Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Legora, an AI platform for lawyers, is now valued at $5.55 billion following a $550 million Series D set to fuel its growth in the U.S. That’s despite growing competition with rival Harvey, but also with Microsoft Copilot and generalist large language models (LLMs). Publicly listed legal software companies saw their stocks drop when Anthropic unveiled a legal plug-in for Claude. Legora is built on top of LLMs, and mostly on Claude, but its positioning as a platform that supports lawyers with complex cases gives CEO Max Junestrand some peace of mind. “It’s amazing that everybody can have their own…

Meta acquired Moltbook, the Reddit-like “social network” where AI agents using OpenClaw can communicate with one another. The news was first reported by Axios and later confirmed to TechCrunch. Moltbook is joining Meta Superintelligence Labs, a Meta spokesperson told us. Moltbook creators Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr will join the team as part of the acquisition. Deal terms were not disclosed. “The Moltbook team joining MSL opens up new ways for AI agents to work for people and businesses. Their approach to connecting agents through an always-on directory is a novel step in a rapidly developing space, and we look…

YouTube is expanding its likeness detection technology, which identifies AI-generated deepfakes, to a pilot group of government officials, political candidates, and journalists, the company announced Tuesday. Members of the pilot group will gain access to a tool that detects unauthorized AI-generated content and lets them request its removal if they believe it violates YouTube policy. The technology itself launched last year to roughly 4 million YouTube creators in the YouTube Partner Program, following earlier tests. Similar to YouTube’s existing Content ID system, which detects copyright-protected material in users’ uploaded videos, the likeness detection feature looks for simulated faces made with…

YouTube is expanding its likeness detection technology, which identifies AI-generated deepfakes, to a pilot group of government officials, political candidates, and journalists, the company announced Tuesday. Members of the pilot group will gain access to a tool that detects unauthorized AI-generated content and lets them request its removal if they believe it violates YouTube policy. The technology itself launched last year to roughly 4 million YouTube creators in the YouTube Partner Program, following earlier tests. Similar to YouTube’s existing Content ID system, which detects copyright-protected material in users’ uploaded videos, the likeness detection feature looks for simulated faces made with…

Adobe announced on Tuesday that its AI assistant for Photoshop is becoming available to users in beta on the web and in the mobile apps. The company is also adding new AI-powered image-editing capabilities to Firefly, its tool for media generation and editing. The creative tooling company first announced an AI assistant for Photoshop during its MAX event in October. The feature, now rolling out to users, can help them remove objects or people from images, change colors, or adjust lighting through prompts. Users can also use natural language to instruct the AI assistant to add soft glow, crop in…

Patients who are prescribed higher daily doses of the medication buprenorphine for opioid use disorder are significantly more likely to stay in treatment. Those on 17 to 24 milligrams averaged 190 days in care compared to 90 days for those on 8 milligrams or less. Yet Black patients are less likely than white patients to receive the higher doses.Those are the key findings of a study my colleagues and I conducted with 5,000 adults enrolled in Medicaid in Philadelphia who are prescribed buprenorphine to treat their opioid use disorder.I am an assistant professor at University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing,…

Thinking about certain types of alcohol can alter your mood and trigger certain mindsets, especially among young consumers. For instance, tequila calls up a party mindset, whiskey activates a masculine mindset, and wine primes a sophistication mindset.Those are the key takeaways of a new study my team and I published in the journal Young Consumers.We carried out four studies with 429 total participants to examine the cultural themes and moods people associate with different types of alcohol.We conducted two preliminary studies to understand how people think about different types of alcohol. In the first study, participants answered open-ended questions, and…

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a generic medication for a rare brain disorder, while walking back statements by President Donald Trump and other administration officials that the drug showed great promise for people with autism.The agency said it approved leucovorin for children and adults with a genetic condition that limits delivery of folate, a form of vitamin B, to the brain. FDA officials estimate the ultrarare condition impacts fewer than 1 in a million people in the U.S.It’s a major step back from comments made at a White House news conference in September, when…

Zoom’s AI-powered avatars, which can represent users in online meetings, will be available to use later this month, the company announced on Tuesday, alongside news of other tools and services. Notably, the company is introducing its own AI Docs, Slides, and Sheets apps, an AI agent builder for non-technical people, and a voice translator for meetings. The company said its AI-powered productivity apps will be available as a preview in the spring. The AI avatars, announced last year, are the long-anticipated photorealistic avatars that can mimic your appearance, expressions, and lip and eye movements. Designed to mime your actions when…

Google announced on Tuesday that it’s bringing a slew of new Gemini-powered AI capabilities to Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Drive. The new features let users do things like quickly generate fully formatted first drafts, slides, and sheets based on information from their Gmail, Chat, and Drive. The tools are designed to make the apps more personal and capable of helping users get things done faster, right within the platforms themselves, instead of needing to switch to a separate tool or chatbot. A new “Help me create” tool in Docs lets users describe what they want to create, and Gemini will…