The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is launching preliminary enquiries into whether the close-knit tie-ups and hiring practices involving Microsoft, Amazon and a trio of AI startup falls within the scope of its merger rules — and whether the arrangements could impact competition in the U.K. market. The announcement …...Read More

Automation continues to be a major theme in the enterprise — underscored not least by the rise of AI as a tool to help fix some of the more routine, resource-intensive and fragmented aspects of how security and other IT functions operate. To capitalize on that trend, one of the …...Read More

Hinge is adding a “Hidden Words” feature to its app, which will filter out likes with comments containing those phrases or words. It pretty much works like a mute filter on social media apps. On Hinge, users can send a message when they like a profile — that message can …...Read More

When Trace’s future co-founders Greg Tran, Martin Smith and Sean Couture joined Magic Leap in Spring/Summer 2015, it was about as hot as startups come. After years of secrecy, the augmented reality company captured Silicon Valley’s imagination with in-device footage, before capping the year with an $827 million raise. The …...Read More

India’s central bank ordered Kotak Mahindra Bank to immediately cease onboarding new customers through its online and mobile banking channels and to stop issuing fresh credit cards, citing serious deficiencies in the bank’s IT systems and risk management practices. Kotak Mahindra Bank is one of the largest private banks in …...Read More

Conversational AI platform Parloa has nabbed $66 million in a Series B round of funding, a year after the German startup raised $21 million from a swathe of European investors to propel its international growth. The company is focusing on the U.S. market in particular, where Parloa opened a New …...Read More

Madica, an investment program launched by US-based investor Flourish Ventures to back pre-seed startups in Africa, plans to invest in up to 10 ventures by the end of the year, ramping up its funding efforts after closing three initial three deals. Madica disclosed the plans to TechCrunch indicating accelerated investing …...Read More

A French startup has raised a hefty seed investment to “rearchitect compute infrastructure” for developers wanting to build and train AI applications more efficiently. FlexAI, as the company is called, has been operating in stealth since October 2023, but the Paris-based company is formally launching Wednesday with €28.5 million ($30 …...Read More

The Senate passed a bill, included with the foreign aid package, that will ban TikTok if its owner, ByteDance, doesn’t sell it within a year. Senators passed the bill 79-18 Tuesday after the House passed it with overwhelming majority over the weekend. President Joe Biden will have to sign the …...Read More

Tesla’s been undergoing some major changes, and now we have a sense of why: The company says it is upending its product roadmap because of “pressure” on EV sales. The new and accelerated plan now includes “more affordable models” that the company claims will be launched next year. Or if …...Read More