動画共有アプリTikTokで知られる中国ネット大手のバイトダンスは2026年、人工知能（AI）分野への投資を拡大し[…]

動画共有アプリTikTokで知られる中国ネット大手のバイトダンスは2026年、人工知能（AI）分野への投資を拡大し[…]

Tubefilter: Reddit’s ad revenue is growing faster than any other platform’s–thanks to the AI boom. “It’s signed deals with Google and OpenAI to allow scraping of users’ content for LLM training. But its 400+ million active users still make it one of the internet’s largest forums, with real humans (including a fair amount of subject matter experts) asking and answering questions […]

Tubefilter: Reddit’s ad revenue is growing faster than any other platform’s–thanks to the AI boom. “It’s signed deals with Google and OpenAI to allow scraping of users’ content for LLM training. But its 400+ million active users still make it one of the internet’s largest forums, with real humans (including a fair amount of subject matter experts) asking and answering questions […]

Marissa Mayer’s new startup Dazzle raises $8M led by Forerunner’s Kirsten Green – TechCrunch

• Latest
• Startups
• Venture
• Apple
• Security
• AI
• Apps

• Events
• Podcasts
• Newsletters

Venture

Marissa Mayer’s new startup Dazzle raises $8M led by Forerunner’s Kirsten Green

By Marina Temkin, 8:48 AM PST · December 23, 2025

The former Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, refuses to sit on the sidelines of the generative AI revolution.

After spending the last six years running Sunshine, a photo-sharing and contact-management startup with little success, the storied tech leader has shuttered the company to launch Dazzle, a new startup focused on building the next generation of AI personal assistants.

While Mayer is not yet sharing specifics about Dazzle’s functionality, she has revealed that the new company has raised an $8 million seed round at a $35 million valuation. The round was led by Forerunner’s Kirsten Green, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, Offline Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Bling Capital. Although Mayer has admitted to investing her own capital in the startup, she emphasized that the round was led by Green, a venture capitalist with a storied record of identifying iconic consumer brands such as Warby Parker, Chime, and Dollar Shave Club.

Green’s investment suggests Dazzle is poised for the coming wave of new AI-infused consumer businesses. The founder of Forerunner Ventures previously told TechCrunch that while enterprise AI took the early lead in this tech cycle, consumer-facing AI is a “late bloomer” that’s finally ready for its breakout.

Even for a founder of Mayer’s fame, landing Green as a lead investor is a significant stamp of credibility for Dazzle, especially after Sunshine was widely considered to be a flop. “I think she really has a great sense for where people and platforms are going,” Mayer said.

Mayer told TechCrunch that the Sunshine team began prototyping Dazzle last summer, a project that quickly eclipsed their previous work in ambition and opportunity. “We realized that this was something that we were much more excited about,” she said, noting that Dazzle has potential for “a much bigger impact” than what Sunshine was building.

Originally founded as Lumi Labs in 2018, Sunshine first launched with a subscription app for contact management dubbed “Sunshine Contacts.”

Despite its founder’s high profile, the product struggled to gain traction. Privacy advocates raised alarms over the app’s practice of pulling home addresses from public databases to enrich contact lists, and the company never recovered from the initial skepticism. By 2024, the company broadened its offering by adding event management and “Shine,” an AI-powered photo-sharing tool. The new offering was widely criticized for its outdated design and similarly failed to attract widespread usage.

Continue/Read Original Article: https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/23/marissa-mayers-new-startup-dazzle-raises-8m-led-by-forerunners-kirsten-green/

Marissa Mayer’s new startup Dazzle raises $8M led by Forerunner’s Kirsten Green – TechCrunch

• Latest
• Startups
• Venture
• Apple
• Security
• AI
• Apps

• Events
• Podcasts
• Newsletters

Venture

Marissa Mayer’s new startup Dazzle raises $8M led by Forerunner’s Kirsten Green

By Marina Temkin, 8:48 AM PST · December 23, 2025

The former Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, refuses to sit on the sidelines of the generative AI revolution.

After spending the last six years running Sunshine, a photo-sharing and contact-management startup with little success, the storied tech leader has shuttered the company to launch Dazzle, a new startup focused on building the next generation of AI personal assistants.

While Mayer is not yet sharing specifics about Dazzle’s functionality, she has revealed that the new company has raised an $8 million seed round at a $35 million valuation. The round was led by Forerunner’s Kirsten Green, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, Offline Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Bling Capital. Although Mayer has admitted to investing her own capital in the startup, she emphasized that the round was led by Green, a venture capitalist with a storied record of identifying iconic consumer brands such as Warby Parker, Chime, and Dollar Shave Club.

Green’s investment suggests Dazzle is poised for the coming wave of new AI-infused consumer businesses. The founder of Forerunner Ventures previously told TechCrunch that while enterprise AI took the early lead in this tech cycle, consumer-facing AI is a “late bloomer” that’s finally ready for its breakout.

Even for a founder of Mayer’s fame, landing Green as a lead investor is a significant stamp of credibility for Dazzle, especially after Sunshine was widely considered to be a flop. “I think she really has a great sense for where people and platforms are going,” Mayer said.

Mayer told TechCrunch that the Sunshine team began prototyping Dazzle last summer, a project that quickly eclipsed their previous work in ambition and opportunity. “We realized that this was something that we were much more excited about,” she said, noting that Dazzle has potential for “a much bigger impact” than what Sunshine was building.

Originally founded as Lumi Labs in 2018, Sunshine first launched with a subscription app for contact management dubbed “Sunshine Contacts.”

Despite its founder’s high profile, the product struggled to gain traction. Privacy advocates raised alarms over the app’s practice of pulling home addresses from public databases to enrich contact lists, and the company never recovered from the initial skepticism. By 2024, the company broadened its offering by adding event management and “Shine,” an AI-powered photo-sharing tool. The new offering was widely criticized for its outdated design and similarly failed to attract widespread usage.

Continue/Read Original Article: https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/23/marissa-mayers-new-startup-dazzle-raises-8m-led-by-forerunners-kirsten-green/

Europe's startup market hasn't produced meaningful numbers but there is reason to believe the data will start to change.

Europe's startup market hasn't produced meaningful numbers but there is reason to believe the data will start to change.

Ugh.. another bites the dust

#AI #Udemy

Ugh.. another bites the dust

#AI #Udemy

#Mark #Zuckerberg’s decision to cut off funding to the pro‑immigration group FWD.us

marks a sharp turn away from the high-profile social advocacy that once defined his philanthropy...

even as #MacKenzie #Scott is emerging as the era’s most aggressive backer of equity- and #DEI-driven causes.

The split shows a broader divergence in tech philanthropy:

one billionaire channeling resources into #science and #AI infrastructure,

the other pouring unrestricted billions into institutions serving communities historically excluded from power and wealth.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-philanthropy-growing-divide-mark-181737765.html

Reuters: New York Times reporter sues Google, xAI, OpenAI over chatbot training. “An investigative reporter best known for exposing fraud at Silicon Valley blood-testing startup Theranos sued Elon Musk’s xAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta ​Platforms and Perplexity on Monday for using copyrighted books without permission to ‌train their artificial intelligence systems.”

Reuters: New York Times reporter sues Google, xAI, OpenAI over chatbot training. “An investigative reporter best known for exposing fraud at Silicon Valley blood-testing startup Theranos sued Elon Musk’s xAI, Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, Meta ​Platforms and Perplexity on Monday for using copyrighted books without permission to ‌train their artificial intelligence systems.”

#Mark #Zuckerberg’s decision to cut off funding to the pro‑immigration group FWD.us

marks a sharp turn away from the high-profile social advocacy that once defined his philanthropy...

even as #MacKenzie #Scott is emerging as the era’s most aggressive backer of equity- and #DEI-driven causes.

The split shows a broader divergence in tech philanthropy:

one billionaire channeling resources into #science and #AI infrastructure,

the other pouring unrestricted billions into institutions serving communities historically excluded from power and wealth.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/billionaire-philanthropy-growing-divide-mark-181737765.html

@timnitGebru In my experience (>40 years in #AI), once AI techniques were understood well they were thrown in the toolbox and no longer had the allure of the bleeding edge where “real AI” was to be found. Like peeling an onion, the layers came off and we eagerly begin to peel the next layer. Surely, AI must be inside! Nope, it’s just software. Decision trees were never AI, but automatically deducing them from examples (supervised learning) was AI (e.g., ID3).