Latest news with #ElevenLabs
CNET
6 hours ago
- Business
- CNET
Your Next Yelp Reviews May Include an AI Video
The next time you visit Yelp on your phone to check out reviews on the newest eatery, you may be greeted by an AI-generated video. Yelp is rolling out artificial intelligence videos to Yelp's home page feed on its iOS app. The AI videos use large language models to grab text from reviews on an establishment and turn it into an AI-voiced narration (courtesy of ElevenLabs) and captions (courtesy of Amazon Transcribe). Then Yelp uses uploaded photos from user reviews to create a slideshow-like display of what you can eat, drink or dance to. As far as oversight of these AI videos go, neither reviewers nor businesses appear to have any say. Companies can't see the AI videos before they are generated or offer input, and users can't decline to have their reviews or photos used, which raises a number of privacy questions. Viewers of the AI videos will have the choice to report a video as inaccurate or containing offensive content. And Yelp has said that it will be doing broad audits of the videos, which will be periodically updated for establishments as more reviews and photos come in. Speaking to The Verge, Yelp CPO Craig Saldanha said that the company wants to create as many videos as possible, although your own activity on Yelp will dictate whether you see the videos and which ones are shown. If we find any way for you to opt out of having your review content -- possibly from years past -- used in these videos, we'll be sure to let you know. Yelp did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Entrepreneur
16 hours ago
- Business
- Entrepreneur
ElevenLabs Rolls out India Data Residency for Voice AI Compliance and Speed
ElevenLabs is already working with several Indian platforms, including Meesho, Apna, and 99acres, mainly in conversational AI and customer engagement applications You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media. ElevenLabs, an AI audio company, has launched a dedicated India Data Residency solution, enabling enterprises operating in or serving the Indian market to deploy its Voice AI models in full compliance with local data protection regulations. With growing scrutiny over data localisation, the new offering ensures that customer voice data is hosted entirely within India-based infrastructure, meeting the country's data residency mandates. The service is designed to support enterprise-grade use cases like multilingual customer support and real-time voice interfaces, particularly in regulated sectors such as financial services, telecom, insurance, e-commerce, and education. Key features of the India Data Residency initiative include local hosting, an isolated computing environment separated from global systems, and integration with ElevenLabs' existing compliance stack including GDPR-readiness, SOC 2 certification, HIPAA-ready frameworks, and Zero Retention controls. The company also claims improved latency for Indian users and access to an expanded multilingual voice library inclusive of Indian voices. "India has rapidly become one of our largest and fastest-growing markets outside the U.S., driven by enterprises, creators, and developers embracing voice AI at scale," said Siddharth Srinivasan, GTM at ElevenLabs. "With India Data Residency, we're deepening our commitment to the market by offering world-class voice quality tailored for India's languages and accents, while ensuring data stays secure, compliant, and locally hosted." ElevenLabs is already working with several Indian platforms, including Meesho, Apna, and 99acres, mainly in conversational AI and customer engagement applications. The rollout aims to make it easier for companies to adopt Voice AI without facing cross-border data transfer issues or latency challenges.
Business Insider
16 hours ago
- Business
- Business Insider
Reid Hoffman cloned himself with AI — here's what he learned from his deepfake twin
Reid Hoffman, the LinkedIn cofounder and veteran Silicon Valley investor, has created an AI -powered version of himself — and the results are both eye-opening and a little surreal. In a Monday interview on the "American Optimist" podcast, Hoffman revealed he trained a "deepfake twin" using a custom GPT model, ElevenLabs for voice synthesis, and video-generation tools to explore whether a technology widely associated with disinformation could also be repurposed for good. "You have this technology that most people call deepfake, and deepfake just sounds like it's bad," Hoffman said. "So I was like, let's start experimenting with it and see how it can work in better ways." The AI clone, which he calls "Reid AI," is designed to act and sound like him — and, in some cases, speak languages Hoffman doesn't. After delivering a speech at the University of Perugia in Italy in May 2024, he used his AI twin to deliver the same message in Hindi, Chinese, Japanese, and Italian. "I've never heard my voice speaking Hindi; I've never heard my voice speaking Japanese," he said. "And it was like, wow, it is clearly my voice." Hoffman described the projects as "raw experimentation" with surprising upsides, including increasing accessibility and expanding the reach of ideas. But he also acknowledged serious limitations. "I haven't put it out in the wild," he said, citing the risk of hackers making the AI say "crazy stuff." Deepfakes have already been misused in several ways. These include impersonating former President Joe Biden in AI-generated robocalls urging voters not to participate ahead of the 2024 New Hampshire primary and spreading fake surrender messages from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. For now, Hoffman's clone remains private and serves as a tool for translation, experimentation, and testing new ways to communicate across cultures and platforms. Hoffman built the projects with transparency in mind: the AI's synthetic nature is disclosed, and its use remains tightly controlled. His takeaway is that not all deepfakes are inherently harmful. With ethical design and intentional use, the same technology driving disinformation could help people connect across languages and cultures. "What we're trying to do, as technooptimists say, is how do we shape it so it's applied well," he said. Hoffman isn't the only one to have experimented with AI clones. "The Diary of a CEO" host Steven Bartlett launched a new podcast in May, " 100 CEOs with Steven Bartlett," using an AI-generated version of himself to narrate stories about business leaders.
TechCrunch
a day ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Anthropic reportedly nears $170B valuation with potential $5B round
In Brief Anthropic is nearing a deal to raise between $3 billion and $5 billion in funding, valuing the large language model developer at $170 billion, Bloomberg reported. Iconiq Capital is leading this funding round, but there's a possibility of a second lead investor joining the deal. The company has also been in talks with Qatar Investment Authority and GIC, Singapore's sovereign wealth fund, according to the report. If finalized, the deal would nearly triple Anthropic's valuation, which was $61.5 billion after a $3.5 billion funding round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners announced in March. Other participants in the startup's last round included Bessemer Venture Partners, Cisco Investments, D1 Capital Partners, Fidelity Management & Research Company, General Catalyst, Jane Street, Menlo Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures. Despite its mission as a safety-conscious AI model developer, Anthropic's CEO Dario Amodei recently confessed in a memo to employees, reported by Wired, that he's 'not thrilled' about taking money from sovereign wealth funds of dictatorial governments. To keep pace with the massive capital requirements of developing AI models, the company has been forced to turn to Middle Eastern capital. 'Unfortunately, I think 'No bad person should ever benefit from our success' is a pretty difficult principle to run a business on,' Amodei wrote in a leaked memo. Anthropic didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW
TechCrunch
a day ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
SOSV bets plasma will change everything from semiconductors to spacecraft
Sometimes a tool — like a hammer — comes along and everything starts looking like a nail. But other times, new tools end up being more than a simple blunt-force object. The investors at SOSV are betting that plasma will become a nuanced implement capable of everything from enabling fusion power to changing the way semiconductors are made. It sees so much potential that it plans on investing in more than 25 plasma-related startups over the next five years. It is also opening a new Hax lab space in partnership with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority and the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Nuclear fusion is an obvious place to seed plasma startups. The potential power source works by compressing fuel until it turns into a dense plasma, so dense that atoms begin fusing, releasing energy in the process. 'There's so much here. The best ideas have yet to come to unlock a lot of potential in the fusion space,' Duncan Turner, general partner at SOSV, told TechCrunch. But fusion is just the tip of the iceberg, Turner said. The company has already invested in two companies, including Yplasma, which uses plasma actuators to cool data center chips and control airflow over wind turbine blades. Finding new uses for plasma in semiconductor manufacturing, where the state of matter already plays a role, could unlock new materials and processes, Turner said. Spacecraft could benefit from plasma thrusters, which are more fuel efficient than traditional thrusters. Harnessing plasma could also unlock entirely new ways to make chemicals like ammonia for fertilizer or fuel from CO 2 . Techcrunch event Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. Tech and VC heavyweights join the Disrupt 2025 agenda Netflix, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital — just a few of the heavy hitters joining the Disrupt 2025 agenda. They're here to deliver the insights that fuel startup growth and sharpen your edge. Don't miss the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt, and a chance to learn from the top voices in tech — grab your ticket now and save up to $675 before prices rise. San Francisco | REGISTER NOW 'All of that combined, we were like, 'Oh wow, there's way more than 25 companies here,'' he said. 'There's actually hundreds of companies here.'
