After two years as a venture capitalist for top shelf firm Benchmark, Victor Lazarte is leaving that company to start his own investing gig, he announced on X on Thursday. Lazarte became known in tech for co-founding mobile gaming company Wildlife Studios, which was last valued at an estimated $3 billion in 2020. Wildlife raised…
Elon Musk’s X will begin experimenting with a new way to use Community Notes, its crowdsourcing fact-checking system, to highlight well-liked posts from users with different perspectives. On Thursday, the Community Notes X account announced the launch of a pilot test where select contributors would be able to rate posts by answering questions about why…
When industrial AI startup CVector meets with manufacturers, utility providers, and other prospective customers, the founders are often asked the same question: Will you still be here in six months? A year? It’s a valid concern in an environment where the biggest, richest tech companies are luring top talent with eye-watering salaries and increasingly targeting…
Lauren Kolodny, a partner at Acrew Capital, has always championed technology’s power to democratize access to financial services for everyday people. When the fledgling neobank Chime struggled to convince investors in 2016 that it could build a large business serving the working class, Kolodny was the only VC out of a 100 Chime pitched who…
As our lives grow increasingly digital and we spend more time interacting with eerily humanlike chatbots, the line between human connection and machine simulation is starting to blur. Today, more than 20% of daters report using AI for things like crafting dating profiles or sparking conversations, per a recent Match.com study. Some are taking it…
Google on Thursday is launching a new AI-powered feature called Web Guide for organizing Google Search results. Web Guide is a Search Labs experiment that leverages AI technology to organize the search results page by grouping pages related to specific aspects of the search query. Search Labs experiments are a way for Google to test…
Amazon is making its color screen Kindle more affordable. Following the launch of the Kindle Colorsoft last year, the retailer on Thursday introduced a lower-cost version of the normally $279.99 device. The new device offers a $30 discount for 16GB of storage instead of 32GB, bringing the cost down to $249.99. A kids edition is…
Snapchat is launching a new way for users to let their friends and family know they’ve made it home safe after an outing, called “Home Safe,” the social network announced on Thursday. To use the feature, you need to set your home location by tapping your Bitmoji on Snap Map and then “My Home.” When…
Contract review remains a slow, manual process that strains legal teams, forcing lawyers to sift through dense language, flag risks, and translate legal terms. In fact, the problem is so prevalent that for the past several years, Tokyo-based LegalOn Technologies has had an open door to that market: its AI contract review software for legal…
Strawberries are the most popular berry in the U.S. for both consumers and farmers alike. They’re also some of the most pesticide-reliant fruits and consistently top the Environmental Working Group’s “Dirty Dozen” list of the most contaminated produce. San Luis Obispo, California-based TRIC Robotics thinks it can help strawberry farmers reduce chemical use with the…