Kyle Wiggers, Author at TechCrunch

A popular technique to make AI more efficient has drawbacks

Kyle Wiggers — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 15:00:00 +0000

One of the most widely used techniques to make AI models more efficient, quantization, has limits — and the industry could be fast approaching them. In the context of AI, quantization refers to lowering the number of bits — the smallest units a computer can process — needed to represent information. Consider this analogy: When […]

OpenAI at one point considered acquiring AI chip startup Cerebras

Kyle Wiggers — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 20:27:35 +0000

OpenAI was at one point considering acquiring Cerebras, an AI chipmaking company that’s in the process of going public, according to new legal filings. Elon Musk’s ongoing lawsuit against OpenAI has new exhibits that describe how OpenAI was contemplating snatching up Cerebras in or around 2017 — a year after Cerebras’ founding, and just a […]

X sues to block California anti-deepfakes bill

Kyle Wiggers — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 16:48:19 +0000

Per Bloomberg, X, Elon Musk’s social media company, has sued to block California law AB 2655, which requires large online platforms to remove or label AI deepfakes related to elections. X argues that the law, also known as the “Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” will lead to widespread censorship of political speech. […]

Musk’s amended lawsuit against OpenAI names Microsoft as defendant

Kyle Wiggers — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 04:22:47 +0000

Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI accusing the company of abandoning its nonprofit mission was withdrawn in July, only to be revived in August. Now, in an amended complaint, the suit names new defendants, including Microsoft, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, and former OpenAI board member and Microsoft VP Dee Templeton. The amended filing also adds new […]

Heroku CEO Bob Wise departs

Kyle Wiggers — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 00:25:57 +0000

Bob Wise, the CEO of Heroku, Salesforce’s cloud platform as a service (PaaS), has left. A Salesforce spokesperson confirmed the news to TechCrunch in a statement via email. “Bob Wise has left Salesforce for his next career move,” the spokesperson said. “We appreciate all that Bob has done for Salesforce and Heroku and we wish […]

FTC reportedly begins investigating Microsoft’s cloud business practices

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 23:17:43 +0000

The FTC is reportedly readying an investigation into whether Microsoft used anti-competitive tactics to maintain a dominant position in the cloud market. According to Financial Times, the agency is looking into allegations that Microsoft imposed punitive licensing agreements to prevent customers from moving data off its platforms. Sources told FT that the FTC is also […]

Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive AI Health assistant has a bare-bones demo

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 21:54:13 +0000

In a splashy op-ed in Time published this summer, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Thrive AI Health, a venture with the goal of building an AI-powered assistant to promote healthier lifestyles. Backed by Huffington’s mental wellness firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive AI Health would seek to […]

AI pioneer François Chollet leaves Google

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 16:08:06 +0000

François Chollet, a leading figure in the AI world, is leaving Google after close to a decade. In a post on X, the 34-year-old French developer said he’s starting a new company with “a friend,” but he declined to reveal many details. “I’m very grateful for my decade at Google,” Chollet wrote in the post. […]

SwiftConnect lets workers access the office with a smartphone swipe

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 15:00:10 +0000

With the advent of flexible workspaces, companies are increasingly adopting smartphone-based authentication to let employees enter and leave. In a recent poll, nearly two in five firms said they’re letting staff use their phones to access office buildings. The boon has benefited vendors like SwiftConnect, which sells a platform for managing access to physical offices. Chip […]

FBI raids home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:38:39 +0000

The FBI raided the home of Polymarket CEO Shayne Coplan on Wednesday morning and seized his electronics, a company spokesperson confirmed to Axios. It’s not clear what the FBI was seeking. In particular, it’s unclear if Polymarket, Coplan, or both are the targets of an investigation. Polymarket, one of the most active prediction betting markets, […]

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moves to place Google under supervision

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 14:22:01 +0000

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has taken steps to place Google under formal federal supervision, a move that could subject the company to the same inspections the government imposes on major banks. According to The Washington Post, the CFPB has been in talks with Google for months about the supervision order, which hasn’t yet […]

OpenAI’s take on AI agents could come in January

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 22:28:09 +0000

OpenAI could release an “AI agent” tool as soon as January. That’s according to Bloomberg, which reports that OpenAI is close to launching software, code-named “Operator,” that can take direct actions on a person’s computer. OpenAI is said to be planning to initially launch Operator as a research preview through its developer API. Operator would […]

This generative AI startup is strapping cameras to people’s backs

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 18:33:34 +0000

A startup is training an AI system that it claims will enable creators to generate cinematic worlds, with complete control over the scenery, characters, lighting, and motion. How? By having humans strap cameras to their backs and hike around the world. Odyssey, founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke (Cameron was previously the […]

This Week in AI: Anthropic’s CEO talks scaling up AI and Google predicts floods

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 18:05:00 +0000

Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. On Monday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sat in for a five-hour podcast interview with AI influencer Lex Fridman. The two covered a range of topics, from timelines for superintelligence to progress on Anthropic’s next flagship tech. […]

AMD lays off 4% of its workforce

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 17:03:26 +0000

AMD has confirmed that it’s laying off 4% of its workforce to focus on “large growth opportunities.” It’s unclear how many workers have been impacted by the reduction — and which divisions. AMD had roughly 26,000 employees as of last year, according to the company’s annual 10-K filing. Four percent would translate to approximately 1,000. […]

Perplexity brings ads to its platform

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 13 Nov 2024 04:18:23 +0000

AI-powered search engine Perplexity says it’ll begin experimenting with ads on its platform starting this week. The site will be showing ads in the U.S. to start, and they’ll be formatted as “sponsored follow-up questions,” (e.g. “How can I use LinkedIn to enhance my job search?”). These ads will be positioned to the side of […]

Anysphere acquires Supermaven to beef up Cursor

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 20:11:34 +0000

Anysphere, the company behind AI-powered code editor Cursor, has acquired AI coding assistant Supermaven for an undisclosed sum. Anysphere CEO Michael Truell announced the deal in a post on Cursor’s blog. Supermaven, he said, will enable Anysphere to launch a new version of its Tab AI model that’s “fast, context-aware, and highly intelligent,” especially at sequences […]

Generative AI startup Writer raises $200M at a $1.9B valuation

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 14:09:44 +0000

Writer has raised $200 million at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand its enterprise-focused generative AI platform. The Series C round was co-led by Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, and ICONIQ Growth, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Adobe Ventures, B Capital, Citi Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Workday Ventures. Writer CEO May Habib says the new cash, […]

ScaleOps aims to take the frustration out of cloud management

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 14:00:07 +0000

ScaleOps, an automated cloud management platform, has closed a $58 million Series B, bringing its total raised to $80 million.

Amazon attempts to lure AI researchers with $110M in grants and credits

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 12 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

There’s an AI chip battle brewing among the major cloud vendors. Google’s Trillium, a custom chip for training and running AI models, recently entered preview, and Microsoft’s Maia is expected to follow in short order. Not to be outdone, Amazon Web Services has AI chips, too: Trainium, Inferentia, and Graviton. In an effort to draw […]