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Medal , a startup that is better known for itsvideo game clipping product , just announced that it has raised $ 13 million at a valuation of $ 333 million from several investors , including Horizons Ventures , OMERS Ventures , Peak6 and Arcadia Investment Partners .
The ship’s company also uncover Highlight , a new cross - platform desktop app that acts as a contextual AI supporter for users . The app captures the content on your cover and lets you postulate questions to a large spoken communication model ( LLM ) based on that context .
Henry Gladwyn , a mate at OMERS Ventures , told TechCrunch over a call that the venture firm view an opportunity to employ Medal ’s core applied science and apply it to LLMs .
“ So the heart and soul Medal technology is base around the estimation of understanding what ’s going on on somebody ’s machine , whether that be the television , the audio , and the stuff go on around it . That was originally used for clipping . Now , the company is necessitate that technical school and apply that to LLMs for prompting , which is a cagey use , ” Gladwyn enjoin .
Gladwyn added that he see Medal as a product for recording the good bits of virtual life rather than just a gaming company . And the Highlight app is a natural extension of that paradigm .
How does Highlight work?
Over the years , companies have tried to ramp up a useful supporter for users that utilizes on - screen information . Google has been trying for geezerhood withGoogle Now , Google Assistantand nowGemini . Apple made a raid into this area when it launchedApple Intelligenceand its ability to sympathize on - screen contextual information last month at its Worldwide Developers Conference ( WWDC ) . Microsoft is also leverage generative AI withWindows Recall , a feature that helps users find content they ’ve viewed in the yesteryear — after the initial promulgation , Microsoft decided topostponethe launching of Recall .
Highlight is trying to make this happen for the desktop . In the current looping , the app lives as a floating button on your desktop . Whenever you bulk large over the picture , it captures the content on the screen and exit it as context to unlike exemplar . you’re able to choose to ask other questions using different instrument such as ChatGPT , Anthropic ’s Claude , Perplexity and more .
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base on different role model , the app pre - populates some of the doubt to help you get started . The seizure hap locally , and the app does n’t store any content . The company is building its own ChatGPT - similar assistant , which might be less adequate to than the swarm - based role model for some tasks — but this helper could finally run locally on your gadget .
Apart from on - screenland cognitive content , you’re able to die a written document and system sound storage as setting to Highlight as well . To utilize the audio exercise font , the party is build a local transcription app for meeting that is akin to tools likeGranola , Limitlessand Krisp .
Building Highlight
Pim de Witte , one of the co - founders of Medal , secernate TechCrunch over a call that the troupe set out think last year about how they could utilise Medal.tv ’s clip capture tech and merge it with AI .
“ We know that recode natural process are pass away to be important for operating systems . And we have seen some big tech companies making such moves . We require to provide an open chopine to link up drug user with assistants , models and interface , ” de Witte said .
He also mentioned that he want to make an AI app that could be used by multitude of all ages , even if they are unaware of the technology . That ’s why the app will show contextual immediate suggestions based on the capture .
The party is also build an overt political program for developer to deploy their own apps on the Highlight platform . This is somewhat equivalent tothe Raycast launcher app for Mac , which get you instal denotation made by developer . However , a key deviation is that Highlight is available on both Mac and Windows .
OMERS Ventures ’ Gladwyn say that because Highlights is independent and has no involvement in drawing you into one ecosystem , it has an vantage .
The path ahead
Medal.tv is a successful intersection , and the company wants to carry on supporting it and append new characteristic . However , the party will assign some stave to lick on Highlight .
Highlights is free for now , but de Witte want to monetize it with the app storage model . The inauguration is also explore a premium subscription to give approach to some of its own apps and feature like local - first models .
The company is also distribute Ulysses Simpson Grant of up to $ 30,000 for developers who will also get accession to the Highlight team to grow the app ecosystem .
