Author: Advanced AI Editor
May 23 – Ken Gawrelski at Wells Fargo downgraded Reddit (NYSE:RDDT) to Hold, warning that Google’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) AI-powered search features mark the beginning of the end for the social media site. The analyst had maintained a bullish view just two weeks earlier, making his abrupt turnaround notable. He flagged Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode, which deliver direct, summarized answers and could cut clicks to Reddit’s posts. E-A-T standards in Google’s algorithm may further diminish the visibility of anonymous contributions. Logged-out users account for about half of Reddit’s audience but generate only around 15% of ad revenue, leaving the platform…
Scott Solomon’s avatar features in a video developed by UBS for an internal audience.UBS UBS is using AI to create avatar videos from analysts’ notes. 36 analysts covering a range of sectors are taking part in the Swiss bank’s initiative. UBS told Business Insider that clients have been seeking more video options. Banks are using AI to save their analysts’ time while giving clients what they want. Bank of America uses “Banker Assist” to aggregate information to offer insights unique to each client, while Goldman Sachs has a “GS AI Assistant” that functions as an in-house ChatGPT for staff. Swiss…
One of Microsoft’s latest AI models can accurately predict air quality, hurricanes, typhoons, and other weather-related phenomena, the company claims. In a paper published in the journal Nature and an accompanying blog post this week, Microsoft detailed Aurora, which the tech giant says can forecast atmospheric events with greater precision and speed than traditional meteorological approaches. Aurora, which has been trained on more than a million hours of data from satellites, radar and weather stations, simulations, and forecasts, can be fine-tuned with additional data to make predictions for particular weather events. AI weather models are nothing new. Google DeepMind has…
A week after declaring that AI would eventually replace contract workers at the language-learning app, Duolingo’s CEO said the company was “continuing to hire” and would support its existing workers in getting up to speed on the technology. It follows buzzy startup Klarna in backing off an AI-first promise. Language-learning app Duolingo has become the latest company to publicly temper its AI enthusiasm after a series of bold proclamations on AI replacing humans garnered severe criticism. Luis von Ahn, co-founder and CEO, took to LinkedIn on Thursday to walk back a previous stance pushing AI use over human employees. “To…
In the startup world, access to cutting-edge tools isn’t the biggest obstacle — it’s knowing how to wield them with precision. At TechCrunch Sessions: AI, taking place on June 5 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, we’re digging into the frameworks and decisions that determine whether an AI startup can scale — or stall. We’re excited to welcome one of the most tactical voices in that conversation: Iliana Quinonez, Director of North America Startups Customer Engineering at Google Cloud. Impactful conversations are better shared — get up to $300 off your pass and 50% off a guest ticket. Register now to…
As generative AI becomes faster, cheaper, and more convincing, the ethical stakes are no longer theoretical. What happens when the tools to deceive become widely accessible? And how do we build systems that are powerful — but safe enough to trust? At TechCrunch Sessions: AI, taking place June 5 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, Artemis Seaford, Head of AI Safety at ElevenLabs, and Ion Stoica, co-founder of Databricks and professor at UC Berkeley, will take the main stage to unpack the ethical challenges of today’s AI. Their conversation will cut to the heart of one of the most urgent questions…
Church leaders in the US are embracing technology to connect with their communities.Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto Church leaders in the US are investing more in AI and other tech. Some churches are also leveraging cryptocurrency. Over 1,700 church leaders discussed how they view and use technology in a recent report. Don’t have cash for the offering plate at church on Sunday? Just use bitcoin. Weaving bitcoin into the same conversation as Sunday service might seem odd, but it’s now a reality for some churches in the United States, where church leaders are embracing modern technology. Last month, Pushpay, a financial services company…
(Bloomberg) — US prosecutors demanded that Builder.ai hand over financial statements and other documents, signaling that the artificial intelligence company was facing legal scrutiny in the weeks before it went bust. Most Read from Bloomberg Builder.ai’s General Counsel Adi Vinyarsh told employees to preserve documents after the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York requested information including accounting policies and a list of customers, according to an internal company email reviewed by Bloomberg and people familiar with the matter. The request followed reports about the London-based company’s change of leadership and financial issues, according to the May…
From OpenAI’s 4o to Stable Diffusion, AI foundation models that create realistic images from a text prompt are now plentiful. In contrast, foundation models capable of generating full, coherent 3D online environments from a text prompt are only just emerging. Still, it’s only a question of when, not if, these models will become readily available. Now one of Europe’s most prominent AI 3D model researchers, Matthias Niessner, has taken an entrepreneurial leave of absence from his visual computing & AI lab at the Technical University of Munich to found a startup working in the area: SpAItial. Formerly a cofounder at…
Good morning. AI-powered digital labor is fundamentally changing the way work is accomplished. “We have jobs today within our own organization that didn’t exist 60 days ago,” Andy Valenzuela, EVP and COO of employee success at Salesforce, said during the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit last week. The future of work is increasingly collaborative and dynamic, and will be augmented by tools like AI agents—autonomous programs that perform tasks on behalf of users, Valenzuela explained. That requires companies to rethink existing jobs, invest in talent, and maintain organizational flexibility to accommodate agents, he said. In four years, automation for frontline workers…