December 20, 2024

Pairing live support with accurate AI outputs

A live agent spends hours each week manually documenting routine interactions. Another combs through multiple knowledge bases to find the right solution, scrambling to piece it together while the customer waits on hold. A third types out the same response they’ve written dozens of times before. These repetitive tasks can be draining, leaving less time…

Four things you need to know about China’s AI talent pool 

March 27, 2024
This story first appeared in China Report, MIT Technology Review’s newsletter about technology in China. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Tuesday. In 2019, MIT Technology Review covered a report that shined a light on how fast China’s AI talent pool was growing. Its main finding was pretty interesting: the number of elite AI…

The problem with plug-in hybrids? Their drivers.

March 27, 2024
Plug-in hybrids are supposed to be the best of both worlds—the convenience of a gas-powered car with the climate benefits of a battery electric vehicle. But new data suggests that some official figures severely underestimate the emissions they produce.  According to new real-world driving data from the European Commission, plug-in hybrids produce roughly 3.5 times…

New study of unicorn founders finds most are ‘underdogs,’ and female founders are rising

March 27, 2024

A new study that zeros-in on the founders of so-called “Unicorns” (companies worth over a billion dollars) has found most have “underdog” founders, are often drawn from the top 10 universities, a rising female founder make-up, but no obvious monopoly at Seed stage of funding for VCs. The study (“Unicorn Founder DNA Report) by Defiance […]

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African B2B e-commerce giant Wasoko marked down to $260M after VC halves stake

March 27, 2024

VNV Global, a Swedish investment firm that backs startups in mobility, health and marketplaces, slashed the value of its holding in Wasoko, an African B2B e-commerce startup, by 48%, according to its annual report for 2023.  In its annual report, VNV set Wasoko’s fair value at around $260 million as of December 2023, the month that […]

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Rabbit partners with ElevenLabs to power voice commands on its device

March 27, 2024

Hardware maker Rabbit has tapped a partnership with ElevenLabs to power voice commands on its devices. Rabbit is set to ship the first set of r1 devices next month after getting a ton of attention at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at the start of the year. The Rabbit r1 will ship with ElevenLabs’ tech, […]

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Marissa Mayer’s startup just rolled out apps for group photo sharing and event planning, and the internet isn’t sure what to think

March 27, 2024

When Marissa Mayer co-founded a startup six years ago in Palo Alto, Ca., expectations were sky high for the former Yahoo CEO and early Google employee. When that startup, Sunshine, revealed that its first app centered around subscription software for contact management, people wondered if something more ambitious might be around the corner. Today, after […]

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PayPal backs Indonesian insurance startup Qoala in $47M funding

March 27, 2024

PayPal Ventures’ latest investment is in an Indonesian startup that provides personal insurance products covering a variety of risks, including accidents, phone screen damage, and ticket cancellations. Qoala has secured $47 million in a new round co-led by PayPal Ventures and MassMutual Ventures, the five-year-old startup said Wednesday. MUFG Innovation Partners, Omidyar Network as well […]

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