Databricks spent $10M on new DBRX generative AI model, but it can’t beat GPT-4

March 27, 2024

If you wanted to raise the profile of your major tech company and had $10 million to spend, how would you spend it? On a Super Bowl ad? An F1 sponsorship? You could spend it training a generative AI model. While not marketing in the traditional sense, generative models are attention grabbers — and increasingly […]

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Amazon fined in Poland for dark pattern design tricks

March 27, 2024

Amazon has been fined in Poland for misleading consumers about the conclusion of sales contracts on its online marketplace. The sanction, of close to $8M (or in local currency: PLN 31,850,141), also calls out the e-commerce giant for deceptive design elements which may inject a false sense of urgency into the purchasing process and mislead […]

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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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