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WhatsApp is allowing AI providers to continue offering their chatbots to users with Brazilian phone numbers, days after the country’s competition regulator ordered the company to suspend its new policy that bars third-party, general-purpose chatbots from being offered on the app via its business API. Under the new policy, the company is providing a 90-day grace period starting January 15 to developers and AI providers, mandating them to cease responding to user queries on the chat app, and notify users that their chatbots won’t work on WhatsApp. Now, Meta told developers that they don’t have to notify users with Brazilian…
The embattled Tea app is back.Months after being removed from Apple’s App Store in light of major data breaches, the app that allows women to share anonymous Yelp-style reviews of men is relaunching with a new website designed to help women “access dating guardrails without limitation,” Tea’s head of trust and safety Jessica Dees told WIRED.The app, which launched in 2023 and went viral last summer, getting to number 1 on the iOS App Store, lets users post photos of men while also pointing out red flags, such as if they are already partnered or registered sex offenders. But just…
Ethereal Exploration Guild, an Indian space tech better known as EtherealX, has climbed 5.5x in valuation to $80.5 million after its latest funding round. The startup is developing a launch vehicle designed to be fully reusable and is readying engine hot-fire tests ahead of its first technology demonstration flight, planned for 2027. The Bengaluru-based company confirms that it closed an oversubscribed $20.5 million Series A round led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital, as TechCrunch reported earlier. Accel, Prosus, YourNest, BlueHill, Campus Fund, and Riceberg Ventures also participated, EtherealX said. The raise follows a $5 million seed round in August…
Don’t call them hearing aids. They’re hearpieces, intended as a blurring of the lines between hearing aid and earbuds—or “earpieces” in the parlance of Lizn, a Danish operation.The company was founded in 2015, and it haltingly developed its launch product through the 2010s, only to scrap it in 2020 when, according to Lizn’s history page, the hearing aid/earbud combo idea didn’t work out. But the company is seemingly nothing if not persistent, and four years later, a new Lizn was born. The revamped Hearpieces finally made it to US shores in the last couple of weeks.Half DomesPhotograph: Chris NullLizn Hearpieces…
Tesla is removing the option to pay a one-time fee for its Full Self-Driving (Supervised) driver assistance software, CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday. Going forward, the only way to access the feature will be through a monthly subscription. The change represents a major break from how Tesla has sold access to the advanced driver assistance suite over the years. It’s also a decision that could have an impact on Tesla’s bottom line, Musk’s ability to unlock the full value of his $1 trillion pay package, and the company’s ever-swirling legal troubles. And it comes as many other global automakers are…
By changing what crops eat, scientists found a way to make locusts lose their appetite—and save harvests. “They’re very destructive when there’s a lot of them, but one-on-one, what’s not to love?” says Arianne Cease. She is talking about locusts. Cease directs Arizona State University’s Global Locust Initiative, where she studies how these insects behave […]Science,Agriculture,Arizona State University,Ecology,Insect#Scientists #Crops #Unappetizing #Locusts1768473225
Hiring at large firms has long relied on interviews, tests, and human judgment. That process is starting to shift. McKinsey has begun using an AI chatbot as part of its graduate recruitment process, signalling a shift in how professional services organisations evaluate early-career candidates.The chatbot is being used during the initial stages of recruitment, where applicants are asked to interact with it as part of their assessment. Rather than replacing interviews or final hiring decisions, the tool is intended to support screening and evaluation earlier in the process. The move reflects a wider trend across large organisations: AI is no…
Once you’ve gotten used to an air purifier, it’s hard to go back to living without one. I like them in the winter because they help the air feel less stale when I can’t crack my windows open. And goodness knows they’re handy in the warmer months, when Mother Nature and her army of grasses and leaves threaten to make me sneeze all day long. We’ve hand-tested multiple models for our air purifier buying guide, and Coway’s have been a consistent favorite. The brand’s popular design-forward Airmega line is discounted right now up to 30 percent off—this is close to…
Microsoft has signed a deal with Indian startup Varaha to buy more than 100,000 tons of carbon dioxide removal credits over the next three years, through 2029, expanding its portfolio of carbon removal projects as the tech giant scales up AI and cloud operations. The project will turn cotton crop waste, which is often burned after harvest, into biochar — a charcoal-like material that can be added to soil, storing carbon for long periods while also helping reduce air pollution from open-field burning. It will initially focus on the western Indian state of Maharashtra and involve around 40,000–45,000 smallholder farmers.…
YouTube and other social media platforms are ramping up their parental controls as the online safety of minors continues to be a hot topic internationally. The Google-owned platform announced on Wednesday that it’s implementing additional parental controls, particularly around the amount of time their children and teens spend watching YouTube Shorts. Image Credits:YouTube Parents will now be able to set a timer for how much time children’s connected accounts can spend watching Shorts — YouTube’s equivalent of TikToks or Instagram Reels — helping to limit the potential to waste time with mindless scrolling. Parents can even block accounts from watching…
Cybercriminals are increasingly using AI in their attacks. At the same time, cyber defenders are also turning to the technology to fight back. Depthfirst, a security startup positioning itself at the forefront of this AI-powered defense, announced Wednesday that it had raised $40 million in a Series A round. Founded in October 2024, the company raised the round from Accel Partners, which led the investment, with participation from SV Angel, Mantis VC, and Alt Capital. Depthfirst offers a platform called General Security Intelligence, an AI-native suite that helps companies scan and analyze their codebases and workflows for signs of trouble.…
OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic announced specialised medical AI capabilities within days of each other this month, a clustering that suggests competitive pressure rather than coincidental timing. Yet none of the releases are cleared as medical devices, approved for clinical use, or available for direct patient diagnosis—despite marketing language emphasising healthcare transformation.OpenAI introduced ChatGPT Health on January 7, allowing US users to connect medical records through partnerships with b.well, Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal. Google released MedGemma 1.5 on January 13, expanding its open medical AI model to interpret three-dimensional CT and MRI scans alongside whole-slide histopathology images. Anthropic followed on January 11 with Claude for Healthcare, offering…
Google announced on Wednesday that it’s launching a new beta feature in the Gemini app that allows the AI assistant to tailor its responses by connecting across your Google ecosystem, starting with Gmail, Photos, Search, and YouTube history. Although Gemini could already retrieve information from these apps, it can now reason across your data to provide proactive results, such as connecting a thread in your emails to a video you watched. Google says this means Gemini understands context without being told where to look. The tech giant notes that this beta experience, called Personal Intelligence, is off by default, as…
Skild AI, which makes foundation models for robots, seems to have more than tripled its valuation in just seven months. The startup has raised a $1.4 billion Series C round that values it at more than $14 billion, Bloomberg reported. The round was led by SoftBank, and Nvidia, Macquarie Group, 1789 Capital, and others also invested. Skild AI last raised funding at a $4.5 billion valuation this prior summer, Bloomberg reported. The company hasn’t disclosed the exact value of that round — it was rumored to be around $500 million — but Skild AI CEO Deepak Pathak told Bloomberg that…
Scientists have uncovered a way to make existing antifungal drugs work again against deadly, drug-resistant fungi. Fungal infections claim millions of lives worldwide each year, and current medical treatments are failing to keep pace. Scientists at McMaster University have now identified a molecule that could help address this growing problem. The compound, known as butyrolactol […]Health,Fungus,Infectious Diseases,McMaster University,Microbiology,Public Health#Forgotten #Molecule #Revive #Failing #Antifungal #Drugs #Save #Millions #Lives1768454914
The reboot of the early internet online community Digg, a one-time rival to Reddit, is moving forward. The company, which is today back under the ownership of its original founder, Kevin Rose, along with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, is launching its open beta to the public on Wednesday. Similar to Reddit, the new Digg offers a website and mobile app where you can browse feeds featuring posts from across a selection of its communities and join other communities that align with your interests. There, you can post, comment, and upvote (or “digg”) the site’s content. Originally a Web 2.0-era news aggregation…