Author: IQ TIMES MEDIA

As AI makes coding dramatically faster, the next big challenge in software development is testing and validating all that code. Blacksmith has raised a new $45 million round to capitalize on that shift. The Series B, led by Peak XV Partners, values Blacksmith at $550 million, up from the $60 million valuation it was assigned when it raised a $10 million Series A less than a year ago. Existing investors GV and Y Combinator also participated, bringing the startup’s total funding to $58.5 million. Founded in 2024, Blacksmith helps companies build, test, and verify software before it reaches production. The…

This is an interview with Jonathan Chan, the cofounder and chief product and technology officer of Pear, an AI platform that’s helping to reinvent consulting. Prior to that, he spent five years as a consultant at Boston Consulting Group.I started my career as a tech developer, then did my MBA and spent about five years in strategy at Westpac, an Australian bank. I loved strategy, so I applied to major consulting firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG. I ultimately joined BCG as a consultant.I was excited. Then I found myself sitting on the bench.I had an MBA and close to a…

Majestic Labs cofounder Sha Rabii knows what it’s like to build AI infrastructure in an industry dominated by Nvidia.Rabii spent years leading custom silicon inside Google and Meta before launching his own AI hardware startup.When Rabii considers Nvidia’s biggest competitive advantage, he doesn’t point to its brilliant engineers, leading technology, or well-established sales channels.”Where they’re kind of unmatched is in the giant bag of cash they’re sitting on top of,” Rabii said.Nvidia had more than $80 billion in cash and marketable investments as of April, when it last reported earnings, and generated another $50 billion in operating cash flow that…

The AI race is shifting away from teaching chatbots how to answer questions and toward teaching agents how to perform entire jobs.After years spent training models on internet text and paying contractors to rate chatbot responses, tech companies are increasingly focused on something new: creating realistic digital workplaces where AI can practice coding, using business software, making decisions, and completing long-running tasks much like a human employee.These digital training realms are called reinforcement learning environments, or RL environments for short. Two recent developments show how this is catching on across the industry.Google is in talks to invest more than $1.5…

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Parent-teacher conferences can conjure a familiar scene: adults crammed into child-size chairs, listening to teachers run through a list of students’ achievements and struggles.For many families, they can also mean frustration. Today’s school conferences are sometimes 15 to 20 minutes, with little time for parents to ask their own questions. Adults may arrive with their own baggage about their time in school. They may be worried about being judged or dreading what a teacher may say about their child. For teachers, conferences can mean pressure to give a snapshot of a child’s progress, with the next…

A mysterious new function has been appearing for some users of ChatGPT’s Plus plan.A Reddit user on ChatGPT’s $20 monthly plan posted in the ChatGPT forum on Monday, saying they were presented with a black “pay $8 to reset” button when they logged in and found that their weekly usage quota had been maxed out.The pay-to-reset feature wasn’t formally announced before it was first spotted. The company introduced banked Codex resets for eligible Plus and Pro users in June, including a free reset at launch and resets earned through referrals.According to OpenAI’s Codex, a “full reset” is defined as renewing…

Steve Jobs’ son thinks San Francisco’s pandemic-era real estate slump helped shift Silicon Valley’s center of gravity up north.Reed Jobs said on the Sabrina Halper Show that Palo Alto and the South Bay were “where all the juice was” during his father’s career, when companies including Apple, Google, HP, IBM, and Sun Microsystems clustered there.”And where is the energy now? I would say it has really migrated north of San Francisco,” Jobs said, pointing to OpenAI, Anthropic, and Chai Discovery. “The energy is here, and the companies are here.”Jobs, who grew up in Palo Alto and has lived in San…

Doctors say President Donald Trump’s new executive order on vaccines is misguided and likely to stoke fear and confusion among parents at a time when measles is raging, immunization rates are falling and children are heading back to school. “Many families are finishing up that back-to-school checklist, and among those things is the medical checkup and assuring that their kids have their vaccines,” Michigan pediatrician Dr. Molly O’Shea said. “To put into question the safety or efficacy of these vaccines right now is really unfortunate and ill-conceived.” The order, signed Monday, advocates separating the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine…

This week, Anthropic announced that it will be adding in a watermark to its outputs, making it highly detectable to tell if something was “processed by Claude.”This should strike fear into the hearts of any students who have become addicted to the sweet, sweet nectar of AI-written term papers and homework. Or anyone using AI to write their emails or LinkedIn posts who isn’t willing to proudly own that fact.How embarrassing to be caught Claude-handed! Or… is it?The rise of AI watermarking makes me wonder: How much do people care if their AI use is outed? If we look at…

DoorDash is set to become a Nevada-incorporated company.Shareholders controlling 54.2% of the delivery service’s voting power agreed to end its incorporation in Delaware and head west, according to a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.The move was made with the written consent of the shareholders, including cofounders Tony Xu, Andy Fang, and Stanley Tang, according to the filing. DoorDash’s board had unanimously recommended reincorporating in Nevada.DoorDash is the latest company to decide to move out of Delaware. While it’s long been the top state for companies looking to incorporate, big names from Roblox to VC firm Andreessen Horowitz…