Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA
AI investments hit $110 billion in 2024, and the funding landscape in 2025 is more competitive than ever. For early-stage startups, that means more money in the market, but also more pressure to stand out. At TechCrunch Sessions: AI, Rebecca Bellan sat down with three experienced investors: Jill Chase, partner at CapitalG; Kanu Gulati, partner at Khosla Ventures; and Sara Ittelson, partner at Accel. They broke down what they are really looking for when evaluating AI startups from seed through Series C. Their message to founders? Forget the perfect pitch. Focus on building trust, surviving the hype cycle, and being…
Need a cab? This ad’s got you covered.Uber this week said it’s launching a new ad format that lets brands offer its users cash off their next rides.”Our audience is always looking for an opportunity to drive savings and get affordable things, but also get messages that are personalized and relevant for them,” Kristi Argyilan, the global head of Uber Advertising, told Business Insider at the Cannes Lions advertising festival in France on Wednesday.Beverage company Molson Coors is the launch advertiser for Ride Offers. Brands like Coors Light will show up with ads in the Uber app as users check…
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Stanley Cup is a little banged up, thanks to the Florida Panthers’ celebration of back-to-back titles.The bowl of the famous trophy is cracked and the bottom is dented. Not for the first time and likely not the last.The Panthers won their second consecutive championship on home ice Tuesday night, beating Edmonton in six games. The team, following decades of tradition, partied with the Cup into the wee hours and kept the revelry going in Fort Lauderdale well into Wednesday afternoon. A spokesperson for the Hockey Hall of Fame said the keepers of the Cup…
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department said Wednesday it is restarting the suspended process for foreigners applying for student visas but all applicants will now be required to unlock their social media accounts for government review.The department said consular officers will be on the lookout for posts and messages that could be deemed hostile to the United States, its government, culture, institutions or founding principles.In a notice made public Wednesday, the department said it had rescinded its May suspension of student visa processing but said new applicants who refuse to set their social media accounts to “public” and allow…
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has said humanity is only years away from developing artificial general intelligence that could automate most human labor. If that’s true, then humanity also deserves to understand and have a say in the people and mechanics behind such an incredible and destabilizing force. That is the guiding purpose behind “The OpenAI Files,” an archival project from the Midas Project and the Tech Oversight Project, two nonprofit tech watchdog organizations. The Files are a “collection of documented concerns with governance practices, leadership integrity, and organizational culture at OpenAI.” Beyond raising awareness, the goal of the Files is…
The rebooted version of Digg’s news aggregator has entered testing, offering users a first look at what this would-be Reddit competitor, built for the AI era, has in store. At its height in 2008, Digg’s site was valued at $175 million, but it was split up and sold for parts a decade later. In March, Digg’s original founder, Kevin Rose, and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian teamed up to bring the brand back and reinvent the site for a new generation of internet users. The founders think that the internet is being flooded with bots and AI agents, which will create demand…
Google is rolling out the ability for users to have a back-and-forth voice conversation with AI Mode, its experimental Search feature that lets users ask complex, multi-part questions. With the new Search Live integration, users can have a free-flowing voice conversation with Search and explore links from across the web. Users will be able to access the feature by opening the Google app and tapping the new “Live” icon to ask their question aloud. They will then hear an AI-generated audio response, and they can follow up with another question. Today’s announcement comes a few weeks after Google rolled out AI Mode…
A small, growing number of employers are putting health insurance decisions entirely in the hands of their workers.Instead of offering traditional insurance, they’re giving workers money to buy their own coverage in what’s known as Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements, or ICHRAs.Advocates say this approach provides small companies that couldn’t afford insurance a chance to offer something. It also caps a growing expense for employers and fits conservative political goals of giving people more purchasing power over their coverage.But ICHRAs place the risk for finding coverage on the employee, and they force them to do something many dislike: Shop for…
More older adults in the United States are dying from unintentional falls, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.In the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics data brief out Wednesday, researchers found the death rate for falls in adults 65 and older increased with increasing age for both men and women. From 2003 to 2023, the rate increased more than 70% for adults ages 65 to 74, and more than 75% for those aged 75 to 84. It more than doubled for seniors 85 and older.In 2023 alone, more than 41,000 retirement-age Americans died of…
Coastal counties with very high marine microplastic levels had higher rates of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke compared to coastal counties with lower marine microplastic levels, according to a new study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association.Microplastics are tiny plastic pieces measuring less than 5 millimeters in length — approximately the size of a pencil eraser — that result from the breakdown of larger plastic debris such as plastic bags, bottles, personal care products and synthetic microfibers, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Microplastics accumulate in the ocean and are ingested by fish and…