Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
January Ventures co-founder Jennifer Neundorfer stopped by the Equity podcast during TechCrunch Disrupt to chat about fundraising in this very AI-driven market. Founders and investors alike are obsessed with AI, and even Neundorfer said her firm is looking at ways to use AI to make their work more efficient, such as helping to do due diligence on the market and competition. As for companies being built, she has a preference for the founders looking to create something entirely new. “Where I tend to get excited is when I see someone who is using AI to do something that isn’t 10x better. It’s…
From electronic health records and blood tests to the stream of data from wearable devices, the amount of health information people generate is accelerating rapidly. Yet, many users struggle to connect this trove of data in a meaningful way and actually use it to improve their health. Function Health, which offers a regular lab testing service to help people track their health, wants to change that by consolidating health data and making it usable for its customers by connecting that data to an AI model. To further that effort, the company recently raised $298 million in a Series B round…
As cases of potentially deadly botulism in babies who drank ByHeart infant formula continue to grow, state officials say they are still finding the recalled product on some store shelves.Investigators in at least three states found ByHeart formula for sale a week after the New York-based company recalled all products nationwide, officials told The Associated Press.At least 31 babies in 15 states who drank ByHeart formula have been hospitalized and treated for infantile botulism since August, federal health officials said Wednesday. They range in age from about 2 weeks to about 6 months, with the most recent case reported on…
Warner Music Group (WMG) has settled a copyright infringement case with AI music startup Udio, the label announced on Wednesday. The two have also entered into a licensing deal for an AI music creation service that’s set to launch in 2026. In its press release, WMG said that the “next-generation music creation, listening, and discovery platform” will be powered by generative AI models trained on licensed and authorized music. The company says the platform will create “new revenue streams for artists and songwriters, while ensuring their work remains protected.” The subscription service will allow users to make remixes, covers, and…
Satya Nadella believes Microsoft needs to completely rethink its business model for the AI era, and he’s turning to an executive who influenced the company’s cloud reboot 15 years ago.Nadella tapped Rolf Harms as an advisor on AI economics to help with the ambitious plan, according to a memo the CEO sent top Microsoft executives this month.Harms wrote the white paper “Economics of the Cloud” in 2010 that helped force a cultural reckoning at Microsoft and pave the way for the company’s cloud-computing success.”We need to rapidly rethink the new economics of AI across the company — just as we…
I guess we’re past the era of “and that’s what you missed on Glee.” Amazon’s Prime Video streamer is adding AI-generated “Video Recaps” to help viewers catch up between seasons of shows, the company announced on Wednesday. According to Amazon, the feature “utilizes generative AI to create theatrical-quality season recaps with synchronized narration, dialogue, and music.” It will begin rolling out in beta on Wednesday for select Prime Originals, like “Fallout,” “Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan,” and “Upload.” Prime Video launched a similar AI-powered feature last year called “X-Ray Recaps,” which summarizes complete seasons, episodes, or parts of episodes — at…
Dour warnings of an AI bubble have rocked markets in recent weeks. At least one big concern is misplaced, though.Back in March, I told you about depreciation risks for some AI companies, including CoreWeave. In August, Jim Chanos, the guy who shorted Enron, shared similar concerns.The big worry centers on GPUs, the chips needed to train and run AI models. As new GPUs come out, older ones get less valuable, through obsolescence and wear and tear. Cloud companies must use depreciation to reduce the value of these assets over a period that reflects reality. The faster the depreciation, the bigger…
One of the most common use cases to have come out of new-age AI models is to power natural language search and find files and other information quicker and faster. There are already several companies that allow you to connect different services to search through data. Now, a startup called Poly is launching a service that encourages you to dump all your files into one place so you can query them to find the right content. At launch, it’s giving 100GB of storage to users on its free tier. This is Poly’s second inning from a product perspective. The company…
By Jonathan Stempel(Reuters) -Pfizer and supplier Tris Pharma reached a $41.5 million settlement with Texas to resolve a lawsuit claiming they defrauded the state’s Medicaid program over alleged quality control lapses in a medicine to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children.Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said on Wednesday the settlement resolves a November 2023 lawsuit accusing the companies of manipulating testing for Quillivant XR between 2012 and 2018, to ensure it would comply with federal law and remain eligible for sale.Paxton said properly done tests often showed the liquid medicine failed to dissolve in the body and was therefore…
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) recently seized the sixth-largest amount of counterfeit fentanyl pills in U.S. history.The DEA’s Rocky Mountain Field Division announced on Nov. 17 the seizure of 1.7 million counterfeit fentanyl pills and 12 kilograms of fentanyl powder (capable of 6 million pills) from a storage unit in Highland Ranch, Colorado, a suburb of Denver. The seizure is the largest one-time seizure of counterfeit pills in Colorado history, according to the DEA.Colorado’s Douglas County Sheriff’s Office was notified of the storage unit’s contents when it was purchased by a winning bidder, according to the DEA.”This played out like…