DeepSeek, a Chinese AI firm backed by quantitative hedge fund High-Flyer, recently released DeepSeek V3, a model available for commercial and non-commercial applications. DeepSeek V3 displays competitive performance that approaches recent models and is particularly proficient in coding.
Google contractors have been reportedly asked to compare and score Gemini's responses against Claude's using criteria including truthfulness and verbosity. A spokesperson for Google DeepMind confirmed the company was only using Claude for model output comparison, a standard industry practice.
Coralogix has acquired Aporia to integrate its technology into a comprehensive observability platform that provides unified monitoring of AI and traditional software workflows. As part of the deal, Coralogix will also establish Coralogix AI, a dedicated AI research center.
Mindgard, a Lancaster University spinoff specializing in AI security, has raised $8 million in funding led by .406 Ventures to develop its continuous AI security testing solution further. The startup has also appointed two US-based executives as it plans to expand its presence in the US.
Databricks, Decart, Perplexity, and Anysphere all raised new funding; Google gave no breaks to OpenAI and launched a reasoning model and Veo 2; Grammarly acquired Coda; GitHub Copilot introduced a new free tier; Instagram is planning to launch Movie Gen-powered features; and more.
Perplexity AI has secured a $500 million funding round led by IVP that values the AI search company at $9 billion post-money. The current round is the latest of four funding efforts Perplexity AI undertook throughout 2024.
AI-powered video editing features are coming to Instagram. These tools will be based on Meta's recently previewed Movie Gen model suite. According to the announcement, the upcoming features will enable creators to make edits like changing their outfits or modifying the background of the video.
Perplexity has acquired Carbon, a startup specializing in connecting LLMs with external data sources. The deal will allow Perplexity to integrate Carbon's technology into its products, enabling Perplexity to connect to users' apps to deliver a more personalized experience.
In a remarkably short time, Anysphere, the parent company of AI coding assistant Cursor, has managed to raise a $60M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and a $100M Series B led by Thrive. The latter round places the startup at an estimated $2.6B valuation.
AI startup Decart has raised $53 million in total funding as it pivots from its profitable AI infrastructure business to developing real-time video generation and world models. Decart recently previewed Oasis, its foundation model capable of generating "playable" Minecraft-like worlds.
GitHub has launched a free version of its AI coding assistant Copilot with limited monthly completions and chat messages, aiming to expand access to AI programming tools as part of its mission to reach one billion developers worldwide.
Grammarly has acquired Coda to create an AI-powered productivity platform that combines Grammarly's writing assistance technology with Coda's document and workflow tools, with Coda's co-founder Shishir Mehrotra taking over as CEO of the combined company.