Sarah Tavel, Benchmark’s first woman GP, transitions to venture partner
Eight years after joining Benchmark as the firm’s first woman general partner, Sarah Tavel announced on X that she is transitioning to a more limited role at the storied venture firm.
In her new position as a venture partner, Tavel will continue to make investments and serve on existing comp
Meta’s LlamaCon was all about undercutting OpenAI
On Tuesday, Meta held its first-ever AI developer conference, LlamaCon, at its Menlo Park, California, headquarters. The company announced the launch of a consumer-facing Meta AI chatbot app, which will compete with ChatGPT, as well as a developer-facing API for accessing Llama models in the cloud.
Figure AI sent cease-and-desist letters to secondary markets brokers
Last month, Brett Adcock, founder of robotics startup Figure AI, claimed in a post on X that his company “is now # 1 most sought-after private stock in the secondary market.”
But the company has sent cease-and-desist letters to at least two brokers who run secondary marketplaces, those
Startups launch products to catch people using AI cheating app Cluely
AI cheating startup Cluely went viral last week with bold claims that its hidden in-browser window is “undetectable” and can be used to “cheat on everything” from job interviews to exams.
But some startups are claiming they can catch Cluely's users. And Cluely says it
Snapchat abandons plans for a simplified version of its app
As part of its Q1 2025 earnings release, Snap said it’s scrapping plans for a simplified version of its app.
The news comes seven months after Snapchat began testing a redesigned version of the app without the Snap Map or Stories tabs. The new version consolidated the app’s navigation
Freepik releases an ‘open’ AI image generator trained on licensed data
Freepik, the online graphic design platform, unveiled a new “open” AI image model on Tuesday that the company says was trained exclusively on commercially licensed, “safe-for-work” images.
The model, called F Lite, contains around 10 billion parameters — parameters being
Google Play sees 47% decline in apps since start of last year
Google Play’s app marketplace is losing apps.
From the start of 2024 to the present, the Android app marketplace went from hosting about 3.4 million apps worldwide to just around 1.8 million, according to a new analysis by app intelligence provider Appfigures. That’s a decline of abou
Troubled startup CaaStle is now facing two new lawsuits and more allegations
CaaStle, the embattled fashion startup whose board of directors accused its founder, Christine Hunsicker, of financial misconduct, is starting to face lawsuits from a partner and a supplier over missed payments and more allegations of fraud.
As first reported by Axios and by suits seen by TechCrun
Amazon’s first 27 internet satellites launch to space
The first 27 satellites in Amazon’s effort to create a space-based internet network have finally made it to orbit, paving the way for the company to attempt to compete with Elon Musk’s well-established Starlink service.
A United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket lifted off late Mon
Meta previews an API for its Llama AI models
At its inaugural LlamaCon AI developer conference on Tuesday, Meta announced an API for its Llama series of AI models: the Llama API.
Available in limited preview, the Llama API lets developers explore and experiment with products powered by different Llama models, per Meta. Paired with Meta̵
Google’s NotebookLM expands its AI podcast feature to more languages
Google’s AI-based note-taking and research assistant NotebookLM is making its Audio Overviews feature available in 76 new languages, the company announced on Tuesday. Audio Overviews launched last year to give users the ability to generate a podcast with AI virtual hosts based on documents th
Google Wallet to add support for digital IDs in more states
Google announced on Tuesday that digital IDs are coming to more states and services in Google Wallet. The company also shared that Wallet is getting a way to privately verify age and that the app is expanding to 50 more countries.
Residents in Arkansas, Montana, Puerto Rico, and West Virginia will
Google launches AI tools for practicing languages through personalized lessons
Google on Tuesday is releasing three new AI experiments aimed at helping people learn to speak a new language in a more personalized way. While the experiments are still in the early stages, it’s possible that the company is looking to take on Duolingo with the help of Gemini, Google’s
Meta launches a stand-alone AI app to compete with ChatGPT
After integrating Meta AI into WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger, Meta is rolling out a stand-alone AI app. Unveiled at Meta’s LlamaCon event on Tuesday, this app allows users to access Meta AI in an app, similar to the ChatGPT app and other AI assistant apps.
To win over users, M