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Anthropic, the startup co-founded by ex-OpenAI employees that’s raised over $700 million in funding to date, has developed an AI system similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT that appears to improve upon the original in key ways.

Called Claude, Anthropic’s system is accessible through a Slack integration as part of a closed beta. TechCrunch wasn’t able to gain access — we’ve reached out to Anthropic — but those in the beta have been detailing their interactions with Claude on Twitter over the past weekend, after an embargo on media coverage lifted.

Claude was created using a technique Anthropic developed called “constitutional AI.” As the company explains in a recent Twitter thread, “constitutional AI” aims to provide a “principle-based” approach to aligning AI systems with human intentions, letting AI similar to ChatGPT respond to questions using a simple set of principles as a guide.

To engineer Claude, Anthropic started with a list of around ten principles that, taken together, formed a sort of “constitution” (hence the name “constitutional AI”). The principles haven’t been made public, but Anthropic says that they’re grounded in the concepts of beneficence (i.e. maximizing positive impact), nonmaleficence (avoiding giving harmful advice) and autonomy (respecting freedom of choice).

Anthropic then had an AI system — not Claude — use the principles for self-improvement, writing responses to a variety of prompts (e.g. “compose a poem in the style of John Keats”) and revising the responses in accordance with the constitution. The AI explored possible responses to thousands of prompts and curated those most consistent with the constitution, which Anthropic distilled into a single model. This model was used to train Claude.

Claude, otherwise, is essentially a statistical tool to predict words — much like ChatGPT and other so-called language models. Fed an enormous number of examples of text from the web, Claude learned how likely words are to occur based on patterns such as the semantic context of surrounding text. As a result, Claude can hold an open-ended conversation, tell jokes and wax philosophic on a broad range of subjects.

Riley Goodside, a staff prompt engineer at startup Scale AI, pitted Claude against ChatGPT in a battle of wits. He asked both bots to compare themselves to a machine from Polish science fiction novel “The Cyberiad” that can only create objects whose name begins with “n.” Claude, Goodside said, answered in a way that suggests it’s “read the plot of the story” (although it misremembered small details) while ChatGPT offered a more nonspecific answer.

In a demonstration of Claude’s creativity, Goodside also had the AI write a fictional episode of Seinfeld and a poem in the style of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven.” The results were in line with what ChatGPT can accomplish — impressively, if not perfectly, human-like prose.

Yann Dubois, a Ph.D. student at Stanford’s AI Lab, also did a comparison of Claude and ChatGPT, writing that Claude “generally follows closer what it’s asked for” but is “less concise,” as it tends to explain what it said and ask how it can further help. Claude answers a few more trivia questions correctly, however — specifically those relating to entertainment, geography, history and the basics of algebra — and without the additional “fluff” ChatGPT sometimes adds. And unlike ChatGPT, Claude can admit (albeit not always) when it doesn’t know the answer to a particularly tough question.

Claude also seems to be better at telling jokes than ChatGPT, an impressive feat considering that humor is a tough concept for AI to grasp. In contrasting Claude with ChatGPT, AI researcher Dan Elton found that Claude made more nuanced jokes like “Why was the Starship Enterprise like a motorcycle? It has handlebars,” a play on the handlebar-like appearance of the Enterprise’s warp nacelles.

Claude isn’t perfect, however. It’s susceptible to some of the same flaws as ChatGPT, including giving answers that aren’t in keeping with its programmed constraints. In one of the more bizarre examples, asking the system in base64, an encoding scheme that represents binary data in ASCII format, bypasses its built-in filters for harmful content. Elton was able to prompt Claude in base64 for instructions on how to make meth at home, a question that the system wouldn’t answer when asked in plain English.

Dubois reports that Claude is worse at math than ChatGPT, making obvious mistakes and failing to give the right follow-up responses. Relatedly, Claude is a poorer programmer, better explaining its code but falling short on languages other than Python.

Claude also doesn’t solve “hallucination,” a longstanding problem in ChatGPT-like AI systems where the AI writes inconsistent, factually wrong statements. Elton was able to prompt Claude to invent a name for a chemical that doesn’t exist and provide dubious instructions for producing weapons-grade uranium.

So what’s the takeaway? Judging by second-hand reports, Claude is a smidge better than ChatGPT in some areas, particularly humor, thanks to its “constitutional AI’ approach. But if the limitations are anything to go by, language and dialog is far from a solved challenge in AI.

Barring our own testing, some questions about Claude remain unanswered, like whether it regurgitates the information — true and false, and inclusive of blatantly racist and sexist perspectives — it was trained on as often as ChatGPT. Assuming it does, Claude is unlikely to sway platforms and organizations from their present, largely restrictive policies on language models.

Q&A coding site Stack Overflow has a temporary ban in place on answers generated by ChatGPT over factual accuracy concerns. The International Conference on Machine Learning announced a prohibition on scientific papers that include text generated by AI systems for fear of the “unanticipated consequences.” And New York City public schools restricted access to ChatGPT due in part to worries of plagiarism, cheating and general misinformation.

Anthropic says that it plans to refine Claude and potentially open the beta to more people down the line. Hopefully, that comes to pass — and results in more tangible, measurable improvements.

Anthropic’s Claude improves on ChatGPT, but still suffers from limitations by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

European telcos are moving ahead with a plan to create a joint venture to offer opt-in ‘personalized’ ad targeting of regional mobile network users following trials last year in Germany. Although it remains to be seen whether European Union regulators will sign off on their plan.

In a filing submitted to the European Commission’s competition division (spotted earlier by Politico), Germany’s Deutsche Telekom, France’s Orange, Spain’s Telefonica and the UK’s Vodafone set out the proposed concentration to create a jointly controlled and equally owned joint venture — to offer “a privacy-led, digital identification solution to support the digital marketing and advertising activities of brands and publishers”, as they describe the proposed ‘first party’ data ad-targeting infrastructure.

The Commission has until February 10 to take a decision on whether to clear the joint venture (JV) and, therefore, whether or not to let the carriers go ahead with a commercial launch.

A spokesman for Vodafone said the telcos are not in a position to comment on the intended JV at this stage while the Commission considers whether to clear the initiative. And wouldn’t be drawn on a potential launch timeframe. They suggested public messaging on the project will follow approval — assuming the telcos do get a green light from Brussels to work together on the mobile ad targeting infrastructure.

Details about the plan for the carriers to dive into personalized ad-targeting emerged last summer during initial trials in Germany. The tech was described then as a “cross-operator infrastructure for digital advertising and digital marketing” — and Vodafone said they would be relying on user consent to the data processing. The project was also given the initial moniker “TrustPid” (but if it flies expect that clunky label to be replaced with some slicker marketing).

The telco ad targeting proposal quickly landed on the radar of privacy watcher who raised concerns about the legal basis for processing mobile users’ data for ads — given the European Union’s comprehensive data protection and privacy laws; and given existing microtargeting adtech (which also relies on a claim of user consent) was found in breach of the General Data Protection Regulation in February last year.

The project also faced some early attention from data protection authorities in Germany and Spain. We’re told engagement with regulators led to some tweaks to how the telcos proposed to gather consent — to make the process more explicit.

The telcos’ filing submission proposing to create a JV, which is dated January 6, 2023, confirms that “explicit user consent” (via an opt-in) is the intended legal basis for the targeting, writing:

Subject to explicit user consent provided to a brand or publisher (on an opt-in basis only), the JV will generate a secure, pseudonymized token derived from a hashed/encrypted pseudonymous internal identity linked to a user’s network subscription which will be provided by participating network operators. This token will allow the brand/publisher concerned to recognize a user without revealing any directly identifiable personal data and thereby enable them to optimize the delivery of online display advertising and perform site/app optimization. Users will have access to a user-friendly privacy portal. They can review which brands and publishers they have given consent to, and withdraw their consent.

Discussing their approach, a representative for one of the involved telcos (Vodafone) confirmed the intent is to rely on gathering consent from users via pop-ups. So if anyone was hoping that the demise of third party cookie tracking would knock consent spam on the head that looks, well, premature.

A first party data-based alternative to the (still, for now) ubiquitous tracking cookie also requires a legal basis to process people’s data for marketing — and alternatives to consent look increasingly tricky given ongoing guidance (and enforcement) by EU data protection regulators, such as the massive fine this month for Meta for trying to claim contractual necessity for processing user data for ads; or the warnings TikTok attracted last year when it sought to switch from consent to a claim of legitimate interest for its ‘personalized’ ads — a move it was forced to back away from.

Consent as the legal basis for ‘personalized ads’ is no picnic either, though: The IAB’s Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF) — which relies upon a claim of consent to third party ad tracking — was found in breach of the GDPR last year (as was the IAB Europe itself). And the Belgian DPA issued the adtech industry with a hard reform mandate. Albeit, for now, the tracking-ads status quo lumbers on, zombie-like — pending a final legal reckoning.

The distinction the four telcos behind the proposed JV are seeking to claim for their proposal for consent-based ad targeting — vs current-gen (legally clouded) adtech targeting — is, firstly, that it’s based on first party data (the claim for the TrustPid project is no syncing and/or enriching of the individual-linked targeting tokens is allowed and/or possible between participating advertisers). So it’s not the kind of consentless-by-design background ‘superprofiling’ of users that’s landed current-gen adtech into such legal (and reputational) hot water. The proposed tracking is siloed per brand/advertiser — with each needing to gain up-front consent from their own users and only able to target against data-points they gather. (Plus we’re told user-linked tokens would be cycled regularly, with the initial proposal being to reset them every 90 days.)

Secondly, the telcos are proposing to put contractual limits on participants — such as requiring that no special category data (e.g. health data, political affiliation etc) can be attached by an advertiser as an targetable interest to a user-linked token. They also want the JV to have the final say on the language/design of consent pop-ups (which they say will offer users a top-level refusal, rather than burying that option as routinely happens with cookie consent pop-ups). And they say they will audit all participating websites on a regular basis.

There is a third check: A portal where mobile users can view (and revoke) any consents they have provided to individual brands/publishers to use their first party data for ads — and which, we’re told, will provide an option that lets mobile users block the entire system (so a hard opt-out). Although we understand it’s not currently the case (in the trial) that users who apply such a block are prevented from receiving pop-ups asking for their consent to the ad targeting — so, again, consent spam and consent fatigue look set to continue. (And, well, could plausibly multiple as consent gets un-bundled — i.e. if the system takes off with lots of brands and advertisers.) At least, unless or until they can figure out an appropriate legal basis that does not require ongoing pestering of users who already denied consent with pop-ups.

If the telcos’ JV gets the green light from the Commission, scrutiny on the project will of course dial up — and close attention to technical (and contractual) details may well throw up fresh concerns. So it’s too soon to judge whether the approach will/would pass muster with regulators and privacy experts.

There could also be friction from mobile network users themselves — if they suddenly find they’re encountering a fresh, irritating layer of consent spam when browsing the mobile web, a service they do, after all, pay the telcos to provide them with. So tolerance for extra consent spam could be very low.

Moreover, convincing mobile users to actually opt in to ads — assuming they are indeed provided with a genuinely free (and fair/non-manipulative) choice to deny tracking, rather than being forced or bamboozled into it as has been the dark pattern rule for years — presents a major barrier for uptake. Plenty of people will deny tracking if they are actually asked about it (see, for e.g., the impact of Apple’s App Tracking Transparency requirement on third party iOS apps’ ability to track users).

So even if the telcos are allowed to build their ad targeting JV there’s no guarantee mobile users on their networks will agree to play ball.

Still, if this flies there could be a chance for brands to win web users over with a fresh approach. Being transparently up front about wanting to process people’s personal data for ads — and, potentially, also able to offer incentives for users to agree — offers an opportunity to do things differently vs a creepy status quo that can’t clearly explain how people’s data got sucked up, where it may have ended up, or what’s really been done with it.

An up-front approach could thus provide a route for savvier brands to deepen their relationships with loyal customers by making straightforward asks, not resorting to sneaky surveillance.

European carriers file to create joint venture for opt-in ad targeting of mobile users by Natasha Lomas originally published on TechCrunch

Dish-owned live TV streaming service Sling TV is looking to catch up with competitors with the launch of new features like user profiles and the promise of more changes to come in 2023. The company began quietly rolling out the user profiles feature just ahead of the Consumer Electronic Show last week, initially on Android TV and Fire TV devices, with support for more platforms in the near future.

Over the past several months, it’s also expanded its newer direct-to-consumer subscription integrations with the addition of discovery+, which joins 50 other services now available through Sling. And it’s made a Sports Scores feature available across Roku, Fire TV and Android TV devices.

Sports Scores has been rolling out to users since last year, making it easier to access scores from NFL, college football, NBA, NHL, and MLB games while continuing to watch live TV or on-demand programming. Meanwhile, Sling TV’s subscription lineup, which now nears 50 services, has been available since last August.

Combined with the rollout of user profiles (which had not yet been formally announced), the changes suggest a streamer that’s again trying to innovate to attract subscribers.

Though one of the early leaders in live TV streaming, having launched in 2015, Sling TV lost traction as newer services like Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV arrived on the market. For the first three quarters last year, Sling TV faced subscriber losses, for example. However, the company more recently reversed that downward trend in its Q3 2022 earnings in November, when it reported a total of 2.41 million subscribers after 214,000 net additions. But this figure is still down from the 2.6 million subscribers Sling TV had in the third quarter of 2021, for comparison.

Sling TV needs to do more — and faster.

TechCrunch sat down with Sling TV EVP and Sling TV President, Gary Schanman, in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, to find out what’s next for the service in the months ahead.

Sling TV parent Dish hired the industry vet last year, whose experience includes pay TV with roles at Spectrum, Charter and Cablevision (now Altice USA), and in the streaming space. Most recently, Schanman served as Chief Product Officer at Common Sense Networks, where he led the launch of the kid-safe streaming service Sensical. Now he hopes to revitalize the Sling TV brand.

“Over the next number of quarters, you’ll see a lot faster innovation of the product and the product set,” Schanman told TechCrunch. “When people join our company, we expect them to be creative and innovative and be all about winning. And so we’re starting to bring a lot more people into the company to help grow that,” he said.

The company is also looking at how it can better serve the different types of streamers and their needs in the year to come.

“We’re focused on helping consumers find, consume, and engage all the content they want. And we are comfortable with a variety of different types of consumers that have different needs. And that includes…people that keep our paid service – and they’re completely subscribed to all of our add-on packs. But it could also be people that come in for a period of time and want to watch some free content,” Schanman said.

“Free is a part of our thoughts about how we think about that engagement with the customer. We want a lifelong relationship with the subscriber where they see value in what we provide — and [free content is] a piece of that,” he added.

Schanman couldn’t specifically comment on what Sling TV has in mind around any sort of free streaming plans to come.

But overall, the streaming industry has shifted a lot of its focus in recent months to serving consumers free “live TV” channels, also known as FAST channels, which appear in a grid-like guide that feels more akin to a cable TV experience rather than ad-supported video on demand. Roku, for example, has launched FAST channels via itsLive TV Guide as has Amazon with Freevee, in addition to offerings from Pluto TV, Xumo and Plex. For some services, the idea is to lure in customers with free streaming — as Roku does via its free movies and TV hub, The Roku Channel — then upsell them paid streaming subscriptions.

Of course, if Sling TV were to go further down the free route, it could complicate its relationship with streaming media platforms, like Roku and Amazon, which want to direct consumers to their own free streaming products.

Beyond its plans to innovate on product, Schanman believes Sling TV has other advantages, including being simple and straightforward to use. He also touted the service’s reliability. It’s been a long time since “Game of Thrones” crashed its service, after all. But what Sling TV touts as simple could also be viewed as bare bones, depending on who you ask.

Still, the company believes that Sling TV’s bigger advantage is not necessarily the user interface, but how it organizes its programming into affordable le packages. Today, the streamer differentiates itself by way of a la carte programming packages that begin with a base subscription (Sling TV’s “Orange” or “Blue” packages) and various add-ons. Rival services, meanwhile, tend to bundle a larger number of channels into one offering, forcing subscribers to continually pay higher prices as new deals are forged.

“From the live TV perspective, we still have the best value in the market by far. We also have the most flexibility in the market. The truth is, you know, I think we’re a very pro-consumer customer offering. Most of our competitors are what I would call true one-for-one cable replacements, but they’re in some cases more expensive,” said Schanman.

The company plans to talk more about Sling TV’s affordability in the months to come, he said. That message is timely, as consumers are beginning to feel the financial impacts of having too many streaming choices and are facing a market where live TV plans are often no longer cheaper than traditional cable TV.

“We start at $40. So our flexibility and choice is a huge value proposition in the market,” the exec explained. “You can switch between packages any time you want. We have over six add-on packs that, when you add them on, are still less than what you’d have to pay on YouTube TV or Hulu TV,” he pointed out. “The more consumer choices there are, the more that our service has value in the market, because the share of wallet is challenged across the board,” Schanman said.

Sling TV rolls out user profiles, promises faster pace of innovation in 2023 by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch

Apple Maps launched a new parking feature that provides users with parking options and availability near a specific destination. In partnership with the digital parking reservation platform, SpotHero, Apple Maps users across the U.S. and Canada can now get parking information for over 8,000 locations.

To use the new feature, launched late last week, iPhone and Mac users can search for a destination in the Apple Maps app and then select “More” and “Parking.” They’re then directed to the SpotHero website without leaving Apple Maps. Users can search for nearby parking and reserve a space using SpotHero’s secure payment options, the parking platform claims.

SpotHero also allows users to filter their search by date and time as well as parking spots with EV charging, wheelchair accessibility, valet services and more.

SpotHero, a Chicago-based company founded in 2011, connects drivers in more than 300 cities across North America to thousands of parking spaces. Its dataset of parking facility details, photos and reviews aims to help drivers find the best parking option available.

“We’re constantly identifying new ways to bring easy, affordable parking to drivers. Working with Apple Maps is one way we’re doing this. Through our new integration, Apple Maps users can discover SpotHero parking right in the Apple Maps on iPhone and Mac,” SpotHero CEO & Co-Founder Mark Lawrence told TechCrunch.

The SpotHero integration is a notable move for Apple and the multibillion-dollar parking industry as a whole. As of 2020, parking generated $131 Billion in direct revenue, according to the National Parking Association. However, less than 2% of parking is digitized. It’s important that major tech companies like Apple integrate parking technology into its apps. For instance, Google partnered with another parking platform, ParkMobile, to let users pay for parking using their voice.

The new feature also marks another step towards Apple’s goal of having Apple Maps be the go-to source for navigation. Apple Maps has launched a ton of upgrades in the past few years, including “multistop routing,” which lets users plan out their stops before they travel as well as more detailed maps, 3D view, AR experiences and more.

Apple Maps teams up with parking app SpotHero to give users access to 8K parking options by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

It may come as a surprise to some, but not every startup is clamoring to raise venture capital.

The reasons some founders shun the process of raising institutional funding vary based on individual circumstances. There are founders who don’t like the idea of giving up equity. Others don’t want to give up control of their operations and/or strategy. And there are many who want to hold on to both equity and control. Then there are those for whom raising venture capital is simply not as accessible, such as founders in emerging markets like Latin America.

There is no right or wrong way to grow a company. While some companies may stay bootstrapped forever, others decide after years of being in operation that maybe raising outside capital is not such a bad idea after all — especially if they are experiencing rapid growth.

Below are the stories of startups that were bootstrapped for years before going the M&A or venture route, as well as one that remains bootstrapped by choice:

These 5 companies bootstrapped their way to big businesses while VCs came knocking by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch

In December, reports suggested that Microsoft had acquired Fungible, a startup fabricating a type of data center hardware known as a data processing unit (DPU), for around $190 million. Today, Microsoft confirmed the acquisition but not the purchase price, saying that it plans to use Fungible’s tech and team to deliver “multiple DPU solutions, network innovation and hardware systems advancements.”

“Fungible’s technologies help enable high-performance, scalable, disaggregated, scaled-out data center infrastructure with reliability and security,” Girish Bablani, the CVP of Microsoft’s Azure Core division, wrote in a blog post. “Today’s announcement further signals Microsoft’s commitment to long-term differentiated investments in our data center infrastructure, which enhances our broad range of technologies and offerings including offloading, improving latency, increasing data center server density, optimizing energy efficiency and reducing costs.”

A DPU is a dedicated piece of hardware designed to handle certain data processing tasks, including security and network routing for data traffic. The approach is intended to help reduce the load on CPUs and GPUs for core computing tasks related to a given workload.

Fungible was launched in 2016 by Bertrand Serlet, a former Apple software engineer who sold a cloud storage startup, Upthere, to Western Digital in 2017, alongside Krishna Yarlagadda and Jupiter Networks co-founder Pradeep Sindhu. Fungible sold DPUs that relied on two operating systems, one open source and the other proprietary, and a microprocessor architecture called MIPS to control flash storage volumes.

Fungible managed to raise over $300 million in venture capital prior to the Microsoft acquisition from investors including Softbank’s Vision Fund and Norwest Venture Partners. But its DPU architecture was difficult to develop for, reportedly, which might’ve affected its momentum. In August, after a rumored failed sale to Meta, the company revealed that it had laid off staff and was scaling back its product portfolio.

Increasing competition in the market for DPUs put pressure on Fungible, as well. Nvidia acquired DPU maker BlueField in 2019, while AMD snatched up Pensando late last year. Other rivals included GigaIO, Liqid, Lightbits, VMware’s Project Monterey and Amazon Web Services’ Nitro cards, which provide DPU-like functionality.

In Fungible, Microsoft gets DPU tech it could use to bolster Azure — perhaps by selling it as a subscription product or tiered service for block storage. It’s the second data center-centric acquisition in recent months for the tech giant, interestingly, following the purchase of high-speed fiber startup Lumenisity in December.

“The Fungible DPU was invented in 2016 to address the most significant problems in scale-out data centers: the inefficient execution of data-centric computations within server nodes,” Fungible wrote in a statement on its website. “We are proud to be part of a company that shares Fungible’s vision and will leverage the Fungible DPU and software to enhance its storage and networking offerings.”

The Fungible team will join Microsoft’s data center infrastructure engineering teams, Bablani said.

Microsoft acquires Fungible, a maker of data processing units, to bolster Azure by Kyle Wiggers originally published on TechCrunch

For all the U.K.’s contributions to research and aerospace, one thing it has never had is an actual orbital launch from its soil. That could change today with a mission going to space via a Virgin Galactic launch system, hoping to make history — and you can watch it right here.

The mission, called “Start Me Up” (and we may guess that Virgin’s Richard Branson got The Rolling Stones’ permission over breakfast), will take off at 10:16 PM local time (2:16 Pacific) from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay.

It’s in Virgin Orbit’s “horizontal” launch style, meaning the rocket and payload will be strapped to the bottom of the modified 747 Cosmic Girl, which will take it up out of the thickest part of the atmosphere and give it a running start at reaching escape velocity. From there the rocket will accelerate and hopefully reach the target orbit.

The closest the Brits have come to this orbital achievement was in 1971, when a British satellite aboard a British rocket took off from… Australia — it’s the Commonwealth, at least.

They’re so excited they practically gave this mission its own coat of arms, rocket rampant upon a field orbital:

The rest of the heraldry:

The diamond shape of the emblem represents the “crown jewel,” the birthplace of Virgin in the United Kingdom. The number 1 indicates the first launch from the U.K. and the laurel leaves are Virgin Orbit’s good luck symbol. The amber borders are Spaceport Cornwall’s yellow color and red and black are Virgin Orbit brand colors. The United States flag represents Virgin Orbit’s country of origin and the United Kingdom flag marks the launch country.

Quite! On board the rocket are seven payloads, making this a first in a few other ways, too:

Prometheus-2: Two experimental cubesats from the Ministry of Defense designed with private partners
AMAN: Oman’s first orbital mission, a proof-of-concept Earth observation satellite
CIRCE: Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction CubeSat Experiment, which says it all
DOVER: RHEA Group’s first satellite and a test global navigation system
ForgeStar-0: A “fully returnable and reusable” in-space manufacturing platform (intriguing…)
IOD-3: The first of a planned 20+ “Maritime Domain Awareness” satellites
STORK-6: “The next installment” from Polish manufacturer SatRev’s STORK series

You can find more details — launch attitudes and altitudes, details about the spaceport, etc — right here.

And of course you can watch along as well below:

“Like the great Sir Mick sang, we believe that once we start this up, it will never stop.”

Watch here: Virgin Orbit attempts the first orbital launch from British soil by Devin Coldewey originally published on TechCrunch

Anime as a genre is always expanding, and with the streaming market growing just as quickly, it can be a hassle to find an anime streaming service that works for you. Whether you want to watch newer anime titles like “Chainsaw Man,” “Blood of Zeus” and “Bleach” or classics like “One Piece,” “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” and “Cowboy Bebop,” here is a roundup of streaming services that you can check out as we begin the new year.

Top Anime Streaming Service: Crunchyroll

Crunchyroll is a no-brainer for all anime lovers, whether you’re a die-hard fan or newbie.

Free to all users, popular shows on the platform include “One-Punch Man,” “Attack on Titan,” “My Hero Academia” “Death Note,” “Dr. Stone” and newer titles like “Spy X Family.” Plus, Crunchyroll recently added Funimation content, so subscribers have access to a vast anime library of over 40,000 episodes and more than 16,000 hours of content.

However, the Crunchyroll free ad-supported version has its downsides, such as limited access to titles that are only available in 480p resolution.

Fortunately, there are also three premium ad-free tiers, which give subscribers unlimited access to Crunchyroll’s content library (in HD), access to new episodes of series one hour after they air in Japan, as well as digital versions of manga. Each premium plan comes with a 14-day trial.

The cheapest premium tier is called “Fan” and costs $7.99 per month. The plan allows subscribers to stream on one device at a time. “Fan” subscribers don’t get offline viewing, nor do they get the same perks as “Mega Fan” and “Ultimate Fan.”

“Mega Fan” is $9.99 per month and allows subscribers to stream on 4 devices at once. It also offers offline viewing as well as perks like first access to Crunchyroll Expo events/lotteries and Crunchyroll Store discounts. Every 3 months, “Mega Fan” customers get $15 off $100 purchases in the Crunchyroll Store.

The most expensive plan is “Ultimate Fan” for $14.99 per month. Subscribers of this tier get the most perks, which include the ability to stream on 6 devices at one time, offline viewing, first access to Crunchyroll Expo events/lotteries, $25 off $100 purchases in the Crunchyroll Store every 3 months, and goodies like an annual “swag bag.”

Next Best Thing: Netflix

If you’re looking for the next best anime streaming option, it’sNetflix.

Most of you probably already have a Netflix subscription, since it has a whopping 223.09 million subscriber base, so you’re likely aware of all the anime content it has to offer. In 2021 alone, nearly 90% of its viewers watched Netflix anime titles, the company reported in March 2022.

The streaming giant has a ton of popular series to binge, including “Hunter x Hunter,” “Naruto,” “Castlevania,” “The Seven Deadly Sins,” “Neo Genesis Evangelion” and “The Promised Neverland.” From originals to fan favorites, there’s a lot for subscribers to explore.

While Netflix in general tends to be more expensive than Crunchyroll, the streamer recently launched a cheaper ad-supported version for only $6.99 per month. Meanwhile, its basic ad-free version is $9.99 per month, whereas the “Standard” plan is $15.49/month and the “Premium” plan is $19.99/month.

Another Great Alternative: Hulu

With over 300 anime titles, Hulu is probably the third-best option for fans. The streaming service has the majority of the same hits as Crunchyroll and Netflix offer, including “Attack on Titan,” “One-Punch Man,” “Naruto” and “Cowboy Bebop,” among others. It also offers “Sailor Moon,” “Tokyo Ghoul,” “Demon Slayer Kimetsu No Yaiba,” “The Rising of the Shield Hero” and more.

Plus, Hulu has a dedicated anime hub, which organizes content into categories such as the most popular titles, new releases, classics, recent simulcasts, and an alphabetical directory.

It’s important to note that Hulu raised its prices in October 2022. The ad-free plan is now $14.99 per month, and the ad-supported tier is $7.99 per month. On the plus side, Hulu offers a 1-month free trial. The streamer has a wide variety of content for everyone to watch, including comedy, drama, and reality TV, so it’s still a pretty good deal regardless of whether you’re an anime fan.

Most Affordable Anime Streaming Service: Hidive

At only $4.99/month, Hidive is a great inexpensive option for viewers. It also offers a 7-day free trial.

If you’re a hardcore anime buff, we recommend using Hidive to expose yourself to various anime that you may not find on other streaming services. While the content library is definitely more niche, it still has 500 titles for fans to discover.

Shows and movies on the service include “I’m Quitting Heroing,” “Gate,” “Call of the Night,” “Pantheon,” “Joshiraku,” “Vinland Saga,” “Alice in Borderland,” “Made in Abyss” and more.

Best Free Options: Tubi and RetroCrush

If you don’t mind commercial breaks, then Tubi and RetroCrush are for you.

Completely free to viewers, Tubi has a solid number of well-known Japanese animation titles in its collection, such as “Yu-Gi-Oh!,” “Fairy Tail,” “Ghost in the Shell,” “Lupin the 3rd” and “Dante’s Inferno.”

On the other hand, if you want to watch older titles then we suggest RetroCrush. The free streaming service is centered around vintage anime and has a smaller content library than other services. For instance, RetroCrush has titles like “Blue Seed,” “The Princess and the Pilot,” “City Hunter,” “The Twelve Kingdoms,” “Requiem from the Darkness” and “Demon City Shinjuku.”

RetroCrush also has an ad-free premium subscription for $4.99/month after the 14-day free trial. The premium plan includes exclusives such as “Wicked City,” “Goku Midnight Eye,” “Puppet Princess,” “Angel Cop,” “House of Five Leaves” and “Persia, The Magic Fairy.”

Anime streaming services to try in 2023 by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch

Despite a slowdown in deploying venture capital, U.S. venture capital firms had few problems attracting capital for new funds in 2022.

We now have a new opportunity to see if this trend will continue: Khosla Ventures is raising about $3 billion across three new funds, according to regulatory filings.

The firm, founded by Vinod Khosla in 2004, plans to raise $1.5 billion for a Fund VIII, $1 billion for a second opportunity fund and $400 million for a new seed fund.

Trying to go after such a large chunk of change is not unusual for Khosla Ventures, if last year told us anything. The firm raised over $550 million for its first Opportunity Fund after taking in $1.4 billion for its Fund VII.

Current VC chatter seems to say that many firms may not be able to raise their next fund. However, unlike other VC firms, Khosla does have decent returns. It invested in companies like Affirm, Square, DoorDash. It also has a stake in both Instacart and OpenAI.

As mentioned, this comes at a time when VC firms are doing well attracting money for new funds. We reported that $150.9 million was raised by U.S. VC firms across 593 funds through the third quarter of 2022.

Overall, firms raised a record $162.6 billion across 767 funds for the year even as deal activity dropped off, suggesting firms will continue this pattern of slowing down deployment of capital in 2023.

Khosla Ventures goes after $3B in new funds by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation.Sign up here — just click The Station — to receive the full edition of the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. This is a shorter version of The Station newsletter that is emailed to subscribers. Want all the deals, news roundups and commentary? Subscribe forfree.

Happy New Year (a few days late) and welcome back to The Station! your central hub for all past, present and future means of moving people and packages from Point A to Point B.

I kicked off 2023 in the same fashion as I have for a better part of a decade: I went to Las Vegas for CES.

Every year, I get asked the same questions: what really excited you this year? what stood out? And what does that mean for the future?

A few CES 2023 takeaways.

• Lidar companies dominated the show floor in West Hall (where most of the automotive tech was located). Everywhere I turned there was another lidar company, including Hesai, Innovusion, Luminar and Ouster (to name a few). My lingering hot take: all of these companies cannot survive.

• For all the talk about advanced driver assistance systems, there was a lot of autonomous vehicle technology on display. However, the vibe was different. I didn’t get the same hype-y ROBOTAXIS WILL BE EVERYWHERE messaging. Instead, autonomous vehicle technology popped up in a lot of commercial and industrial applications.

• Autonomous people movers and delivery vehicles shaped like giant toasters are still a thing. Holon, Hyundai Mobis and Zoox are just a few of the companies that displayed these kinds of vehicles.

• EV charging and energy storage were sprinkled throughout the show from the crowded Eureka Park to North and West Halls at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Not to mention a few EV charging news announcements as well like Mercedes’ plan to launch a global charging network.

• The car cabin continues to evolve into a digital, connected experience that includes augmented reality and even virtual reality from companies such as Holoride. BMW reimagined the head-up display, Chrysler gave its vision for your future car cabin, suppliers like Bosch, Forvia and Harman showed off its in-car tech, and GM and Microsoft demoed a new video game called Dash Runner to showcase the kind of entertainment consumers might want to interact with while they’re waiting for their new EV to charge.

• EVs in every form. Stellantis had perhaps one of the splashiest press conferences with its reveal of the Peugeot concept and the Ram 1500 Revolution truck concept. But I found EVs in all forms, particularly bikes, motorcycles and three-wheelers as well as obscure small off roaders.

• A bit unrelated to transportation, but I was surprised about how much robotics I encountered over at Eureka Park, the exhibition area for thousands of startups.

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Micromobbin’ at CES

Keeping on with the CES theme of this week’s newsletter, here’s a roundup of all the micromobility news and vehicles that were unveiled at the show this year:

It won’t technically get you from Point A to B, but Acer debuted a new desk-bike that powers your devices as you pedal.

AtmosGear came to play with some electric rollerblades, and they only cost $500.

Italian bike-maker Bianchi used Ansys simulation software to create more efficient e-bike designs. A 70% reduction in frame prototyping sped up time to market and reduced development costs for Bianchi’s E-Omnia e-bike.

Brightway, a micromobility tech company, launched its Navee V-series of electric scooters, the Navee e-bike and the Navee sharing scooter.

Cake launched the Åik utility bike, which starts at $6,470 and is expected to ship in May.

Davinci Motor showcased its futuristic DC100 electric motorcycle (and had a display where you could sit on them). It’s a chunky-looking thing, but the company says it can compete against the performance of 1,000 cc combustion-powered motorcycles, making it from 0 to 60 in three seconds and a top speed of 124 miles per hour.

GreenStreet EV debuted at CES with the first prototype of its 3-wheel electric Autocycle. The company plans to bring the little vehicle to market in 2024.

Heybike unveiled its folding e-bike made from a single piece of magnesium alloy.

Icoma unveiled the Tatamel Bike, a prototype for a folding bike that in classic Japanese style actually folds into a box that can be slipped under your desk at work. The exterior of the folded up moped can be customized in wood, fake grass or leather. It’s a cool concept, but probably will remain a concept.

MoonBikes showed off an electric snow bike. While this wasn’t a debut, it’s still cool. Prices start at $8,900 for the snow bike — removable batteries included. MoonBikes also launched its app at CES so riders can get real time data on their performance.

RCA, a consumer electronics brand most well-known for inventing the VCR, rode into the micromobility space at CES with new e-bikes and e-scooters designed to handle everything from commuting to off-roading.

Verge launched a new electric superbike, the Verge TS, which features an electric motor integrated into the back wheel, which the company says transfers power straight to the road. It also creates more space in the middle for the battery pack. It’s available for pre-order now at $26,900 with U.S. deliveries planned in late 2023.

Yadea, one of China’s biggest makers of electric two-wheelers, is making a push into the U.S. market. The manufacturer said it will begin launching a series of marketing campaigns and events geared at kickstarting the brand’s growth in the U.S., and will open stores in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and work with 100 other brand dealers, in the first half of 2023.

Other notable CES moments

Here is a handy overview of some of the announcements we covered and stuff we saw at CES 2023.

Autonomous vehicle tech

Goodyear and Gatik say tire tech will unlock autonomous driving in winter conditions.

Indy Autonomous Challenge returned to CES 2023 and the Las Vegas Speedway. I had the chance to check out some of the competing cars and watch one make its way around the track at night (and with the lights out). It was a neat demonstration to show what sensors, compute and software can accomplish. The autonomous racing team from mOve research groupo of Politecnico di Milano were the winners of this year’s competition.

Mobileye CEO Amnon Shashua gave a talk on the company’s near and long-term vision. Advanced driver assistance systems were a focus, but Shashua spent considerable time talking about the path to automated driving, including how future consumer AVs will come to market at scale by using its driver assist system, Mobileye SuperVision.

Advanced driver assistance systems

I took a short ride with Comma.ai founder George Hotz (who recently fired himself again as CEO and claims he is now a marketing intern) for a ride in a Kia EV6 equipped with its Comma 3 dev kit, which runs on openpilot, an open source advanced driver assistance system. The Comma 3 device, now priced at $1,499, works on more than 200 models. The hardware, which mounts by the rearview mirror, has three HDR cameras, two that watch the road and one night-vision camera to see inside the car. It’s also equipped with cellular LTE, Wi-Fi, an IMU, high-precision GPS, and microphones.

Openpilot has continued to evolve and improve based on my personal experience. On this most recent drive at a location off the strip, the vehicle was able to recognize (and stop) for red lights, keep it centered in the lane, make assisted lane changes and keep a safe distance behind other cars and trucks. It was the smoothest ride I’ve had yet.

Electric vehicles, including eVTOLs

BMW revealed the i Vision Dee concept car, a four-door sedan came out onstage in a crisp white, but later morphed into a variety of colors and patterns to show off Dee’s E Ink technology.

Honda and Sony launch their new EV brand Afeela.

Stellantis debuted a futuristic (with a nod to the past) Peugeot Inception concept as well as the Ram 1500 Revolution EV truck concept. A production version of the truck is expected to be revealed later this year and come to market in 2024.

Stellantis also made a big eVTOL announcement. The automaker said it will mass produce electric aircraft for Archer in a $150 million deal.

Volkswagen unveiled the ID 7 outfitted with electroluminescent paint that lights up on command. But that wasn’t the most interesting part of this upcoming vehicle (magic paint not included).

In-car tech

Amazon Alexa-enabled cars are now able to ask Alexa to find the nearest public EV charging spot.

Chrysler shares what future car cabins might look like.

Google announced an HD version of its vehicle mapping solution that is an additional layer of data that’s served to a vehicle’s L2+ or L3 assisted-driving systems through Google Automotive Services. Volvo and Polestar will be among the first automakers to have Google HD mapping.

Google also rolled out new Android Auto features that make it easier for drivers to navigate, play podcasts and music, and communicate while on the go. The new user experience design update features a split-screen layout that displays directions, music and texts at the same time.

Hesai landed a a new design win with SAIC’s electric vehicle brand, Rising Auto (also known as “Feifan” in China). The new model of Rising Auto will carry Hesai’s long-range automotive lidar.

Holoride launches a new product to bring VR into any car. And we tested it.

Luminar founder and CEO Austin Russell provided an update on the company and how its acquisition of Civil Maps fits into its long-term vision.

Nvidia’s on-demand cloud gaming service, known asGeForce Now, is headed to select Hyundai, BYD and Polestar electric vehicles. Nvidia made a number of other announcements ahead of CES, including that a partnership with Foxconn and that Mercedes will use its Omniverse Enterprise software platform to design, plan and optimize its factories in the metaverse.

Stellantis launched a new business unit called Mobilisghts dedicated to turning all that vehicle data into marketable products — and revenue.

Sharing economy

Bosch rolled out a security dashcam and accompanying support service designed for rideshare drivers.

Free2move, the mobility service brand under automaker Stellantis, plans to expand its car sharing, rental and subscription services in the U.S.

In-car tech and EVs dominated CES 2023 by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch