Author: TechCrunch News

A group of well-known AI ethicists have written a counterpoint to this week’s controversial letter asking for a six-month “pause” on AI development, criticizing it for a focus on hypothetical future threats when real harms are attributable to misuse of the tech today. Thousands of people, including such familiar names as Steve Wozniak and Elon…

The Indian hyperlocal delivery startup Dunzo is in late-stage discussions to secure about $50 million in a new financing round, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch, as the Bengaluru-headquartered startup scrambles for comfort in an otherwise funding winter for younger firms. Reliance Retail and Google, two existing backers of Dunzo, are among those…

Mukesh Ambani’s Jio, the South Asian telecom powerhouse, has long sought to entice its customer base with a plethora of services aimed at boosting subscriber retention. Despite amassing over 425 million customers and claiming the mantle of India’s top network provider—due in large part to its aggressively competitive data pricing—Jio’s array of additional services has…

Unacademy has laid off 12% of its workforce, or over 350 roles, in its latest round of layoffs — just over four months after cutting about 350 roles in November. Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal announced the new layoff decision in a Slack post to employees. “We have taken every step in the right decision…

Impact investor Goodwell Investments and Oxfam Novib, a Dutch foundation and Oxfam International affiliate, have set up Pepea, a €20 million ($21.7m) fund, to provide financing to early-stage startups in Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia. The fund, created with the backing of Oxfam Novib Impact Investments, will provide venture debt with a focus on mezzanine finance,…

Indian insurtech Acko is in late-stage discussions to secure $120 million in a funding round at a time when weak global market conditions have subdued large financing deliberations in the South Asian market. General Atlantic is in talks to lead a $120 million round into Acko, the first tranche of which is about $100 million,…

Amazon now allows T-mobile customers to link their mobile numbers and make or receive hands-free Wi-Fi calls through Alexa-enabled devices like Echo Dot or Echo Show. This comes more than two years after the ecommerce giant partnered up with AT&T for a similar feature. Customers will need to enable the T-Mobile with Alexa skill from…

As of this writing, more than 1,100 signatories, including Elon Musk, Steve Wozniak, and Tristan Harris of the Center for Humane Technology, have signed an open letter that calls on “all AI labs to immediately pause for at least 6 months the training of AI systems more powerful than GPT-4.” Says the letter: Contemporary AI…

A consortium led by Lifelong Group has acquired the distressed firm GoMechanic months after the Sequoia India-backed startup admitted “grave errors” in financial reporting. The New Delhi-headquartered Lifelong Group, which serves several major players in the automotive industry including Hero and General Motors, said it won the bidding to acquire GoMechanic, whose investors scrambled for…