July 3, 2025

The Download: AI agents hype, and Google’s electricity plans

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. Don’t let hype about AI agents get ahead of reality —Yoav Shoham is a professor emeritus at Stanford University and cofounder of AI21 Labs. At Google’s I/O 2025 event in May, the company…

Technology

D-ID’s new web app gives a face and voice to OpenAI’s ChatGPT

March 7, 2023

D-ID, the Israeli startup behind Deep Nostalgia, announced today that it’s launching the beta version of its new web app that allows users to talk face-to-face with photorealistic AI. The web app, called chat.D-ID, combines D-ID’s text-to-video streaming technology with OpenAI’s ChatGPT to make conversations with AI more accessible. The startup’s CEO and co-founder, Gil […]

D-ID’s new web app gives a face and voice to OpenAI’s ChatGPT by Aisha Malik originally published on TechCrunch

Salesforce plans to incorporate generative AI across the platform

March 7, 2023

Salesforce has been in the news for a lot of non-product reasons of late, so it would be understandable that the company wants to bring the focus back to the business of selling software and away from the machinations of activist investors. Today at the TrailheadDX developer conference, the company announced a generative AI push […]

Salesforce plans to incorporate generative AI across the platform by Ron Miller originally published on TechCrunch

Soci raises $120M in debt and equity to grow its marketing management platform

March 7, 2023

Soci (pronounced “soh-shee”), a marketing automation platform with customers including Ace Hardware, Jersey Mike’s, Pet Supplies Plus and Ford, today announced that it raised $120 million in a financing round led by JMI Equity with participation from Vertical Venture Partners, Blossom Street Ventures and Renew Group Private Limited. Co-founder and CEO Afif Khoury says that […]

Soci raises $120M in debt and equity to grow its marketing management platform by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

This geothermal startup showed its wells can be used like a giant underground battery

March 7, 2023
In late January, a geothermal power startup began conducting an experiment deep below the desert floor of northern Nevada. It pumped water thousands of feet underground and then held it there, watching for what would happen. Geothermal power plants work by circulating water through hot rock deep beneath the surface. In most modern plants, it…

Cartier and Tiffany are getting into AR to sell luxury to Gen Z

March 7, 2023
I recently tried on a Cartier Tank watch and a slew of Tiffany bracelets, watching the metal and diamonds shine in the dim light. I wasn’t at a store, though; I was in my bed, barefoot and in sweatpants, using an AR experience on Snap that let me see how the jewelry looked on my…

Growfin’s AI-based cash collection SaaS expands further to US and Asia

March 7, 2023

Cash management — tracking who needs to pay an invoice and whether it’s been done — can make or break a business. Now, a startup building SaaS software to help finance departments manage this more intelligently is announcing some funding to expand after seeing strong demand. Growfin, a Singapore- and San Francisco–based fintech startup that […]

Growfin’s AI-based cash collection SaaS expands further to US and Asia by Kate Park originally published on TechCrunch