Amazon says that Alexa+ is ‘model agnostic’

February 26, 2025

Amazon says that the new and improved Alexa unveiled on Wednesday, Alexa+, is powered by a “model agnostic” system that’s always using the “best” AI model for any given task. Onstage at a press event in NYC, Amazon VP Daniel Rausch said that Alexa+ draws on Bedrock, Amazon’s cloud platform designed to let organizations experiment […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Continue wants to help developers create and share custom AI coding assistants

February 26, 2025

A new startup wants to help developers create customized, contextual coding assistants that can connect with any model and integrate seamlessly with their development environments. Founded in June 2023 by CEO Ty Dunn and CTO Nate Sesti (pictured above), Y Combinator alum Continue has already garnered some 23,000 stars on GitHub and 11,000 Discord community […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Oliver Cameron talks about going up against incumbents at TechCrunch Sessions: AI

February 26, 2025

TechCrunch Sessions: AI, taking place on June 5 at Zellerbach Hall in UC Berkeley, will feature a panel discussing how startups can compete against established rivals in the AI industry. The panel, “How to Launch a Product Against Entrenched Incumbents,” will look at ways small companies are managing to stay relevant in a fast-paced and […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Capim, a Brazilian BNPL startup for dental services, lands a $26.7M Series A

February 26, 2025

Capim, a startup offering Brazilians the option to buy now, pay later (BNPL) for dental services, has raised $26.7 million in Series A funding, it tells TechCrunch exclusively. Founded in July 2021 by Marcelo Lutz and Roberto Biselli, who serve as co-CEOs, Sao Paulo-based Capim describes itself as a vertical SaaS company specializing in the […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Alexa+ can work with Prime Video and Fire TV to ‘jump to a scene’ in a movie

February 26, 2025

As part of the new Alexa+ experience Amazon introduced on Wednesday, the smart assistant will gain the ability to navigate through movies on Prime Video on your behalf. Thanks to integrations between Alexa, Prime Video, and Fire TV, Alexa+, as the upgraded assistant is called, will be able to “jump to a scene” in a […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Amazon unveils a new and improved Alexa, Alexa+

February 26, 2025

At an event in NYC on Wednesday, Amazon announced an upgraded Alexa experience powered by generative AI. Onstage, Amazon’s devices and services chief Panos Panay called it a “complete architecture” of the AI assistant. “[W]hile the vision of Alexa has been ambitious and remains incredibly compelling, until right this moment, right this moment, we have […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

YouTube surpasses 1B monthly podcast viewers

February 26, 2025

YouTube continues to assert its dominance in the podcasting space, presenting significant competition to both Spotify and Apple Podcasts. In an announcement on Wednesday, the platform revealed it has surpassed 1 billion monthly active podcast viewers.  This milestone highlights YouTube’s popularity in the podcast industry and emphasizes consumer preference for video-first formats. Last year, YouTube […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Microsoft finalizes its EU sovereign cloud project

February 26, 2025

Microsoft says that it has completed a multi-year project to allow Europe-based customers using its cloud services to store and process data in the EU. The project, the EU Data Boundary for the Microsoft Cloud, began in January 2023, went on for two more years, and finally wrapped up this February, Microsoft said. With its […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google makes it easier to delete personal info from Search results

February 26, 2025

Google announced on Wednesday that it’s updating its “Results about you” tool to make it easier for users to protect and remove their personal information from Search results. The company says it’s improved the sign-up process and simplified requesting removals directly from Google Search. The tool can be used to proactively monitor and delete things […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.