AI Startup Perplexity Valued at $18 Billion With New Funding
The company brought in $100 million with the financing, said the person, who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The deal is an extension of a previous round from a few months ago that valued the company at $14 billion, the person said — investments that underscore the Silicon Valley rush to back the top AI startups.
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Coldplay couple a reminder that anyone can go viral — even in a crowd of 60,000
A tech CEO and his company's HR manager had a joyful evening turn into a nightmare after they popped up on the big screen at a Coldplay concert in Boston on Wednesday. The viral moment is one of many recent examples of people's lives being upended by social media, as experts say we are increasingly under multiple layers of surveillance and subject to heavy social media scrutiny that can be harmful. Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, who according to multiple reports is married, and his company's chief people officer, Kristin Cabot, were embracing but quickly jumped away from each other as they appeared on a giant screen in front of more than 66,000 fans at the concert. Byron crouched down to hide from the camera as Cabot covered her face with her hands. In a TikTok video with seven million likes that was posted by user @instaagrace, Coldplay singer Chris Martin is heard saying: "Either they're having an affair or they're just very shy." The clip was soon splashed all across social media, with users speculating that the two must have been cheating on their spouses. Angling to prove it, some got to work sleuthing to find out their identities, posting their theories on sites like Reddit and X. On Friday afternoon, Byron was the top trending search on Google in the past 48 hours and the company said it has "initiated a formal investigation into this matter." Online gambling sites had even posted bets on whether he'll be fired. By Saturday afternoon, Astronomer announced on LinkedIn that Byron had resigned. "Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met," the company said. "While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not." 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