Tests of natural language processing models show that the bigger they are, the bigger liars they are. Should we be worried?We are, as the critic George Steiner observed, “language animals”. Perhaps that’s why we are fascinated by other creatures that a…
Twitter for Professionals will begin to roll out this week for businesses and creators
Twitter really can’t go a day without releasing new products. But if you’re running an account for a business or a public figure, its latest addition might capture your interest. Soon, businesses and creators will be able to opt into “professional accounts,” giving them additional tools to distinguish their profile, quickly promote content through ads […]
PSPDFkit raises $116M, its first outside money; now nearly 1B people use apps powered by its collaboration, signing and markup tools
An under-the-radar, bootstrapped startup from Vienna, Austria — a hit with developers for technology that underpins user experience for some of the world’s most popular apps — is doubling down on momentum and announcing its first outside investment, in the form of a large growth round of funding. PSPDFkit — which provides APIs and an […]
TikTok starts flirting with NFTs
The NFT space has had quite the year, and while it can be difficult to separate the billions of dollars in crypto speculation from the potential infrastructure shifts, plenty of mainstream tech companies are dipping their toes into the space and signaling future interest. This time it’s TikTok’s turn. The fast-growing social media platform which […]
TikTok’s new ad products invite users to interact with taps, swipes, likes and more
TikTok this week presented its new plan to ramp up advertiser investment in its video platform with the expansion of e-commerce, a new promise of “brand safety” and the launch of several new and interactive ad formats, ranging from clickable stickers to “Choose Your Own Adventure”-type ads to “super likes” and more. The additions, the […]
Arctic Wolf acquires ‘Hollywood-style’ cybersecurity training startup Habitu8
Arctic Wolf, a managed cybersecurity company that offers a “security operations-as-a-concierge” service, has acquired Habitu8, a security training and awareness content platform. Terms of the deal — which comes just two months after Arctic Wolf secured $150 million in Series F funding — were not announced, but a person with knowledge of the matter told […]
48 hours left to save $100 on passes to TC Sessions: SaaS 2021
If you’re a savant in the world of SaaS, pay close attention; you have just 48 hours left to save $100 on the price of admission to TC Sessions: SaaS 2021. The early-bird price expires on October 1 at 11:59 pm (PT), so buy your pass before the deadline and connect with the global SaaS […]
Sinch acquires Pathwire, the company behind Mailgun and Mailjet, for $1.9B to add email into its API-based communications platform
Sinch, the Swedish company that competes with Twilio and others in the world of messaging and other communication APIs is making another big M&A play to build out its platform. It has signed a definitive deal to acquire Pathwire, the cloud-based email provider behind Mailgun, Mailjet and Email on Acid. Sinch said it would pay […]
TikTok Shopping expands with more partnerships, LIVE Shopping, new ads and more
TikTok is expanding its investment in e-commerce. Earlier this year, the video platform began piloting TikTok Shopping in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, in partnership with Shopify. The deal allowed Shopify merchants with a TikTok For Business account to add a Shopping tab to their TikTok profiles and sync their product catalogs to the app […]
Google adds news ways to shop, like turning a website’s photos into shoppable products
Google today introduced new ways to shop through its platform, including both online and via its Google Search mobile app. In an update coming soon to the Google Search app for iPhone, the company will begin to leverage a new machine learning model using on-device processing to recognize the products found in images on a […]