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Showing posts from February, 2025

Google Sheets gets a Gemini-powered upgrade to analyze data faster and create visuals

Google is giving Sheets a Gemini-powered upgrade that is designed to help users analyze data faster and turn spreadsheets into charts using AI. With this update, users can access Gemini’s capabilities to generate insights from their data, such as correlations, trends, outliers, and more. Users now can also generate advanced visualizations, like heatmaps, that they […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/BWoU3RA

Bluesky-based Instagram alternative Flashes launches publicly

Instagram alternative Flashes publicly launched its Bluesky-based photo-sharing app on the App Store this week, gaining nearly 30,000 downloads in its first 24 hours. The app offers a classic Instagram-like experience, allowing users to upload up to four photos and videos of up to a minute in length. Built by Berlin-based developer Sebastian Vogelsang, Flashes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/H1ji0Pb

A comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/AdsKGDw

Apple introduces new child safety initiatives, including an age-checking system for apps

Apple on Thursday announced a range of new initiatives designed to help parents and developers create a safer experience for kids and teens using Apple devices. In addition to easier setup of child accounts, parents will now be able to share information about their kids’ ages, which can then be accessed by app developers to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qG5tVrh

Here are all the tech companies rolling back DEI or still committed to it — so far

Companies around America have started cutting DEI programs and eliminating DEI commitments from public documents in response to legal and political threats from the Trump administration. Just a few weeks ago, Attorney General Pam Bondi instructed the Department of Justice to “investigate, eliminate, and penalize,” DEI programs deemed illegal in private sector companies that receive […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/EBeOCU1

Inception emerges from stealth with a new type of AI model

Inception, a new Palo Alto-based company started by Stanford computer science professor Stefano Ermon, claims to have developed a novel AI model based on “diffusion” technology. Inception calls it a diffusion-based large language model, or a “DLM” for short. The generative AI models receiving the most attention now can be broadly divided into two types: […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/5fX9QYy

Hacked crypto exchange Bybit offers $140M bounty to trace stolen funds

Bybit has already paid more than $4 million to bounty hunters who helped trace and freeze some of the stolen funds. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/rgxm6Uj

ElevenLabs is launching its own speech-to-text model

ElevenLabs, an AI startup that just raised a $180 million mega funding round, has been primarily known for its audio generation prowess. The company took a step in another technological direction by launching its first standalone speech-to-text model called Scribe. The startup, valued at $3.3 billion, has aided many other companies in providing speech-to-text services […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ej3MZm7

Sweden’s Lovable, an app-building AI platform, rakes in $15M after spectacular growth

Using generative AI to create software has been possibly the largest use case since it first appeared a couple years ago. But platforms like Cursor and Copilot are mostly confined to a world inhabited by trained engineers.  Lovable, a Swedish AI startup, reached the front page of both Product Hunt and Hacker News last year […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/XRF12N9

What to expect from Amazon’s Alexa event on Wednesday

Amazon is hosting an Alexa-focused press event in NYC on Wednesday. Considering the company hasn’t held a major device presser in nearly two years — the last one was September 2023 — we’re expecting some splashy announcements. The event will not be live streamed. However, TechCrunch will be reporting on the ground. The festivities, emceed […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/pDjkXx3

DocUnlock wants to solve a customs bottleneck

When goods enter the U.S., they have to be declared to U.S. customs so the importer can be charged the proper taxes. That applies to everything from a consumer ordering clothes from a brand based overseas to every single item on a massive container ship. When it comes to commercial importing, filling out the necessary […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/t30U6Ar

DeepSeek: Everything you need to know about the AI chatbot app

DeepSeek has gone viral. Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week after its chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeek’s AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques, have led Wall Street analysts — and technologists — to question whether the U.S. can maintain its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QzvkTGF

Electric aircraft founder Kyle Clark threw out the Silicon Valley playbook

On a cool morning last November, 800 people gathered before sunrise in a South Burlington hangar to witness the maiden flight of Beta Technologies’ first electric aircraft to be built on its new scaled production line. Kyle Clark, Beta’s enigmatic founder and CEO, piloted the Alia CX300 — one of the startup’s two aircraft models […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2yfrb79

This mental health chatbot aims to fill the counseling gap at understaffed schools

As school districts struggle to support the mental health of their students, a startup called Sonar Mental Health has built a “wellbeing companion” called Sonny to help. As described in the Wall Street Journal, Sonny is a chatbot that relies on a combination of human staff and AI. When students text their questions to Sonny, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vlRXjFg

How I Podcast: Summer Album / Winter Album’s Jody Avirgan

The beauty of podcasting is that anyone can do it. It’s a rare medium that’s nearly as easy to make as it is to consume. And as such, no two people do it exactly the same way. There are a wealth of hardware and software solutions open to potential podcasters, so setups run the gamut […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ECay38b

The pain of discontinued items, and the thrill of finding them online

We’ve all been there. A favorite item is suddenly unavailable for purchase. Couldn’t the manufacturer have given you advance warning? Whether owing to low sales, changing habits, production costs, or even because something is a little wrong with your favorite product (shh), discontinued items are part of life. In a weekend piece, the New York […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/nX7ow9J

The fallout from HP’s Humane acquisition 

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re looking at the internal chaos surrounding HP’s $116 million acquisition of AI Pin maker Humane; Mira Murati’s new AI venture coming out of stealth; Duolingo killing its iconic owl mascot with a Cybertruck; and more! Let’s get into it. Humane’s AI pin is dead. The hardware […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Uwj4m9h

The real reason why oil and gas companies are bullish on carbon capture

Occidental CEO Vicki Hollub compared using CO2 in enhanced oil recovery to fracking, the technology that sent U.S. oil and gas production skyrocketing. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/mwX2ynk

Cherryrock Capital raises new $172M fund from all-star investors to back diverse founders

Cherryrock Capital, founded by ex-TaskRabbit CEO Stacy Brown-Philpot, announced Wednesday the closing of its $172 million Fund I with an all-star limited partner list that includes JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, MassMutual, Melinda French Gates’ Pivotal Ventures, Reid Hoffman, Mellody Hobson, and Sheryl Sandberg.  Brown-Philpot told Bloomberg that the fund actually closed in January.  The firm launched […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/MOIWzFj

This Week in AI: Maybe we should ignore AI benchmarks for now

Welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter! We’re going on hiatus for a bit, but you can find all our AI coverage, including my columns, our daily analysis, and breaking news stories, at TechCrunch. If you want those stories and much more in your inbox every day, sign up for our daily newsletters here. This week, billionaire […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7GPekyF

Google’s ‘Career Dreamer’ uses AI to help you explore job possibilities

Google is launching a new experiment that uses AI to help people explore more career possibilities. The company announced on Wednesday that a new “Career Dreamer” tool can find patterns between your experiences, educational background, skills, and interests to connect you with careers that might be a good fit. With Career Dreamer, you can use […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/kF7JvVW

Google pulls Gemini from main search app on iOS

Google is pulling its AI assistant Gemini from the main Google app for iOS devices. The move is meant to encourage users to download the standalone Gemini app instead, which would allow Google to more directly compete with other consumer-facing AI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. However, the change could also risk reducing Gemini’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2WmAEOJ

Fintech fundraising is giving me 2021 flashbacks

Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech!  This week we’re looking at some big valuation jumps, how Stripe is eyeing another shareholder sale, a colorful conversation with an early-stage VC, and more! To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The big […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tVk4BK9

Fiverr wants gig workers to offload some of their work to AI

Gig marketplace Fiverr wants to let freelancers train AI on their bodies of work and use it to automate future jobs. At an event on Tuesday, Fiverr announced the launch of several new efforts aimed at attracting gig workers to its platform and equipping them with generative AI tools. Perhaps the most ambitious is a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/wANKU8V

Facebook now only stores live videos for 30 days, will delete old broadcasts

Facebook announced on Tuesday that live videos will now only be stored on the social network for 30 days, after which they will be deleted. Previously, these videos were stored indefinitely. The change goes into effect on Wednesday. All live videos that are currently older than 30 days will be removed from the platform as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1ntYiuP

X doubles its Premium+ plan prices after xAI releases Grok 3

Hours after Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI released the latest version of its AI model, Grok 3, X has significantly hiked the price for its top Premium+ subscription plan, which gives users access to the latest model, to almost $50 per month. On the support page that lists X’s premium plans, the monthly subscription price […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/es9SC7l

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, releases its latest flagship model, Grok 3

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, released its latest flagship AI model, Grok 3, late Monday night, along with new capabilities in the Grok apps for iOS and the web. Grok, xAI’s answer to models like OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Google’s Gemini, can analyze images and respond to questions, and powers a number of features on Musk’s social network, X. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/RBdOlg6

Thousands protest Elon Musk’s DOGE in NYC on Presidents’ Day

More than 10,000 protesters gathered in New York City on Presidents’ Day to speak out against the current Trump administration and the actions in particular of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).  It was one of several protests that took place Monday in major cities across the country and came during the same long […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/HReouZm

Nextdoor’s Nirav Tolia thinks he can turn things around with AI; he has a lot riding on it

Social media is often about scale, but Nextdoor bet long ago on something different: that it could grow a big business off smaller, local communities. For years, the plan worked. The 15-year-old company has long been a dominant platform for neighborhood-based conversations, connecting users for everything from lost pet alerts to local business recommendations. Then […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/IrRqGjh

Can sim drivers make the shift to F1? Max Verstappen thinks so

Motorsports have long been a pay-to-play arena, with young drivers spending thousands of dollars just to get started in karting. Four-time Formula One champion Max Verstappen knows this all too well, but he also sees a way to change it through sim racing, a virtual form of car racing that closely replicates real-world racing. It’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/rK2oxGu

These researchers used NPR Sunday Puzzle questions to benchmark AI ‘reasoning’ models

Every Sunday, NPR host Will Shortz, The New York Times’ crossword puzzle guru, gets to quiz thousands of listeners in a long-running segment called the Sunday Puzzle. While written to be solvable without too much foreknowledge, the brainteasers are usually challenging even for skilled contestants. That’s why some experts think they’re a promising way to […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/bV40dlk

Researchers are training AI to interpret animal emotions

Artificial intelligence could eventually help us understand when animals are in pain or showing other emotions — at least according to researchers recently profiled in Science. For example, there’s the Intellipig system being developed by scientists at the University of the West of England Bristol and Scotland’s Rural College, which examines photos of pigs’ faces […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/AbOdUfc

Broadcom, TSMC reportedly exploring deals that would split up Intel

Broadcom and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) are separately exploring deals to take over parts of Intel, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. Broadcom is reportedly considering an acquisition of Intel’s chip-design and marketing business, and would want a partner for the company’s manufacturing business, while TSMC is reportedly looking at controlling […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/luiVsMQ

Apple Intelligence could arrive on Vision Pro in April

Apple is planning to add Apple Intelligence to its Vision Pro headset in an update that could come as early as April, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Just a couple weeks after Apple Intelligence was first announced in June 2024, Gurman reported that Apple was looking to bring its suite of AI tools to the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/jqGzSyn

xAI’s “Colossus” supercomputer raises health questions in Memphis

Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI plans to continue using 15 gas turbines to power its “Colossus” supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, according to an operating permit with the Shelby County Health Department for non-stop turbine use from June 2025 to June 2030. Why does it matter? The Commercial Appeal, a news outlet that obtained the documents, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/98Kkp34

Perplexity launches its own freemium ‘deep research’ product

Perplexity has become the latest AI company to release an in-depth research tool, with a new feature announced Friday. Google unveiled a similar feature for its Gemini AI platform in December. Then OpenAI launched its own research agent earlier this month. All three companies even have given the feature the same name: Deep Research. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/UvJBIOf

OpenAI teases a ‘simplified’ GPT-5 model

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re looking at OpenAI canceling the release of o3; TikTok returning to U.S. app stores nearly a month after it was removed; more complications in Elon Musk’s bid to buy OpenAI for $97.4 billion; and more! Let’s do it. OpenAI effectively canceled the release of o3, which […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9wrvtZg

Meta’s next big bet may be humanoid robotics

Meta is forming a new team within its Reality Labs hardware division to build robots that can assist with physical tasks, Bloomberg reported. The team will be responsible for developing humanoid robotics hardware, potentially including hardware that can perform household chores. Meta’s new robotics group, which will be led by Marc Whitten, driverless car startup […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/L8f3ic5

Meta confirms ‘Project Waterworth,’ a global subsea cable project spanning 50,000 kilometers

Back in November, we broke the news that Meta — owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, with billions of users accounting for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic — was close to announcing work on a major new, $10 billion+ subsea cable project to connect up the globe. The aim was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/bBz7GjY

Mastodon is working to add the controversial ‘quote posts’ feature

Mastodon, the decentralized alternative to X, is going to adopt a controversial feature from the platform formerly known as Twitter: quote posts. The company on Friday shared the progress it’s making on the implementation of the feature, which has divided users over its potential to be used for online abuse and bullying. Critics have long […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NC3sib5

OpenAI scrubs diversity commitment web page from its site

OpenAI has eliminated a page on its website that used to express its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. The URL “https://openai.com/commitment-to-dei/” now redirects to “https://openai.com/building-dynamic-teams/,” a page that talks about people with “different backgrounds” with no use of the word diversity. The previous page stated that the company’s “investment in diversity, equity and inclusion” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/iKYalfS

Seagate acquires Intevac, which makes equipment for hard disk drives, for $119M

Seagate, the data storage company, has announced its intent to acquire Intevac, a hard drive equipment producer, in an all-cash deal worth $119 million. Seagate said on Thursday that it’ll pay $4 per share in a tender offer for Intevac, which is publicly traded. Seagate will initially purchase a minimum of “at least one share […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/VCLa0EN

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei warns of ‘race’ to understand AI as it becomes more powerful

Right after the end of the AI Action Summit in Paris, Anthropic’s co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei called the event a “missed opportunity.” He added that “greater focus and urgency is needed on several topics given the pace at which the technology is progressing” in the statement released on Tuesday. The AI company held a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/VMCsDyH

Tumblr to join the fediverse after WordPress migration completes

Since 2022, blogging site Tumblr has been teasing its plans to integrate with the fediverse — the open social web powered by the protocol ActivityPub also used by Mastodon, Threads, Flipboard, and others. Now, the Automattic-owned blogging platform is sharing more information about when and how that integration could actually happen. As it turns out, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2y5WLmX

How Musk’s $97.4B bid could gum up OpenAI’s for-profit conversion

On Monday, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, offered to buy the nonprofit that effectively governs OpenAI for $97.4 billion. The unsolicited buyout would be financed by Musk’s AI company, xAI, and a consortium of outside investors, per a letter sent to California and Delaware’s attorneys general. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman quickly dismissed Musk’s bid, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/We1Qo04

Apple brings heart rate monitoring to Powerbeats Pro 2

Apple Tuesday announced the long-awaited debut of Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds. The new headphones arrive nearly six years after the original Powerbeats hit the market. The new model maintains the familiar ear hook for workouts, while delivering upgraded sound, better battery life, and a wireless charging case. The earbuds also mark a major next step […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/FYgt9hE

Perplexity’s Super Bowl ‘tweet’ increased app installs by 50%

Perplexity’s Super Bowl contest managed to move the needle on its app’s downloads. Unlike OpenAI and Google, the AI search engine chose to forgo an expensive Super Bowl ad in favor of a tweet — sorry, an X post — encouraging users to download its app and enter a contest that could result in a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/YIBAmGE

Mistral gets down to business

Hundreds of heads of states, tech CEOs and nonprofits have flocked to Paris for the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit. So far, the winner of this week’s diplomatic and business parade seems to be Mistral. In business lingo, we would say that the French AI unicorn is experiencing tailwinds. Mistral has been one of the leading […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vibsAGw

Macron unveils $112B AI investment package, France’s answer to US’ Stargate

Late Sunday local time the French president, Emmanuel Macron, announced a total of €109 billion in private investments in the AI ecosystem — or around $112 billion at current exchange rates. Paris is hosting the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit this week — the third international summit focused on AI after earlier events in Bletchley Park […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/5AvrnWp

Saudi’s BRKZ closes $17M Series A for its construction tech platform

Construction procurement is highly fragmented, manual, and opaque, forcing contractors to juggle multiple suppliers, endure lengthy negotiations, and deal with delayed payments. In Saudi Arabia, where trillion-dollar infrastructure and real estate projects are underway, these inefficiencies are even more pronounced. To address this, BRKZ, a Riyadh-based construction tech startup, offers a tech-enabled managed marketplace that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NG30MBY

DeepSeek’s R1 reportedly ‘more vulnerable’ to jailbreaking than other AI models

The latest model from DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company that’s shaken up Silicon Valley and Wall Street, can be manipulated to produce harmful content such as plans for a bioweapon attack and a campaign to promote self-harm among teens, according to The Wall Street Journal. Sam Rubin, senior vice president at Palo Alto Networks’ threat […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9grC3hn

Apple’s new research robot takes a page from Pixar’s playbook

Last month, Apple offered up more insight into its consumer robotics work via a research paper that argues that traits like expressive movements are key to optimizing human-robot interaction. “Like most animals,” starts the report, “humans are highly sensitive to motion and subtle changes in movement.” To illustrate its point, Apple pays homage to Pixar, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ad02snO

AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li says AI policy must be based on ‘science, not science fiction’

Fei-Fei Li, the Stanford computer scientist and startup founder sometimes known as “the Godmother of AI,” has outlined “three fundamental principles for the future of AI policymaking” ahead of next week’s AI Action Summit in Paris. First, Li said policy must be based on “science, not science fiction.” In other words, policymakers should focus on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/6AH3pON

Bpifrance will invest $10B in the French AI ecosystem by 2029

France’s public investment bank announced that it plans to invest as much as €10 billion (around $10.3 billion at current exchange rates) in the artificial intelligence ecosystem in France. This announcement comes a few days before heads of state and global tech leaders gather for the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris. Bpifrance has been […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/o5EgDq4

DeepSeek: Everything you need to know about the AI chatbot app

DeepSeek has gone viral. Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week after its chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeek’s AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques, have led Wall Street analysts — and technologists — to question whether the U.S. can maintain its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3pRhElX

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity insists it’s not abandoning its DEI efforts

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity has told its employees it will remain committed to DEI even as Meta eliminates its DEI programs, The Guardian reports.  Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), founded and co-led by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, reassured its employees after many began expressing concerns about recent changes at Meta as the company scales back […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/jJdY3m0

Stripe makes $1.1 billion crypto bet as it closes on Bridge acquisition

Stripe has closed on its $1.1 billion purchase of stablecoin platform Bridge – marking the payment giant’s largest acquisition to date and tangible push into crypto. Co-founded in 2022 by Coinbase and Square alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, San Antonio, Texas-based Bridge built an API that helps companies accept stablecoins. The pair raised $58 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/mZtecu9

The Elon Musk Act aims to ban ‘special government employees’ from having federal contracts

U.S. Democratic Representative Mark Pocan plans to introduce a bill designed to ban “special government employees” like Elon Musk from having federal contracts so they can’t steer spending towards their own self-interest.  The proposed bill is called the ELON MUSK Act, which stands for Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by Mitigating Unethical State Kleptocracy.  “No […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7LufnxA

New target of Paragon spyware comes forward

The latest target of Paragon spyware openly questions if he was targeted by the Italian government. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/J5BzGYp

China may probe Intel for antitrust: report

Amid China’s retaliation to recently-announced U.S. tariffs, Intel may find itself in the hot seat with China’s regulators. China is apparently considering an antitrust probe into semiconductor giant Intel, according to reporting from the Financial Times. This would be in addition to the set of tariffs against the U.S. that China announced on Monday. Per […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NWVCj7u

EU puts out guidance on uses of AI that are banned under its AI Act

The first compliance deadline kicked in a couple of days ago for the European Union’s AI Act, a risk-based framework for regulating uses of artificial intelligence — banning a narrow selection of so called “unacceptable risk” use-cases of AI, such as social scoring that could lead to detrimental or unfavourable treatment; or harmful manipulation using […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sOElGq1

A comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs

A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/OyNlTfk

DeepSeek: The countries and agencies that have banned the AI company’s tech

DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company, is raising the ire of regulators around the world. DeepSeek’s viral AI models and chatbot apps have been banned by a growing number of countries and government bodies, which have expressed concerns over DeepSeek’s ethics, privacy, and security practices. Corporations have banned DeepSeek, too — by the hundreds. The biggest […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/YjiVSrI

Trump says new US sovereign wealth fund could purchase TikTok

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund and suggested that it could be used to purchase TikTok. The fund is expected to be created in the next 12 months by the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments, though it’s not immediately clear how. Trump has said previously […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yQk8pPx

What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor

Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/UuO3p0D

India expands Aadhaar authentication for businesses, raising privacy concerns

India has expanded its Aadhaar authentication service to let businesses such as those in e-commerce, hospitality, and healthcare use the biometrics of individuals to authenticate their identity. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/WvkP1lK

OpenAI unveils a new ChatGPT agent for ‘deep research’

OpenAI is announcing a new AI “agent” designed to help people conduct in-depth, complex research using ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot platform. Appropriately enough, it’s called deep research. OpenAI said in a blog post published Sunday that these this new capability was designed for “people who do intensive knowledge work in areas like finance, science, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/KJTHp2A

Dub: the copy trading app that has teens talking

Social media changed everything from news consumption to shopping. Now, Dub thinks it can do the same for investing through an influencer-driven marketplace where users can follow the trades of top investors with a few taps. Think of it as TikTok meets Wall Street. Founded by 23-year-old Steven Wang — a Harvard drop-out who began […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/kHubTBP

X expands lawsuit over advertiser ‘boycott’ to include Lego, Nestlé, Pinterest, and others

X is now suing more advertisers in an antitrust lawsuit focusing on what the company’s CEO Linda Yaccarino has claimed is a “systematic illegal boycott.” The company formerly known as Twitter first filed the lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and its brand safety initiative the Global Alliance of Responsible Media in August 2024. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QmelqLS

Adobe exec Scott Belsky departs for indie movie studio A24

Adobe’s chief strategy officer Scott Belsky announced this week that he will be joining A24, the independent movie studio behind “Civil War,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and many more titles. Belsky first joined Adobe in 2012 through the acquisition of Behance, leaving briefly in 2016 to become a VC at Benchmark but eventually returning […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/4JPupE5

DeepSeek gets Silicon Valley talking

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re looking at DeepSeek’s major boost in the U.S.; Elon Musk admitting he was wrong about FSD; teens losing trust in Big Tech; and more! Let’s do it. DeepSeek went viral this week after its AI models led Wall Street analysts and technologists to question whether the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/y2dhb6I