TechCrunch Disrupt has always been the ultimate convergence point for all things startup and tech. In the bustling world of innovation, it serves as the “big top” tent, where entrepreneurs, tech enthusiasts, and industry leaders gather to witness the unveiling of groundbreaking technologies, engage in thought-provoking discussions, and forge invaluable connections. As we gear up
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Wind is the largest source of renewable energy in the U.S., according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, but wind farms come with an environmental cost as wind turbines can wreak havoc on bird populations. Meet Spoor, the startup using AI to help wind farms mitigate that risk. Spoor is a software that uses machine
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As anticipated, numerous AI-related announcements were made at this year’s Google I/O 2024 conference, including the unveiling of a new feature for Google TV.  Gemini, the company’s family of generative AI models, will enhance the smart TV operating system so it can generate descriptions for movies and TV shows. When a description is missing on
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Chang She, previously the VP of engineering at Tubi and a Cloudera veteran, has years of experience building data tooling and infrastructure. But when She began working in the AI space, he quickly ran into problems with traditional data infrastructure — problems that prevented him from bringing AI models into production. “Machine learning engineers and
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Back in February, Google paused its AI-powered chatbot Gemini’s ability to generate images of people after users complained of historical inaccuracies. Told to depict “a Roman legion,” for example, Gemini would show an anachronistic group of racially diverse soldiers while rendering “Zulu warriors” as stereotypically Black. Google CEO Sundar Pichai apologized, and Demis Hassabis, the co-founder of
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PayHOA, a previously bootstrapped Kentucky-based startup that offers software for self-managed homeowner associations (HOAs), is an example of how real-world problems can translate into opportunity. It just raised a $27.5 million Series A round in an environment where nearly $30 million Series A rounds are no longer common. PayHOA founder and CEO Mike Bollinger has
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For years, Sammy Faycurry has been hearing from his registered dietitian (RD) mom and sister about how poorly many Americans eat and their struggles with delivering nutritional counseling. Although nearly half of all adults in the country are affected by chronic conditions linked to unhealthy diets, health plans have a limited number of in-network registered
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Netflix announced during its Upfronts presentation on Wednesday that it’s launching its own advertising technology platform only a year and a half after entering the ads business. This move pits it against other industry heavyweights with ad servers, like Google, Amazon and Comcast.  The announcement signifies a significant shake-up in the streaming giant’s advertising approach.
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Go Digit, an Indian insurance startup, has raised $141 million from dozens of investors as part of an initial public offering that starts on Wednesday. Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Bay Pond, Mirae Asset Management, Steadview Capital, and HSBC, as well as Indian mutual funds operated by SBI, ICICI, Axis, Tata
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Looking Glass makes trippy-looking mixed-reality screens that make things look 3D without the need of special glasses. Today, it launches a pair of new displays, including a 16-inch mode that runs $4,000. There’s also a 32-inch display, with a ‘if you have to ask how much it costs you can’t afford it’ price tag. The
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Google’s upgrading its image generation tech to keep apace with rivals.  At the company’s I/O developer conference in Mountain View on Tuesday, Google announced Imagen 3, the latest in the tech giant’s Imagen generative AI model family. Demis Hassabis, head of DeepMind, Google’s AI research division, said that Imagen 3 more accurately understands the text
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Sona, a workforce management platform for frontline employees, has raised $27.5 million in a Series A round of funding. More than two-thirds of the U.S. workforce are reportedly in frontline jobs, which might be anything from customer service and healthcare to retail environments and hospitality. But managing this vast workforce, ensuring roles are filled and
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Maad, a B2B e-commerce startup based in Senegal, has secured $3.2 million debt-equity funding to bolster its growth in the western Africa country and to explore fresh opportunities in the wider Francophone region. The seed round was led by Ventures Platform, with participation from Seedstars International Ventures, Reflect Ventures, Oui Capital, Launch Africa, Voltron Capital
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StrictlyVC events deliver exclusive insider content from the Silicon Valley and global VC scene while creating meaningful connections over cocktails and canapés with leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. And TechCrunch is excited to join forces with key players in the London investment community at our next StrictlyVC event. We’re pleased to have Saul Klein, co-founder
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Pepper, the e-commerce platform for food distributors, continues to edge into Sysco and US Foods territory by giving smaller, independent distributors a technology leg up.  The company developed an ordering system specifically for independent food distributors that supports catalogs of over 100,000 items and enables these companies to launch mobile apps and websites so that
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