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Showing posts from March, 2024

TechCrunch Mobility: Fisker enters into dumpster fire territory and Tesla chases FSD revenue

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Remember in the last edition of TechCrunch […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9lfktuh

Ember’s journey from hot coffee to medication transport

Ember’s first Indiegogo campaign drew sideways glances when it launched in 2015. Would anyone actually buy a $129 heated coffee mug? Nearly a decade later, however, it’s clear that the initial pitch was merely the tip of the startup’s heating/cooling iceberg. TechCrunch recently sat down with Clay Alexander, the firm’s founder and chairman, to take […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/GV0iQbr

Women in AI: Brandie Nonnecke of UC Berkeley says investors should insist on responsible AI practices

To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch is launching a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. We’ll publish several pieces throughout the year as the AI boom continues, highlighting key work that often goes unrecognized. Read more profiles here. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yImNpUJ

Robinhood’s new Gold Card, BaaS challenges and the tiny startup that caught Stripe’s eye

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! This week, we’re looking at Robinhood’s new Gold Card, challenges in the BaaS space and how a tiny startup caught Stripe’s eye. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday at 7:30 a.m. PT, subscribe here.  The big […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/mGuhYez

Fisker loses customers’ money, Robinhood launches a credit card, and Google generates travel itineraries

Hey, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the notable happenings in tech over the past few days. This week, TC’s auto reporter Sean O’Kane revealed how EV startup Fisker temporarily lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments as it scaled up deliveries, leading to an internal audit that started […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/uGa2DhB

MIT tool shows climate change could cost Texans a month and a half of outdoor time by 2080

Finally, something that makes climate change relatable. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/xtHTQ7k

Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis gets UK knighthood for ‘services to artificial intelligence’

Demis Hassabis, CEO and one of three founders of Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) subsidiary DeepMind, has been awarded a knighthood in the U.K. for “services to artificial intelligence.” Ian Hogarth, chair of the U.K. government’s recently launched AI Safety Institute and previously founder of music startup Songkick, was awarded Commander of the Order of the British […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Sjze2t8

Instagram is developing ‘Blend,’ recommended Reels for you and a friend

Instagram is developing a “Blend” feature that creates a private feed of Reels recommended for you and a friend. The company told TechCrunch on Friday that the feature is an internal prototype and is not being tested externally. The feature was first spotted by reverse engineer Alessandro Paluzzi, who regularly discovers social media features in […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7iCvwj6

YouTube now lets creators share exclusive Shorts with their paying subscribers

YouTube is launching “members only” Shorts, allowing creators to share short-form videos exclusively to their paying viewers. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TAeyqvY

US offers $10M to help catch Change Healthcare hackers

The government's reward for information now extends to ALPHV's affiliates, which claimed responsibility for a massive weeks-long healthcare cyberattack. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Ligv0GI

Oregon signs right to repair into law

Oregon Governor Tina Kotek on Tuesday signed Senate Bill 1596 into law, joining California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts and Minnesota in a growing list of states embracing a right to repair for citizens. The law is set to go into effect January 1. The bill’s coauthors Janeen Sollman and Representative Courtney Neron took inspiration from California’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zVfHiRC

The UK threw a splashy event in New York this week to woo more American VCs

U.K. officials unveiled a hologram statue and threw a big party to celebrate the U.K. as the third $1 trillion tech economy. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ntqedAT

Fisker lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments for months

Fisker temporarily lost track of millions of dollars in customer payments as it scaled up deliveries, leading to an internal audit that started in December and took months to complete, TechCrunch has learned. The EV startup was ultimately able to track down a majority of those payments or request new ones from customers whose payment […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/53oXSB0

NASA’s snake robot is designed to search out life in the icy oceans of a Saturn moon

The snake robot form factor has existed for decades. In addition to the diversity it adds to the world of automation, the design has several pragmatic attributes. The first is redundancy, which allows for the system to keep chugging even after a module is damaged. The second is a body that makes it possible for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2CgI09p

Vibrant Planet uses AI for land mapping and improving climate resiliency

As the planet warms due to human-caused climate change, damage from wildfires has increased with it. The amount of forest area burned by wildfires increased 320% from 1996 to 2021, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. While building tech to slow the progression and impacts of climate change would be ideal, it’s a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3Kt24F9

Synctera is the latest banking-as-a-service startup to lay off staff

Banking-as-a-service startup (BaaS) Synctera has conducted a restructuring that has resulted in a staff reduction, the company confirmed to TechCrunch. While Synctera did not share how many employees were impacted, a report in Fintech Business Weekly pegs the number to be about 17 people, or about 15% of the company. Doing the math, that means […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/X15Fu7s

A judge just killed Elon Musk’s lawsuit against an anti-hate research org

A federal judge sided against Elon Musk today, dismissing a lawsuit brought by Musk and X that targeted a nonprofit that researches online hate. X sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) last year, accusing the group of spreading misleading claims after it published a series of unflattering reports about hate and extremism on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TtKiNdZ

Large language models can help home robots recover from errors without human help

There are countless reasons why home robots have found little success post-Roomba. Pricing, practicality, form factor and mapping have all contributed to failure after failure. Even when some or all of those are addressed, there remains the question of what happens when a system makes an inevitable mistake. This has been a point of friction […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ewCHF1d

London regtech GSS raises $47M to help banks screen for global sanctions

Global Screening Services (GSS), a London-based regulatory compliance platform that helps financial institutions meet their global sanctions obligations, has raised $47 million in a round of funding. The raise comes amid a spike in economic sanctions, with the U.S. issuing trade restrictions and asset blocking against states including Russia, China, Iran and more. Enforcement GSS […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/YVdeN21

Apple, Google and Meta face first formal investigations under EU’s DMA

What’s the collective noun for investigations on Big Tech? Because the European Union has just announced a pile of probes on gatekeepers designated under the Digital Markets Act (DMA). Alphabet/Google, Apple and Meta are facing the first formal non-compliance investigations under the bloc’s rebooted ex ante competition rulebook. Alphabet/Google’s rules on steering in Google Play […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/U9Fd1Hg

Tutoring platform GoStudent reaches profitability amid tradeoffs

In a market that no longer favors growth at all costs, GoStudent's €3 billion valuation and global expansion may belong to the past. However, the Austrian tutoring platform reshaped quickly. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/hwanslo

Spotify tests video courses to teach everything from music production to excel

Spotify has carved out a business for itself in music streaming, podcast entertainment and audiobooks. Now, in its ongoing efforts to get its 600 million+ users to spend more time and money on its platform, Spotify is spinning up a new line of content: e-learning. Starting with a rollout in the U.K., Spotify is testing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/KmCQ16Y

TechCrunch Mobility: The wheels are starting to come off the Fisker EV bus

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Before we jump into the startup and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Mhk91LC

Nvidia could be primed to be the next AWS

The question is whether Nvidia can sustain that growth to become a long-term revenue powerhouse like AWS has become for Amazon. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/FJgTw7r

Non-sexy industries can appeal to investors too

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! This week, we’re looking at some hot fintech startups in Africa, how Mint’s closure has been Copilot’s gain and why VCs have doubled down on a particular expense management startup. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Sunday […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/txjozZO

Apple sued, Microsoft’s AI ambitions and Nvidia’s surprises

In this edition of Week in Review, we have big news on the latest Apple antitrust lawsuit. Microsoft’s AI ambitions dominated the news as well, so let’s dive right in.… Did someone forward this to you? Sign up here to receive the Week in Review newsletter in your inboxes. The U.S. joined international regulators in accusing […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/CQ61j4O

AT&T won’t say how its customers’ data spilled online

Customers say their leaked AT&T customer data — names, addresses, phone numbers and Social Security numbers — is accurate. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vQSPzq4

The DOJ’s case against Apple adds to a growing pile of antitrust problems for Cupertino

On home turf Apple has enjoyed many years of relatively light regulatory scrutiny compared to Big Tech peers. The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) opened a monopoly case against Google back in October 2020, for instance. It followed with a second antitrust case at the start of last year, targeting Google’s adtech. While the FTC […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/KA6hTyR

Reddit’s IPO has begun with shares soaring 60% within minutes

Shares of social forum giant Reddit opened Thursday at $47 per share, then quickly soared to around $55, up about 60% in heavy volume from its IPO price of $34 per share. It bounced around before stabilizing at around $50 a share.  The company had indicated a target range of $31 to $34 per share […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/wWeQJ6G

DOJ claims green bubbles are an issue in iPhone monopoly suit

The United States Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple earlier today. The suit touches on several (allegedly) anticompetitive practices. But one category in particular caught our attention as the DOJ spends quite a bit of time talking about “green bubbles” and “blue bubbles.” When an iPhone user sends a message to another […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3dOnxfs

Candela’s electric ferries multiply as the startup lines up $25M in new funding

Electric boat maker Candela is approaching cruising speed with $25 million in new funding and the first commercial deployment of its new P-12 ferry, in New Zealand. The company has global ambitions for its highly efficient boats, and has completed and delivered dozens of them — which is a lot in this industry! Candela has […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yplc2Bm

EU signals doubts over legality of Meta’s privacy fee

The European Union has given its strongest signal yet that a controversial tactic rolled out by Meta last November to extract consent to tracking from regional users of Facebook and Instagram — by forcing them to choose between paying a monthly subscription or agree to tracking — won’t wash under the bloc’s updated digital governance […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2DByQqd

Astera Labs’ IPO pops 54%, showing that investor demand for tech with an AI twist is high

Astera Labs started its life as a public company trading at $52.56 per share, up 46% when the bell rang. The company priced its IPO last night at $36 per share, above its raised price range. Astera’s debut marks the first material technology offering this year that TechCrunch is tracking. Reddit, the well-known social forum […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/U92CLdT

Threads is rolling out trending topics to all users in the US

Threads, the Twitter-like app from Instagram, is rolling out its “trending now” feature widely to all users in the U.S. The official rollout comes a month after the app started testing the feature with a select number of users in the country. Trending topics are available on the search page and in the app’s For […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/smidA9Y

Nvidia CEO wants enterprise to think ‘AI factory,’ not data center

Nvidia benefits tremendously if it can persuade companies to think of data centers and AI tools in a different way. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Uis9FT2

After raising $1.3B, Inflection got eaten alive by its biggest investor, Microsoft

In June 2023, Inflection announced it had raised $1.3 billion to build what it called “more personal AI.” The lead investor was Microsoft. Today, less than a year later, Microsoft announced that it was essentially eating Inflection alive (though I think they phrased it differently). Co-founders Mustafa Suleyman and Karén Simonyan will go to Microsoft, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1yhVjR8

Nvidia and Qualcomm join Open Source Robotics Alliance to support ROS development

The Open Source Robotics Foundation (OSRF) this week announced the launch of the similarly named Open Source Robotics Alliance (OSRA). The new initiative is designed to maintain development for and maintenance of open source robotics projects, with a particular focus on the OSRF’s own robot operating system (ROS). First released in 2007 by erstwhile Bay […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qYdpEi2

Telegram raises $330M fresh capital through bond sales

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov said on his channel today that the company secured $330 million in investment through bond sales last week. Durov said that the offering was oversubscribed with favorable terms to the company. “This bond offering was oversubscribed, and we were delighted to have global funds of the highest caliber with […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/AHSQ4WD

YC-backed digital bank Onyx Private tells customers it’s closing their accounts

Miami-based Onyx Private, a Y Combinator-backed digital bank that provided banking and investment services for high-earning Millennials and Gen Zers, is terminating its bank operations. In a March 13 email to a customer viewed by TechCrunch, with a subject line that read: “Important Notice: Termination of Bank Operations and Account Closure” Onyx wrote, “We are […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/AVCQG78

Poseidona is removing invasive algae from oceans and turning it into food

Poseidona is a Barcelona-based developer of sustainable food technology. It takes invasive seaweed and algal side-streams to make proteins. In this case, it's a soy protein alternative. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/O7xPV0w

xAI open-sources base model of Grok, but without any training code

Elon Musk’s xAI has open-sourced the base code of Grok AI model, but without any training code. The company described it as the “314 billion parameter Mixture-of-Expert model” on GitHub. In a blog post, xAI said that the model wasn’t tuned for any particular application such as using it for conversations. The company noted that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ITMUXZF

Another autonomous vehicle startup shutters, Zoox expands driverless testing and investor fervor for AI escalates

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. I spent a few days in Austin […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/IVJM405

VC Arjun Sethi talks a big game about selling his company-picking strategies to other investors; he says they’re buying it

Arjun Sethi speaks with the confidence of someone who knows more than other people, or else who knows that sounding highly confident can shape perception. Either way, when he tells me over Zoom that “in five years, I’ll have 50% of the world’s private data” at his fingertips, and that it will be “impossible to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9nNcbU8

Griffin Bank has a license to thrill

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! I’m filling in for Mary Ann, who is on a much deserved break. This week, we look at Griffin Bank getting its license ahead of some heavy hitters, and we go inside Stripe’s annual letter, some funding rounds, and more! The big story A top story for this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/g7ecu8i

SpaceX doc leaks, TikTok ban gains steam, and Grok to go open-source

Hey, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter recapping noteworthy happenings in tech over the past few days. This week, TechCrunch viewed leaked documents out of SpaceX showing some questionable practices related to employee stock options. X CEO Elon Musk announced that he would open source Grok, X’s AI-powered chatbot meant to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/935wTBc

LinkedIn plans to add gaming to its platform

LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned social platform, has made a name for itself primarily as a platform for people looking to network and pick up knowledge for professional purposes, and for recruitment — a business that now has more 1 billion users. Now, to boost the time people are spending on the platform, the company is breaking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zdCfpu4

Pornhub says, ‘Bad Texas! No smut for you!’

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Pornhub has been playing a game of chicken with a bunch of state legislatures for a while now. Last year, the smut-peddler blocked access to users […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qUAG1Qm

Lordstown Motors comes out of bankruptcy with a new name to fight Foxconn

Lordstown Motors has emerged from bankruptcy with a new name and a nearly singular focus: continuing its lawsuit against iPhone-maker Foxconn for allegedly “destroying the business of an American startup.” The company announced in a late Thursday regulatory filing that it has put into effect a Chapter 11 restructuring plan that was recently approved by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9XmspvO

Hyundai-backed Motional buys time with a bridge loan

Autonomous vehicle technology startup Motional has secured a bridge loan that provides a temporary financial reprieve as the company searches for a longer-term source of funding, TechCrunch has learned. Motional CEO Karl Iagnemma told staff in a companywide email viewed by TechCrunch that the company’s board of directors approved the bridge financing. “As I’ve previously […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/o9WQm1z

How to verify a data breach

Over the years TechCrunch has extensively covered data breaches. In fact, some of our most-read stories have come from reporting on huge data breaches, such as revealing shoddy security practices at startups holding sensitive genetic information through to disproving privacy claims by a popular messaging app. It’s not just our sensitive information that can spill […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qJap8Ks

After AWS and Google, Microsoft says it’s removing Azure ‘egress’ data transfer fees — but with caveats

Microsoft has revealed that it too will allow business customers to transfer data out of its Azure cloud infrastructure with no so-called “egress fees” attached, following hot on the heels of similar moves by cloud rivals AWS and Google. While Microsoft positions the announcement as a voluntary pro-customer move, the fact that it was quietly […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NwXTaPE

This battery startup says it’s found a way to make cheap LFP batteries without sacrificing range

Coreshell, a battery materials startup, revealed a breakthrough this week that could lower the cost of lithium-ion batteries while reducing reliance on China. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2UtOAZB

ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies for more wide-ranging needs. And that growth has propelled OpenAI itself into becoming […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/OcjWxqR

Locus Robotics’ success is a tale of focusing on what works

“We’re fundamentally a software company,” Locus CEO Rick Faulk says with a laugh. We look like a robot company, but we’re actually a software company.” It’s a familiar refrain from companies whose most public-facing products are hardware. That’s certainly the case with Locus, which produces the best-known AMRs (autonomous mobile robots) not made by Amazon. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tvf4ujN

TikTok is now letting creators in more countries earn money for their effects

TikTok is expanding its Effect Creator Rewards monetization program to more regions and lowering its payout threshold, the company announced today. The program, which launched in May 2023, rewards creators for the effects they make through TikTok’s AR development platform, Effect House. TikTok is also updating the program’s payout model, as creators will now only receive […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Hr13NL4

Lucid Motors is stuck in a fight over the name of its Gravity SUV

Lucid Motors is at risk of losing the trademark for the name of its Gravity SUV, just months before the company is supposed to start production. Google Ventures-backed EV charging company Gravity Inc. filed a “petition for cancellation” with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) in December asking for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/0TkHgSM

Kate Middleton’s photo editing controversy is an omen of what’s to come

After frenzied speculation that a recent photo of Kate Middleton and her children was AI generated, the Duchess of Cambridge herself had to address the controversy. “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing,” Middleton wrote in a statement. “I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/5GQJCa0

After losing access to Twitter’s API, Block Party pivots to privacy

Block Party, a startup developed by software engineer and tech diversity advocate Tracy Chou, was among the victims of Twitter’s (now X’s) API changes earlier this year, forcing it to pivot its business. At the SXSW conference in Austin this weekend, Chou presented a glimpse of what Block Party is now up to with its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/DmoPL6M

Feeeed is a reader app that goes beyond tracking RSS feeds

In the last 12 months, reader apps have adopted AI to change how users consume news. Instagram co-founders’ now discontinued Artifact introduced AI-powered summaries and headlines. Newer apps like Bulletin and former Twitter engineer’s Particle are taking similar approaches. However, developer Nate Parrott’s app Feeeed (it’s four Es), which is available for iPhones and iPads, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1tiyUm8

Elon Musk says xAI will open-source Grok this week

Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI will open-source Grok, its chatbot rivaling ChatGPT, this week, he said, days after suing OpenAI and complaining that the Microsoft-backed startup had deviated from its open source roots. xAI released Grok last year, arming it with features including access to “real-time” information. The service is available to customers paying for X’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/CRkW6a3

‘Banking as a Service’ startup Griffin riases $24M and attains full banking licence

Founded by former Silicon Valley engineers, UK-based Griffin Bank bills itself as an API-driven ‘Banking as a Service’ platform. After raising $28.1 million, it has now raised another $24 million (£19 million) in a fresh, extended Series A, funding round led by MassMutual Ventures, NordicNinja and Breega, with participation from existing investors Notion Capital and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/DZQgAwa

Rivian’s big bet, Waymo goes driverless in Austin and the Chevy Blazer EV returns

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. This week, it was all about Rivian […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vXqCUtJ

Don’t forget! Submit your Side Event at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024

Looking to leave your mark at TechCrunch Early Stage 2024? Our Side Events initiative offers a prime opportunity to connect with Boston’s vibrant tech scene in an unforgettable way. And the best part? We’ll help promote your event for free! Submit your event by March 20 to be part of the excitement. Host your own […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/BKbQUTC

What’s going on with the new bill that could ban TikTok?

TikTok faces an uncertain fate in the U.S. once again. After a surprise flurry of activity in the House this week, TikTok is the target of a new government push to separate the company from its Chinese ownership or force it out of the country. TikTok is based in Los Angeles and Singapore, but is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/P4OTQh2

Apple terminates Epic’s account, Meta platforms get knocked offline and former Twitter execs sue Elon Musk

Hey, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter covering all of — or at least the bulk of! — noteworthy happenings around the tech-o-sphere. This week, Roku played hardball with its customers, requiring them to consent to new dispute resolution terms. This means users can’t use their Roku devices until agreeing to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/JAqWxyC

Spyware makers express concern after US sanctions spyware veteran

Earlier this week, the U.S. government announced sanctions against the founder of a controversial government spyware maker, Tal Dilian, and his business associate, Sara Aleksandra Fayssal Hamou. In announcing the sanctions, U.S. Treasury officials accused Dilian and Hamou of developing and selling spyware that was then used to target Americans, including U.S. government employees, as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qOLh7cC

Tracking ads industry faces another body blow in the EU

It’s been over two years since a key piece of the tracking-ads’ industry’s consent collection apparatus was found to breach European Union’s data protection laws. Today the surveillance data complex suffered another body blow: The bloc’s top court flicked away arguments made by the ad industry body responsible for the tool — confirming the strings […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/bmBFyIK

Brevian is a no-code enterprise platform for building AI agents

Sunnyvale-based Brevian wants to make it easier for business users to build custom AI agents. Currently, the company is focused on support teams and security analysts — areas where both the use cases and training sets are well defined — but plans to expand to other areas over time. The company is coming out of stealth […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/39I7QGy

Apple terminates Epic Games developer account calling it a ‘threat’ to the iOS ecosystem

The Apple-Epic saga has just taken a new turn today as the Fortnite game developer, Epic Games, shared that Apple has terminated its developer account. This is a reversal from Apple’s earlier approval of the account last month, which Epic said would allow it to bring back Fortnite to iOS devices in the EU by […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/LSpRZ2N

Applications are open for the TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 200

Calling all early-stage founders: Are you ready? TechCrunch is on the hunt for 200 early-stage founders to feature in the Startup Battlefield 200 at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco this October. Back in 2022, the Startup Battlefield expanded to include a showcase of the top 200 companies from across the globe. With entrepreneurs from more than 35 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ORkunXP

Target to launch Target Circle 360 next month, its Prime competitor

During Target’s investor event on Tuesday, the retail giant announced it is launching a paid membership program, Target Circle 360, on April 7 to compete with rivals Amazon and Walmart. The subscription tier includes unlimited free same-day delivery for orders over $35 and two free-day shipping, along with other perks like exclusive partnerships and product […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/rp3NujI

Google takes aim at SEO-optimized junk pages and spam with new search update

Google today took aim at the SEO industry which has gamified search rankings to destroy the value of Google Search results. Often, consumers’ web searches for product recommendations, reviews, deals, and discounts, return low-quality or spammy websites that don’t deliver the expert reviews or useful promotions they promise, despite their high ranking. That’s about to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/AaWyLDn

OpenSea’s partnership with Coachella is a sign that NFTs can be more than profile pictures

The NFT sector has not yet returned to the glory of its 2022 heydays but that hasn’t stopped the evolution of the tech. For instance, OpenSea has partnered with the music and arts festival conglomerate Coachella to release three NFT collections that offer both virtual and tangible real-life VIP experiences and merchandise. The partnership will […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/lMSOskJ

Numbers Station lets business users chat with their data

Numbers Station, a startup that is using large language models (LLMs) to power its data analytics platform, is launching its first cloud-based product today: the aptly named Numbers Station Cloud, which is now in early access. With this service, virtually any user in an enterprise can analyze their internal data using Numbers Station’s chat interface. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/V1Ie2Ya

Why Signal ‘turned our architecture inside out’ for its latest privacy feature

Adding usernames to a messaging app may seem like a standard feature, but for Signal, such identifiers were anathema to its mission of total privacy and security — until now. The upcoming 7.0 version adds usernames, but the company’s president, Meredith Whittaker, explained that this was nowhere near as simple a decision as it may […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/5Q438RP

Google’s latest Pixel Drop will let users post high-quality photos, videos on Instagram

Google today announced its latest set of Pixel-related features for phones, tablets, and watches, such as 10-bit video support for Instagram, expansion of the Circile to search feature, automatic workout detection on the original pixel watch, and selective app screening for multiple pixel devices. Pixel phone updates The company is now allowing users to capture […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sMxivS6

Instagram now lets you edit DMs up to 15 mins after sending them

Instagram announced today that it’s rolling out the ability for users to edit their direct messages for up to 15 minutes after sending them. The company also announced that users will soon also get the option to pin up to three messaging threads to the top of their inbox. The ability to edit your DMs lets […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/6DOQxkY

Anthropic claims its new models beat GPT-4

AI startup Anthropic, backed by hundreds of millions in venture capital (and perhaps soon hundreds of millions more), today announced the latest version of its GenAI tech, Claude. And the company claims that it rivals OpenAI’s GPT-4 in terms of performance. Claude 3, as Anthropic’s new GenAI is called, is a family of models — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/InFjglZ

Indonesia fintech Wagely makes bank while helping the unbanked

Wagely, a fintech out of Indonesia, made a name for itself with earned wage access: a way for workers in Southeast Asian countries to get advances on their salaries without resorting to higher-interest loans. With half a million people now using the platform, the startup has expanded that business into a wider “financial wellness” platform, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Nc1tOea

India reverses AI stance, requires government approval for model launches

India has waded into global AI debate by issuing an advisory that requires tech firms to get government permission before launching new models. India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT issued the advisory to firms on Friday. The advisory, not published on public domain but a copy of which TechCrunch has reviewed, also asks tech firms […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tWmxoX3

Waymo scores a critical robotaxi permit, Fisker cuts more workers and Apple car fades away

TechCrunch Mobility is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free. Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. I was in Los Angeles earlier this […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/xfnoFcE

Camshaft says Byju’s unit beneficial owner of $533 million funds

Camshaft disclosed in court filings this week that some $533 million it managed for Byju’s Alpha, a U.S. unit of Indian edtech group Byju’s, was transferred to another 100% and U.S.-based subsidiary of Byju’s, thereby refuting allegations that the Indian firm used the wealth manager’s services to misappropriate money. In the court filings, Camshaft said […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/uXoe5Ix

Plug In South LA helps build diverse startups in a traditionally underserved area

Derek Smith launched Plug In South LA with goal of helping historically under represented people build successful startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3qyOHCr

When startups fail, these startups clean up

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech (formerly The Interchange)! Apologies for being out last week — a cold got the best of me, but I’m back and here to talk about the fact that shutting down startups is big business, Stripe’s new valuation, Klarna’s latest AI update and more. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Fy5jfxE

Francine Bennett uses data science to make AI more responsible

TechCrunch has launched a series of interviews focusing on remarkable women who’ve contributed to the AI revolution. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/iTblA5k

Apple cancels its car, Google’s AI goes awry and Bumble stumbles

Hello, folks, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s newsletter covering noteworthy happenings in the tech industry. This week, investment firm KKR announced that it would acquire VMware’s end-user computing business from Broadcom for $4 billion. As Ron explains, that business included VMware Workspace One and VMware Horizon — two remote desktop apps that had […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/mgyKpTf

AI chip startup Groq forms new business unit, acquires Definitive Intelligence

Groq, a startup developing chips to run GenAI models faster than conventional hardware, has an eye toward the enterprise — and public sector. Today, Groq announced that it’s forming a new division — Groq Systems — focused on greatly expanding its customer and developer ecosystem. Within Groq Systems’ purview is serving organizations, including government agencies, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Eb7VI2T