After building out its Search product over the past few years to take on Google, TikTok is now taking its Search ambitions even further by allowing advertisers to target its search results page. TikTok announced on Tuesday that it’s launching the “TikTok Search Ads Campaign,” a new keyword-based search solution that enables brands to appear … Read more
Kian Katanforoosh has one of the best mentors in the AI world: renowned researcher Andrew Ng, who also served as his graduate school advisor at Stanford. The two went on to create Stanford’s deep learning program, and now, Ng serves as Chairman of Katanforoosh’s startup, Workera. Ng has been a meaningful guide in Katanforoosh’s career, … Read more
Often successful startups can give rise to ‘startup mafias’ – groups of former founders who go on to create other startups. But at least as often, new startups can be founded by employees. In the case of LiveFlow, that’s exactly what happened — and it’s now raised $13.5 million. A few years ago, Anita Koimur … Read more
AI is a notorious liar, and Microsoft now says it has a fix for that. Understandably, that’s going to raise some eyebrows, but there’s reason to be skeptical. Microsoft today revealed Correction, a service that attempts to automatically revise AI-generated text that’s factually wrong. Correction first flags text that may be erroneous — say, a … Read more
Spotify has expanded the availability of its AI Playlist tool to the U.S., Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand after initially launching it for Premium subscribers in the U.K. and Australia. This feature, currently in beta on Android and iOS devices, allows users to create personalized playlists based on written prompts. For instance, users can enter … Read more
WordPress hosting service WP Engine on Monday sent a cease-and-desist letter to Automattic after the latter’s CEO Matt Mullenweg called WP Engine a “cancer to WordPress” last week. The notice asks Automattic and Mullenweg to retract their comments and stop making statements against the company. Today WP Engine sent what is called a “cease and … Read more
The original Insta360 Link entered the world fully formed. $299 price tag aside, I had no major complaints about the webcam in my 2022 review. Two years later, the Shenzhen-based consumer optics company has debuted its successor — two of them, in fact. In my review, I noted that the Link’s steep price tag was … Read more
Mortgage fintech Mesa has emerged from stealth on Tuesday with $9.2 million in seed capital and a novel idea for homeowners. It’s offering cash back and rewards on all spending done on the home, including the mortgage itself. Mesa is offering mortgage loans, original or refinancing, that include a credit-card-style 1% cash back on the … Read more
Vista Equity Partners and Blackstone have agreed to acquire Smartsheet, the software-as-a-service (SaaS) workplace collaboration and management platform, for $8.4 billion in cash. The companies say that the deal values publicly-traded Smartsheet’s shares at a 41% premium over its 90-day average share price. Should regulators and shareholders approve it, shareholders would receive $56.50 per share … Read more
As the volume of cyberattacks grows, there’s increasing interest from the corporate sector in tech to help automate responses to breaches. Per a 2023 survey from analytics firm Devo, 80% of security leaders expected expanded investments in security automation technology this year; most cited the tech’s potential to support cyber threat mitigation. Projections say that the market … Read more