AI & Robotics

Meta’s enormous bet on virtual reality ended last week, with the company reportedly laying off roughly 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division – about 10% of the unit’s staff – and shutting down several VR game studios, according to The Wall Street Journal. It’s a huge reversal for a company that, just four years ago, staked its entire identity on the concept. Few are going to…

It took Rebecca Yu seven days to vibe code her dining app. She was tired of the decision fatigue that comes from people in a group chat not being able to decide where to eat. Armed with determination, Claude, and ChatGPT, Yu decided to just build a dining app from scratch – one that would recommend restaurants to her and her friends based on their shared interests. “Once vibe-coding apps…

Berlin-based Parloa has raised $350 million in Series D funding from existing investors, valuing the six-year-old customer service AI startup at $3 billion. The round comes just eight months after the company raised $120 million at a $1 billion valuation. The new round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from returning backers, including EQT Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Durable…

Nicholas Leonard and Derek Caneja wanted to build AI voice agents, but when they went to build the product, they felt many of these voice agents had design flaws. Some of these agents were being built with no-code tools, meaning shipping to production was fast, but the quality of the product was often low. Other agents were being made by companies that had the time and resources to spend months…