June 25, 2025

Meta is adding AI-powered summaries to WhatsApp

Meta announced on Wednesday that it’s adding an AI-powered summaries feature to WhatsApp. The optional new feature uses Meta AI to summarize unread messages in a chat. This summary would only be visible to you, not others in your chat, the company notes. The feature builds on the AI technology that Meta released in April, […]

Apple won’t be forced to open iMessage to rivals, EU decides, as it also lets three Microsoft services off DMA hook

February 13, 2024

Apple won’t be forced to make iMessage interoperate with WhatsApp and other messaging rivals after all, nor will Microsoft face tighter controls on how it can operate its search engine Bing in the European Union after the bloc’s lawmakers concluded the services do not meet the bar for designation under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). […]

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Is a Soft Retirement the Right Move for You?

February 13, 2024
When you picture your retirement, what comes to mind? You might envision yourself relaxing on a beach, spending time with family, traveling the world, or participating more in your favorite…

Why Big Tech’s watermarking plans are some welcome good news

February 13, 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. This week I am happy to bring you some encouraging news from the world of AI. Following the depressing Taylor Swift deepfake porn scandal and the proliferation of political deepfakes, such as AI-generated robocalls…

AI-powered Estonian QA startup Klaus acquired by Zendesk

February 13, 2024

Klaus – an Estonian-born startup which emerged in 2019 to aid customer services agents – has been acquired by global customer services platform Zendesk for an undisclosed amount. Last year Zendesk also acquired Tymeshift, a workforce management tool, to fold into its product. It would be remiss of us not to mention that the downturn in […]

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EU AI Act secures committees’ backing ahead of full parliament vote

February 13, 2024

The European Parliament’s civil liberties (LIBE) and internal market (IMCO) committees have overwhelmingly endorsed draft legislation setting out a risk-based framework for regulating applications of artificial intelligence. In a vote this morning the committees voted 71-8 (with 7 abstentions) in favor of the compromise negotiated with EU Member States at the back end of last […]

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How environmental DNA is giving scientists a new way to understand our world

February 13, 2024
In the late 1980s, at a federal research facility in Pensacola, Florida, Tamar Barkay used mud in a way that proved revolutionary in a manner she could never have imagined at the time: a crude version of a technique that is now shaking up many scientific fields. Barkay had collected several samples of mud —…

African product, global market: Expensya employees cashed out $10M from 2023 acquisition

February 13, 2024

What’s more rewarding for an angel investor than paper returns in a startup? An acquisition that turns those paper returns into a cash payout while still maintaining shares in the company. “The return after dilution was eight times my investment,” said Selma Ribica in an interview with TechCrunch recently. “I kept some stock of the […]

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Finom, a European challenger bank for SMEs, raises $54M

February 13, 2024

Finom, a European challenger bank aimed at SMEs and freelancers, has raised €50 million ($54 million) in a Series B equity round of funding. Founded out of the Netherlands in 2019, Finom lets businesses open up an online bank account in minutes and receive an IBAN (International Bank Account Number) to support cross-border transactions. On […]

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FCC commissioner pushes to investigate Apple’s decision to block Beeper Mini

February 13, 2024

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr said Monday that the agency should investigate Apple over the company’s decision to block the Beeper Mini service, which worked on bringing iMessage to Android. Pebble founder Eric Migicovsky’s Beeper launched a new service called Beeper Mini in December, which claimed to have reverse-engineered the iMessage stack to make it work on […]

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