Artificial Intelligence

Humanoid robots are a timeless concept, but their popularity fluctuates over time. Tesla’s Optimus prototype has reignited the debate over general-purpose robot form, efficacy, and viability. In an interview this week, Boston Dynamics founder Marc Raibert said, “I thought that they’d gotten a lot more done than I expected, and …

Contract lifecycle management tools offer VCs great potential. Two years ago, contract-drafting, management, and review software startups raised over $70 million in venture equity. Contract lifecycle management, or CLM, is growing fast compared to customer relationship management ($44.9 billion in 2023). Legal tech spending—including CLM—will triple by 2025, according to …

Wunderkind, a platform that lets brands target web visitors with emails, texts, and other digital ads, raised $76 million in a Series C round led by Neuberger Berman, a financial services company. Bill Ingram, Wunderkind’s new CEO, says the tranche, which brings Wunderkind’s total raised to over $150 million, will …

Twitter’s workforce has shrunk from 7,500 to 2,000, and last year’s layoffs eliminated the accessibility team. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) urged Elon Musk to reinstate the accessibility team in an open letter. “Not surprisingly, since you shut down Twitter’s Accessibility Team, disabled users have reported increased difficulty and frustration using …

After announcing a new division to combat tech “snake oil,” the FTC warned the overzealous industry to “keep your AI claims in check.” I wrote five years ago that “AI Powered” is the meaningless tech equivalent of “all natural,” but it has gone beyond cheeky. Most products claim to use …

Every company wants in on the generative AI wave. Meta is testing AI-powered products. Mark Zuckerberg said Facebook is creating “a new top-level product group” to integrate generative AI into its billion-user services. Zuckerberg said the team will initially build creative tools but eventually create “AI personas that can help …

Google’s Pixel Watch fall detection feature is available today. Motion sensors and on-device machine learning detect hard falls and connect users to help. Since the Apple Watch Series 4 launched in 2018, Apple has offered fall detection. Google announced during Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. Pixel Watch users can …

USMS says a ransomware attack exposed sensitive law enforcement data, including investigation targets’ personal information. The USMS is in charge of all law enforcement in the federal justice system. This includes the federal witness protection program and the transportation of prisoners. The U.S. Marshals Service found “ransomware and data exfiltration” …

Meta announced today that it is giving money to a new nonprofit called Take It Down. Take It Down will work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to discourage people under the age of 18 from posting personal photos online.The internet application works like a Facebook …

Google unveiled several new Android, Chromebook, and Wear OS features to boost connectivity, productivity, and accessibility. MWC, which begins today in Barcelona, was the occasion for the announcement. New features include Chromebook Quick Pair compatibility, Google Keep shortcuts for phones and smartwatches, and Wear OS accessibility modes. Quick Pair will …