Google partners with Airtel to offer cloud and genAI products to Indian businesses

Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, said on Monday it has entered into a long-term partnership with Google Cloud to develop and deliver cloud and generative AI products to Indian businesses. The partnership aims to tap Airtel’s extensive customer base, which, according to the company, includes 2,000 large enterprises and a …...Read More

Women in AI: Rep. Dar'shun Kendrick wants to pass more AI legislation

To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch has been publishing a series of interviews focused on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’re publishing these pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work …...Read More

A reckoning is coming for emerging venture funds, and that, VCs say, is a good thing

Thousands of new venture capital funds have launched over the past few years, each hoping to carve out a long-term, lucrative place for themselves. PitchBook is tracking over 10,000 funds currently trying to raise money, and 45% of them are emerging fund managers, defined as a firm with less than …...Read More

Workers at a Maryland Apple store authorize strike

It’s been a busy weekend for union organizing efforts at U.S. Apple stores, with the union at one store voting to authorize a strike, while workers at another store voted against forming a union. Back in 2022, workers the Apple store in Towson, Maryland became organized the first formally recognized …...Read More

Alora Baby aims to push baby gear away from the 'landfill economy'

Fast consumption and waste generation run rampant in all industries, but it’s particularly true around baby equipment. Tiny humans get big fast, and parents might be nervous to buy used items (“Is that high chair really sanitized?”) and are often too stressed out to think about what to do with …...Read More

Go on, let bots date other bots

Bumble founder and executive chair Whitney Wolfe Herd raised eyebrows this week with her comments about how AI might change the dating experience. During an onstage interview, Bloomberg’s Emily Chang brought up bots posing as real people, or real people falling in love with bots, as examples of how AI …...Read More

Why Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is so misguided

Welcome to Week in Review: TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. This week Apple unveiled new iPad models at its Let Loose event, including a new 13-inch display for the iPad Air, as well as Tandem OLED and a new M4 chip for the iPad Pro. But its ad …...Read More

U.K. agency releases tools to test AI model safety

The U.K. Safety Institute, the U.K.’s recently established AI safety body, has released a toolset designed to “strengthen AI safety” by making it easier for industry, research organizations and academia to develop AI evaluations. Called Inspect, the toolset — which is available under an open source license, specifically an MIT …...Read More

At the AI Film Festival, humanity triumphed over tech

In the third episode of “Creative Dialogues,” an interview series produced by the filmmaking division of generative AI startup Runway, multimedia artist Claire Hentschker expresses a fear that AI will commoditize the artistic process to the point where art homogenizes, regressing to a sort of derivative sameness. “Are you getting …...Read More

Women in AI: Rachel Coldicutt researches how technology impacts society

To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch has been publishing a series of interviews focused on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’re publishing these pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work …...Read More