Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Mercor, a popular AI recruiting startup, has confirmed a security incident linked to a supply chain attack involving the open-source project LiteLLM. The AI startup told TechCrunch on Tuesday that it was “one of thousands of companies” affected by a recent compromise of LiteLLM’s project, which was linked to a hacking group called TeamPCP. Confirmation of the incident comes as extortion hacking group Lapsus$ claimed it had targeted Mercor and gained access to its data. It’s not immediately clear how the Lapsus$ gang obtained the stolen data from Mercor as part of TeamPCP’s cyberattack. Founded in 2023, Mercor works with…

Anthropic has built its public identity around the winning idea that it’s the careful AI company. It publishes detailed work on AI risk, employs some of the best researchers in the field, and has been vocal about the responsibilities that come with building such powerful technology — so vocal, of course, that it’s right now battling it out with the Department of Defense. On Tuesday, alas, someone there forgot to check a box. It is, notably, the second time in a week. Last Thursday, Fortune reported that Anthropic had accidentally made nearly 3,000 internal files publicly available, including a draft…

Salesforce, the cloud software giant, has been remaking its business around AI, and at a small gathering in San Francisco on Tuesday, CEO Marc Benioff and his team unveiled the latest results of those efforts: an updated version of Slack, with a plethora of new AI features. The most significant of these is a serious glow-up for its AI agent, Slackbot. The 30 new features, which will be available in the coming months, follow a January update that gave Slackbot agentic capabilities—including the ability to draft emails, schedule meetings, and sift through your inbox for specific information. Perhaps the most…

OpenAI has closed a deal to raise $122 billion at an $852 billion valuation, its largest funding round to date as the company is expected to hit the public markets this year. The round will add to OpenAI’s war chest as it spends enormous amounts of money on AI chips, data center buildouts, and hiring top talent. SoftBank co-led the round alongside Andreessen Horowitz, D.E. Shaw Ventures, MGX, TPG, and T. Rowe Price Associates, with participation from Amazon, Nvidia, and Microsoft. About $3 billion came from individual investors via bank channels. OpenAI is also going to be included in several…

I’m the Senior Associate Editor of Streaming at Business Insider. A lifelong entertainment and media buff, I specialize in helping you find how to watch your favorite shows, movies, and sporting events.My areas of expertiseMy main expertise is in streaming services, television, and film. I’ve tested nearly every major streaming platform, many of which I’ve used for several years (and through several rounds of price hikes and rebrands). I evaluate the services for content, user-friendliness, cross-device compatibility, and other metrics to see how they hold up in an increasingly competitive market.In addition to my entertainment background, I also help support…

Sometimes an apparently good idea, a big raise from a big-name VC, and a sea of well-connected angel investors is not enough. Less than a year after launching, Yupp is closing its business, co-founders Pankaj Gupta and Gilad Mishne announced on Tuesday. Yupp offered a crowdsourced AI model-picking service. It allowed consumers to test and compare results from a supply of 800 AI models for free, including the state-of-the-art ones from OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic. Yupp would return multiple replies from the prompt request, including information or images, and users would offer feedback on which models worked best for them…

Sam Altman and OpenAI are getting serious. Loading audio narration… They’re dropping sidequests like Sora, and trying to catch up to rival Anthropic, which has a booming business selling tools to coders.But OpenAI still wants to make money from people who will never give it a dime. It wants to do that by showing them ads.And this chart from analysts at MoffettNathanson explains why: ChatGPT has lots of users, but only a sliver of them are paying for the service. The rest could see ads.  MoffettNathanson It’s a simple argument, but I’ll spell it out here: As of January, OpenAI’s…

Amazon’s latest upgrade to Alexa+, its next-generation AI assistant, allows you to order food from popular delivery services Uber Eats and Grubhub in a conversational manner, just as if you were chatting with a waiter at a restaurant or placing an order at a drive-thru, according to Amazon. The aim of this new Alexa+ feature is to create a more natural and interactive ordering experience. Starting today, users can begin requesting a cuisine, explore menu options, ask questions, and customize their meal all within a single conversation. If users change their mind halfway through, want to add a dessert, or…

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the University of Pennsylvania to hand over records about Jewish employees on campus to a federal agency as part of an investigation into antisemitic discrimination but said it did not have to reveal any employee’s affiliation with a specific group.U.S. District Judge Gerald Pappert said employees can refuse to take part in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation but the agency “needs the opportunity to talk to them directly to learn if they have evidence of discrimination.”He mostly upheld an administrative subpoena but said Penn does not have to…

OpenAI was Figure’s partner. Then, they became competitors. Loading audio narration… OpenAI co-led the humanoid robotics company’s Series B in 2024, and the two companies entered into a collaboration agreement to “develop next-generation AI models” for the robots. Less than a year later, Figure CEO Brett Adcock said he decided to leave the agreement and build AI in-house.Adcock shared new details about the separation on “The Shawn Ryan Show” this week. He said that OpenAI’s team provided “very little” value aside from its brand.While he praised OpenAI leadership for their skill at developing chatbots, Adcock said that AI for robotics…