Maria Deutscher
Latest from Maria Deutscher
Langdock reels in $3M for its LLM-agnostic enterprise chatbot
Langdock GmbH, a startup with an enterprise chatbot that allows users to change the underlying language model, has raised $3 million in seed funding to support its growth efforts. TechCrunch reported the investment today. General Catalyst and La Famiglia led the round with contributions from about two dozen other backers. According to Langdock, Y Combinator ...
Europol-led task force shuts down LabHost phishing platform, arrests suspected hackers
An international law enforcement task force has disrupted LabHost, a platform used by hackers to launch phishing campaigns. The takedown operation, which was revealed today, also saw officials arrest 37 individuals who are suspected of being involved in the phishing scheme. One of the apprehended individuals is believed to be LabHost’s original developer. LabHost was ...
Meta debuts next-generation Llama 3 LLM series and new chatbot features
Meta Platforms Inc. today debuted Llama 3, a new series of open-source large language models that the company says can outperform the competition across several task categories. The first two LLMs in the lineup feature 8 billion and 70 billion parameters. Down the road, Meta plans to expand the series with additional models that will ...
Google fires 28 workers over sit-in protesting its business ties with Israel
Google LLC has fired 28 employees who held protests at two of its offices over the company’s business ties with Israel. Chris Rackow, the search giant’s vice president of global security, announced the dismissals in an internal memo sent late Wednesday. The protests took place the previous day inside two of the offices Google maintains ...
Open-source LLM startup Mistral AI reportedly seeking new funding at $5B valuation
Mistral AI, a Paris-based large language model startup, is reportedly in talks with investors to raise capital at a $5 billion valuation. The Information reported the fundraising push on Tuesday evening, citing a person with direct knowledge of the matter. It’s believed Mistral could raise several hundred million dollars through the round. It’s unclear which ...
Armis acquires vulnerability prioritization startup Silk Security in $150M deal
Cybersecurity provider Armis Inc. has bought Silk Security Inc., a startup that helps enterprises find vulnerabilities in their infrastructure and understand their severity. Armis detailed in its acquisition announcement today that the deal values Silk at $150 million. That’s more than 10 times the $12.5 million in funding the latter company had previously raised from ...
Mandiant links Russia’s Sandworm hacking group to water infrastructure breaches
Mandiant today released a report that links Sandworm, a Russian state-backed threat actor, to a series of recent cyberattacks against water utilities. The Google LLC unit also changed the codename it uses to track the hacking group. Mandiant will refer to Sandstorm as APT44 going forward, with APT being an abbreviation of advanced persistent threat. ...
UnitedHealth investigating reported leak of data from its Change Healthcare unit
UnitedHealth Group Inc., the largest health insurer in the U.S., today disclosed that it’s investigating a potential leak of internal data from its Change Healthcare unit. The suspected leak is linked to a cyberattack that the division experienced earlier this year. The incident saw a ransomware gang access six terabytes of Change Healthcare data including ...
Rivos raises $250M+ to develop chips for AI and analytics workloads
Rivos Inc., a startup developing artificial intelligence chips based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture, has secured more than $250 million in fresh early-stage funding. The company raised the capital through a Series-A3 round announced today. According to Rivos, Matrix Capital Management was the largest investor. Intel Capital, Dell Technologies Capital and chipmaker MediaTek Inc. ...
Microsoft invests $1.5B in UAE-based AI company G42
Microsoft Corp. announced today that it’s investing $1.5 billion in G42, a UAE-based artificial intelligence developer. The cloud computing and software giant will receive a minority stake in G42 as part of the transaction. Additionally, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith is joining G42’s board. The Financial Times reported the investment “required negotiation” with ...