The US AI Safety Institute stands on shaky ground

One of the only U.S. government offices dedicated to assessing AI safety is in danger of being dismantled if Congress doesn’t choose to authorize it. The U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI), a federal government body that studies risks in AI systems, was created in November 2023 as a part of Pr

Anthropic’s new AI model can control your PC

In a pitch to investors last spring, Anthropic said it intended to build AI to power virtual assistants that could perform research, answer emails, and handle other back-office jobs on their own. The company referred to this as a “next-gen algorithm for AI self-teaching” — one it beli

Ex-SpaceX engineers land $14M to scale new method for 3D printing metal

3D printing objects using metal is a well-established technique, but it tends to be too complex, expensive, or imprecise to match traditional methods at scale. Armed with $14 million from Nvidia and Boeing, Freeform aims to change that by building a new metal additive printing process that it says

Interface.ai raises $30M to help banks field customer requests

Interface.ai, a customer automation platform for banks and other financial institutions, today announced that it closed a $30 million funding round led by Avataar Venture Partners. Twenty million dollars of the round was equity, while the remaining $10 million was in the form of debt. It’s I

Spotify now lets you create custom cover art for your playlists

Spotify is rolling out the ability for users to design and customize their own playlist cover art, the company announced on Tuesday. While users have already been able to upload a custom image for a playlist, this new feature lets you design you own cover art right in the app. The feature is roll

WhatsApp introduces contact storing directly within the app, teases usernames

WhatsApp on Tuesday announced a new feature that will allow users to save contacts within the app. That means that even if you lose your phone or link a new device to your primary number, you will see all your contacts stored within WhatsApp’s cloud storage. Until now, WhatsApp relied on you

Paccurate helps companies ship in smaller boxes, saving them money while helping the earth

Paccurate co-founder and CEO James Malley likes to joke that once you get into supply chain tech, the category doesn’t let you back out. Ten years ago, Malley and Patrick Powers were working together as consultants when they started getting asked the same question over and over. Their client

iPad Mini 2024: Keeping up with the pack

It was a lean few years for the iPad. The tablet fell out of favor with Apple, as the company turned its focus to other categories like mobile, content, wearables, and mixed reality. The same could have been said about the Mac a few years prior, but the laptop/desktop group has had a renaissance in

As Ozlo’s Sleepbuds go on sale, company raises funds for tinnitus treatment

Bose gave up on Sleepbuds after two generations. It was a sad, premature end for a promising product. The headphone maker came closer to creating a truly great pair of sleep headphones than anyone else. Ultimately, however, it seems the company was no longer interested in pursuing the product, whic

Turnover Labs is helping chemical plants to reuse their waste CO2

As petrochemical plants and other emitters look to reduce emissions, they're finding that sopping up and storing all the carbon dioxide they produce doesn't come cheap. First they have to capture it, an energy-intensive process that requires specialized equipment. Then they have to transpor

Socket lands a fresh $40M to scan software for security flaws

"">The software supply chain, which comprises the components and processes used to develop software, has become precarious. According to one recent survey, 88% of companies believe poor software supply chain security presents an “enterprise-wide risk” to their organizations. Open source su

Desktop AI assistant app Highlight spins out of Medal with $10M in funding

Earlier this year, Medal, a startup known for its video game clipping features, launched a cross-platform AI assistant called Highlight. Now the company is spinning off Highlight into a new entity, which has raised $10 million in a funding round. General Catalyst led the funding round with Valor,

Zoom partners with Suki to offer AI-powered medical note-taking

Startups that build AI medical assistants and medical scribes, which save doctors time that they would otherwise spend taking notes and populating medical records, have been booming over the past year. And incumbents now want to get in on the action. On Tuesday, video-conferencing company Zoom sai

CrewAI uses third-party models to automate business tasks

Back in 2022, João Moura was directing AI engineering efforts at Clearbit, a startup creating a unified hub for business intelligence tools. There, Moura was responsible for leading the development of AI integrations, as well as defining Clearbit’s AI product roadmap. After a year, HubSpot