Author: GT

Amid pressure to deploy generative and agentic solutions, a familiar question is surfacing: “Is there an AI bubble, and is it about to burst?”For many organisations, this new wave of generative and agentic AI is still very much in experimental stages. The primary focus, and the low-hanging fruit, has been internal. Most businesses are looking to AI to increase efficiency gains, such as automating workflows or streamlining customer support. The trouble is, those gains are proving elusive.Ben Gilbert, VP of 15gifts, points out that “those benefits often take years to show real returns and are hard to measure beyond time…

Sarah Friar, CFO of OpenAI, appears on CNBC’s Squawk Box on August 20, 2025. CNBCOpenAI CFO Sarah Friar said late Wednesday that the artificial intelligence startup is not seeking a government backstop for its infrastructure commitments, clarifying previous comments she made on stage during the Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live event.At the event, Friar said OpenAI is looking to create an ecosystem of banks, private equity and a federal “backstop” or “guarantee” that could help the company finance its investments in cutting-edge chips. But in a LinkedIn post late Wednesday, Friar softened her stance.”I used the word ‘backstop’ and it…

Discord has rolled out updates to its Family Center, giving guardians more insights into their teens’ usage patterns, including purchases, top interactions, and time spent. The goal is to help parents monitor whether their teen is spending excessive time or money on Discord. The communication platform first launched Family Center in 2023 with an activity dashboard showing which servers their teens have joined and a weekly email summary for guardians about their teen’s activity. The platform is now expanding these monitoring abilities. Guardians can now see total purchases made by the teen in the last week, including items from Discord’s…

Lagos-based Ventures Platform, one of Africa’s most active early-stage investors, has raised $64 million so far for its second fund, targeting a final close of $75 million, founding partner Kola Aina tells TechCrunch. Among the investors is the Nigerian government, through its Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) program, which marks the first time this government has invested in a VC fund. That’s significant, since Nigeria’s burgeoning startup community is home to the largest number of startup unicorns on the continent. Other limited partners in Ventures Platform’s second fund include IFC, British International Investment (BII), Proparco, Standard Bank, MSMEDA,…

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) — For the past decade, Dr. Priscilla Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg have focused part of their philanthropy on a lofty goal — “to cure, prevent or manage all disease” — if not in their lifetime, then in their children’s. But during that time, they also funded underprivileged schools, immigration reform and efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion.Now, the billionaire couple is shifting the bulk of their philanthropic resources to Biohub, the pair’s science organization, and focusing on using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery. The idea is to develop virtual, AI-based cell models to…

Apple is planning to use a custom version of Google’s Gemini model to support a major upgrade to Siri, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company may pay Google about $1 billion each year for access to technology that can create summaries and handle planning tasks.Bloomberg says Apple will run the custom model on its Private Cloud Compute servers, while still relying on its own systems for some parts of Siri. Gurman reports that the Gemini model uses 1.2 trillion parameters, far more than the 150 billion parameters behind the current cloud-based version of Apple Intelligence.Apple is preparing to spend…

Duolingo’s stock cratered 27% on lighter-than-expected guidance as the language learning platform zeroed in on user growth in lieu of near-term monetization.”We have made a slight shift over the last quarter in how we invest, and we’re investing a lot more in long-term things because we see that as such a big opportunity ahead of us,” CEO and co-founder Luis von Ahn told CNBC’s Jon Fortt.For the current quarter, Duolingo expects bookings to range between $329.5 million and $335.5 million, falling short of a $344.3 million estimate from FactSet. Adjusted EBITDA was forecasted to range between $75.4 million and $78.8…

A slew of new companies have emerged in recent years offering fresh takes on RVs, like Lightship, Pebble, and Grounded. Now another startup called Evotrex is coming out of stealth with its own twist: a hybrid RV travel trailer with an integrated gas engine. The new RV will have an onboard battery pack that will power the living quarters, onboard electronics, and an electric motor, but the gas engine will recharge that battery pack and extend its range for far longer than a full charge — potentially making Evotrex’s trailer attractive for longer camping trips. The Evotrex RV will debut…

Google is adding Gemini to Maps in India, along with road safety alerts and more information about routes. The AI integration, launched in the U.S. on Wednesday, brings hands-free AI assistance to Maps, as well as contextual suggestions while navigating and information about places of interest. Miriam Daniel, vice president and head of Google Maps, said the rollout required significant localization. “When we say localizing for India, it’s not just the language,” she said at a virtual briefing. “It’s also adapting to how Indians use the product, how Indians will talk, how they will ask for questions, how they will…

While driving to a new restaurant, your car’s satellite navigation system tracks your location and guides you to the destination. Onboard cameras constantly track your face and eye movements. When another car veers into your path, forcing you to slam on the brakes, sensors are assisting and recording. Waiting at a stoplight, the car notices when you unbuckle your seat belt to grab your sunglasses in the backseat. Modern cars are computers on wheels that are becoming increasingly connected, enabling innovative new features that make driving safer and more convenient. But these systems are also collecting reams of data on…