With iMessage thanks to Beeper Mini, the OnePlus Open is my new favorite phone Multi-platform messaging startup Beeper, founded by YC and Pebble alum Eric Migicovsky, delivered an iMessage experience for Android that doesn’t use any intermediaries and as-such, should be (always a big caveat here since we’re relying on the company’s word) private and secure. It has the potential to illuminate just how much lock-in value iMessage has […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Bing’s new ‘Deep Search’ feature offers more comprehensive answers to complex search queries Microsoft Bing is getting a new “Deep Search” feature powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4. The feature is designed to give users more relevant and comprehensive answers to complex search queries. Microsoft notes that Deep Search is not a replacement for Bing’s existing web search, and is instead an enhancement the allows for deeper exploration of the […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Vercel makes it easier to ship better code at scale Vercel today announced two new features for developers that aim to help them ship higher-quality code at scale. The first is conformance, which runs static analysis checks over a company’s codebase to find issues. The second is ‘code owners,’ which makes it easier to figure out who is responsible for a given part of the […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Global AI Alliance Aims to Accelerate Responsible and Transparent AI Innovation The newly formed AI alliance was spearheaded by IBM and Meta and includes more than 50 members in business, academia, government and advocacy.

Goldman Sachs-backed ZestMoney, once valued at $450M, to shut down ZestMoney, a buy now pay later startup whose ability to underwrite small ticket loans to first-time internet customers attracted many high-profile investors including Goldman Sachs, is shutting down following unsuccessful efforts to find a buyer. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup — which also identified PayU, Quona, Zip, Omidyar Network and Ribbit Capital among its backers — employed about […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Metrics that matter: 3 practical observations on valuation from an Index Ventures partner Paris Heymann Contributor Share on X Paris Heymann is a partner at Index Ventures, where he invests primarily in B2B SaaS and data. More posts by this contributor Acquisition, retention, expansion: Why SaaS founders must understand GDR and NDR Metrics that matter: 3 KPIs to track on the path to profitability As part of the […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Another blow for self-driving trucks as former industry leader abandons the U.S. When TuSimple went public in 2021 it was flying high as the leading self-driving trucks developer in the United States. Now — after a string of internal controversies and the loss of a critical partnership with truck manufacturer Navistar — TuSimple is exiting the U.S. altogether. The publicly traded said in a regulatory filing Monday […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

New AI tool aims to democratise high-res image generation In the world of AI image generation, tools like DALL-E and Midjourney are holding the crown — and not simply because of their high-resolution performance. The training of these models requires such substantial investment and resources that it inevitably leads to centralised services and pay-per-use access. A new AI tool developed by the University of Surrey aims to reverse this trend and democratise the technology, by opening up high-res image generation to a wider audience. Dubbed DemoFusion, the model allows users to generate high-quality images without the need to subscribe to a service, or own a very powerful computer. In…This story continues at The Next Web

Analytics can solve generative AI apps’ product problem Technology alone isn’t a sustainable moat for AI products, especially with the barrier to entry only continuing to go down. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Today’s AI funding rush reminds me of the fintech investing hype of 2021 We're seeing a lot of folks push their capital into just a few squares on the betting table. One way or another, the result is going to be notable. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Beeper reversed engineered iMessage to bring blue bubble texts to Android users The push to bring iMessage to Android users today adds a new contender. A startup called Beeper, which had been working on a multi-platform messaging aggregator, is now launching a new app called Beeper Mini which will allow Android users to send and receive end-to-end encrypted iMessage chats for just $1.99 per month. Beeper Mini […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Respell wants to help non-technical end users spin up AI-powered workflows When Respell founder Matthew Rastovac was in high school, he did an internship where his job was to copy information from a government website into a spreadsheet. It was mind-numbing work, so being an enterprising young man, he wrote some code to automate the task. These days, his company helps non-technical employees take advantage of […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Git platform AllSpice now curries favor with enterprises AllSpice shifted its strategy to bring enterprise engineers together to more easily collaborate on projects. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Mine digs up $30M for its no-code approach to vetting data privacy Israeli startup Mine made a name for itself a few years ago with a tool designed for consumers to quickly run an audit of their data privacy situation. One scan of your inbox using AI and specifically natural language processing, and Mine can triangulate which companies have access to your personal data, and then let […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Bitcoin Soars on Hopes of Investment Fund Approval The cryptocurrency has gained roughly 150 percent this year, as investors bet that regulators will soon approve the first spot exchange-traded fund that is designed to track the price of Bitcoin.