Technology

Following Italy, WhatsApp exempts Brazil from a competing ban on chatbots

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🔥 Explore this trending post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Apps,AI chatbots,Meta,meta ai,WhatsApp,whatsapp business ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: WhatsApp is allowing AI service 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 prevents third-party general-purpose chatbots from being offered on the app via its business API. Under the new policy, the company provides a 90-day grace period starting January 15 for developers and artificial intelligence service providers, obligating them to stop responding to user inquiries on the chat application, and notifying users…

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SpaceX’s Indian rival EtherealX has achieved a 5x valuation as it prepares for engine tests

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🚀 Read this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Startups,Space,Accel,reusable rocket,EtherealX,Prosus,TDK Ventures ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: Ethereal Exploration Guild, an Indian space technology company known as EtherealX, has risen 5.5-fold to $80.5 million after its latest funding round. The startup is developing a launch vehicle designed to be fully reusable, and is setting up engine ignition tests ahead of the technology's first test flight, planned for 2027. The Bengaluru-based company confirms that it has closed an oversubscribed $20.5 million Series A round led by TDK Ventures and BIG Capital, as TechCrunch previously reported. Accel, Prosus, YourNest, BlueHill, Campus Fund…

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AI security company, Deepfirst, has announced $40 million in Series A funding

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💥 Explore this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Security,Startups,Venture,Accel Partners,cybersecurity,Databricks,Depthfirst 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: Cybercriminals are increasingly using artificial intelligence in their attacks. Meanwhile, cyber defenders are also turning to technology to fight back. Depthfirst, a security startup positioning itself at the forefront of this AI-powered defense, announced Wednesday that it has raised $40 million in a seed round. Founded in October 2024, the company received 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, a suite of artificial intelligence…

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Microsoft taps Indian company Varaha for permanent decarbonisation

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🚀 Read this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Climate,biochar,cdr,Microsoft,Varaha ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: Microsoft has signed a deal with Indian startup Varaha to purchase 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 its artificial intelligence and cloud operations. The project will convert 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 to reduce air pollution caused by…

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Gemini’s new beta feature provides proactive responses based on your photos, emails, and more

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✨ Check out this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Apps,gemini,Google ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: Google announced Wednesday that it will launch a new experimental feature in the Gemini app that allows the AI ​​assistant to customize its responses by connecting across the Google ecosystem, starting with your Gmail history, photos, search, and YouTube. Although Gemini can already retrieve information from these apps, it can now reason through your data to provide proactive results, such as linking a thread in your emails to a video you watched. Google says this means Gemini understands context without being told where to…

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Robotics software maker Skild AI is valued at $14 billion

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🚀 Explore this insightful post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Fundraising,Robotics,Startups,humanoids,In Brief,skild ai 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: Skild AI, which makes basic models of robots, appears to have more than tripled its value in just seven months. The startup has raised $1.4 billion in a Series C round, valuing it at more than $14 billion, Bloomberg reported. SoftBank, Nvidia, Macquarie Group, 1789 Capital, and others also led the round. Bloomberg reported that Skild AI last raised $4.5 billion in funding the previous summer. The company did not disclose the exact value of that round — it was rumored to be…

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Digg launches its new Reddit competitor to the public

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✨ Check out this awesome post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Media & Entertainment,Social,Startups,TC,alexis,Alexis Ohanian,Digg,kevin rose,social network ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: Reboot Early internet community Digg, a one-time Reddit competitorcoming forward. The company, which today returned to the ownership of its original founder Kevin Rose, along with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, will launch 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 containing posts from a selection of its communities and join other communities that match your interests. There, you can post, comment, and…

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Blackstone and General Atlantic-backed Liftoff Mobile are filing for an IPO

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🚀 Explore this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: Venture,Blackstone,In Brief,IPOs ✅ **What You’ll Learn**: With the news that Discord will go public soon, other tech companies are starting to take their chances. Liftoff Mobile filed its first S-1 document late Tuesday, the first step in the process. The company has not yet discussed the size of this IPO: it has not yet filled out any data on the size of the offering or the stakes held by major shareholders. However, IPO research firm Renaissance Capital puts the whispered figure at $400 million, meaning that's what the Street believes…

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Mira Murati’s Thinking Machines Lab is losing two of its co-founders to OpenAI

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🔥 Explore this must-read post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,artificial intelligence,Barret Zoph,Mira Murati,OpenAI,Thinking Machines 💡 **What You’ll Learn**: Thinking Machines Lab, the startup of former OpenAI exec Mira Murati, is bidding farewell to two of its co-founders, both of whom are returning to OpenAI. Another former OpenAI employee who went to work at Murati's startup has also returned to the company. Moratti announced on social media on Wednesday the departure of Barrett Zoff, the company's co-founder and CTO. "We have parted ways with Barrett," Moratti said in a post on Moratti's announcement made no mention of co-founder Luc Metz…

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Indian company Emversity is doubling its valuation as it expands the pool of workers that AI cannot replace

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🔥 Discover this trending post from TechCrunch 📖 📂 **Category**: AI,Startups,EdTech,Emversity,lightspeed venture partners,Premji Invest,Z47 📌 **What You’ll Learn**: As AI automates parts of the workforce, Emversity, an Indian workforce training startup, is building talent pipelines for roles it sees as AI cannot replace, and has raised $30 million in a new round to expand job-ready training in the world's most populous market. The all-equity round was led by Premji Invest, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners and Z47, the Bengaluru-based startup announced on Thursday. Sources confirmed to TechCrunch that Emversity's funding value is about $120 million, up from about $60…

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