Wade Norris wanted to create a life-changing project at Google. He co-founded Google Lens, a computer vision app that displays object information. It didn’t satisfy. Norris and aerospace systems engineer Scott Baron founded SnapCalorie, a health-focused startup, several years ago. AI-powered SnapCalorie estimates a meal’s calories and macronutrients from a …

Inflection, a well-funded AI startup aiming to create “personal AI for everyone,” revealed the large language model powering its Pi conversational agent. Competition is good, but it’s hard to objectively and systematically assess these things’ quality. As measured by computing power used to train them, Inflection-1 is roughly GPT-3.5 (AKA …

After two years, Spotify will launch its HiFi tier with lossless music streaming through a “Supremium” plan later this year, which may cost more than $9.99 per month. Bloomberg reported that the company is launching this new plan to boost revenue and appease investors seeking a price increase. The non-U.S. …

Reddit CEO Steve Huffman is unfazed by platform API protests. Huffman told The Verge, NBCNews, and NPR that the API was not designed to support third-party apps. In these interviews, the Reddit co-founder discussed protesting moderators, site rules, and profitability. The platform’s CEO seems unmoved by the community’s strongest backlash. …

A four-week-old startup has raised $113 million to compete with OpenAI in building, training, and applying large language models and generative AI. Paris-based Mistral AI, co-founded by Google DeepMind and Meta alumni, will focus on open source solutions and enterprises to solve what CEO Arthur Mensch calls the biggest challenge …

The most popular VTubers, online personalities who use motion-capture-powered manga- and anime-inspired avatars to interact with the world alongside games, over YouTube, and elsewhere, have hundreds of millions of hours of viewership per month, loyal fan bases, lucrative sponsorships, and demand for more. Big tech appears to be taking notice. …

Reddit’s controversial API pricing change that’s driving third-party apps out of business has taken a strange turn. In an AMA today, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman, aka u/spez, doubled down on accusations against the developer of the popular third-party app Apollo, which the company had previously accused of operating …

Apollo, a popular third-party Reddit app, will close on June 30, 2023, due to Reddit’s new API pricing plans, which would cost Apollo $20 million per year to operate. This is unsustainable for an indie developer. Christian Selig, the app’s creator, was one of the first to point out that …

Theranos was worth $10 billion ten years ago. Wire fraud indicted her five years ago. Holmes began her 11-year-and-3-month sentence today. A defendant is usually convicted and imprisoned soon after indictment. Holmes’ legal team has played every card to delay her fall, which was once hailed as the next Steve …

Productivity app Portal’s Mac app launched. With vivid backgrounds and natural sounds, the company helps customers focus and work better. The PC and iOS apps share goals. The company reported over a million app downloads. The native Mac program, compatible with Apple silicon, targets professionals who work from home and …