Google TalkBack will use Gemini to describe images for blind people

The company announced that Gemini Nano capabilities are coming to the company's accessibility feature, TalkBack. This is a great example of a company using generative AI to open its software to more users. Gemini Nano is the smallest version of Google's large-language-model-based platform,

Google will soon start using GenAI to organize some search results pages

At the Google I/O 2024 developer conference on Tuesday, Google announced that it plans to use generative AI to organize the entire search results page for some search results. That’s in addition to the existing AI Overview feature, which creates a short snippet with aggregate information abou

Google’s image-generating AI gets an upgrade

"">Google's upgrading its image-generation tech to keep apace with rivals.  At the company’s I/O developer conference in Mountain View on Tuesday, Google announced Imagen 3, the latest in the tech giant’s Imagen generative AI model family. Demis Hassabis, CEO of De

Google’s generative AI can now analyze hours of video

"">Gemini, Google's family of generative AI models, can now analyze longer documents, codebases, videos and audio recordings than before. During a keynote at the Google I/O 2024 developer conference Tuesday, Google announced the private preview of a new version of Gemini 1.5 Pro, the company

Meta is shutting down Workplace, its enterprise communications business

Facebook once had big ambitions to be a major player in enterprise communication and productivity, but today the social network’s parent company Meta will be closing a very significant chapter in that story. technewss has learned that Meta is shuttering Workplace, a version of Facebook that

AWS CEO Adam Selipsky steps down

Adam Selipsky is stepping down from his role as CEO of Amazon Web Services, Amazon has confirmed to technewss.  In a memo shared internally by Amazon CEO Andy Jassy and published this morning to the company’s blog, Jassy said that AWS sales chief Matt Garman will be promoted to CEO. Ga

After surpassing $100M in ARR, Harness grabs a $150M line of credit

Harness isn’t founder Jyoti Bansal's first startup. He sold AppDynamics to Cisco for $3.7 billion in 2017, the week it was supposed to go public. His latest venture has raised $425 million, per Crunchbase. On Tuesday, Harness announced $150 million in debt financing, essentially a line o

Google I/O 2024: What to expect

Developer season has officially commenced, and we're just one day away today, Google I/O 2024 kicks off in Mountain View’s Shoreline Amphitheatre. The short answer to the question of what to expect is two letters: AI. Google I/O? More like Google A/I. There's been an element of artifi

Uber to acquire Foodpanda’s Taiwan unit from Delivery Hero for $950M in cash 

Uber Technologies announced Tuesday that it will buy the Taiwan unit of Delivery Hero’s Foodpanda for $950 million in cash. The deal is part of Uber Eats’ strategy to expand in Asia, specifically by strengthening its position in Taiwan. On the other hand, it also underscores Delive

Google’s 3D video conferencing platform, Project Starline, is coming in 2025 with help from HP

In 2021, Google kicked off work on Project Starline, a corporate-focused teleconferencing platform that uses 3D imaging, cameras and a custom-designed screen to let people converse with someone as if they were in the same room — more or less. Now, after years of testing and private technica

Permira is taking Squarespace private in a $6.9 billion deal

Website builder Squarespace is being taken private by U.K.-based private equity firm Permira in an all-cash deal that gives the company an enterprise valuation of $6.9 billion. Founded in 2004 by CEO Anthony Casalena, Squarespace is best known for its no-code platform designed to help SMEs and fre

Google partners with Airtel to offer cloud and GenAI products to Indian businesses

Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, said on Monday that it has entered into a long-term partnership with Google Cloud to develop and deliver cloud and generative AI products to Indian businesses. The partnership aims to tap Airtel’s extensive customer base, which, accordin

SAP's chief sustainability officer isn't interested in getting your company to do the right thing

SAP chief sustainability officer Sophia Mendelsohn has been on the job since September, but her career really goes back to her time at Columbia where she studied sustainability. Ever since her first job working in China, she observed the connection between prosperity and sustainability. “I’

CoreWeave, a $19B AI compute provider, opens European HQ in London with plans for 2 UK data centers

CoreWeave isn’t hanging around. Hot on the heels of a mega funding round valuing the GPU cloud company at a reported $19 billion, the New Jersey startup has opened an office in London that will serve as its European headquarters. Additionally, Coreweave said that it will open two data center