Meta launches new program to improve speech and translation AI

Meta is launching a new program in partnership with UNESCO to collect speech recordings and transcriptions the company said will help the development of future openly available AI. The program, the Language Technology Partner Program, is seeking collaborators who can contribute more than 10 hours

Swiggy, 2024’s biggest tech listing, falls below its IPO price and 2022 valuation

Indian food delivery company Swiggy’s stock fell below both its IPO price and its last private valuation as mounting losses and a wavering market position in quick commerce pressured its margins in the last quarter. On Thursday, the food delivery company’s stock fell as low as ?374.8

Sprinklr cuts 500 employees, citing underwhelming business performance

Sprinklr, a U.S. firm providing a customer experience management platform to global brands, has laid off about 15% of its workforce — around 500 employees — due to business performance not meeting expectations, the company confirmed to technewss. The new layoffs come less than a year aft

Carried interest repeal could stifle investments in startups, NVCA says

On Thursday, President Trump asked Republican lawmakers to end tax breaks on carried interest.  The tax break allows private equity and venture fund managers to treat their earnings from investments at a lower capital gains rate, rather than as ordinary income.  The remo

Orgs demand action to mitigate AI’s environmental harm

A group of more than 100 organizations has published an open letter calling on the AI industry and regulators to mitigate the tech’s harmful environmental impacts just days before leading industry CEOs, heads of state, academics, and nonprofits descend on Paris for a major AI conference. The

Amazon doubles down on AI with a massive $100B spending plan for 2025

Despite all the buzz last week that DeepSeek would herald in an era of lower AI budgets, there is zero sign that Big Tech is slowing down. Instead, they're ramping things up.  Amazon is the latest tech giant to announce a massive AI spending plan, with well over $100 billion in predicted

Early Meta employee sues for sexual harassment, gender discrimination  

One of Meta's earliest employees is suing the company for sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and retaliation, according to a lawsuit filed this week in the state of Washington. Kelly Stonelake, who spent 15 years at the company and rose to the rank of director, alleges in the lawsuit she f

Pour one out for Cruise and why autonomous vehicle test miles dropped 50%

Welcome back to technewss Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click technewss Mobility! We knew this day was coming: Cruise is dead — at least as a robotaxi company. General Motors completed its acquisition of GM C

Tinder will try AI-powered matching as the dating app continues to lose users

Tinder hopes to reverse its ongoing decline in active users by turning to AI. In the coming quarter, the Match-owned dating app will roll out new AI-powered features for discovery and matching. The addition aims to offer fatigued singles an alternative to the “swipe” that defined the da

Tracking the EV battery factory construction boom across North America

The onshoring of battery manufacturing for EVs started as a trickle during the COVID-19 pandemic. Then it turned into a tsunami. In 2019, just two battery factories were operating in the United States with another two under construction. Today there are about 34 battery factories either planned, u

Tesla Dojo: Elon Musk’s big plan to build an AI supercomputer, explained

For years, Elon Musk has talked about Dojo — the AI supercomputer that will be the cornerstone of Tesla's AI ambitions. It's important enough to Musk that in July 2024, he said the company's AI team would “double down” on Dojo in the lead-up to Tesla's robotaxi reveal, which h

Google is adding digital watermarks to images edited with Magic Editor AI

Google on Thursday announced that effective this week, it will begin adding a digital watermark to images in Photos that are edited with generative AI. The watermark applies specifically to images that are altered using the Reimagine feature found in Magic Editor on Pixel 9 devices. Announced in 2

Snapchat+ subscribers can now create custom AI-generated stickers

In a bid to boost its subscription service and attract more paying users, Snapchat is rolling out additional features for Snapchat+ subscribers, including allowing Snapchat+ subscribers to create AI-generated stickers in chats. The social media company is also adding the option to send self-destruc

Ford goes protectionist as EV losses top $5B

Ford CEO Jim Farley has a question about President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China: Why stop there? Farley said in a conference call Wednesday that Trump’s selective approach “doesn’t make sense.” “Why