Geoff Weiss / Business Insider: AI startup Aurasell, which aims to automate sales tools built on top of CRM software like Salesforce, emerges from stealth with $30M seed led by Next47 — - Aurasell is emerging from stealth with $30 million in seed funding. — The one-year-old AI startup wants to disrupt legacy sales software.
Business Insider: Leaked documents: Meta is training custom AI chatbots to message users unprompted, following up on past chats to boost engagement on its AI Studio platform — - Meta is training custom AI chatbots to send unprompted follow-up messages and boost user engagement.
Dan Whateley / Business Insider: YouTube rolls out a tool to let some creators upload different thumbnails for each video dubbed into a different language, to help expand their global audience — - YouTube is adding a new tool to let creators change thumbnails for videos in different languages.
Peter Kafka / Business Insider: Q&A with Tim Sweeney on the recent Epic v. Apple ruling, bringing Fortnite back to iOS via Epic's Swedish developer account, and spending $100M+ on legal fees — - Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney — the guy behind Fortnite — has been fighting Apple over its App Store rules for five years.
Rebecca Torrence / Business Insider: Nourish, which offers virtual, insurance-covered nutritional care from 3,000+ dietitians, raised a $70M Series B led by JPM, sources say at a $1B+ valuation — - Nourish just raised $70 million in Series B funding led by JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners. — Nourish connects patients …
Eugene Kim / Business Insider: Docs: in July 2024, Amazon set up Project Greenland to manage and optimize GPU allocation across its retail unit; Amazon says it now has “ample” GPU capacity — - GPU shortages delayed projects in Amazon's retail division last year. — The company created a more efficient approval …
Business Insider: US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cuts $5.1B in IT and consulting contracts, including with Accenture and Deloitte, calling them “wasteful spending” — - US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered cuts at the Pentagon including some consulting contracts.
Effie Webb / Business Insider: Leaked docs show Outlier and Scale AI use freelancers to write prompts about suicide, abuse, and terrorism to stress-test AI, urging creativity but banning CSAM — - BI obtained training docs showing how freelancers stress-test AI with “harmful” prompts. — Outlier and Scale AI use freelancers …
Katie Notopoulos / Business Insider: X users are asking Grok to fact-check posts by tagging @grok, often during political or historical arguments, as a new passive aggressive way to dunk on others — - People are replying to posts on X — asking Grok: “Is this true?” — It's a new form of dunking on someone on X …
Eugene Kim / Business Insider: Filing: Amazon estimated the fair value of its stake in Anthropic at $14B at the end of December 2024, after agreeing to invest $8B in Anthropic so far — - The value of Amazon's investments in Anthropic have soared. — Amazon has agreed to invest $8 billion in Anthropic so far.
Dan Whateley / Business Insider: Maryland-based Uscreen, which helps creators launch apps, engage fans, monetize memberships, and more, raised $150M from PSG Equity, giving PSG a majority stake — - Uscreen, a startup that helps creators make apps, scored a $150 million investment from PSG Equity.
Ben Bergman / Business Insider: Dick Kramlich, who co-founded NEA in 1977, died on February 1 at age 89; he was an early investor in Apple and led investments in Juniper Networks and others — - Richard “Dick” Kramlich made one of the earliest investments in Apple. — He cofounded NEA in 1977, which now has nearly $26 billion in assets under management.
Business Insider: Sources: Rad AI, which creates AI-powered tools for radiologists, raised a $60M Series C at a $525M valuation; Rad AI raised a $50M Series B in March 2024 — - Rad AI recently raised a Series C funding round led by Transformation Capital, Business Insider has learned.
Business Insider: Sources: Bluesky is finalizing a new round at a ~$700M valuation led by Bain Capital Ventures; it raised a $15M Series A in October 2024 and an $8M seed in 2023 — - Bluesky, an alternative to X, saw a surge of users after Donald Trump was elected in November.
Business Insider: How Bengaluru, the “Silicon Valley of India”, is under pressure as rapid growth tests local infrastructure; its population jumped from 8M in 2010 to ~14M now — A city straining under the pressure of rapid growth — Silicon Valley is the undisputed global tech hub.
Business Insider: Elon Musk deleted an X post that said “no one is even trying to assassinate Biden/Kamala” after an apparent Trump assassination attempt, calling the post a joke — - The FBI is probing what it says appears to be a second assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Lloyd Lee / Business Insider: Tech leaders, including Jeff Bezos, Tim Cook, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, and Mark Zuckerberg condemn the shooting at a Trump rally on July 13 — - Shots were fired at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, killing at least two people. — Tech CEOs and billionaires are condemning the shooting …
Hugh Langley / Business Insider: Source: Google and Samsung's XR headset, codenamed Moohan and initially planned for Q1 2024, is now set for March 2025, with a developer version in October 2024 — - Google recently reshuffled the ranks to consolidate teams working in augmented reality. — The release of Google …
Peter Kafka / Business Insider: Google says the vast majority of AI Overviews provide high-quality information and many of the viral examples have been uncommon queries or have been doctored — An curved arrow pointing right. — In February, when this happened before, Google shelved the faulty AI product behind the results.
Ashley Stewart / Business Insider: Sources: Bill Gates remains intimately involved in Microsoft's operations, advising on strategy, nurturing Microsoft's relationship with Sam Altman, and more — Insiders say he's still pulling the strings at Microsoft — In 2017, just before Microsoft forged a partnership …
Eugene Kim / Business Insider: Document: Microsoft added 500+ megawatts of data center capacity since July 2023 and topped five gigawatts of total capacity in the H1 of its latest fiscal year — - Microsoft's data-center capacity jumped in recent quarters, a leaked internal presentation shows.
Peter Kafka / Business Insider: Court filings from FTC lawsuit against Meta show Instagram made $32.4B in ad revenue in 2021, which is more than YouTube's $28.8B in ad revenue that year — - Instagram generated $32.4 billion in ad revenue in 2021, making up 27% of Meta's total revenue. — Instagram's ad revenue …
Darius Rafieyan / Business Insider: Filings from 2023 list Jacob Vespers as OpenAI Startup Fund's manager; OpenAI says “Vespers does not exist” and the docs are “fabricated”, without elaborating — - Documents filed in California last year named Jacob Thomas Vespers as manager of the OpenAI Startup Fund.
Kali Hays / Business Insider: Sources: Meta aims to reveal and demo, but not launch, the first version of its AR glasses, codenamed Orion, during its Connect developer conference in the fall — - Under an internal project named Orion, Meta has been working on high-tech AR glasses for years.
Ashley Stewart / Insider: Sources: Panos Panay's abrupt departure came after Microsoft made budget and staff cuts, canceled products, and discussed reorganizing his hardware unit — - Microsoft this week announced Chief Product Officer Panos Panay left after nearly 20 years. — Panay is expected …
Insider: As Instagram and other social media feeds get swamped with influencers' professionally created content, average users move to private posting and closed groups — Group chats and messaging apps killed it … Tati Bruening, a 22-year-old content creator and photographer, just wants to share memes and post about cooking green beans.
Insider: Sources: Microsoft's M12 has sold shares of some of its portfolio companies at 30% to 70% discount on secondary exchanges; Microsoft says it sold <10 companies — - M12, Microsoft's venture firm, is offloading some of its portfolio on secondary exchanges, sources say.
Grace Kay / Insider: Blind: ~56% of US tech workers would accept equal or less pay in a new role, and ~45% of those say the uncertain job market is the main reason they would do so — - The majority of tech workers in a Blind survey said they'd accept equal or lower pay. — Many of those surveyed attributed …
Sawdah Bhaimiya / Insider: In a tweet reply, Elon Musk says “cis” or “cisgender” are “slurs” on Twitter and the “contemptible creep” who “manufactured” the term “has serious problems” — - Elon Musk said terms like “cisgender” and “cis” are now considered “slurs” on Twitter.
Insider: Q&A with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and COO Brian Millham on their relationship, shifting more responsibility to Millham, repairing company culture, and more — - Benioff just shook up Salesforce's leadership, bringing several former execs back to the company.
Alistair Barr / Insider: Amazon backs out of its pledge to make 50% of its shipments net-zero carbon by 2030 and says it plans to reach net-zero carbon across all its operations by 2040 — - Amazon scrapped its Shipment Zero initiative, which was announced a few years ago. — The company is rolling the goal into a broader Climate Pledge.
Thomas Maxwell / Insider: YouTube Shorts has surpassed 50B daily views, up from 30B in April 2022; YouTube began sharing ad revenue with Shorts creators starting February 1 — - YouTube Shorts now sees more than 50 billion daily views, up from 30 billion the year prior. — The short-form video format was launched in 2021 as a response to TikTok.
Pete Syme / Insider: An FTX lawyer told Delaware's bankruptcy court that SBF ordered FTX co-founder Gary Wang to open a secret backdoor to let Alameda borrow $65B of clients' money — - Bankruptcy lawyers said Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda had access to a $65 billion credit line from FTX.
Kali Hays / Insider: Sources: Twitter is leaving at least 12 international offices due to closures or not paying rent, including in Hong Kong, Mexico, Ghana, Australia, and India — - Twitter is leaving at least a dozen international offices due to closures or not paying rent. — Hubs in Europe and even Twitter's headquarters in Asia are shuttered.
Insider: Source: a16z's Future is shutting down; Future hasn't published a new article in months, most of its editorial staffers have left, and its newsletter is defunct — Future was the next big thing in media. — Launched in June of 2021, it was billed as a buzzy new tech publication …
Jason Guerrasio / Insider: The US DOJ charges two former MoviePass executives in a securities fraud case for allegedly trying to artificially inflate parent company HMNY's stock price — - Lowe and Farnsworth have been charged in a securities fraud case by the Department of Justice.
Eugene Kim / Insider: Amazon confirms Gregg Zehr, who led the Lab126 R&D unit, and Tom Taylor, SVP for Alexa, are retiring after over a decade, the latest to depart under Andy Jassy — - President of Lab126 Gregg Zehr retired in August, the same day as SVP of Alexa Tom Taylor. — They are the latest high-profile executives to leave Amazon.
Peter Guest / Insider: A look at Saudi Arabia's Kollona Amn app, launched in 2017 to let its citizens inform on activists, as the country expands the use of surveillance technology — - Saudi Arabian citizens are reporting activists that speak out against the government on the Kollona Amn app.
Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert / Insider: Meta's BlenderBot 3 chatbot, released in the US on August 5, repeats antisemitic stereotypes, claims Donald Trump is the current US president, and more — - Meta's new machine-learning chatbot, BlenderBot 3, is the company's most advanced AI chatbot to date.
Insider: As TikTok grows in the Middle East and North Africa, its regional content moderators complain of psychological distress and pay of around $2 to $3 per hour — - As TikTok gains in popularity in the Middle East and North Africa, it's ramping up its content moderation operation in the region.
Kieran Press-Reynolds / Insider: A TikTok moderator sues the company for an unsafe workplace that gave her PTSD; her lawyer says TikTok stopped her from working a day after the suit was filed — - A TikTok content moderator is suing the company, alleging it did not provide a safe workplace.
Grace Dean / Insider: MGM Resorts aims to reduce staff churn by having job seekers try out roles with VR, even simulations with tough customers, starting in Jan. with Strivr headsets — - MGM Resorts is letting applicants try a job in VR before they accept the role. — The casino and hotel company hopes it will reduce employee attrition.
Ashley Stewart / Insider: Internal documents: Meta will prioritize selling products directly on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger in 2022, partially in response to Apple's ATT changes — - Meta is pivoting to focus on selling more products directly on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger, according to an internal document obtained by Insider.
Insider: Sources: Amazon will launch its own TV featuring Alexa and no third-party manufacturer branding in the US, possibly as soon as October — - Amazon is planning to roll out its own Amazon-branded TV, Insider has learned. — A US launch is targeted for as soon as October.
Insider: In an abrupt reversal, OnlyFans suspends its October 1 policy change banning porn after securing “assurances” and aims to provide “a home for all creators” — - OnlyFans is reversing its recent decision to ban porn. — It had planned to prohibit sexually explicit …
Joshua Zitser / Insider: GETTR, the new pro-Trump social platform, acknowledges it was hacked on its July 4 launch, with the usernames of prominent accounts being defaced — - GETTR, founded by former Trump aide Jason Miller, was hacked on the day of its official launch. — The accounts of Miller …
Insider: Sources: Google is downsizing its health team, which was working on sensors and health records, and moving them to Fitbit as part of a major reorganization — - Google's young health division is splintering, according to employees and an email seen by Insider.
Tyler Sonnemaker / Insider: Court docs detail Google's user location data collection, efforts to hide an off toggle deep in Android settings, pressure on partners like LG to do the same — - Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private, according to newly unredacted court documents.
Aaron Holmes / Insider: Personally identifiable data of 533M Facebook users has been posted online; Facebook says the data comes from a leak that was reported on and fixed in 2019 — - The personal data of over 500 million Facebook users has been posted online in a low-level hacking forum.
Insider: YouTube has temporarily suspended monetization for three channels operated by David Dobrik following a rape allegation against a former Vlog Squad member — - YouTube is temporarily blocking David Dobrik and Durte Dom from making money off ads. — The company said it demonetized …