'Disgruntled' engineer gets fired for porn on work laptop, claims he was watching the Matrix, revenge-hacks employer's IT network, lies to the secret service, goes directly to jail

California-based startup Perplexity AI, just a year into its journey, has secured $73.6 million in a series B funding round, bringing its total funding to $100 million. The investment comes from IVP, NEA, Databricks, Nvidia, Bessemer Venture Partners, and Kindred Ventures, with notable tech figures like Jeff Bezos and Nat Friedman joining as backers. What sets Perplexity AI apart is its ambition to revolutionise knowledge discovery through the Perplexity AI-native search engine, challenging industry giants Google and Microsoft. The startup, valued at over $500 million, plans to utilise the funding to enhance its AI-driven search engine capabilities. Perplexity co-founder and CEO is the Aravind Srinivas.

The recent Apple Watch sales ban in the U.S. was thanks to the efforts of Masimo, a health technology firm that claims Apple uses stolen technology in its latest smartwatch models. Though Masimo has found some measure of success against the most valuable company in the world, the journey has been harrowing, both mentally and financially, with CEO Joe Kiani stating that around $100 million has already been spent in its legal battle.

Apple suffered a major blow in its executive headcount, as the technology giant’s chief iPhone designer, Tang Tan, is reported to have joined Jony Ive’s LoveFrom and work with OpenAI Chief Executive Sam Altman to work on a brand new device focused on AI. Tan was also responsible for being one of the individuals responsible for designing the Apple Watch, and for the time being, no one has been named as his replacement at Apple.

At about 1 a.m. California time in 2013, a scientist emailed Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook with an irresistible pitch. “I strongly believe that we can develop the new wave of technology that will make Apple the No. 1 brand in the medical, fitness and wellness market,” he wrote in the email, which was later included in legal documents. Some 10 hours after the message was sent, an Apple recruiter was in touch. And just weeks after that, the engineer was working at the tech company on a smartwatch with health sensors.

This is not investment advice. The author has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. Wccftech.com has a disclosure and ethics policy.

Even as human-caused climate change threatens the environment, nature continues to inspire our technological advancement. "The solutions that are provided by nature have evolved for billions of years and tested repeatedly every day since the beginning of time," said Evripidis Gkanias, a University of Edinburgh researcher.

Apple Inc.'s plan to halt online sales of its smartwatch four days before Christmas to comply with a regulator's order shows that it's in a legal jam.

The Biden administration is “tracking” the impending US ban of nearly all Apple Watch sales due to a patent dispute, with power to veto the decision resting with the US Trade Representative. 

California’s Civil Rights Department has reached a settlement with Activision Blizzard that will see the company pay tens of millions of dollars in damages to women for unfair pay and treatment — but, as part of the settlement, the CRD has dismissed its own allegations of a “frat boy” culture of widespread and systemic sexual harassment at the company.

Researchers at the University of California and Intel have developed a complex algorithm that leverages AI and some clever routines to extrapolate new frames, with claims of lower input latency than current frame generation methods, all while retaining good image quality. There's no indication that Intel is planning to implement the system for its Arc GPUs just yet but if the work is continued, we'll probably have some Intel-powered frame generation in the near future.

First reported by the New York Times, a major chapter in Activision Blizzard's reckoning over an alleged internal culture of misogyny and harassment has ended. The California Civil Rights Department (formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing) has settled with Activision Blizzard for $54 million, dropping its sexual harassment suit.

In the fast-paced world of communication, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been nothing short of revolutionary. As we mark the one-year milestone of AI's pervasive influence, it is imperative to explore the ways in which this technology has reshaped the landscape, from entertainment to enterprise communication.