Maria Deutscher
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Google open-sources Tapas, a natural language AI for analyzing relational data
Google LLC has released the code for Tapas, an internally developed artificial intelligence that can take a natural language question such as “What’s the name of the latest iPhone?” and fetch the answer from a relational database or spreadsheet. The search giant’s researchers detailed the AI on Thursday. Tapas is based on BERT, a natural-language ...
ICANN blocks controversial $1.1B sale of .org registry to investment firm
ICANN, an internet body responsible for overseeing the domain name system that underpins the web, today blocked a deal that would have given an investment firm control over the world’s .org domains. The Internet Society, the nonprofit that runs the .org registry, last year announced plans to hand over control to investment firm Ethos Capital as part of ...
Interface design startup Figma lands $2B valuation after raising $50M
Figma Inc., a startup whose interface design platform is used by the likes of Microsoft Corp. and Twitter Inc., today announced that it has picked up $50 million from an Andreessen Horowitz-led investor group. The Series D round reportedly values Figma at $2 billion. Andreessen Horowitz was joined in the investment by Index Ventures, Greylock, ...
Zoom retracts claim of 300M daily active users as rivals narrow the gap
Zoom Video Communications Inc. has walked back a claim it made earlier this month about having 300 million daily active users, indicating that the number of people logging into its platform daily is lower. The company’s stock is down nearly 7% today on the news. Zoom revised its publicly stated user count by quietly updating the blog post in ...
Intel’s new flagship desktop processor offers 5.3GHz peak speeds on thinner die
Intel Corp. today introduced a line of 32 new processor chips for desktop personal computers headlined by the i9-10900K, a 10-core model with a 5.3-gigahertz top clock speed that is touted as the “world’s fastest” gaming processor. Intel is bringing the central processing unit chips to market under the S-Series brand. All the processors are based ...
Lyft lays off nearly 1,000 employees after ride-hailing business reportedly craters
Lyft Inc. has laid off 982 employees, or 17% of its total workforce, and furloughed an additional 288 in response to the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on its business. The company disclosed the move in a regulatory filing today. The news follows a report that executives at Lyft’s chief rival, Uber Technologies Inc., are in discussions ...
Pitching unified cloud backup, Clumio extends its platform to Microsoft 365
Clumio Inc., fresh off a large funding round, today added Microsoft 365 support to its backup platform. Santa Clara, California-based Clumio exited stealth mode last August with a cloud-based backup platform that allows companies to create contingency copies of their data. The startup went on to raise a $135 million investment two months later. At ...
NetApp acquires cloud-based virtual desktop provider CloudJumper
NetApp Inc. today said that it has acquired CloudJumper Corp., a Citrix Systems Inc. competitor with a software platform for running virtual desktops in the cloud. Garner, North Carolina-based CloudJumper has not raised any outside funding. The terms of the acquisition are not being disclosed. CloudJumper’s platform, CWMS, allows companies to set up virtual Windows desktops ...
Microsoft beefs up Azure’s Kubernetes features and Red Hat integrations
Microsoft Corp. today introduced two updates for Azure, one focused on its managed Kubernetes service and another on Red Hat workloads, that should allow the cloud platform to better accommodate enterprises running a variety of different application types. The container-themed update takes the form of a new version of Azure Kubernetes Service. AKS, as it’s ...
Oracle wins surprise cloud deal with Zoom to help host its platform
A few weeks ago, Zoom Video Communications Inc. quietly started processing some users’ video calls in Oracle Corp.’s data centers. The collaboration is the result of a surprise cloud deal unveiled today under which Zoom has shifted some of its videoconferencing infrastructure to Oracle Cloud. The value of the contract is not being disclosed. Although it could be sizable, a Zoom ...