Meta has launched a new chatbot, Meta AI, powered by its Llama 3 large language model. The chatbot is available for free on the web, Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. It regurgitates web search results and doesn't excel at anything, but is a free option.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/

Boston Dynamics' electric Atlas robot performed a backflip in a new video, showcasing its robustness and gymnastics abilities.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/

Google is testing its Gemini AI model against Anthropic's Claude model, with contractors comparing answers and evaluating accuracy. Google's use of Claude is unclear, as it did not comment on obtaining permission.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/

WordPress.org is taking a holiday break, stopping free services like new account registrations and plug-in reviews. This has led to a call for a 'federated' approach to WordPress from Joost de Valk, ex-CEO of Yoast.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/

CredibleX, a Revenue-Based Financing (RBF) startup, raised a $55 million Seed round led by Further Ventures. The company aims to provide working capital financing to small and medium-sized businesses in the MENA region, where RBF startups like FlapKap and Flow48 have also recently scaled and raised capital.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/

Elon Musk's AI company xAI has raised $6 billion in new funding, bringing its total raised to $12 billion, with a valuation aiming for $50 billion.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/

OpenAI's o3 model has shown promising performance on benchmarks, outscoring other models in general ability and math tests, suggesting AI scaling progress has not plateaued.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/

Nvidia will hold its CES 2025 keynote on January 6, led by CEO Jensen Huang, where it is expected to make several big announcements, including details about its RTX 5000 series GPU.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/

Telegram has become profitable, generating over $1 billion in revenue in 2024. The company's premium subscription service, launched in 2022, now has 12 million paid users. Telegram also has over $500 million in cash reserves and has repaid a significant portion of its $2 billion debt.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/

Eero's Outdoor 7 long-distance mesh unit solves Wi-Fi connectivity issues in a remote cabin and barn, providing reliable coverage for devices 300 feet away.

Source: https://techcrunch.com/category/fintech/