Clay valued at $3.1 billion in latest fundraise as AI continues to run hot
Clay operates an AI-centered platform to automate sales and marketing operations, and counts Google and Reddit as customers.
The startup raised $100 million in the round, led by Google-parent Alphabet's (GOOGL.O), opens new tab independent growth fund, CapitalG. About three months ago, the company was valued at $1.5 billion in an employee tender offer.
Dealmaking activity for the first seven months of the year hit the highest since the 2021 pandemic-era peak, as investors have poured billions in AI and its applications, betting on the technology to enhance productivity and reduce costs.
Last week, when most Big Tech companies reported their earnings, AI turned out to be a bigger driving factor behind demand across internet search, digital advertising and cloud.
The funding will be used to accelerate its product development, the company said.
Clay plans to launch tools that allow clients to scan data such as sales tickets and video calls with potential customers, co-founder Kareem Amin told Reuters in an interview.
The company is also working on a "signals" offering that will provide sales representatives insights on when to message potential leads, Amin added.
Existing investors who also participated in the round included Sequoia, Meritech Capital, and First Round Capital.
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Reuters
an hour ago
- Reuters
TV broadcaster Nexstar in advanced talks to acquire rival Tegna, source says
Aug 8 (Reuters) - Television broadcaster Nexstar Media Group (NXST.O), opens new tab is in advanced talks to acquire rival Tegna (TGNA.N), opens new tab, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. Shares of Tegna surged 30% in extended trading following the report, while Nexstar's shares were largely flat. A potential deal between the two companies would mark a significant step in the ongoing consolidation of the U.S. television industry, as broadcasters adapt to shifting consumer habits driven by cord-cutting and the rapid expansion of streaming, amid expectations of looser regulations under U.S. President Donald Trump's administration. Nexstar, owns or partners with over 200 stations in 116 markets. It also operates high-profile media properties including The CW and NewsNation, and has recently increased its focus on sports content. Tegna owns 64 stations and operates networks such as True Crime Network. The company has a market valuation of approximately $2.42 billion, compared with Nexstar's $5.56 billion, according to LSEG data. The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the talks, said a deal could be finalized soon, provided negotiations avoid last-minute obstacles. Both Nexstar and Tegna declined to comment on the report. Tegna has been subject to takeover interest in the past. In 2022, it agreed to be taken private by Standard General in a deal valued at $8.6 billion, including debt, but later terminated the merger agreement following regulatory scrutiny.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Pornographic Taylor Swift deepfakes generated by Musk's Grok AI
Elon Musk's AI video generator has been accused of making "a deliberate choice" to create sexually explicit clips of Taylor Swift without prompting, says an expert in online abuse."This is not misogyny by accident, it is by design," said Clare McGlynn, a law professor who has helped draft a law which would make pornographic deepfakes to a report by The Verge, Grok Imagine's new "spicy" mode "didn't hesitate to spit out fully uncensored topless videos" of the pop star without being asked to make explicit report also said proper age verification methods - which became law in July - were not in the company behind Grok, has been approached for comment. XAI's own acceptable use policy prohibits "depicting likenesses of persons in a pornographic manner"."That this content is produced without prompting demonstrates the misogynistic bias of much AI technology," said Prof McGlynn of Durham University. "Platforms like X could have prevented this if they had chosen to, but they have made a deliberate choice not to," she is not the first time Taylor Swift's image has been used in this explicit deepfakes using her face went viral and were viewed millions of times on X and Telegram in January 2024. Deepfakes are computer-generated images which replace the face of one person with another. 'Completely uncensored, completely exposed' In testing the guardrails of Grok Imagine, The Verge news writer Jess Weatherbed entered the prompt: "Taylor Swift celebrating Coachella with the boys".Grok generated still images of Swift wearing a dress with a group of men behind could then be animated into short video clips under four different settings: "normal", "fun", "custom" or "spicy". "She ripped [the dress] off immediately, had nothing but a tasselled thong underneath, and started dancing, completely uncensored, completely exposed," Ms Weatherbed told BBC added: "It was shocking how fast I was just met with it - I in no way asked it to remove her clothing, all I did was select the 'spicy' option."Gizmodo reported similarly explicit results of famous women, though some searches also returned blurred videos or with a "video moderated" BBC has been unable to independently verify the results of the AI video Weatherbed said she signed up to the paid version of Grok Imagine, which cost £30, using a brand new Apple asked for her date of birth but there was no other age verification in place, she new UK laws which entered into force at the end of July, platforms which show explicit images must verify users' ages using methods which are "technically accurate, robust, reliable and fair"."Sites and apps that include Generative AI tools that can generate pornographic material are regulated under the Act," the media regulator Ofcom told BBC News."We are aware of the increasing and fast-developing risk GenAI tools may pose in the online space, especially to children, and we are working to ensure platforms put appropriate safeguards in place to mitigate these risks," it said in a statement. New UK laws Currently, generating pornographic deepfakes is illegal when used in revenge porn or depicts children. Prof McGlynn helped draft an amendment to the law which would make generating or requesting all non-consensual pornographic deepfakes illegal. The government has committed to making this amendment law, but it is yet to come into force."Every woman should have the right to choose who owns intimate images of her," said Baroness Owen, who proposed the amendment in the House of Lords."It is essential that these models are not used in such a way that violates a woman's right to consent whether she be a celebrity or not," Lady Owen continued in a statement given to BBC News. "This case is a clear example of why the Government must not delay any further in its implementation of the Lords amendments," she added.A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "Sexually explicit deepfakes created without consent are degrading and harmful. "We refuse to tolerate the violence against women and girls that stains our society which is why we have passed legislation to ban their creation as quickly as possible." When pornographic deepfakes using Taylor Swift's face went viral in 2024, X temporarily blocked searches for her name on the the time, X said it was "actively removing" the images and taking "appropriate actions" against the accounts involved in spreading Weatherbed said the team at The Verge chose Taylor Swift to test the Grok Imagine feature because of this incident."We assumed - wrongly now - that if they had put any kind of safeguards in place to prevent them from emulating the likeness of celebrities, that she would be first on the list, given the issues that they've had," she Swift's representatives have been contacted for comment. Sign up for our Tech Decoded newsletter to follow the world's top tech stories and trends. Outside the UK? Sign up here.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
New York energy company ramps up disconnections as it seeks 11% price hike
An energy company seeking to hike utility bills in New York City by 11% disconnected more than 88,000 households during the first six months of 2025, signaling a crackdown on families struggling to cover rising energy costs even as the climate crisis drives extreme temperatures. Con Edison, the monopoly utility that provides electricity to 3.6m homes across the country's largest city and neighboring Westchester county, disconnected almost 2.5% of all its customers between January and June this year – triple the total number of families left without power in 2024. One in five disconnected homes remain without power for at least a week. The utility shut off 16,327 households in the month leading up to 25 June. New York was hit by its first heatwave between 23 and 25 June, breaking daytime and night-time records in Central Park and driving a surge in emergency room visits. New York is among the most expensive places for electricity, with families shouldering above-inflation price hikes in recent years on top of unaffordable housing and the broader cost of living crisis stemming from the Covid pandemic. Heat-related deaths account for about 3% of all fatalities from May through September, making New York the second deadliest city for heat after Phoenix, Arizona. In the past five years, more than 40% of New Yorkers have fallen into arrears, and 23% of households were disconnected at least once – leaving families without access to a fridge, internet, cooking facilities and heat or cooling until they can find the money to pay for reconnection. Black and Latino New Yorkers are more than twice as likely as white residents to fall behind, and almost eight times more likely to have a utility shutoff, according to the 2024 Poverty Tracker/Robin Hood report on energy insecurity. 'Disconnection is an effective cost recovery strategy but it's also completely inhumane. It's traumatizing for families and costs some people their lives,' said Diana Hernandez, co-author of the report and associate professor of sociomedical sciences at Columbia University. 'People want to pay their bills but they are unaffordable for too many families.' Almost 16% of New York homes – one in six Con Edison residential customers – were behind on their energy bills at the end of 2024, with debts totaling $948m, according to data submitted by the utility to the state regulator. But as Con Edison ramped up disconnections over the past six months, the debt fell to $840m by the end of June with 12.5% of New Yorkers now behind on their bills. At the current rate, Con Edison could disconnect 150,000 households by the end of the year, the highest number by any utility in the country, according to Mark Wolfe, an energy economist. 'Energy is unaffordable so people fall behind. The disconnection numbers show that Con Edison is aggressively cracking down, and life is going to become harder for poor people in New York,' said Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (Neada). Researchers at Neada, the organization for state directors of the federally funded Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (Liheap), collated the debt and disconnection figures submitted to the New York Public Services Commission, the regulator. There is no demographic breakdown but people of color, households with children, renters in small buildings, and people with pre-existing medical conditions who rely on electronic devices such as oxygen dispensers, as well as Bronx residents are all more likely to experience energy poverty and therefore a disconnection, the 2024 Robin Hood report found. A Con Edison spokesperson said: 'Termination of service is a last resort, and we do so only after extensive outreach and exhausting all other options … nearly two-thirds of residential customers in arrears are on payment plans. It is essential that our customers pay their bills to maintain safe service and the most reliable system in the nation.' Most customers were reconnected within 24 hours and 80% within a week, the spokesperson added. Nationwide, an estimated one in three households experience energy poverty – the inability to access sufficient amounts of electricity and other energy sources due to financial hardship. Low-income households, people of color and states with the fewest social safety nets are disproportionately affected, and millions of families are regularly forced to ration food, medicines, energy and other essentials Across New York state – and the country – a patchwork of regulations prevent some households from being shut off on very hot or cold days, but millions are not protected at all. New York, like much of the US, is susceptible to extreme highs and low temperatures, and the climate crisis is driving more frequent and more intense heatwaves. The number of heat deaths has been rising over the past decade, and on average 525 people in New York City die prematurely each year for heat-related reasons – the vast majority due to the impact high temperatures and humidity have on existing medical conditions, according to the latest figures from the city's department of public health. Heat kills twice Black New Yorkers at twice the rate of white residents due to past and current structural racism that creates economic, healthcare, housing, energy and other systems that benefit white people and disadvantage people of color, the report found. Most deaths occur in homes without access to a functioning air conditioning. Citywide, 11% of New Yorkers do not have air conditioners at home but the rate is much higher in low-income communities of color. One study found that a fifth of renters do not use their air conditioner due to cost. And while protections have improved in recent years, it has not been enough to shield families hit hardest by rising energy prices, rents and inflation – or the increasingly brutal heat and humidity. According to its website, Con Edison currently suspends disconnections on the hottest and coldest days based on forecasts from the National Weather Service. In the summer, the utility will not disconnect a family the day of or day before the heat index – what the temperature feels like when humidity is taken into account – is forecast to hit 90F (32.2C) at Central Park – one of the shadiest parts of the city. It also suspends disconnections for two days after a 90F heat index day. Yet temperatures in some neighborhoods in the Bronx and upper Manhattan, where there are fewer trees, less access to air conditioning, more Black and Latino residents, and most heat deaths, exceed Central Park by 6 to 8 degrees due to the heat island effect, according to one study from 2022. Energy poverty is a chronic problem for many New Yorkers. New York state is the largest recipient of Liheap, the chronically underfunded bipartisan federal program that helped about 6m households keep on top of energy bills last year – and which narrowly survived being cut completely from Trump's 2026 budget. In fiscal year 2024-25, New York received $379m (almost 10%) of the total Liheap fund, and Governor Kathy Hochul invested an additional $35m to supplement support for heating bills in January after Liheap money ran out with months of winter still to go. In the summer, the Liheap program only covers the cost of an air conditioning unit and installation for qualifying low-income households in New York – not energy bills. A city program can provide a means-tested loan for working families in arrears. Disconnections declined during the pandemic thanks to a statewide moratorium and debt forgiveness schemes, as well as child tax credits and a boost to food stamps among other federal programs that helped lift millions of Americans out of poverty. But the Covid-era social safety programs have now all been terminated, and recent focus groups conducted by Hernandez and her colleagues found people still struggling to recover and rationing energy use because they were so concerned about rising bills. 'The city has got better at advocating for households disproportionately impacted by disconnections but it's a drop in the bucket of where it should be,' said Hernandez, the energy justice expert. 'The 88,000 households disconnected are people who have done everything to get the money and still couldn't get caught up. It illustrates families have been left completely exposed.' Yet energy costs are about to get even higher in New York. Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act will make electricity production more expensive, leading to residents paying $140 a year on average more by 2030, according to analysis by Energy Innovation. The bill also slashes benefits such as Snap (food stamps) and Medicaid, which will put further pressure on millions of families. Meanwhile, Con Edison is under fire from city and state politicians including Hochul and the city comptroller (chief finance officer) and former mayoral candidate, Brad Lander, for requesting a rate hike of 11% for electricity and 13% for gas, which the regulator is currently considering. Con Ed's proposed electricity rate hike could raise the average household bill by $372 next year. (The utility provides gas to 1.1m homes.) 'The combination of rising temperatures, rising electricity rates, the possible termination of the federal Liheap program, and this increase in shutoffs by Con Ed risks dramatically increasing heat-related illness and deaths for New Yorkers,' Lander told the Guardian. 'There needs to be strategies in place so that people will pay their bills – but to punish people who are poor by cutting off their electricity ever, but especially in extreme heat or wintertime, is inhumane. It is a form of debtors' prison.' Con Edison said it provided $311m in bill discounts to income-eligible customers last year, and the regulator (PSC) recently expanded the Energy Affordability Program to help more vulnerable residents.
