Author: GT

Apple is taking a new approach to training its AI models – one that avoids collecting or copying user content from iPhones or Macs. According to a recent blog post, the company plans to continue to rely on synthetic data (constructed data that is used to mimic user behaviour) and differential privacy to improve features like email summaries, without gaining access to personal emails or messages. For users who opt in to Apple’s Device Analytics program, the company’s AI models will compare synthetic email-like messages against a small sample of a real user’s content stored locally on the device. The…

Notion released Notion Mail, an AI-powered email client for Gmail that integrates with the rest of Notion’s workflow management platform, on Tuesday. Notion Mail connects to Notion users’ Gmail accounts and uses AI to help users organize their emails, draft responses, schedule meetings, and search across messages. Any Notion user can sign up, and Notion Mail’s AI capabilities are free with monthly usage limits or unlimited through a paid tier. Notion Mail enters an increasingly crowded category of companies looking to improve email inboxes with AI. Superhuman, one of the larger players, has raised $108 million in venture funding for…

April 21: Coinbase Derivatives will list XRP futures pending approval by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Macro April 15, 8:30 a.m.: Statistics Canada releases March consumer price inflation data. Core Inflation Rate MoM Prev. 0.7% Core Inflation Rate YoY Prev. 2.7% Inflation Rate MoM Est. 0.6% vs. Prev. 1.1% Inflation Rate YoY Est. 2.6% vs. Prev. 2.6% April 16, 8:30 a.m.: The U.S. Census Bureau releases March retail sales data. Retail Sales MoM Est. 1.4% vs. Prev. 0.2% Retail Sales YoY Prev. 3.1% April 16, 9:45 a.m.: Bank of Canada releases its latest interest rate decision, followed by a…

The application to speak at TechCrunch All Stage closes this Friday, April 18 — don’t miss your chance to share hard-won insights with 1,200+ startup founders and VCs. If you’ve been in the trenches and cracked tough growth problems, now’s the time to step up and share your scaling strategies onstage at TC All Stage, happening July 15 in Boston. Ready to make your mark? Use your experience to guide the next wave of startups. Apply now, and you could land a spot in our Audience Choice round — where TechCrunch readers decide who earns a seat at the table.…

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has expanded beyond digital assets to offer U.S. stock and ETF trading, as the company seeks to venture outside of crypto markets. According to the company’s Monday announcement, Kraken has begun rolling out commission-free trading for more than 11,000 listed stocks and ETFs to clients in select states, including New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island and seven others. The company plans to eventually make the offering available to all eligible U.S. clients before expanding to Europe and Australia. This push into traditional markets shows how crypto exchanges are now directly challenging Wall Street firms, as the boundaries between…

Students on campus at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts.Education Images | Universal Images Group | Getty ImagesA group of universities — including Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology — and education groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to halt the Department of Energy’s cuts to federal research grants.Last week, the Energy Department (DOE) announced a new policy to reduce the funding of “indirect costs” of research grants to 15%.However, the plaintiffs argue such cuts will “devastate scientific research at America’s universities” and “undermine” the nation’s status as a global leader in innovation. “The pace of scientific discoveries…

(Bloomberg) — A new cryptocurrency aims to occupy the final frontier of investor safety — cash that doesn’t lose purchasing power to inflation. Most Read from Bloomberg USDi, being launched by two veterans of US inflation-protected and foreign-exchange derivatives, is a dollar tracking stablecoin whose value is determined by the increase in the US consumer price index since December 2024. On April 15, it was $1.00863. Inflation protection in US markets has been available to investors since 1997 via Treasury inflation-protected securities, or TIPS — government bonds whose principal is indexed to the US consumer price index, or CPI. But…

U.K. startup Marshmallow has blown up over the years by using innovations in data science to build car insurance policies for immigrants and other consumers who have been overlooked or priced out of traditional insurance. Now, with a million drivers insured and a profitable annual revenue run rate of $500 million, Marshmallow has raised a fresh $90 million to expand.  Marshmallow plans to use the funding to move into financial services, as well as more insurance products that it hopes will appeal to a population of people that — despite the chilling effects of Brexit — is growing.  “We think…

Dutch digital bank Bunq is plotting re-entry into the U.K. to tap into a “large and underserved” market of some 2.8 million British “digital nomads.”Pavlo Gonchar | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty ImagesDutch digital bank Bunq on Tuesday said it’s filed for broker-dealer registration in the U.S. as it looks to further expand across the Atlantic.Bunq CEO Ali Niknam said the broker-dealer application will be an initial step toward securing a full banking license. He couldn’t offer a firm timeline for when Bunq will secure this authorization in the U.S. — but said he’s excited for its growth prospects…

Reshma Saujani, founder of the non-profit Girls Who Code, got straight to the point.  “If I had applied to be the CEO of Girls Who Code, I wouldn’t have gotten the job,” she told Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, on the latest episode of the duchess’ podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder.” “I didn’t code,” Saujani continued. “I majored in polyscience, speech communications, and the only thing I’d ever built was a failed [congressional] campaign,” she said, referring to when she tried running for Congress and lost. (She was the first Indian-American to run for Congress back in 2010). Saujani’s lack of…