Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

Google is about to ruin the internet. Loading audio narration… And I love the internet. I love websites. I love sending links to my friends. I spend nearly my entire workday looking at various Chrome tabs. I enjoy looking at websites I’ve never looked at before.All of that is going to change with Google’s new search updates, which lean into AI-generated answers. Its plans gave me an awful sinking feeling.The big change will be to integrate AI even more into search — instead of typing in a few keywords and getting a list of links, Google will spit out more…

While Figure AI’s humanoid robots were sorting packages for millions of viewers, the startup’s CEO was preparing his next AI hardware act. Loading audio narration… Hark, a San Jose-based AI lab founded by Figure AI CEO Brett Adcock, announced Thursday it has raised $700 million in funding at a $6 billion valuation, the company said. Parkway Venture Capital led the Series A round, with participation from Nvidia, AMD Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and others.The startup builds personalized AI systems and hardware meant to interact more naturally with people and the physical world, not just through chat.”We’re building the AI that everyone…

What will it take to launch the first must-have AI consumer product? Maybe $700 million. At least according to Hark, an AI lab building models and hardware for an AI personal assistant, which said on Thursday that it had raised that much in a Series A round that values it at $6 billion post-money. The mega-round was led by Parkway Venture Capital and included Nvidia, Align Ventures, AMD Ventures, ARK Invest, Brookfield, Greycroft, Intel Capital, Prime Movers Lab, Qualcomm Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Tamarack Global. (Phew!) Perhaps what’s most notable about the fundraise is how little Hark has revealed about…

When the founders of a mental health app for men called Mental saw that one feature — AI interactive audio — was resonating wildly with their users, they knew they were on to something. And so the idea for a new, and hopefully safer, kind of AI therapy app was born, which they called The Path, co-founder and CEO Anson Whitmer tells TechCrunch.  Then famed author and motivational speaker Tony Robbins grew so enamored with this startup that he scooched in as a co-founder.  The Path has now raised $14.3 million in seed funding led by Prime Movers Lab (where Robbins…

One of the most promising introductions at Google’s I/O developer conference on Tuesday was a new way for consumers to use the web: AI agents. Unfortunately, it was also the most confusing. Google took the wraps off information agents, a reinvention of the aging Google Alerts service, now infused with AI. These AI agents are designed to operate in the background 24/7, helping users stay up to date on topics they’re interested in, like market trends, price tracking, or inclement weather warnings. Information agents.Image Credits:Google Then there is Gemini Spark, a “personal” AI agent that can help you navigate your…

Rising gas prices have been a recurring headline since the Trump administration started its war against Iran in late February, but it’s not the only commodity affected by the conflict. Around 10% of the world’s aluminum is made in the Gulf region, so prices of the metal have reached levels not seen in the last several decades. Even before the war in Iran, the U.S. government had flagged aluminum as a critical mineral. A large share of U.S. demand for aluminum is met by imports, and much of the metal the country does produce is recycled. For recycling startups, it’s…

A judge on Thursday dismissed all charges against a former school administrator accused of ignoring repeated warnings that a 6-year-old had a gun hours before a teacher was shot.Acting on a defense motion, Circuit Judge Rebecca Robinson in Newport News, Virginia, issued the ruling on the fourth day of the trial of Ebony Parker, who was charged with eight felony counts of child neglect.“The court is of the legal opinion that this is not a crime,” Robinson said.The former assistant principal was charged in the January 2023 shooting at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News that left teacher Abby Zwerner…

Lawyers are not an easy crowd for an AI pitch. They are cautious, busy, and paid to find the hole in every argument. Loading audio narration… Legora just hired someone to make the case anyway.The Swedish legal software startup told Business Insider it has hired Zeynep Inanoglu Ozdemir as its first chief marketing officer. Her job is to help Legora win over lawyers and turn it into a household name as it competes with larger Silicon Valley rival Harvey.”I talked to all the lawyers that I had worked with in the past,” Inanoglu Ozdemir said on a call during her…

It wouldn’t be a Musk production without some ambitious deadlines. Loading audio narration… SpaceX filed for its blockbuster IPO on Wednesday, and it’s already proving to be one of the most unconventional public-offering documents in recent memory, with its grandiose, sci-fi language and a CEO pay package partly tied to life on Mars.Then there are the aggressive deadlines Elon Musk is famous for.The filing reveals some due dates around the more critical lines of SpaceX’s business, including Starship, Starlink satellites, and space data centers.SpaceX’s grand ambitions of orbital AI data centers and deep-space missions depend on the success of Starship,…

Oana Olteanu turned down a job at artificial intelligence lab Poolside. She took the upside instead. Loading audio narration… Then a partner at early-stage venture firm SignalFire, Olteanu had impressed Poolside founder Eiso Kant as someone who understood machine learning and could get exceptional engineers on the phone. Kant asked her to leave venture and help him build a tech team. Olteanu declined. She wanted to keep investing.So Kant offered her a different way in: a chance to invest personally. Olteanu wrote a small personal check to Poolside, which is now valued at $12 billion.That bet is helping power her…