Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Meta previews an API for its Llama AI models

    Meta previews an API for its Llama AI models

    At its inaugural LlamaCon AI developer conference on Tuesday, Meta announced an API for its Llama series of AI models: the Llama API. Available in limited preview, the Llama API lets developers explore and experiment with products powered by different Llama models, per Meta. Paired with Meta’s SDKs, it allows developers to build Llama-driven services,…

  • Meta needs to win over AI developers at its first LlamaCon

    Meta needs to win over AI developers at its first LlamaCon

    On Tuesday, Meta is hosting its first-ever LlamaCon AI developer conference at its Menlo Park headquarters, where the company will try to pitch developers on building applications with its open Llama AI models. Just a year ago, that wasn’t a hard sell. However, in recent months, Meta has struggled to keep up with both “open”…

  • Are EWOR fellowships the real project Europe is looking for?

    Are EWOR fellowships the real project Europe is looking for?

    Supporting super-early stage entrepreneurs in Europe seems to be suddenly in vogue. Back in March, “Project Europe” was launched to great fanfare by podcaster and VC Harry Stebbings with a small $10 million fund to back founders aged only 25 and under, riffing on the ‘Peter Thiel Fellowship’ model of old. Now a new fund…

  • OpenAI is fixing a ‘bug’ that allowed minors to generate erotic conversations

    OpenAI is fixing a ‘bug’ that allowed minors to generate erotic conversations

    A bug in OpenAI’s ChatGPT allowed the chatbot to generate graphic erotica for accounts where a user registered as a minor, under the age of 18, TechCrunch’s testing revealed, and OpenAI confirmed.  In some cases, the chatbot even encouraged these users to ask for raunchier, more explicit content. OpenAI told TechCrunch its policies don’t allow…

  • Citizen Lab says exiled Uyghur leaders targeted with Windows spyware

    Citizen Lab says exiled Uyghur leaders targeted with Windows spyware

    Unknown hackers last month targeted leaders of the exiled Uyghur community in a campaign involving Windows spyware, researchers revealed Monday.  Citizen Lab, a digital rights research group based at the University of Toronto, detailed an espionage campaign against members of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), an organization that represents the Muslim-minority group, which has for…

  • UK fintech Sprive closes $7.3M round to facilitate mortgage overpayments

    UK fintech Sprive closes $7.3M round to facilitate mortgage overpayments

    Most mortgage lenders would rather people didn’t pay off their mortgages early. After all, that’s that’s how they make their money. Indeed, overpayment is positively discouraged and sometimes even penalized. What if there were a solution that solved the technology behind it, alongside the financing arrangements? That’s the idea behind the Sprive fintech app. This…

  • StrictlyVC goes to Athens and London in May to talk Europe tech

    StrictlyVC goes to Athens and London in May to talk Europe tech

    It’s been a busy year for TechCrunch events — and it’s about to get even bigger. StrictlyVC, our boutique, highly exclusive event series for VCs and startups, is crossing the Atlantic this May with stops in London and Athens! We’re bringing StrictlyVC’s insider conversations to Europe. On May 8, we’ll dive into Athens’ booming tech…

  • From coding tests to billion-dollar startups, Ali Partovi’s eight-year experiment is paying off

    From coding tests to billion-dollar startups, Ali Partovi’s eight-year experiment is paying off

    In Silicon Valley, where the same high-wattage names tend to dominate the headlines, Ali Partovi has long wielded outsized influence despite limited name recognition. The Iranian-born Harvard graduate built an impressive resume early on — joining the founding team of LinkExchange (acquired by Microsoft in 1998 for $265 million), co-founding iLike (sold to MySpace for…

  • Welcome to Chat Haus, the coworking space for AI chatbots

    Welcome to Chat Haus, the coworking space for AI chatbots

    Nestled between an elementary school and a public library in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood sits a new kind of “luxury” coworking space.  Dubbed the Chat Haus, this space has many of the elements you’d find in a traditional coworking office: people hammering away at their computer keyboards, another person taking a phone call, someone else pausing…

  • Best bookmarking apps to help organize and declutter your digital life 

    Best bookmarking apps to help organize and declutter your digital life 

    If you’re someone who likes to bookmark a bunch of things that you find interesting or want to come back to later, it can be hard to manage everything you have saved. There are a number of great bookmark apps on the market that can help you organize all these sorts of links, articles, and…

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