People send themselves messages on messaging apps. So much so that WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram have bookmarking and note-taking features. Willem de Beijer created Qept, an iOS note-taking app, for the “DM-to-yourself” phenomenon. The developer said that while popular chat apps offer self-texting, Qept is better at note-taking organization and …

Some of India’s biggest fintech startups are expanding into soundboxes, whose chimes are becoming millions of Indian merchants’ new “ka-ching.” Paytm, which leads the market with over 7 million merchants, launched an advanced soundbox that accepts Rupay, Visa, Mastercard, and American Express. The device allows cardholders to tap and pay …

YouTube Music recently redesigned its “Now Playing” screen, adding a comments section where users can read and write comments from the app. The latest update adds larger cover art, accessible buttons, and more. A company spokesperson said iOS and Android devices will get the redesign today. YouTube Music added a …

Google removed Chamet, a popular but controversial live video chat app, from the Play Store. Reported that the app violated its user-generated content (UGC) policy. The company did not comment but cited its policy that “Apps whose primary purpose is featuring objectionable UGC will be removed from Google Play.” The …

OpenAI wants ChatGPT in classrooms, despite its high risk of misuse and confusion. The company has suggested ways for teachers to use the system beyond its traditional role as a research assistant for procrastinating students. Dubious use case of unknown prevalence: plagiarism makes the chatbot controversial. Teachers worldwide have caught …

Inalife, a new startup, has created a digital legacy platform to help families preserve their memories, create an interactive family tree, and record messages for future generations, such as when a baby turns 18. The Hong Kong-based company launched its desktop app in July, attracting a few hundred users. Next …

A global law enforcement operation dismantled the Qakbot botnet this week, the largest U.S.-led financial and technical disruption of a botnet infrastructure. Qakbot, a banking trojan, is notorious for giving other hackers access to a victim’s network to install ransomware. In 18 months, Qakbot has enabled over 40 ransomware attacks …

BeFake, an AI-augmented social network based on Gen Z app BeReal, raised $3 million in seed funding. The app’s name, a play on BeReal’s authentic photo sharing among friends, implies the opposite. BeFake users grab photos with both the front and back cameras and customize them with AI using in-app …

Meta released FACET, a new AI benchmark, today to assess the “fairness” of AI models that classify and detect objects and people in photos and videos. FACET, a tortured acronym for “Fairness in Computer Vision EvaluaTion” with 32,000 images of 50,000 people labeled by human annotators, accounts for occupations and …

Walden Catalyst, Pitango, SCB10X, b2venture, Samsung Next, and Intel-owned Mobileye founder Amnon Shashua led a $155 million Series C funding round for Tel Aviv-based AI21 Labs, which develops text-generating AI tools. Google and Nvidia joined. AI21 Labs’ total raised $283 million values the company at $1.4 billion, up from The …