Technology

Let’s not make the same mistakes with AI that we made with social media

March 13, 2024
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. A decade ago, social media was celebrated for sparking democratic uprisings in the Arab world and beyond. Now front pages are splashed with stories of social platforms’ role in misinformation, business conspiracy, malfeasance, and risks to mental health. In a 2022 survey, Americans blamed social media for the coarsening…

Kolet makes travel eSIM cards easier to navigate

March 13, 2024

Kolet is a new French startup created by four experienced co-founders in the French tech ecosystem that wants to make it easier to stay connected when you travel. The company has crafted an interesting distribution strategy for travel eSIM cards and simplified the experience as eSIM remains a confusing technology for most people. Chances are […]

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Remote driving startup Phantom Auto is shutting down

March 12, 2024

Phantom Auto,  a remote driving startup that launched seven years ago amid the buzz of autonomous vehicle technology, is shutting down after failing to secure new funding, TechCrunch has learned. Phantom Auto, which had raised a total of $95 million, developed a teleoperation platform that allowed a remote driver, sometimes located thousands of miles away, […]

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The Download: hacking VR headsets, and contrails to cool the planet

March 12, 2024
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology VR headsets can be hacked with an Inception-style attack In the Christoper Nolan movie Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character uses technology to enter his targets’ dreams to steal information and insert false details into…

DoorDash’s new AI-powered ‘SafeChat+’ tool automatically detects verbal abuse

March 12, 2024

DoorDash hopes to reduce verbally abusive and inappropriate interactions between consumers and delivery people with its new AI-powered feature that automatically detects offensive language. Dubbed “SafeChat+,” DoorDash is leveraging AI technology to review in-app conversations and determine if a customer or Dasher is being harassed. Depending on the scenario, there will be an option to […]

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Building a data-driven health-care ecosystem

March 12, 2024
The application of AI to health-care data has promise to align the U.S. health-care system to quality care and positive health outcomes. But AI for health care hasn’t reached its full capacity.  One reason is the inconsistent quality and integrity of the data that AI depends on. The industry—hospitals, providers, insurers, and administrators—uses diverse systems.…

New startup from Postgres creator puts the database at heart of software stack

March 12, 2024

MIT professor Mike Stonebreaker has been at the forefront of database technology for over 50 years. The former Turing Award winner invented the Ingres and Postgres databases and helped launch a number of companies including Streambase Systems (acquired by Tibco in 2013), VoltDB, Tamr and SciDB. Now 80, he knows a thing or two about […]

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Generative AI video startup Tavus raises $18M to bring face and voice cloning to any app

March 12, 2024

Tavus, a four-year-old generative AI startup that helps companies create digital “replicas” of individuals for automated personalized video campaigns, has confirmed a fresh $18 million in funding and revealed that it’s opening its platform for third-parties to integrate its technology into their own software. Reports emerged back in August that Tavus had raised “about $18 […]

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Why we need better defenses against VR cyberattacks

March 12, 2024
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. I remember the first time I tried on a VR headset. It was the first Oculus Rift, and I nearly fainted after experiencing an intense but visually clumsy VR roller-coaster. But…