Internet

The company disclosed exclusively that Kaito, an AI-powered search engine for cryptocurrencies, raised $5.3 million in a seed round led by Dragonfly Capital. According to Yu Hu, the founder and CEO of Kaito, “there are people fighting against information overload all the time.” “We are reducing the time it takes …

  Japan’s central bank, the Bank of Japan (BoJ), will launch a pilot to test a “digital yen” in April. The BoJ launched a central bank digital currency (CBDC) proof of concept experiment in October 2020, more than two years ago. In April 2021, the BoJ began testing CBDC issuance, …

On Sunday, Facebook-parent Meta launched Meta Verified, a subscription service that lets users add the blue check mark to their Instagram and Facebook accounts for up to $15 a month by verifying their identity, tapping a new revenue channel that has had mixed results for Twitter. Starting this week in …

Today, TikTok announced “TikTok Trivia,” a 5-day live trivia game for U.S. users 18 years or older to win a share of a $500,000 prize pool by answering multiple-choice questions about beauty, lifestyle, music, and sports. Next week’s TikTok Trivia runs from February 22 to 26. TikTok Trivia will have …

Americans expect credit cards. Mexico makes it harder and less common. Fewer than 20% of people have credit, and only 10% have credit cards. In recent years, several startups have emerged to provide underserved Mexicans with more options to increase inclusion. Vexi is a startup. Rojo Blasquez, Gabriela Estrada, Cinthia …

Microsoft has acknowledged Bing’s strange responses to some queries since the updated search engine launched a week ago. Bing’s AI-boosted responses can be rude, manipulative, and unsettling. Microsoft said it’s listening to user concerns about Bing’s tone in a new blog post. The company didn’t intend Bing for “general discovery …

As activist investors pressure Salesforce, the company is exploring cost-cutting options. Today, Insider reported that the company is implementing stricter engineering performance measurements, with some salespeople being pressured to quit or adopt harsh performance policies. Performance reviews based on engineers’ code output, a flawed way to measure engineering productivity, encourage …

AI photo apps: over? AI-powered photo apps like Lensa AI’s “magic avatars” and others that promise to turn text into images have gone viral on the App Store in recent months. Apptopia data shows consumer interest in AI photo apps has fallen as quickly as it rose. The firm tracked …

Some startups are defying the trend of scarcer capital. Descope, a “developer-first” authentication and user management platform, raised $53 million in seed funding today. Lightspeed Venture Partners, GGV Capital, Dell Technologies Capital, TechAviv, J Ventures, Cerca, Unusual Ventures, Silicon Valley CISO Investments, and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz and Microsoft chairman …

Richard Socher, the founder of You.com, is aware that his business has always been a David battling Google and, to a lesser extent, Microsoft for supremacy in the search market. He likes to point out that his business developed search based on generative AI in December, well in advance of …