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 …
Read More »Tiki, India’s popular short-video app, to close
Tiki, a short-form video app, will shut down in India on June 27. “Tiki is closing. “Tiki functions and services will cease at 11.59 PM India time, June 27, 2023,” Tiki wrote. Tiki, which featured original and local videos, had 35 million monthly active users in India, its only market, …
Read More »Cost-management startup CloudZero raises $32M
Innovius Capital and Threshold Ventures led CloudZero’s $32 million Series B funding round. CEO Erik Peterson says the tranche will expand CloudZero’s platform and scale its go-to-market efforts, focusing on savings insights and self-service analytics. “The pandemic accelerated digital transformation for many companies, which increased software development and spend in …
Read More »OpenAI, DeepMind, and Anthropic to give UK early access to foundational AI safety models
Prime minister Rishi Sunak announced at London Tech Week that OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Anthropic will provide “early or priority access” to their AI models to support evaluation and safety research. After several AI giants warned about the existential and even extinction-level risks of unregulated AI, Sunak became more interested …
Read More »Former Samsung executive accused of stealing data to build Chinese copycat chip plant
On Monday, South Korean prosecutors accused a former Samsung Electronics executive of stealing semiconductor data to build a Chinese copycat chip facility. The 65-year-old former SK Hynix employee was arrested. From 2018 to 2019, he violated industrial technology protection laws and stole trade secrets to build a copy of Samsung’s …
Read More »Barracuda recommends replacing hacker-vulnerable hardware
Barracuda Networks advised customers to replace vulnerable email gateway appliances following a critical security flaw. As it battles a zero-day flaw exploited by hackers since October, the security, networking, and storage company is providing unusual guidance. Hackers are using CVE-2023-2868, a critical vulnerability, to install “Saltwater” and “SeaSpy” malware on …
Read More »Mercedes sells California’s first autonomous cars
Mercedes-Benz received a permit from California regulators to sell or lease vehicles with a conditional automated driving system for hands-free driving on certain highways. Mercedes-Benz received a deployment permit for its Drive Pilot system from the California DMV on Thursday. The hands-off, eyes-off system can be used on certain California …
Read More »Enterprise Firefly from Adobe
Adobe announced today that enterprise customers can customize its Firefly generative image generator with their own branded assets. In addition, enterprise users will be able to access Firefly from Adobe Express, formerly Adobe Spark. “Enterprise leaders expect content demands to increase by five-fold over the next two years, making it …
Read More »Aave’s Lens Protocol raises $15M for the decentralized social web
Lens Protocol, a web3 product that creates a decentralized social networking ecosystem, raised $15 million, its team told TechCrunch exclusively. Aave, a web3 technology company, is building a protocol that lets users lend and borrow crypto tokens. (Aave raised $49 million.) Aave CEO Stani Kulechov said the protocol aims to …
Read More »Green Coffee Co. invests $25M in Colombia and alcohol
“Colombia’s largest coffee producer” Green Coffee Company raised $25 million in Series C equity funding. Coffee is worth $493 billion worldwide. Smaller coffee companies have emerged alongside legacy brands. I recently reported on Chamberlain Coffee raising venture capital, joining Fellow, Blank Street, and many celebrity coffee brands. Compound Foods and …
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