Kyle Wiggers, Author at TechCrunch

OpenAI releases a teacher’s guide to ChatGPT, but some educators are skeptical

Kyle Wiggers — Wed, 20 Nov 2024 10:00:11 +0000

OpenAI envisions teachers using its AI-powered tools to create lesson plans and interactive tutorials for students. But some educators are wary of the technology — and its potential to go awry. Today, OpenAI released a free online course designed to help K-12 teachers learn how to bring ChatGPT, the company’s AI chatbot platform, into their […]

Google’s Gemini chatbot now has memory

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:10:47 +0000

Google’s Gemini chatbot can now remember things like info about your life, work, and personal preferences. As flagged by posters on X (and Google’s official account), a “memory” feature has begun rolling out to certain Gemini users, including this reporter. Like ChatGPT’s memory, Gemini’s adds context to the current conversation. For example, tell Gemini to […]

Minecraft is entering the real world

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 15:44:14 +0000

Minecraft is entering the real world — sort of. The Guardian reports that Microsoft, the owner of the Minecraft video game franchise, has struck a deal with European theme park operator Merlin Entertainments to open Minecraft-themed attractions, including rides, retail outlets, and hotel rooms. Merlin plans to invest more than $110 million in the first […]

Database startup Neo4j embraces AI to supercharge growth

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:59:38 +0000

To make AI possible, you need to create connections between vast quantities of data. That’s where tech like graph databases come into play. Graph databases handle fast-changing, interconnected data more adeptly than traditional databases, which were designed to store rigidly structured information. Of course, graph databases need to be managed in order to be useful. […]

Microsoft built a PC that can’t run local apps

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:30:47 +0000

Prefer to offload all your Windows tasks to the cloud? Microsoft may just have the compact, desk-bound computer for you. On Tuesday at Microsoft Ignite 2024, the tech giant unveiled Windows 365 Link, a fanless, lightweight PC that connects to Windows 365. Windows 365 is a cloud-hosted, virtual Windows machine — like a typical Windows […]

Microsoft will soon let you clone your voice for Teams meetings

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:30:19 +0000

Microsoft plans to let Teams users clone their voices so they can have their sound-alikes speak to others in meetings in different languages. At Microsoft Ignite 2024 on Tuesday, the company revealed Interpreter in Teams, a tool for Microsoft Teams that delivers “real-time, speech-to-speech” interpretation capabilities. Starting in early 2025, people using Teams for meetings […]

Windows comes to the Meta Quest

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:30:16 +0000

If Windows in mixed reality sounds like your idea of a good time, rejoice. Microsoft said on Tuesday at Microsoft Ignite 2024 it’s bringing the “full capabilities” of Windows 11 to the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S in December as part of a public preview. “Full capabilities,” in this context, means that you’ll be […]

Microsoft to launch new custom chips for data processing, security

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:30:05 +0000

Microsoft on Tuesday revealed new custom chips aimed at powering workloads on its Azure cloud and bolstering security, particularly a new hardware accelerator that can manage data processing, networking, and storage-related tasks. The Azure Boost DPU is Microsoft’s first data processing unit, designed for “data-centric workloads with high efficiency and low power,” the company said. […]

Microsoft beefs up Windows security with new recovery and patching features

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:30:02 +0000

In the aftermath of the devastating CrowdStrike outage this July, Microsoft vowed to do better even though it insisted that the event was an aberration. Evidently unwilling to take chances (or risk further hits to its credibility), the company on Tuesday, during Microsoft Ignite 2024, shared how it’s making changes to Windows to prevent similar […]

Spectro Cloud nets $75M to help companies manage their Kubernetes installations

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:00:57 +0000

Kubernetes, the open source system that helps manage containerized applications (software packages that run in isolated environments), long ago breached the mainstream. According to one recent poll, 60% of organizations have adopted Kubernetes, and Gartner estimates that more than 90% of all enterprises could run Kubernetes in production by 2026. But Kubernetes itself remains difficult […]

Selector automatically spots IT issues and recommends fixes

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:00:18 +0000

AIOps, short for “artificial intelligence in operations,” is a process that uses AI to automate IT tasks. More organizations are embracing it as AI commodifies, yet adoption is still lagging. According to a recent IDC survey, almost half of companies said that they were just getting started in AIOps, while a third indicated they had […]

Lightyear is on a mission to modernize network procurement

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Dennis Thankachan isn’t someone you’d expect would launch a digital procurement startup. After college, Thankachan went to work for Goldman Sachs as an investment banker. Two years later, he left for a hedge fund, PointState Capital, where he helped to manage equity investing. At PointState, which specializes in telecommunications, Thankachan said he encountered an unexpected […]

Sagence is building analog chips to run AI

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 06:00:00 +0000

Graphics processing units (GPUs), the chips on which most AI models run, are energy-hungry beasts. As a consequence of the accelerating incorporation of GPUs in data centers, AI will drive a 160% uptick in electricity demand by 2030, Goldman Sachs estimates. The trend isn’t sustainable, argues Vishal Sarin, an analog and memory circuit designer. After […]

Justice Department reportedly pushing Google to spin off Chrome

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 23:41:46 +0000

The Department of Justice is reportedly pushing to force Google to spin off its Chrome browser business. That’s according to Bloomberg, which reports that the Justice Department is also planning to recommend to a federal judge that Google face antitrust requirements related to AI and its Android mobile operating system. The enforcement actions are the […]

Mistral unveils new AI models and chat features

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 16:03:02 +0000

French AI startup Mistral has released a slew of updates to its product portfolio as it looks to stay competitive in the cutthroat AI space. Mistral’s Le Chat chatbot platform can now search the web — with citations in line, a la OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It’s also gained a “canvas” tool along the lines of ChatGPT […]

Meta brings certain AI features to Ray-Ban Meta glasses in Europe

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 14:55:42 +0000

After a brief delay, Meta says that it’s begun to roll out certain AI features to users of its Ray-Ban Meta AR glasses in France, Italy, and Spain. Starting today, people in those countries can invoke Meta’s AI assistant, Meta AI, using their voice to get answers to general questions (e.g. “What are some good […]

SuperAnnotate helps companies manage their AI datasets

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

SuperAnnotate, a platform for managing and prepping AI training data sets, has raised a new round of capital.

Moonvalley wants to build more ethical video models

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 13:00:00 +0000

Moonvalley, a new generative video startup, claims it's building models using more ethical and transparent approaches.

Text marketing firm Blip secures backing from SoftBank, Microsoft

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 12:00:16 +0000

Take Blip, a conversational marketing platform, has raised $60 million in funding from SoftBank and Microsoft.

A popular technique to make AI more efficient has drawbacks

Kyle Wiggers — Sun, 17 Nov 2024 15:00:00 +0000

One of the most widely used techniques to make AI models more efficient, quantization, has limits — and the industry could be fast approaching them. In the context of AI, quantization refers to lowering the number of bits — the smallest units a computer can process — needed to represent information. Consider this analogy: When […]