Police search for man who sucker-punched sushi chef outside NYC subway

TechCrunch Marc Benioff warns that AI, while useful, is overhyped and partly blames Microsoft One of the tech industry's biggest hype men, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, wants you to know that he is psyched about generative AI, but even he doesn't think it can do what its biggest proponents say it will do. A month after Salesforce's enormous tech conference, Dreamforce, during which Benioff endlessly pitched, pumped, and lauded AI — at least as it's used in Salesforce's own products – he's now on a setting-expectations tour. Talking about AI's potential, he said, "I've never been more excited about anything at Salesforce, maybe in my career."

The 14 biggest take-private PE acquisitions so far this year in tech The private equity realm has been pretty active so far in 2024, serving as a powerful "alternative" source of liquidity for technology startups and scale-ups in search of an exit. In August, TechCrunch reported that EQT had picked up a majority stake in cybersecurity firm Acronis at a valuation of around $4 billion, following in the footsteps of another exit, in which EQT snapped up enterprise middleware company WSO2 for $600 million. According to PitchBook, there were 136 take-private deals led by private equity firms in 2023, up 15% on the previous year.

Last-minute Expo+ 2-for-1 passes available for TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 To ensure no one misses this highly anticipated event, we're offering Expo+ 2-for-1 passes for the final days leading up to Disrupt 2024. Bring a friend, colleague, or family member to Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30. Full access to the bustling Expo Hall: Connect with 10,000 attendees, explore startups' innovations, and watch pitches on the Pitch Showcase Stage.

With $11.9 million in funding, Dottxt tells AI models how to answer As we've reported before, enterprise CIOs are taking generative AI slow. For instance, LLMs (aka large language models) require a lot of cajoling to deliver valid JSON. The company is led by the team behind the open-source project Outlines, which helps developers get what they need from ChatGPT and other generative AI models without having to resort to crude tactics like injecting emotional blackmail into prompts ('write the code or the kitten gets it!').

Eclipse opens an NYC office with plans to bolster its presence on the East Coast After nearly a decade, industrials-focused VC Eclipse expanded out of Silicon Valley. The firm opened its second office in New York's Soho neighborhood, with plans to invest more on the East Coast. Since the firm's founding in 2015, it has been exclusively located in Silicon Valley — until now.

Hackers are extorting Globe Life with stolen customer data Insurance giant Globe Life, which provides life and health insurance policies to millions of Americans, says it is being extorted by a hacker that has stolen customers' sensitive data. In a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, the Texas-based conglomerate said it has "recently received communications" from an unknown threat actor who is seeking to extort money from the company in exchange for not disclosing data stolen from its systems. The compromised data, which Globe Life has traced back to its American Income Life Insurance Company subsidiary (AIL), includes personally identifiable information, such as customer names, postal addresses, and phone numbers.