amazon-unveils-a-new-and-improved-alexa,-alexa+

Amazon unveils a new and improved Alexa, Alexa+

At an event in NYC on Wednesday, Amazon announced an upgraded Alexa experience — Alexa+ — powered by generative AI technologies. Onstage, Amazon’s devices and services chief Panos Panay called it a “complete re-architecture” of the AI assistant. “[W]hile the vision of Alexa has been ambitious and remains incredibly compelling, until right this moment —

regie.ai-injects-sales-enablement-with-ai,-but-keeps-humans-in-the-loop

Regie.ai injects sales enablement with AI, but keeps humans in the loop

There’s no sure-fire approach to sales enablement, the process of providing a sales team with the resources it needs to close deals. Some teams are deficient on the prospecting side — that is, identifying and contacting potential customers. Others require help getting deals over the finish line. To meet these diverse wants, founders Matt Millen

court-filings-show-meta-staffers-discussed-using-copyrighted-content-for-ai-training

Court filings show Meta staffers discussed using copyrighted content for AI training

For years, Meta employees have internally discussed using copyrighted works obtained through legally questionable means to train the company’s AI models, according to court documents unsealed on Thursday. The documents were submitted by plaintiffs in the case Kadrey v. Meta, one of many AI copyright disputes slowly winding through the U.S. court system. The defendant

this-week-in-ai:-maybe-we-should-ignore-ai-benchmarks-for-now

This Week in AI: Maybe we should ignore AI benchmarks for now

Welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter! We’re going on hiatus for a bit, but you can find all our AI coverage, including my columns, our daily analysis, and breaking news stories, at TechCrunch. If you want those stories and much more in your inbox every day, sign up for our daily newsletters here. This week, billionaire

guidde-taps-ai-to-help-create-software-training-videos

Guidde taps AI to help create software training videos

Creating corporate training videos for software is a time-consuming ordeal, especially if you’re an organization with a lot of software licenses. Training videos can help get employees up to speed, but they’re a big lift. They often take entire teams to produce. Tel Aviv-based entrepreneur Yoav Einav thought there might be an alternative, cheaper way

openai-says-its-board-of-directors-‘unanimously’-rejects-elon-musk’s-bid

OpenAI says its board of directors ‘unanimously’ rejects Elon Musk’s bid

OpenAI’s board of directors has “unanimously” rejected billionaire Elon Musk’s offer to buy the nonprofit that effectively governs OpenAI, the company said on Friday. In a statement shared via OpenAI’s press account on X, Bret Taylor, board chair, called Musk’s bid “an attempt to disrupt his competition.” “OpenAI is not for sale, and the board

court-filings-show-meta-paused-efforts-to-license-books-for-ai-training

Court filings show Meta paused efforts to license books for AI training

New court filings in an AI copyright case against Meta add credence to earlier reports that the company “paused” discussions with book publishers on licensing deals to supply some of its generative AI models with training data. The filings are related to the case Kadrey v. Meta Platforms — one of many such cases winding through

deepseek-founder-liang-wenfeng-is-reportedly-set-to-meet-with-china’s-xi-jinping

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng is reportedly set to meet with China’s Xi Jinping

In Brief Posted: 12:45 PM PST · February 14, 2025 Image Credits:VCG/VCG / Getty Images Chinese AI startup DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng is reportedly set to meet with China’s top politicians, including Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during a summit that Alibaba founder Jack Ma is also expected to attend. The summit, which could happen as