Technical

It’s no surprise that many big, left-leaning social media accounts have recently joined Bluesky — but a new analysis from the Pew Research Center attempts to quantify that shift. This comes as an update to Pew’s news influencer report released in November 2024, which did not include Bluesky in its numbers. The report focused on […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1nKzZRU

The NAACP is calling on local officials to halt operations at Colossus, the “supercomputer” facility operated by Elon Musk’s xAI in South Memphis. As reported in NBC News, leaders from the civil rights group sent a letter Thursday to the Shelby County Health Department and Memphis Light Gas and Water criticizing the organizations’ “lackadaisical approach […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/CUongei

An AI-powered system could soon take responsibility for evaluating the potential harms and privacy risks of up to 90% of updates made to Meta apps like Instagram and WhatsApp, according to internal documents reportedly viewed by NPR. NPR says a 2012 agreement between Facebook (now Meta) and the Federal Trade Commission requires the company to […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/gRqn8Hf

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1skSzYb

Large corporations and growing startups were wrapped up in the latest move by the Trump administration to undo Biden-era contracts. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7VHjEby

Delaware's attorney general is hiring an investment bank to advise on OpenAI's for-profit conversion. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/DgoPSEA

Drew Baglino's startup is hoping to from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9Ieaqw8

On Thursday, Anduril and Meta announced news that feels like a fairy tale ending for Anduril co-founder, Palmer Luckey. The two companies are working together to build extended reality (XR) devices for the U.S. military, Anduril announced in a blog post. “I am glad to be working with Meta once again,” Luckey is quoted as […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9fVJBu1

Karat Financial, the company known for its credit cards for creators, is launching a creator-focused business banking product. Powered by digital bank Grasshopper, Karat’s banking product is a natural extension of its credit card offering with Visa. “Six years in, the problem we’re solving is still the same,” co-founder and co-CEO Eric Wei told TechCrunch. […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zhaPOT9

The redesign adds new AI features, Reimagine and Auto Frame, which were previously only available on Pixel devices. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/kXIK83P

Zurich-based robotics startup Rivr is partnering with Veho to deliver parcels in Austin. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/kZgbomH

Now, the company's AI personnel will be assigned to an AI products team, or an AGI Foundations unit. No jobs appear to have been cut. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/oaCPDEs

WordPress announced on Tuesday that it has formed an AI team to steward the development of AI products among its developer community. The team includes James LePage (leader of AI at Automattic, WordPress’ parent company), Felix Arntz and Pascal Birchler from Google, and Jeff Paul (Director of Open Source at web design firm 10up). As […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/gYrxDC0

Samsung's venture arm is looking to invest in California-based medical device startup Exo, Bloomberg reported. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ahSEAi5

One of Europe’s most prominent AI researchers, Matthias Niessner, is now the CEO of SpAItial, a startup working on spatial foundation models. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TeHSxK0

It’s not your imagination, graduating seniors. The tech industry’s pullback from entry-level hiring has reached concerning levels. LinkedIn’s chief economic opportunity officer, Aneesh Raman, warned in The New York Times last week that “bottom rung of the career ladder” is “breaking” as AI eliminates traditional stepping-stone positions. The numbers are eye-opening: hiring of new grads […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ThjRSgU

We were thrilled by the remarkable interest in speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. After an in-depth review process, we’ve selected 20 exceptional finalists—10 for breakout sessions and 10 for roundtables. Now, we’re putting the final decision in your hands. Audience Choice voting is open through […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/a0ZuE65

Per Inside EVs, Cybertruck owners are now allowed by Tesla to trade in their cars for the first time since they hit the market – but they’ll incur a heavy hit in the process. CarGurus recently showed depreciation rates of up to 45%. Meanwhile, Business Insider talked this past week with two owners who shared […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qBfnsyH

We thought it would be helpful to put together a glossary with definitions of some of the most important words and phrases that we use in our articles. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/XM35gPt

Just 24 hours left to lock in Early Bird pricing for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 — happening October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Save up to $900 on your pass, or bring someone brilliant with you for 90% off their ticket. This deal ends tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. Grab your Early Bird discount […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ZK7sIa8

The newly signed Take It Down Act makes it illegal to publish nonconsensual explicit images – real or AI-generated – and gives platforms just 48 hours to comply with a victim’s takedown request or face liability. While widely praised as a long-overdue win for victims, experts warn its vague language, lax standards for verifying claims, and tight compliance window could pave the way for overreach, censorship of legitimate content, and even surveillance.  from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yVuKI7Y

Kesha may have taken the dollar sign out of her name, but now, the singer is thinking about money again — not for herself, but to fund the seed round of her new startup, Smash. According to Kesha’s Instagram post, Smash will be a “community-based platform to connect and protect music creators,” which aligns with […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/BIsPK3k

OpenAI is updating the AI model powering Operator, its AI agent that can autonomously browse the web and use certain software within a cloud-hosted virtual machine to fulfill users’ requests. Soon, Operator will use a model based on o3, one of the latest in OpenAI’s o series of “reasoning” models. Previously, Operator relied on a custom […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tGdmza8

With Starter Sets, Surf is simplifying the process of building those custom feeds, personalizing them, and even publishing them off-platform, if you choose. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/HamSs7p

LM Arena, a crowdsourced benchmarking project that major AI labs rely on to test and market their AI models, has raised $100 million in a seed funding round that values the organization at $600 million, according to Bloomberg. Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and UC Investments, which manages an investment portfolio for the University of California, led the […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/JyQ8S0K

Sen. Ron Wyden said in a letter that one U.S. phone carrier turned over Senate data to law enforcement without notifying the target. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/z0kLa6j

Famed Apple product designer Jony Ive will now lead creative and design work at OpenAI, the result on an unusual deal announced on Wednesday. OpenAI is acquiring io, the device startup that CEO Sam Altman and Ive have quietly been working on for two years, in a deal that values that startup at $6.5 billion, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/b1EtdJz

Google announced at Google I/O 2025 that it is making the AI model that powers its experimental music production app, MusicFX DJ, available via an API. The model, Lyria RealTime, is now in Google’s Gemini API and AI Studio platform. It can mix musical genres, change instruments, and alter the mood of AI-generated music, giving […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/rZX1L5T

With the current economic uncertainties and geopolitical challenges, securing funding for startups in Asia has recently become more difficult. Venture capital firms have also been impacted by the downturn, leading to a decrease in the number of funds being closed. The VC market is “going through [one of its] cyclical winters marked by high interest […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/uJdBGHD

The new deal covers solar and storage projects being developed in South Carolina by EnergyRe. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/DyRNVEI

Uber is entering India’s growing B2B logistics market by extending its partnership with the Indian government-backed nonprofit that aims to break the domination of the e-commerce duo Amazon and Walmart-backed Flipkart and widen digital commerce in the South Asian nation. On Monday, the ride-hailing giant announced it will soon launch its B2B logistics service through […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sQ1I5uO

VUZ, a startup known for offering immersive video experiences from red carpets and football stadiums, has raised $12 million as it doubles down on its presence in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as accelerates expansion into Africa, Asia, and the United States. The pre-Series C funding round, led by the International […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2bLMNnV

Cryptocurrency executives and other investors with significant wealth from crypto holdings are getting more serious about personal security, according to stories this weekend in both the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg. While cryptocurrencies have always created unique security risks, it seems there’s a rising threat of violent abduction due to the growing value of Bitcoin, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/lRfOdDC

Grok, the AI-powered chatbot created by xAI and widely deployed across its new corporate sibling X, wasn’t just obsessed with white genocide this week. As first noted in Rolling Stone, Grok also answered a question on Thursday about the number of Jews killed by the Nazis in World War II by saying that “historical records, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sdSQXP2

The Trump administration and congressional officials are scrutinizing a deal between Apple and Alibaba that would bring Alibaba-powered AI features to iPhones sold in China, according to The New York Times. Citing anonymous sources, the NYT says White House officials and members of the House Select Committee on China have asked Apple executives directly about […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ZavrmXn

While Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says he likes podcasts, he might not actually be listening to them anymore. That tidbit comes towards the end of a longer Bloomberg profile of Nadella, with a focus on Microsoft’s AI strategy and its complicated relationship with OpenAI. To illustrate how much he uses the company’s Copilot AI assistant […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/PDmq0E1

The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Ignition Facility increased the yield of the experiment in recent attempts. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/P1TBlWr

AI startup Cohere has acquired Ottogrid, a Vancouver-based platform that develops enterprise tools for automating certain kinds of high-level market research. Sully Omar, one of the founders of Ottogrid, announced the deal Friday in a post on X. He didn’t disclose the terms. Ottogrid will sunset its product, according to Omar, but will give customers […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/plLPHTg

Electric boat startup Arc has a new model that is its cheapest and most approachable watercraft yet. The new boat is called the Arc Coast, and it will start at $168,000. The company is taking preorders now and says the Coast will ship in 2026. The Coast is what’s known as a “center console” boat, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/F7YowZt

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! OK, who placed their bet on General Motors being the landing spot for Aurora co-founder and chief product officer Sterling Anderson? Not me. But here we are. […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/PpNhenX

Lucid Motors set a company record for deliveries in the first quarter of 2025, shipping 3,109 EVs to customers in North America, Europe, and Saudi Arabia. It appears that a new company car program and sales to rental fleets helped it get there.  According to a footnote in Lucid Motors’ latest regulatory filing, it sold […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Uhyrp2c

Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Startup news this week was fairly routine — in a good way: Aside from a minor kerfuffle between Y Combinator and Google, there was no headline-grabbing drama. […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/0hPTKBv

OpenAI is releasing its GPT-4.1 and GPT-4.1 mini AI models in ChatGPT, the company announced in a post on X Wednesday. The GPT-4.1 models should help software engineers who are using ChatGPT to write or debug code, OpenAI spokesperson Shaokyi Amdo told TechCrunch. GPT-4.1 excels at coding and instruction following compared to GPT-4o, according to […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Q73E25U

TS Anil, Monzo’s CEO, discusses the company’s innovative approach to customer-centric banking, the strategic decisions that fueled its growth, and insights into the future of digital finance. He shares how he led the digital bank through a remarkable transformation, from early challenges to achieving its first annual profit in 2024. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/M80yRqf

Amazon says it will work with Humain, the AI company recently launched by Saudi Arabia’s ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, to invest “$5 billion-plus” in a strategic partnership to build an “AI Zone” in Saudi Arabia. The AI Zone will include dedicated Amazon Web Services (AWS) AI infrastructure, servers, networks, and training and certification programs, according […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/1U6g20Z

TikTok is launching its first image-to-video AI feature, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feature is called “TikTok AI Alive” and allows users to turn static photos into videos within TikTok Stories. The feature is only accessible via TikTok’s Story Camera and uses AI to create short-form videos with “movement, atmospheric and creative effects,” […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/OJvMoZh

Apple on Monday released iOS 18.5, which expands emergency satellite capabilities to iPhone 13 owners for the first time. Previously, the satellite features were available to those running an iPhone 14 or later. The emergency satellite system for iPhone is designed to be used at critical times when a cellular signal or Wi-Fi is not […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/JN4RDet

Mercury co-founder and CEO Immad Akhund today announced the launch of a $26 million fund to back early-stage startups, a move that formalizes his extensive history of angel investing. Axios first reported this in February. Akhund has been an active angel investor since 2016, backing over 350 startups at their earliest stages. His portfolio includes […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sx6e3CR

Apple is planning to increase the prices of its iPhone lineup set to launch this autumn, though it is trying not to make it seem as if the hikes are connected to the U.S.’ tariffs on imports from China, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing anonymous sources. The company is considering instead linking the price […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/P6whLsx

U.S. tech stocks, along with the broader stock markets, seemed ready to start the day with a high, as the United States and China on Monday agreed to temporarily cut reciprocal tariffs for 90 days. Per the deal, reached in Geneva, the U.S. would temporarily shelve the 145% reciprocal tariff on goods imported from China, […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QERBoXH

23andMe, the genetic testing giant once valued in the billions, is now navigating Chapter 11 bankruptcy and notifying millions of current and former customers that they may be eligible to file claims as part of the restructuring process. The company and 11 of its subsidiaries, including Lemonaid Health and LPRXOne, filed for bankruptcy protection on […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/YKAi6Iu

President Donald Trump has fired Shira Perlmutter, who leads the U.S. Copyright Office. The firing was reported by CBS News and Politico, and seemingly confirmed by a statement from Representative Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the Committee for House Administration. “Donald Trump’s termination of Register of Copyrights, Shira Perlmutter, is a brazen, unprecedented power […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/VXlL0q4

Much of the world isn’t paying close attention to Greece right now. That may be a mistake. Best known for its stunning islands, sun-soaked cities, and deep historical roots, Greece has been quietly laying the foundation for something less expected — a modern, resilient tech economy. While the international spotlight often misses it, something real […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/kO4vaoH

For decades, buying property in Egypt meant navigating a fragmented real estate market, relying on personal networks, dealing with commission-driven brokers, and facing developers more focused on selling than serving customer needs. In 2019, Mostafa El Beltagy, Abdel-Azim Osman, Ahmed Rafea, Mohamed Abou Ghanima, and Aly Rafea founded Nawy to bring transparency and efficiency to […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/iKPAmQr

Billy Evans, partner of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes, is working on a new startup that seeks to deliver “human health optimization” through blood testing, according to The New York Times. The Times reportedly spoke to two investors pitched on the startup, called Haemanthus, and also viewed some of Haemanthus’ marketing materials. In those materials, the […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Ym0AUGN

The Federal Trade Commission voted Friday to delay enforcement of the Negative Option Rule — known widely as the “click-to-cancel” rule requiring companies to make it as easy to cancel a subscription as it was to sign up. The rule, which was first proposed in 2023, took aim at businesses selling physical and digital subscriptions […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/GFvKwH1

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 […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/xT5KoCE

Meta has chosen Robert Fergus to lead its Fundamental AI Research (FAIR) lab, according to Bloomberg. Fergus had been working at Google DeepMind as a research director for roughly five years, per his LinkedIn. Prior to Google, he worked as a researcher scientist at Meta. Meta’s FAIR, which has been around since 2013, has faced […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/O21rEmY

Instagram Threads will begin testing video ads, Meta announced on Thursday. The test, which will make Threads look more like its competitor X, is an expansion of Threads’ advertising initiatives, which began last month with the opening up of ads to global advertisers. The news was announced at Meta’s presentation at the IAB NewFronts, where […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/pJe7VtG

Schools in Toronto and North Carolina are reporting extortion attempts. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qKurG2D

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Instagram head Adam Mosseri, and other Meta execs thought that TikTok was beating Meta at its own game. That’s according to a new filing in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust lawsuit against the tech giant, published on Monday. The document, dated February 2022, includes conversations among a number of Meta […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ShmNRJ4

OpenAI is launching a program, OpenAI for Countries, that the company says will enable it to build out the local infrastructure needed to better serve international AI customers. As a part of the new program, OpenAI will partner with governments to assist with efforts like building out data center capacity and customizing OpenAI’s products, including […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/MBT8PIR

Zoox, the autonomous vehicle company owned by Amazon, paused its driverless testing program for more than a week and issued a voluntary recall of its software following a crash in Las Vegas, according to the company and a filing with federal safety regulators. The April 8 crash, which involved an unoccupied Zoox vehicle and a […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/0THjAKe

We’re ecstatic to announce that Kisson Lin, founder and CEO of Tanka, will be joining us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI for a provocative — and instructive — interview titled “Your Next Co-Founder Will Be AI.” She’s among the many excellent speakers joining the event June 5 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall, and there’s still plenty […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zlptMG9

FutureHouse, an Eric Schmidt-backed nonprofit that aims to build an “AI scientist” within the next decade, has released a new tool that it claims can help support “data-driven discovery” in biology. The new tool comes just a week after FutureHouse launched its API and platform. The tool, called Finch, takes in biology data (primarily in the […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/T7LbKOq

Hasan Sukkar, the founder of AI startup 11x, is stepping down from his role as CEO, Sukkar announced on LinkedIn this morning. Prabhav Jain, 11x’s CTO, has been named the company’s new CEO.  Sukkar will move into a “non-executive chairman” position, where he will work with Jain on “strategic direction, product vision, industry relationships, and […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yDmz2bV

More than 250 CEOs signed an open letter published in The New York Times on Monday calling for AI and computer science to be “core components” of K-12 curricula. The signatories, which include Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Etsy CEO Josh Silverman, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, argue that computer science and AI education are essential […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/HOjmvY2

While most African digital lenders depend on working capital to fuel growth, MoneyFellows has quietly done what few others have: lend billions of Egyptian pounds with almost no debt or balance sheet exposure. Now, after raising $13 million in a pre-Series C round led by Casablanca-based Al Mada Ventures and DPI’s Nclude Fund, the Cairo-based […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Nd87E2n

Duolingo announced plans this week to replace contractors with AI and become an “AI-first” company — a move that journalist Brian Merchant pointed to as a sign that the AI jobs crisis “is here, now.” In fact, Merchant spoke to a former Duolingo contractor who said this isn’t even a new policy. The company cut […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yWG5sQR

President Donald Trump has already delayed a TikTok ban twice, and he said Sunday that he’s willing to do it again. Axios reports that during an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Trump said that if a deal isn’t made to sell TikTok’s U.S. operations to American owners before the current June 19 deadline, he […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sft1VuW

While many tech companies are mandating that their employees return to their offices, and putting an emphasis on building in-person teams, they are also turning in droves to Latin America to find developer talent — especially for post-training AI models. Revelo, a full-stack platform of vetted developers in Latin America, is seeing a new surge in […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Lv3zXg1

Spotify generates the vast bulk of its income from ads and subscriptions, but for the past few years the music-streaming giant has also been quietly building out a developer tooling business. Backstage, a project it open-sourced in 2020, has been adopted by more than 2 million developers across 3,400 organizations, including Airbnb, LinkedIn, Twilio, and […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/B2WKZc5

Chinese retailer Temu has shifted strategy in the face of U.S. tariffs. Through executive order, President Donald Trump has ended the so-called de minimis rule, which allowed goods worth $800 or less to enter the country without tariffs. He’s also increasing tariffs on Chinese goods by more than 100%, forcing both Chinese companies like Shein […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/CwvJ0fp

Legendary investor Warren Buffett announced today that he will ask the Berkshire Hathaway board to have Greg Abel replace him as CEO at the end of 2025. “I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett said at the end of the company’s […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/JIZKMl2

Apple and Anthropic are teaming up to build a “vibe-coding” software platform that will use generative AI to write, edit, and test code for programmers, Bloomberg reported on Friday. The iPhone maker is planning to roll out the software internally, according to Bloomberg, but hasn’t decided if it will launch it publicly. The system is […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/PRaXb13

The app claims it uses end-to-end encryption, but spilled its users' dating preferences and granular location data to the open web. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/sKQ9OgH

FutureHouse, an Eric Schmidt-backed nonprofit that aims to build an “AI scientist” within the next decade, has launched its first major product: a platform and API with AI-powered tools designed to support scientific work. Many, many startups are racing to develop AI research tools for the scientific domain, some with massive amounts of VC funding […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/nmlsC9d

Bench, the accounting and tax startup that was bought in a fire sale last December, has conducted a round of significant layoffs, it confirmed to TechCrunch. Bench didn’t specify how many people were affected, but one person who works there estimated that Bench was eliminating dozens of positions – that’s a big chunk of the […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/6Ctb3JF

Nvidia clearly doesn’t agree with Anthropic’s support for export controls on U.S.-made AI chips. On Wednesday, Anthropic doubled down on its support for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s “Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion,” which would impose sweeping AI chip export restrictions starting May 15. The next day, Nvidia responded with a very different take on […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/aotd98V