[[{“value”:” Raising a Series A round in today’s competitive market can be a daunting task. To equip seed-stage founders with the insights and strategies needed for success, TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 will host a crucial session on the Builders Stage titled “What You Need to Raise a Series A Today.” This session will bring together some of […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Snapchat’s latest features help users personalize their accounts
[[{“value”:” Snapchat is introducing new ways for users to personalize their accounts, the company announced on Tuesday. The new updates, which are mostly available for Snapchat+ subscribers, allow users to do things like design a personalized house on Snap Map, share super quick Snaps, and edit their Bitmoji, among other things. At a time when social […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Meta plans to bring generative AI to metaverse games
[[{“value”:” Meta plans to bring more generative AI tech into games, specifically VR, AR and mixed reality games, as the company looks to reinvigorate its flagging metaverse strategy. According to a job listing, Meta is seeking to research and prototype “new consumer experiences” with new types of gameplay driven by generative AI, like games that “change […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
TechCrunch Minute: A beginner’s guide to the fediverse
[[{“value”:” “Fediverse” is one of those terms that gets thrown around a lot, but what does it actually mean? The word comes from “federation” and “universe” being smooshed together, and it refers to a group of social networks — a federation, if you will — that can communicate with each other. This approach is pretty appealing when […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
News outlets are accusing Perplexity of plagiarism and unethical web scraping
[[{“value”:” In the age of generative AI, when chatbots can provide detailed answers to questions based on content pulled from the internet, the line between fair use and plagiarism, and between routine web scraping and unethical summarization, is a thin one. Perplexity AI is a startup that combines a search engine with a large language model […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Figma disables its AI design feature that appeared to be ripping off Apple’s Weather app
[[{“value”:” The Make Design feature is available within Figma’s software and will generate UI (user interface) layouts and components from text prompts. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. “}]]
Computing and shielding startups join forces to put AI-capable chips in space
[[{“value”:” Sophisticated spacecraft often run on shockingly outdated computing systems: consider that the Perseverance rover runs on a PowerPC 750, the processor famous for running on iMacs in the late 1990s. San Francisco-based Aethero is aiming to bring more powerful computing systems to orbit, and their first payload launches this month on SpaceX’s Transporter-11 rideshare mission. […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Industry Ventures raises a $900M fund for investing in small, early-stage VCs and their breakout startups
[[{“value”:” The venture fundraising trend in 2024 is fairly clear by now: Large, established VC firms are continuing to attract capital from limited partners, while smaller, newer funds are finding it more difficult to raise. But Industry Ventures’ latest fundraise should offer a dash of good news for emerging managers. On Tuesday, the 24-year-old firm announced […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
Sensorita uses digital twins to help waste management companies streamline construction waste
[[{“value”:” The amount of waste produced by the construction industry adds up to more than a third of the overall waste produced each year in the European Union. And it’s no better in the U.S. Stateside, the construction industry produces more than double the waste that households do each year. Sensorita wants to help the construction […] © 2024 TechCrunch….
As the AI boom gobbles up power, Phaidra is helping companies manage datacenter power more efficiently
[[{“value”:” Electricity demand is booming on account of AI. In a May 2024 report, Goldman Sachs predicted that data centers will use 8% of the U.S.’s total power supply by 2030, up from 3% in 2022, as cloud service providers expand to meet the demand for AI infrastructure. Assuming the current trend holds, U.S. utilities will need to […] © 2024 TechCrunch….