Month: September 2022

After initially disabling the capability, OpenAI today announced that customers with access to DALL-E 2 can upload people’s faces to edit them using the AI-powered image-generating system. Previously, OpenAI only allowed users to work with and share photorealistic faces and banned the uploading of any photo that might depict a real person, including photos of
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Xpeng, a Chinese smart electric vehicle startup, has launched its anticipated advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) that automates some driving functions in urban environments. City Navigation Guided Pilot (City NGP), an expanded version of Xpeng’s NGP, which performed tasks like assisted driving on highways based on the navigation route set by the driver, is being
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Swedish last-mile delivery companies Instabox and Budbee have have announced plans to merge in a 18 billion krona ($1.7 billion) deal. The two companies, which were both founded out of the Stockholm area in 2015, serve as the delivery and logistics partner for major brands including multinational clothing retailer H&M, offering delivery services directly to
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Apple has had support for eSIM since the iPhone Xs/XR, but this year it is going all in by ditching the physical SIM card slot for all iPhone 14 versions sold in the U.S. While models sold in other countries will have support for both physical and virtual SIM, Apple could eventually remove the SIM
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There’s never a dull moment in the cryptoverse. Blockchain, DeFi and web3 technologies continue to evolve rapidly in a world of wild extremes. How extreme? Consider these two examples. The Terra ecosystem disappears in a multi-billion-dollar crash-and-burn while traditional investment firm Andreessen Horowitz closes a $4.5 billion crypto megafund. Then you have crypto’s ongoing regulatory
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Michael Seibel is synonymous with Y Combinator’s growth over the past decade. He has opinions on bigger batch sizes, a growing standard deal, competition, the power of venture capital and why startup founders should be prioritizing more than just a check after Demo Day. Seibel spoke to TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, co-hosted by Natasha Mascarenhas and
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Welcome to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by the daily TechCrunch+ column where it gets its name. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. Too many subscriptions? Many of us are feeling this way, and so are companies: In a downturn, cutting unnecessary expenses is more important than
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One could probably argue that Floodgate, the Bay Area-based seed-stage venture firm, punches above its weight. The roughly 15-year-old firm has just around $500 million in assets under management — including a $150 million fund that it quietly closed in January — and it makes just a handful of new investments each year. Yet with
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First Star, backer of deep tech startups like Plus One and Fyto, aims to raise as much as $40 million for its third venture fund, TechCrunch has learned. Based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, First Star typically backs robotics, blockchain, AI and machine learning-focused startups at the early stage. The firm has not disclosed a first close
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Escend is a U.K.-based startup that must have figured that scooters were too big, instead deciding to shrink micromobility even further (what are we calling this — picomobility?), adding a battery pack and motors to rollerblades. The company started selling its ‘blades today. The blades use regenerative braking, and have been designed to last; between
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“Blade Runner” is getting its own limited series on Prime Video. Amazon confirmed to TechCrunch that the streaming service announced today it greenlit “Blade Runner 2099,” the first time the sci-fi franchise is getting a live-action TV show. Last year, Adult Swim made an anime series called “Blade Runner: Black Lotus.” The Hollywood Reporter initially
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Last month, Varo Bank celebrated the two-year anniversary of obtaining its national bank charter. The move made Varo the first-ever all-digital nationally chartered U.S. consumer bank. The startup launched its banking services aimed at younger consumers comfortable doing all their banking online in 2017. It has raised nearly $1 billion since its 2015 inception and
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