This weekend marks exactly two years since Russia’s illegal, unprovoked and brutal invasion of Ukraine. Despite overwhelming odds and continued hiccups in the supplies of Western aid to fight off Russia’s onslaught, the country and its tech startup ecosystem has literally soldiered on, becoming a […]
Month: February 2024
‘Embarrassing and wrong’: Google admits it lost control of image-generating AI
Google has apologized (or come very close to apologizing) for another embarrassing AI blunder this week, an image-generating model that injected diversity into pictures with a farcical disregard for historical context. While the underlying issue is perfectly understandable, Google blames the model for “becoming” oversensitive. […]
Google is sunsetting the Google Pay app in the US later this year
Google has announced that Google Pay is shutting down in the United States in June, as the standalone app has largely been replaced by Google Wallet. The company says the move is designed to simplify its payment apps. After the standalone app shuts down in […]
Treating a chatbot nicely might boost its performance — here’s why
People are more likely to do something if you ask nicely. That’s a fact most of us are well aware of. But do generative AI models behave the same way? To a point. Phrasing requests in a certain way — meanly or nicely — can […]
Reddit cites r/WallStreetBets as a risk factor in its IPO filing
As Reddit finally files to go public, the company wrote in its S-1 filing that “meme stock” schemes on r/WallStreetBets could pose a risk to investors. The subreddit r/WallStreetBets, a community of retail traders with 15 million members, describes itself as being “like 4chan found […]
As Techstars retools, some former staffers say it lost focus on what made it successful
Well-known accelerator group Techstars announced a slew of changes to its operations this week, including the shuttering of some of its city-based programs. Criticism from former members of its decisions lit social media channels who argued that the famed startup accelerator has lost focus on […]
Virtual Staging AI helps Realtors digitally furnish rooms within seconds
House staging is a significant part of the real estate industry, and while Realtors have traditionally staged houses physically before posting a listing, it’s an expensive and time-consuming process. A startup called Virtual Staging AI is making it possible for Realtors to virtually stage a […]
The AIs are officially out of control
Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge When you ask an AI bot for an image of the Founding Fathers or a group of German soldiers from 1943, you expect… something. You probably don’t expect what Google Gemini has been delivering, which is a set of […]
How Coda envisions growth for alternative web shops | Shane Happach interview
Coda launched Activision Blizzard’s Call of Duty: Mobile Web Store, improving mobile game profits and restoring connections with players.
The latest experimental Threads features let you save drafts and take photos in-app
Meta is currently testing a couple of capabilities for Threads, which Instagram head Adam Mosseri describes as some of the “most requested” features for the social network. One of these experimental features is the ability to save drafts. Users will be easily able to save […]