From TechCrunch
By Kyle Wiggers
September 6, 2023
Google launches new initiative to back startups building AI
Google's AI Futures Fund seeks to invest in startups that are building with the latest AI tools from Google DeepMind, the company’s AI R&D lab.
May 12, 2025
Google.org commits $20M to researchers using AI for scientific breakthroughs
Google is committing $20 million in cash and $2 million in cloud credits to a new funding initiative designed to help scientists and researchers unearth the next great scientific breakthroughs using artificial intelligence (AI). The announcement, made by Google DeepMind co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis during a fireside chat at the closed-door AI for Science Forum in London today, feeds into a broader push by Big Tech to curry favor with young innovators and startups, a strategy that has inclu
Nov 18, 2024
Character.AI hires a YouTube exec as CPO, says it will raise money next year with new partners
Character.AI is starting a new chapter after its $2.7 billion licensing deal with Google, which involved CEO Noam Shazeer returning to the search giant. It hired Erin Teague as a chief product officer, a YouTube exec who was the global head of sports movies and shows product management. Teague, who has been working at Google since 2016, will join Character.AI next week. She also previously served as a technical adviser to the SVP for Search, Ads, Maps, Gemini, Assistant, shopping, and payments
Oct 2, 2024
Key leaders behind Google’s viral NotebookLM are leaving to create their own startup
Three members of Google’s NotebookLM team, including its team lead and designer, have announced they are leaving Google for a new stealth startup. On LinkedIn, ex-team lead Raiza Martin said she and her two other co-founders, designer Jason Spielman and engineer Stephen Hughes, “couldn’t shake the feeling that there’s a massive opportunity to build something transformative in this space.” The startup is in full stealth mode with only a bare-bones website that gives no details about its purpose
Dec 4, 2024