Posts

Showing posts from March, 2026

Caller ID app Truecaller hits 500 million monthly users

Truecaller now has more than 4 million paying users across the world. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/UFTNnCk

Alexa+ gets new food ordering experiences with Uber Eats and Grubhub

You can now order from Uber Eats and Grubhub using Alexa+, an experience Amazon says will be similar to chatting with a waiter at a restaurant or placing an order at a drive-thru. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9BPw7nS

What we’re looking for in Startup Battlefield 2026 and how to put your best application forward

Here's what we're looking for in your Startup Battlefield 200 application and how to make sure your application reflects it. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/2k4WFEb

Bluesky’s new AI tool Attie is already the most blocked account other than J.D. Vance

More than 125,000 Bluesky users have blocked Attie in just a few days, sending a strong message from the user base. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/frQGca4

Why OpenAI really shut down Sora

OpenAI's decision last week to shut down Sora, its AI video-generation tool, just six months after releasing it to the public raised immediate suspicions. The app had invited users to upload their own faces — so was this some kind of elaborate data grab? from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/mbPOWXz

YouTube CEO says the best YouTubers will ‘never leave their home’

CEO Neal Mohan insisted that he isn’t worried about Netflix luring away YouTube's most popular creators. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vIeB0Ja

‘Project Hail Mary’ becomes Amazon MGM’s biggest box office hit

Amazon’s bet on “Project Hail Mary” has paid off handsomely. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/tcL7gPO

SXSW rebounds as a top networking, ideas festival for founders and VCs

SXSW made some changes this year, but some founders loved it all the same. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/O0PWyv9

Bluesky leans into AI with Attie, an app for building custom feeds

Bluesky’s new app Attie uses AI to help people build custom feeds the open social networking protocol atproto. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Lbp7XTk

Stanford study outlines dangers of asking AI chatbots for personal advice

While there’s been plenty of debate about AI sycophancy, a new study by Stanford computer scientists attempts to measure how harmful that tendency might be. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/SQkWsrD

Why SoftBank’s new $40B loan points to a 2026 OpenAI IPO

Wall Street giants JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are extending a 12-month, unsecured loan to the Japanese conglomerate. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3Ledr19

Waymo’s skyrocketing ridership in one chart

Waymo's weekly paid robotaxi trips have increased tenfold in less than two years. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/nalXkQL

European Commission confirms cyberattack after hackers claim data breach 

The European Union's top executive body has confirmed a cyberattack after hackers reportedly stole reams of data from the European Commission's cloud storage. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/vrgCpnk

OpenAI abandons yet another side quest: ChatGPT’s erotic mode

It's only the latest of several side projects that the AI startup has ditched over the past week. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/nBCWPSA

Defense startup Shield AI lands $12.7B valuation, up 140%, after US Air Force deal

In one year, Shield AI's value has leaped 140%. This after it won a contract to be the software provider to Anduril's Fury fighter jet for the U.S. Air Force. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/YbgNM8i

Melania Trump wants a robot to homeschool your child

The First Lady sees AI and robotics playing a prominent role in the future of American education. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/mI1l6WX

Riding the GLP-1 boom, VITL lands $7.5M to overhaul cash-pay clinic prescribing

The startup provides an e-prescribing marketplace for the booming cash-pay clinic market. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/OW6LiBR

Meta is cutting several hundred jobs

The cuts will impact employees in the U.S. and other international markets. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7cqge5f

Talat’s AI meeting notes stay on your machine, not in the cloud

The subscription-free AI meeting notes app is a local-first twist on notetaking tools like Granola. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Curf0xw

BKR Capital raises $14.5M (so far) to invest in Black founders

BKR Capital announced Monday that its Fund II closed $20 million Canadian towards its $50 million target. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zBhGrNs

DoorDash introduces relief payments for drivers as the Iran-US war drives up gas prices

Gas is one of the largest expenses for delivery drivers. With prices continuing to surge, DoorDash is offering a lifeline to Dashers with a new relief program. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/NZXCaiw

Federal immigration agents filmed making airport arrests as Trump calls in ICE to ease security line delays

The Trump administration has deployed ICE agents to over a dozen U.S. airports amid an ongoing federal shutdown that's causing long wait times. Eyewitnesses have already recorded at least one arrest in San Francisco's airport. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/S3MinVN

Do you want to build a robot snowman?

On the latest episode of the Equity podcast, we recapped CEO Jensen Huang’s GTC keynote and debated what it means for Nvidia’s future. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/EchgTyX

Cursor admits its new coding model was built on top of Moonshot AI’s Kimi

Building on top of a Chinese model feels particularly fraught right now. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/af9ILhF

An exclusive tour of Amazon’s Trainium lab, the chip that’s won over Anthropic, OpenAI, even Apple 

Shortly after Amazon announced its $50 billion investment in OpenAI, AWS invited me on a private tour of the chip lab at the heart of the deal. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/XcQO0Ng

Are AI tokens the new signing bonus or just a cost of doing business?

Maybe tokens really will become the fourth pillar of engineering compensation. But engineers might want to hold the line before embracing this as a straightforward win. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/MuhHASO

It’s been 20 years since the first tweet

On March 21, 2006, Jack Dorsey posted a simple message: “just setting up my twittr”. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/ErnY7mB

Publisher pulls horror novel ‘Shy Girl’ over AI concerns

Hachette Book Group said it will not be publishing “Shy Girl” over concerns that artificial intelligence was used to generate the text. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/8T5rebR

What happened at Nvidia GTC: NemoClaw, Robot Olaf, and a $1 trillion bet

CEO Jensen Huang took the stage at Nvidia’s GTC conference this week in his signature leather jacket to deliver a two-and-a-half-hour keynote, projecting $1 trillion in AI chip sales through 2027, declaring that every company needs an “OpenClaw strategy,” and closing with a rambling Olaf robot that had to get its mic cut. The message was hard to miss: Nvidia […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/TIci9RL

Pinterest CEO calls on governments to ban social media for users under 16

Pinterest’s chief compares social media to tobacco and alcohol, saying children need similar protections. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/prCdiWD

Why scientists can’t get a laugh

Humor is hard to pull off in front of a cold audience, full stop. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/U3Tjcog

Polymarket continues its partnership spree with a Major League Baseball deal

MLB is only the latest in a string of recently announced partnerships involving the prediction market. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/jL0rMU5

Bluesky announces $100M Series B after CEO transition

The additional funds have been used to scale Bluesky's team, while the company continues to develop Bluesky's app and the underlying ATProto that powers it. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/bt6fZCQ

Geothermal startup Fervo catapults itself over the ‘valley of death’

Fervo landed a large new loan with terms that strongly suggest the company's most turbulent days are behind it. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qJaoiXr

Nvidia is quietly building a multibillion-dollar behemoth to rival its chips business

Nvidia's networking business raked in $11 billion last quarter despite getting significantly less fanfare than chips and gaming. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/7n1ofNa

Patreon CEO calls AI companies’ fair use argument ‘bogus,’ says creators should be paid

Patreon CEO Jack Conte says AI companies should pay creators for training data, arguing their fair use defense falls apart when they license content from major publishers. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/lUuBO5v

Why Garry Tan’s Claude Code setup has gotten so much love, and hate

Thousands of people are trying Garry Tan's Claude Code setup, which was shared on Github. And everyone has an opinion: even Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zYDJHTU

Kagi brings its ‘small web’ of a human-only internet to mobile devices

Kagi's "Small Web" offers a handpicked collection of more than 30,000 non-commercial, human-authored websites, including personal blogs, webcomics, and independent videos. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/O4ABLX5

The Pentagon is developing alternatives to Anthropic, report says

After their dramatic falling-out, it doesn't seem as though Anthropic and the Pentagon are getting back together. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/c2sgrm5

Nvidia’s DLSS 5 uses generative AI to boost photorealism in video games, with ambitions beyond gaming

Nvidia’s new DLSS 5 uses generative AI and structured graphics data to make video games more realistic. CEO Jensen Huang says the approach could eventually spread to other industries. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/i0FCeQr

Another deep tech chip startup becomes a unicorn: Frore hits $1.64B

At Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang's urging, Frore developed liquid-cooling tech for chips. That shift helped it just raise $143 million. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/SIjvPM7

Fuse raises $25M to disrupt aging loan origination systems used by U.S. credit unions

The startup also announced a $5M 'rescue fund' to help credit unions ditch legacy software for its AI-native platform. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zdiByuK

The dictionary sues OpenAI

Encyclopedia Britannica and Merriam-Webster say that OpenAI violated the copyright of almost 100,000 articles by using them for LLM training. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/SvwFGCJ

The billionaires made a promise — now some want out

In 2010, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates launched a disarmingly simple campaign they called the Giving Pledge: a public commitment, open to the world’s wealthiest people, to give away more than half their fortune during their lifetime or upon their death. The moment seemed to call for it. Tech was minting billionaires faster than any […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/f3vcbgk

Netflix’s ‘Frankenstein’ wins three Oscars, ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ wins two

“Frankenstein” won for Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, and Best Makeup and Hairstyling, while “KPop Demon Hunters” won for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/n17vHlC

Google, Accel India accelerator choses 5 startups and none are ‘AI wrappers’

Google and Accel say about 70% of AI startup pitches tied to India were "wrappers" as they reviewed more than 4,000 applications for their Atoms cohort. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zKMycld

ByteDance reportedly pauses global launch of its Seedance 2.0 video generator

The company is reportedly delaying the launch as its engineers and lawyers work to avert further legal issues. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/dRpEkf7

Wiz investor unpacks Google’s $32B acquisition

Shardul Shah of Index Ventures walks us through Google's biggest acquisition ever. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/yOdE5rp

Rivian’s RJ Scaringe thinks we’re doing robots all wrong

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe shares his thoughts and plans for his newest startup, Mind Robotics. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zYH6NUV

US Army announces contract with Anduril worth up to $20B

The Army described this as a single enterprise contract consolidating more than 120 separate "procurement actions." from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/QMdFfTS

Facebook makes it easier for creators to report impersonators

Facebook is making it easier for creators to report impersonators while tightening rules around reposts and other unoriginal content. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/MZ6Bdjp

Steven Spielberg says he’s ‘never used AI’ in any of his films

At SXSW, Steven Spielberg said AI has uses in many fields, but not when it comes to replacing creative people in film and TV writing. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/EYrdQpL

Travis Kalanick launches a new company called Atoms focused on robotics

Kalanick's existing ghost kitchen company CloudKitchens will be rolled into Atoms, which also wants to get into mining and transport. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/oLah8Ce

Why Rivian is holding the $45,000 base model R2 until ‘late 2027’

Rivian spent the last two years promoting the R2 as a $45,000 SUV. But buyers won't be able to pay that price until late next year -- if at all. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/KXePAYg

Tinder tries to lure people back to online dating with IRL events, virtual speed dating

Tinder just got a major revamp as it attempts to re-engange its user base and attract younger daters. This includes in-person events, AI enhancements, and even virtual speed dating. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/foOMVrc

Poppi founder on TikTok, Super Bowl ads, and her return to Shark Tank

For years, venture capitalists have been skeptical of beverage startups, citing thin margins and brutal distribution as reasons most brands never break out. But a new wave of “functional soda” companies has been challenging that assumption, including Poppi, the prebiotic soda brand that grew from a kitchen experiment into a $1.95 billion acquisition by PepsiCo.  On this episode of […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/wk7UdQi

AI-powered apps can make money, but struggle with long-term retention, new data shows

AI can drive stronger early monetization for apps, but sustaining value remains the challenge, RevenueCat's latest report finds. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Fmsip3B

ChatGPT can now create interactive visuals to help you understand math and science concepts

On Tuesday, OpenAI introduced dynamic visual explanations, a new ChatGPT feature that allows users to see how formulas, variables, and mathematical relationships change in real time.  Instead of just reading an explanation or looking at a static diagram, users can now interact directly with interactive visuals. For example, when exploring the Pythagorean theorem, you can […] from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Pn08RhD

It looks like the DOJ isn’t going to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster

The DOJ and Live Nation agreed to a tentative settlement, but dozens of State Attorneys General don't want to drop the lawsuit. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/T4lqvaR

OpenAI acquires Promptfoo to secure its AI agents

This deal underscores how frontier labs are scrambling to prove their technology can be used safely in critical business operations. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/nMAj5Kd

Flipkart moves its headquarters back to India ahead of IPO

Flipkart's headquarters shift comes as the Walmart-backed e-commerce giant reaches about $30 billion in GMV. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/B2WTJ7b

Ring’s Jamie Siminoff has been trying to calm privacy fears since the Super Bowl, but his answers may not help

The facial recognition question is where things get more tangled. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3LhVUfH

Palmer Luckey’s retro gaming startup ModRetro reportedly seeks funding at $1B valuation

The company launched its first product, a Game Boy-style handheld device called the Chromatic, in 2024. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/rNIPODc

Will the Pentagon’s Anthropic controversy scare startups away from defense work?

On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, we discussed what the controversy means for other startups seeking to work with the federal government. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/9iCUZ8m

Google just gave Sundar Pichai a $692M pay package

Most of it is tied to performance, including new stock incentives linked to Waymo and Wing, its drone delivery venture. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/pRAYkSj

Grammarly’s ‘expert review’ is just missing the actual experts

A recently-added feature in Grammarly purports to improve users’ writing with help from the world's great writers and thinkers — and some tech journalists, too. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Pa2K8uW

OpenAI robotics lead Caitlin Kalinowski quits in response to Pentagon deal

Hardware executive Caitlin Kalinowski announced today that in response to OpenAI's controversial agreement with the Department of Defense, she’s resigned from her role leading the company's robotics team. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/MVWwe6h

PopSockets founder David Barnett talks about building a viral business

David Barnett, founder of PopSocket, stops by Equity to talk about scaling the business and what he's learned as a leader. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/3uk5i1g

Anthropic’s Claude found 22 vulnerabilities in Firefox over two weeks

In a recent security partnership with Mozilla, Anthropic found 22 separate vulnerabilities in Firefox — 14 of them classified as "high-severity." from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/RqjJFnP

India PC shipments surpass pandemic peak as first-time users upgrade

Pandemic-driven lockdowns exposed many people in India to PCs for the first time, expanding the country's PC userbase and creating demand for upgrades as those devices age. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/zFfUnaN

OpenAI launches GPT-5.4 with Pro and Thinking versions

GPT-5.4 is billed as "our most capable and efficient frontier model for professional work." from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Jz8nrsj

Google’s Gemini rolls out Canvas in AI Mode to all US users

Canvas in AI Mode is available to U.S. users in English for creating plans, projects, apps, and more. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/HBz5a1A

Decagon completes first tender offer at $4.5B valuation

The AI-powered customer support startup is the latest example of a fast-growing, young company that's providing employee liquidity. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/14MZ39T

Claude Code rolls out a voice mode capability

Anthropic is stepping up its game in the AI coding space with the rollout of Voice Mode in Claude Code. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/gVNhfR9

Android users can now share tracker tag info with airlines to help locate lost luggage

More than 10 global airlines now accept Find Hub locations as part of their baggage recovery process. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/xIOvpzQ

The new MacBook Pro laptops are up to $400 more expensive than their predecessors, thanks to the RAM shortage

With the demands for more computers and data centers to power AI, the market is experiencing a shortage of RAM, causing memory prices to surge. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/qj8CJWn

A new app alerts you if someone nearby is wearing smart glasses

A hobbyist developer's new app, which can detect nearby smart glasses, comes amid resistance to always-on recording and listening devices that invade people's privacy. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Dvu8Ktl

Instagram tracked growing usage while targeting teens, lawyers argue

The company said usage grew from 40 minutes per day in 2023 to 46 minutes in 2026. Other documents referenced back teens a top priority for the app before asking existing users for birthdays. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/uMxtvSp

Paramount+ and HBO Max to merge into one streaming service after WBD deal closes

If the Warner Bros. Discovery deal were to close, Paramount CEO David Ellison revealed that Paramount+ and HBO Max would combine into one platform. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/K9xjFTn

Parade’s Cami Tellez announces new creator economy marketing platform, $4M in funding

Cami Tellez announces launch of new company, $4 million raise. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/Os7LoNK

Anthropic’s Claude reports widespread outage

Anthropic's AI chatbot Claude experienced widespread service disruptions on Monday morning, with thousands of users reporting issues accessing the bot. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/S8REuVC

Let’s explore the best alternatives to Discord

With many users feeling uneasy about Discord's new age verification requirement, here are some alternatives that could be worth exploring. from TechCrunch https://ift.tt/jYzOXa9