November 8, 2024

The Download: AI vs quantum, and the future of reproductive rights in the US

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. Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch Tech companies have been funneling billions of dollars into quantum computers for years. The hope is that they’ll be a game changer for fields as diverse…

Snapchat introduces new safety features to limit bad actors from contacting users

June 25, 2024

Snapchat on Tuesday announced a new suite of safety features, including updates to its account blocking functionality and enhanced friending safeguards, making it difficult for strangers to contact users on its platform. The new move comes amid concerns over predators exploiting teens on social media apps, which often results in severe incidents, including sextortion. One […]

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Supershoes are reshaping distance running

June 25, 2024
The track at Moi University’s Eldoret Town Campus doesn’t look like a facility designed for champions. Its surface is a modest mix of clay and gravel, and it’s 10 meters longer than the standard 400. Runners use a classroom chair to mark the start and finish. Yet it’s as good a place as any to…

Lego bricks are making science more accessible

June 25, 2024
Etienne Boulter walked into his lab at the Université Côte d’Azur in Nice, France, one morning with a Lego Technic excavator set tucked under his arm. His plan was simple yet ambitious: to use the pieces of the set to build a mechanical cell stretcher.  Boulter and his colleagues study mechanobiology—the way mechanical forces, such…

My colleagues turned me into an AI-powered NPC. I hate him.

June 25, 2024
It feels weird, talking to yourself online.  Especially when you’re pretty much the most unpleasant character you’ve ever met. The “me” I’ve been chatting to this week, called King Fiall of Nirth, is a creation in technology from Inworld AI, a US-based firm that hopes to revolutionize how we interact with characters in games. Specifically,…

SkyCell nabs $59M more for its greener smart pharma transport containers

June 25, 2024

The most urgent moments of the Covid-19 pandemic may be in the past, but the need for fast and secure ways to send valuable, fragile medicines and their components around the world is still very current. SkyCell has developed hardware and software to run that transport process better — and greener, it says — than […]

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Chift lets SaaS companies integrate with dozens of financial tools with a unified API

June 25, 2024

Pennylane, Qonto, Agicap, Pleo and Mollie have one thing in common. They all use Chift in one way or another to manage integrations with other services. And this relatively young Belgium-based startup just raised a €2.3 million seed round ($2.5 million at today’s exchange rate). Many fintech startups rely on integrations to make their product […]

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Connect Money scores $8M to enable non-bank businesses to offer embedded finance services

June 25, 2024

Banking-as-a-service (BaaS) platforms continue to be at the heart of driving access to digital financial services through their technology that offers fintech capabilities to non-bank businesses. Businesses are tapping these platforms to get past difficulties and time-consuming processes, such as building tech infrastructure and acquiring requisite regulatory approvals, to offer financial services such as cards, […]

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Apple shelved the idea of integrating Meta’s AI models over privacy concerns, report says

June 25, 2024

Days after the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple and Meta were in talks to integrate the latter’s AI models, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said that the iPhone maker was not planning any such move. Apple held talks with Meta about the possibility of a partnership when it was also talking with other companies. However, the […]

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