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Convergence AI played with agents ‘for years’ until raising $12M to give them long-term memory

The strategy is to create consumer agents, but then use those to inform how they train agents in the enterprise.

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Direct ocean capture may be the next frontier for carbon removal

Amsterdam-based Brineworks, a company specializing in seawater electrolysis technology, says its innovative method is expected to cost under $100 per ton of CO2 at scale.

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LinkedIn says 10M people have signed up as freelancers on its Services Marketplace

More than 100,000 people have been laid off in the technology industry alone this year, and — either by circumstance or choice — at least some of them are not heading back into exclusively full-time work. LinkedIn launched a freelancer marketplace in 2021 to capture some of that activity. Now, at a time when other […]

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20VC closes new $400M fund to ‘make Europe great again,’ says Harry Stebbings

Harry Stebbings (pictured above), the U.K. podcaster who broke into the world of tech with his 20-minute interviews of venture capitalists and founders, parlayed that fame into becoming a VC himself. Now, Stebbings has closed his third investment vehicle, and it’s his biggest yet: 20VC, the firm named after the podcast series, has closed a […]

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One Zero, the AI fintech started by the founder of Mobileye, is raising $100M, say sources

Amnon Shashua, the founder and CEO of Mobileye, has an eye for complicated problems that he believes can be solved with AI, and that AI itself can be fixed to become more reliable. On the sidelines of building and running his self-driving car technology company — which he took public, then sold to Intel, then […]

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Led by a founder who sold a video startup to Apple, Panjaya uses deepfake techniques to bite into video dubbing

There’s a big opportunity for generative AI in the world of translation, and a startup called Panjaya is taking the concept to the next level: a hyperrealistic, GenAI-based dubbing tool for videos that recreates a person’s original voice speaking the new language, with the video and the speaker’s physical movements automatically modifying to match up […]

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Upwind, an Israeli cloud cybersecurity startup, is raising $100M at a $850M-$900M valuation, say sources

Cybersecurity continues to command a lot of attention from enterprises looking for better protection from malicious hackers, and VCs want in on the action. In the latest example, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Upwind — a specialist in assessing and securing cloud infrastructure — is closing in on a $100 million round at a […]

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Hackers could spy on cell phone users by abusing 5G baseband flaws, researchers say

Security researchers found a dozen vulnerabilities in 5G baseband chips found in phones made by Google, OPPO, OnePlus, Motorola, and Samsung.

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X changes creator payouts to depend on engagement, not ads

As X continues to alienate advertisers, even recently suing a group over their boycott of the platform, the company is shifting its creator payments policy to be less dependent on ads. Before, creators would be paid a percentage of the ad revenue from ads shown in their replies. Now, X says it will instead pay […]

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Why changes to the block on Elon Musk’s X are driving users away

Elon Musk’s X is planning to make a change to how the block function works, breaking from the established standards of other social media apps. When the policies around blocking change, people who have been blocked by someone will still be able to see that person’s posts, so long as they’re public. They just won’t […]

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Wiz CEO says company was targeted with deepfake attack that used his voice

Even cybersecurity companies aren’t safe from deepfake attacks. Speaking onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Wiz’s CEO and co-founder Assaf Rappaport, who recently turned down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Google, noted that his employees had been targeted by a deepfake attack just two weeks ago. “Dozens of my employees got a voice […]

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WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg says a fork would be ‘fantastic’

WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Wednesday, said he’s not worried that the recent legal drama between his company, Automattic, and WordPress host WP Engine may lead to a fork of the open source WordPress software. In fact, he said, he’d welcome it. “There might be […]

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Bluesky gears up for Election Day as X goes pro-Trump

As Election Day in the U.S. nears, social networking startup Bluesky, now flush with new capital, hopes to demonstrate that its platform can serve as a more trusted, fact-checked alternative to Elon Musk’s X. While the latter is dominated by Musk’s support for the Trump campaign, Bluesky tends to lean left, thanks to its influx […]

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Apple’s new widget puts Election Day updates on your Lock Screen and Home Screen

It’s Election Day in the U.S., which means you’re likely glued to the latest news about which presidential candidate is currently in the lead. To help with this, Apple has released a Live Activities widget within its Apple News app that will offer real-time election updates directly on your iPhone or iPad’s Home Screen and […]

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AOL founder Steve Case, involved early in Section 230, says it’s time to change it

AOL founder Steve Case was there in Dulles, Virginia, just outside of Washington, D.C., when in 1996 the Communications Decency Act was passed as part of a major overhaul of U.S. telecommunications laws that President Bill Clinton signed into law. Soon after, in its first test, a provision of that act which states that, “[n]o […]

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Mayfair Equity Partners aquires UK adtech platform LoopMe for $120M

Founded back in 2012, the LoopMe adtech/martech startup focused on brand-based mobile advertising, using AI to deliver measurable outcomes for its users. At its height, it had raised $25 million equity and $10 million of venture debt (which was fully paid off before signing). But there’s a reason for using the past tense — Mayfair […]

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PalmPay raised $100M Series A last August, claims to have 5 million users

Africa-focused payments startup PalmPay raised a $100 million Series A round last year. TechCrunch spotted this news in Partech Africa’s latest end-of-year report on venture capital investments in Africa. Further checks in Crunchbase and Tracxn — platforms that track funding rounds in startups and private companies globally — reveal that the company closed the round […]

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Student Trainee - General Business (Pathways Internship ) - GS-3-11

Announcement Number: SE-18-BUS-INTERN
Closing Date: 12 April 2018




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Student Trainee - General Business (Pathways Internship ) - GS 03-07

Announcement Number: TN-19-EI-BUS-INTERN
Closing Date: 20 February 2019




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Student Trainee - Interdisciplinary STEM (Pathways Internship ) - GS-3-11

Announcement Number: SE-18-STEM-INTERN
Closing Date: 12 April 2018




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Student Trainee - Mathematics and Statistics (Pathways Internship) - GS 03-09

Announcement Number: TN-19-EI-STEM-INTERN
Closing Date: 20 February 2019




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Share of natural gas production in U.S. tight oil plays increased over the last decade

Natural gas produced from the three largest tight oil-producing plays in the United States has increased in the last decade. Natural gas comprised 40% of total production from the Bakken, the Eagle Ford, and the Permian compared with 29% in 2014.




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Equity Monday: The end of cheap money, and Take-Two buys Zynga

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Monday show, our short ramp into the week. Yes, it’s Monday again. No, you can’t stay in bed. Things are already happening! Take-Two is buying Zynga: In a cash and […]

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‘0ktapus’ hackers are back and targeting tech and gaming companies, says leaked report

The hackers who reportedly hit more than 130 organizations last year and stole the credentials of almost 10,000 employees are still targeting several tech and video game companies, according to a report obtained by TechCrunch. The report, prepared by cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, calls the hackers “Scattered Spider.” In a previous publicly available report, the company […]

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Gusto’s head of technology says hiring an army of specialists is the wrong approach to AI

As founders plan for an increasingly AI-centric future, Gusto co-founder and head of technology Edward Kim said that cutting existing teams and hiring a bunch of specially trained AI engineers is “the wrong way to go.” Instead, he argued that nontechnical team members can “actually have a much deeper understanding than an average engineer on […]

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OpenAI’s Whisper transcription tool has hallucination issues, researchers say

Software engineers, developers, and academic researchers have serious concerns about transcriptions from OpenAI’s Whisper, according to a report in the Associated Press. While there’s been no shortage of discussion around generative AI’s tendency to hallucinate — basically, to make stuff up — it’s a bit surprising that this is an issue in transcription, where you’d […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.





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Block’s Cash App adopts Lightning Network for free bitcoin payments

Late last year, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from his position in order to give his full attention to his other company, Square (now called Block), which had become increasingly invested in blockchain technology and cryptocurrency — just like Dorsey himself. Now we’re starting to see the results of Block’s embrace of crypto, as […]

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Square now supports Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhones

Block, the company behind Square and Cash App, now supports Apple’s Tap to Pay for iPhone feature for merchants. Existing Square users or new businesses wanting to use Square can now use their iPhones to receive payments while using the fintech company’s financial management software. The Jack Dorsey-led company said that merchants can open the […]

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Square says it has resolved daylong outage

Fintech giant Square says its services are coming back online after a daylong outage left small business owners unable to process payments. The Block-owned company had, up until Friday morning on the U.S. West Coast, been battling a prolonged outage that had downed its services since Thursday afternoon. In a new posting on its status […]

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Square says daylong outage caused by DNS error

Square said there was “no evidence” a cyberattack caused an outage that left customers and small businesses unable to use the payment giant’s technology on Thursday through early-Friday. The payments technology giant said in a post-mortem of the daylong outage that the outage was caused by a DNS issue. DNS, or domain name system, is […]

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MobileCoin, which powers Signal’s anonymous crypto payments, appoints new CEO

MobileCoin, the startup known for building Signal’s crypto payments feature, has appointed a new CEO as it works on expanding its encrypted money transfer service to global users in need of a more modern remittance solution. Sara Drakeley is taking the helm as MobileCoin’s new chief executive officer. Replacing her previous role as the firm’s […]

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Volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt and attend all three days for free

It takes a veritable army to make TechCrunch Disrupt — which takes place October 18–20 in San Francisco — the well-oiled experience that savvy startuppers have come to know and love. And we couldn’t do it nearly as well without our incredible volunteers. If you’re looking for a no-budget way to experience Disrupt up close […]

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Disrupt early-bird pricing extended to Friday

We see how hard early startup community members work to build their dreams. You’re all wicked busy, and that’s why we’re extending our early-bird pricing on passes to TechCrunch Disrupt, taking place on October 18–20 in San Francisco. You get one extra week to save up to $1,300, so shake your tail feathers and buy […]

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Extended early-bird savings on TC Disrupt passes end this Friday

We’re coming down to the wire, folks. Your chance to save early-bird pricing on passes to TechCrunch Disrupt ends this Friday. Our three-day flagship tech startup conference offers superior ROI at full price, but why spend more when you don’t have to? To-do today: Buy your early-bird pass to TechCrunch Disrupt by Friday, August 5 […]

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Your shot to join the TC Disrupt Startup Battlefield 200 ends today

Time is running out on one of the biggest opportunities in Disrupt history. We stop accepting applications to the Startup Battlefield 200 tonight, August 5, at precisely 11:59 p.m. PDT. No more deadline extensions, no last-minute exceptions. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Lollygagger alert: Drop what you’re doing and go apply to the Startup Battlefield 200 right […]

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Yahoo will lay off 20% of staff, or 1600 people

Yahoo is laying off 20% of its staff, impacting 1,600 employees in its ad tech business. Yahoo is the parent company to TechCrunch. Employees were notified on Thursday that 12% of the company (1,000 employees) would be laid off before the end of the day. In six months, another 8% — or 600 people — […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.




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Equity Monday: Quibi, two Boston rounds and a shift to pessimism

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast, where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. This is Equity Monday, our short-form week-starter in which we go over the weekend, look to the week ahead, talk about some neat funding rounds and dig into what is stuck on our minds. So, by section then: […]

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Groupon cuts another 500 employees in second round of layoffs

Groupon has laid off another 500 employees in a bid to cut costs, the company said in an SEC filing last week. The e-commerce company had cut 500 jobs — nearly 15% of its workforce then — in August 2022. The company said this new set of layoffs will be spread across the first two […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.




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Widening Gender Pay Gap sees Australia fall Furthest in Global Rankings: PwC Women in Work Index - 3 Mar

Australia dropped six places to 15th position - the largest drop out of the 27 OECD countries measured.




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Federal Budget 2015: More Carrot less Stick - 6 May

Early reports of what is in next Tuesday’s Federal Budget indicate “more carrot and less stick” to help lift productivity and tighten the fiscal gap.




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Credit growth hits post GFC-high, but margins at all-time low - 7 May

Australia’s four major banks delivered combined underlying cash earnings of $15.5 billion for the first-half to March 2015.




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The Pragmatic Budget - 13 May

Driving workforce participation, support for small businesses and much needed investment in infrastructure make this a pragmatic budget.




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Navigating the energy 'trilemma' crucial for Australian power and utilities sector - 20 May

The pace and scale of disruption in the power and utilities sector is happening faster than expected.




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PwC mentors young leaders from China and Australia on Infrastructure - 28 May

Young leaders from Australia and China are working together to provide creative solutions to issues facing both countries as part of the China Australia Millennial Project (CAMP).




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No Sacred Cows or Panaceas In Tax Reform - 29 May

The needs of all Australians - affordable housing, a secure job, a decent education for their children, a good health system and a comfortable retirement - will not be met if we don't achieve major tax reform.




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Home and away, Australian CEOs bearish on growth - 16 Nov

Australian CEOs are less confident about domestic growth than their regional peers, and less certain of their ability to capture a return in Asia Pacific markets.




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PwC Australia appoints Luke Sayers as CEO through to 2020 - 15 Feb

Chairman of the Board of Partners of PwC Australia, Michael Happell, has announced that Luke Sayers will continue as Chief Executive Officer of the Australian firm for a further four years.




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Time for Australian oil and gas players to think bigger - 11 Apr

Australian oil and gas companies will need to think bigger and embrace customers in Asia, rapidly evolve their business models, and become much more responsive to emerging trends, if they are to thrive in a challenging new global marketplace.