Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

When Max Keenan joined Y Combinator’s summer 2022 batch, he was working on Aurelian, a company that automated appointment bookings for hair salons. But less than a year later, a conversation with one of his clients led him to a far more significant problem. A nearby school’s carpool line was constantly blocking the parking lot of one of Aurelian’s hair salon clients. The salon owner called the city’s non-emergency line and was put on hold for 45 minutes before reaching a dispatcher. “She called me into her office afterwards, and was like, ‘Max, do you want to help me out?’”…

ChatGPT rivals like Google’s Gemini, xAI’s Grok, and, to a lesser extent, Meta AI, are closing the gap to ChatGPT, OpenAI’s popular AI chatbot, according to a new report focused on the consumer AI landscape from venture firm Andreessen Horowitz. The report, in its fifth iteration, showcases two and a half years of data about consumers’ evolving use of AI products. And for the fifth time, 14 companies appeared on the list of top AI products: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Poe, Character AI, Midjourney, Leonardo, Veed, Cutout, ElevenLabs, Photoroom, Gamma, QuillBot, Civitai, and Hugging Face. Image Credits:a16z The companies represent a cross…

OpenAI and Anthropic, two of the world’s leading AI labs, briefly opened up their closely guarded AI models to allow for joint safety testing — a rare cross-lab collaboration at a time of fierce competition. The effort aimed to surface blind spots in each company’s internal evaluations and demonstrate how leading AI companies can work together on safety and alignment work in the future. In an interview with TechCrunch, OpenAI co-founder Wojciech Zaremba said this kind of collaboration is increasingly important now that AI is entering a “consequential” stage of development, where AI models are used by millions of people…

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. Open opponents Taylor Townsend and Jelena Ostapenko got into a face-to-face argument on the Court 11 sideline right after their second-round match ended Wednesday. “She told me I have no class, no education, and to see what happens when we get outside the U.S.,” Townsend, who is from Chicago, said after her 7-5, 6-1 victory over 2017 French Open champion Ostapenko, who is from Latvia.After the two players met at the net for a postmatch handshake, they stayed near each other instead of going their separate ways, as players usually do. The 25th-seeded Ostapenko wagged…

Will you get a COVID-19 vaccine? That has become a complicated question for many people.The answer may depend on your age, insurance coverage, health and finding a health care professional who will give you the shot.A once-straightforward seasonal vaccine process has become muddled this year because of new federal guidance on who the shots are approved for. It raises questions about whether pharmacists will provide the shots and if insurers will cover them.The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has OK’d new shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax, but the approvals came with some new caveats. And it’s not clear yet…

The Food and Drug Administration has approved updated COVID-19 shots for fall, implementing the tightest restrictions on who can access the vaccines since they became available.Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced the approval Aug. 27 on social media platform X, saying that emergency-use authorizations for COVID-19 vaccines have been terminated and that the Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax immunizations are approved for “those at high risk.”Under the updated approvals, only those over 65 and people with existing health problems will be recommended for the COVID-19 vaccine, according to federal guidelines.”These vaccines are available for all patients who choose them…

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved updated COVID-19 vaccines for the upcoming fall/winter season for some Americans.The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was approved for use in adults aged 65 and older and for those between ages 5 and 64 with at least one underlying condition that puts them at high risk for severe COVID.In a press release, the companies said their 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine will target a sublineage known as LP.8.1, an offshoot of the JN.1 subvariant, in line with FDA guidance to more closely match circulating strains.MORE: Leading pediatrician group recommends COVID vaccine for infants, toddlers in contrast with…

NEW YORK (AP) — For the second contest in a row at this U.S. Open, Novak Djokovic appeared a bit sluggish, a bit off, for a stretch. This time, he even dropped the opening set. And then, as always at Flushing Meadows, the 24-time Grand Slam champion progressed to the third round.Djokovic improved to 36-0 across the first and second rounds in New York, a place he’s won four championships, by coming back to beat 145th-ranked American qualifier Zachary Svajda 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium on Wednesday.“I really tried to soak it in and enjoy the…

GRIMSBY, England (AP) — Manchester United sank to a new low under Ruben Amorim by getting eliminated by fourth-tier Grimsby Town after a marathon penalty shootout in the second round of the English League Cup on Wednesday.Grimsby won 12-11 on spot-kicks at 9,000-capacity Blundell Park on England’s east coast, with Bryan Mbeumo missing the decisive penalty. United needed late goals by Mbeumo and Harry Maguire just to salvage a 2-2 draw in regulation, having trailed 2-0 at halftime.It will go down as one of the most embarrassing results in United’s history and leaves the team winless in three games so…

Last year was monumental for the AI industry in the U.S. and beyond. There were 49 startups that raised funding rounds worth $100 million or more in 2024, per our count at TechCrunch; three companies raised more than one “mega-round,” and seven companies raised rounds that were $1 billion in size or larger. How will 2025 compare? With only a few weeks left in the third quarter, it looks like 2024’s momentum will continue this year. There have already been multiple billion-dollar rounds this year, and a handful of companies have raised more than one mega-round. Here are all the…