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AI cheating startup Cluely went viral last week with bold claims that its hidden in-browser window is “undetectable” and can be used to “cheat on everything” from job interviews to exams. But some startups are claiming they can catch Cluely’s users. And Cluely says it’s ready to develop hardware products like smart glasses, or even brain chips, that bypass anti-cheating software altogether. San Francisco startup Validia launched a free product called ‘Truely’ last week in direct response to Cluely. The software triggers an alarm if it detects someone using Cluely, Validia says.  Rhode Island-based startup Proctaroo also claims its platform…

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has begun shedding new light on a crackdown on international students, spelling out how it targeted thousands of people and laying out the grounds for terminating their legal status. The new details emerged in lawsuits filed by some of the students who suddenly had their status canceled in recent weeks with little explanation. In the past month, foreign students around the U.S. have been rattled to learn their records had been removed from a student database maintained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some went into hiding for fear of being picked up by immigration…

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Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates teamed up in 2010 to form the Giving Pledge to encourage more of the super wealthy to publicly commit to donating the bulk of their fortunes to charity. Fifteen years later, Buffett is 94, the Gates couple is divorced and newcomers are dwindling. Still, it has its believers. Marie Dageville, a former hospice nurse in the San Francisco Bay Area, freely admits that she knew nothing about charitable giving. Until 2020. That was the turning point: In September that year, software firm Snowflake–where her husband, Benoit Dageville, is a cofounder–went public. With the…

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Warren Buffett and Bill and Melinda Gates teamed up in 2010 to form the Giving Pledge to encourage more of the super wealthy to publicly commit to donating the bulk of their fortunes to charity. Fifteen years later, Buffett is 94, the Gates couple is divorced and newcomers are dwindling. Still, it has its believers. Marie Dageville, a former hospice nurse in the San Francisco Bay Area, freely admits that she knew nothing about charitable giving. Until 2020. That was the turning point: In September that year, software firm Snowflake–where her husband, Benoit Dageville, is a cofounder–went public. With the…

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Washington, DC – Donald Trump’s world view can be difficult to pin down. During the first 100 days of his second term, the United States president started a global trade war, targeting allies and foes alike. He also issued decrees to withdraw the US from the Paris Agreement on climate and the World Health Organization, amongst other international forums. Trump continued to double down on a series of unconventional foreign policy proposals: taking over the Panama Canal, annexing Greenland, making Canada the 51st US state and “owning” Gaza. And despite promising to be a “peace” president, Trump has said he…

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Freepik, the online graphic design platform, unveiled a new “open” AI image model on Tuesday that the company says was trained exclusively on commercially licensed, “safe-for-work” images. The model, called F Lite, contains around 10 billion parameters — parameters being the internal components that make up the model. F Lite was developed in partnership with AI startup Fal.ai and trained using 64 Nvidia H100 GPUs over the course of two months, according to Freepik. F Lite joins a small and growing collection of generative AI models trained on licensed data. We’ve been secretly working on this for months! It feels…

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Sprive, a UK-based FinTech specialising in helping homeowners pay off their mortgages faster, has raised £5.5m in a new funding round.The investment was led by Ascension, with additional backing from Channel4Ventures, Velocity Capital, and TwoMagnolias.Sprive operates the UK’s only independent mortgage overpayment app, aiming to reduce household debt by enabling users to repay their mortgages quicker. With mortgage debt accounting for 80% of UK household borrowing, Sprive’s approach offers a timely solution, especially amid rising interest rates and growing concerns over long-term mortgage liabilities.The fresh capital will be used to expand Sprive’s reach, moving beyond its initial word-of-mouth growth strategy.…

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RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (AP) — Members of the LGBTQ+ community on Tuesday modeled creations inspired by Lady Gaga’s iconic style at a fashion show in Brazil featuring outfits made either by the models themselves or by the sustainable fashion house “Escola de Divines.”The fashion show took place at Rio de Janeiro’s Central train station and aimed to publicize the special train schedule for Lady Gaga’s Saturday concert on Copacabana Beach. It also served as an awareness campaign guiding the LGBTQ+ population on how to stay safe and what to do in cases of violence, as well as tips to…

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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, tools, and applications. Meta didn’t immediately share the API’s pricing with TechCrunch. The rollout of the API comes as Meta looks to maintain a lead in the fiercely competitive open model space. While Llama models have racked up more than a billion downloads to date,…

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Phosphorus Cybersecurity, a US-based leader in security and device management for the extended Internet of Things (xIoT), has received an investment from Neva Sgr, the venture capital arm of Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo Group.The funding was made through Neva Sgr’s Neva II Fund, although the value of the deal was not disclosed.Phosphorus Cybersecurity helps organisations manage millions of connected devices, automating tasks such as password updates, configuration fixes, and firmware patches to reduce the risk of cyberattacks. The company is building towards a future where xIoT devices are managed autonomously without human intervention.The new investment will accelerate Phosphorus’s intelligent automation capabilities…

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