Duolingo ‘killed’ its mascot with a Cybertruck, and it’s going weirdly well
Duolingo’s mascot, Duo the owl, is dead. Okay, Duo isn’t really dead (we think), but the language learning app committed so hard to this bit that its CEO, Luis von Ahn, read a eulogy for this beloved green bird on TikTok.
As any fiction author could probably tell you, killing everyone&
Open source LLMs hit Europe’s digital sovereignty roadmap
Large language models (LLMs) landed on Europe’s digital sovereignty agenda with a bang last week, as news emerged of a new program to develop a series of “truly” open source LLMs covering all European Union languages.
This includes the current 24 official EU languages, as well as
Uber sues DoorDash, alleging anti-competitive tactics
Ride-share giant Uber filed a lawsuit Friday against DoorDash, accusing the delivery outfit of stifling competition by intimidating restaurant owners into exclusive deals.
Uber alleges in the lawsuit, filed in Superior Court of California, that its chief rival bullied restaurants into only working
SailPoint's dull debut did little to loosen the stuck IPO window, expert says
SailPoint's IPO on Thursday was a disappointment for anyone hoping it would indicate that tech IPOs are hot again.
The first day's trading ended below the $23 initial price. The stock fared a tad better Friday, closing at over $24. But that's nothing close to the big bang companies an
Hotstar and JioCinema merge into JioHotstar as Reliance tightens grip on streaming in India
Hotstar and JioCinema, two widely used video streaming apps in India, have merged into JioHotstar.
JioStar, a joint venture between Reliance-owned Viacom18 and Star India, said Friday it had integrated JioCinema’s vast library of content into a revamped version of Disney’s Hotstar plat
UK drops ‘safety’ from its AI body, now called AI Security Institute, inks MOU with Anthropic
The U.K. government wants to make a hard pivot into boosting its economy and industry with AI, and as part of that, it's pivoting an institution that it founded a little over a year ago for a very different purpose. Today the Department of Science, Industry and Technology announced that it woul
Google Gemini now brings receipts to your AI chats
Google’s Gemini AI chatbot can now tailor answers based on the contents of previous conversations, the company announced in a blog post on Thursday. Gemini can summarize a previous conversation you’ve had with it, or recall info you shared in another conversation thread.
This means you
Anduril takes control of Microsoft’s $22B VR military headset program
The Army plans to grant upstart weapons maker Anduril control of one of its highest-profile and long-troubled projects known as the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) pending final Department of Defense (DoD) approval, founder Palmer Luckey announced in a blog post Tuesday.
IVAS was init
Built on Bluesky, Pinksky brings its Instagram-like app to Android
Bluesky users on Android now have access to a new app that works more like Instagram than X. On Tuesday, an app called Pinksky launched an Android version of its photo-centric social networking experience built on top of Bluesky.
The app is now one of many attempting to court former Instagram user
Zeta valued at $2B in new funding
Zeta, a provider of banking software to banks and fintech startups, has raised $50 million from a strategic investor at a $2 billion valuation.
The new investment from American healthcare company Optum marks a 70% increase in the Bengaluru-based startup’s valuation from the $1.15 billion pri
Apple fixes iPhone and iPad bug used in an ‘extremely sophisticated attack’
On Monday, Apple released updates for its mobile operating systems for iOS and iPadOS, which fixed a flaw that the company said “may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.”
In the release notes for iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1, the compa
Andrew Ng is ‘very glad’ Google dropped its AI weapons pledge
Andrew Ng, the founder and former leader of Google Brain, supports Google’s recent decision to drop its pledge not to build AI systems for weapons.
“I’m very glad that Google has changed its stance,” Ng said during an onstage interview Thursday evening with technewss at th
Hiveclass, a platform for virtual PE classes for kids, raises $1.5M
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020 and schools transitioned to online learning, both Joe Titus and Paul Suhr were concerned about how to maintain their children’s activity levels in the absence of mandatory physical education classes and sports.
The two friends' solution was Hivec
SoftBank could soon buy Renee James’ Ampere chip company for about $6.5B
Ampere, the semiconductor business founded by former Intel exec Renee James, is reportedly on the cusp of selling itself to SoftBank — the latest in an ongoing saga over the company’s future ownership.
The deal could value Ampere at about $6.5 billion, Bloomberg reports. That’s a pri