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Character.AI has retrained its chatbots to stop chatting up teens

By lucidcapitalism | December 12, 2024

(The Verge) In an announcement today, Chatbot service Character.AI says it will soon be launching parental controls for teenage users, and it described safety measures it’s taken in the past few months, including a separate large language model (LLM) for users under 18. The announcement comes after press scrutiny and two lawsuits that claim it…

9 VC firms collected half of all money raised by US funds in 2024

By lucidcapitalism | December 11, 2024

(Pitchbook) In 2024, 30 firms raised 75% of all capital raised by VC funds in the US, a powerful signal of how the tech pullback is concentrating influence among the venture industry’s heavyweights. Just nine of them took in $35 billion—half of the total raised, according to PitchBook data. And just one firm, Andreessen Horowitz,…

OpenAI seeks to unlock investment by ditching ‘AGI’ clause with Microsoft

By lucidcapitalism | December 6, 2024

(The Financial Times) OpenAI is in discussions to ditch a provision that shuts Microsoft out of its most advanced models when the start-up achieves “artificial general intelligence”, as it seeks to unlock billions of dollars of future investment. Under current terms, when OpenAI creates AGI — defined as a “highly autonomous system that outperforms humans…

Palantir, Anduril Partner to Advance AI for National Security

By lucidcapitalism | December 6, 2024

(Wall Street Journal) Palantir Technologies is partnering with defense-technology company Anduril Industries to launch a consortium the companies said will ensure that the U.S. government leads the world in artificial intelligence. The companies on Friday said the partnership will focus on solving two main problems: data readiness and processing data at scale. Most useful national…

Can Shareholder Democracy Fill the Void of a Dysfunctional Regulatory System?

By lucidcapitalism | December 4, 2024

(ProMarket) As financial markets take on societal challenges like climate change, new research from Robin Döttling, Doron Levit, Nadya Malenko and Magdalena Rola-Janicka explores how shareholder democracy interacts with the political process to impact public goods provisions. The authors investigate the potential of investor-driven governance to supplement the shortfalls of the regulatory system, highlighting both…

FTC Bans Location Data Company That Powers the Surveillance Ecosystem

By lucidcapitalism | December 3, 2024

(404 Media) The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced sweeping action against some of the most important companies in the location data industry on Tuesday, including those that power surveillance tools used by a wide spread of U.S. law enforcement agencies and demanding they delete data related to certain sensitive areas like health clinics and places…

Temu and Shein Delivery Providers Face Labor Complaints

By lucidcapitalism | December 3, 2024

(The Information) The growth of Temu and Shein has spurred the rise of little-known delivery startups that help them keep prices ultralow for shoppers. Now those budget delivery services are facing a growing number of legal complaints about their pay practices. With a click of a button, shoppers on these and other sites like AliExpress…

Elon Musk files for injunction to halt OpenAI’s transition to a for-profit

By lucidcapitalism | November 30, 2024

(TechCrunch) Attorneys for tech billionaire Elon Musk have filed for a preliminary injunction against OpenAI, several of its co-founders, and its investor and close collaborator, Microsoft, to prevent OpenAI and other named defendants from engaging in what Musk’s counsel claims is anticompetitive behavior. The motion for an injunction, which was filed late on Friday in…

Can Europe build its first trillion-dollar start-up?

By lucidcapitalism | November 29, 2024

(Financial Times) In 2024, artificial intelligence is consistently front-page news. From Nvidia hitting a $3tn market cap to the growing energy usage of data centres, it is the most discussed technology of our time. And it is a technology that the US dominates, with three of the most valuable AI start-ups, Anthropic, OpenAI and xAI,…

Illumen Capital doubles down on supporting underrepresented funds

By lucidcapitalism | November 22, 2024

(TechCrunch) Illumen Capital is doubling down on its support for fund managers and founders from underrepresented communities.  The firm is an impact fund of funds that has previously supported ways to address racial bias in investing. Yesterday, the firm, founded by Daryn Dodson, announced the raise of a $32.75 million “Catalyst Fund “to once again…