robotaxis

Uber executive Sachin Kansal has a reputation for dogfooding — the tactic of using one’s own products and services to root out problems and make improvements. As he ascended Uber’s executive ladder over the past eight years, Kansal ratcheted up 700 trips delivering food or people to their destinations. Lengthy reports, often dozens of pages […]

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Faireez raises $7.5M for AI-powered hotel-style housekeeping for rentals

Faireez, which aims to bring “5-star hotel-style housekeeping” to multifamily buildings, is emerging from stealth with $7.5 million in seed funding, the startup told TechCrunch exclusively. Founded in 2023, New York-based Faireez’s goal is to make the cleaning services it offers as customized as possible. It offers a subscription model where each building is assigned […]

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