Reporting on the business of technology, startups, venture capital funding, and Silicon Valley.
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Key Highlights
Elon Musk's xAI is undergoing a major personnel overhaul, with only two of 11 co-founders remaining, as it struggles to compete with rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic in AI coding tools, seen as key for revenue. 1 post
Lawyer Jay Edelson warns of rising AI-induced mass casualty risks, citing cases where chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini allegedly validated violent delusions, with weak safety guardrails enabling attack planning. 1 post
Digg lays off staff and shuts down its app due to overwhelming bot spam, highlighting broader internet challenges with AI agents and automated accounts undermining content authenticity. 1 post
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Latest posts
Uber to put 500 data-collection vehicles on the road this year
Uber revealed on Wednesday a prototype car that it plans to use to scoop up real-world driving data for its growing roster of autonomous vehicle partners, including Avride, Waymo, and WeRide. The vehicle is not some radical design. Rather, it’s a Hyundai Ioniq 5 fitted with an incredible number of s
Alphabet’s record-breaking $85B raise for Google’s AI business is a helluva good signal
If Alphabet’s record-breaking $85 billion stock sale signals investor appetite for AI-related offerings — and it does — we can safely say that investors are voracious. Google’s parent company had initially intended to sell a first tranche of $40 billion worth of various equity instruments — two diff
Meta mercifully spun out VR fitness game Supernatural instead of just killing it
Meta’s attempt to pioneer a metaverse and make VR cool totally flopped, except for one shining diamond in the rough: Supernatural, a VR fitness game that made working out feel fun and accessible. Now, users can rejoice that Supernatural isn’t shutting down after all. Meta went through the hassle of
Substack’s new ‘Reply Rules’ feature lets creators control how people respond
Substack announced on Wednesday a new feature called “Reply Rules,” designed to give creators greater control over how their audiences are able to respond. With the feature, creators can establish specific guidelines for comments on their posts, in Notes, or in Chat. These guidelines might include
Google’s Dreambeans, its weirdest-named AI tool to date, will turn your life into a cartoon
Google Labs, the tech giant’s team devoted to experimental product design, has launched a new AI-fueled app for iOS and Android that will quite literally animate your life. Behold, Dreambeans. Why is it called that? We’ll get to that later. First, what is it? Gozde Oznur, the product lead behind th
Ultrahuman says hackers accessed customers’ wellness data via internal tool
Wearable health tech startup Ultrahuman said hackers gained unauthorized access to customers’ wellness data after stealing an employee’s credentials through malware. On Wednesday, the India-based startup informed affected customers of the incident via email, stating that the breach occurred on March
Carvana ties up with Bezos-backed Slate Auto as it plans new car sales
Carvana has been granted the option to invest in Slate Auto, the electric vehicle startup backed by Jeff Bezos, according to documents obtained by TechCrunch. Paperwork filed with Delaware’s division of corporations shows that the online used car retailer was given a warrant to buy shares in the sta
Instagram is alerting users who were targeted by hackers during AI chatbot attacks
The widespread hacking campaign that relied on simply asking Meta AI’s chatbot to take over a victim’s Instagram account appears to have continued even after the company said the issue had been resolved. Meanwhile, the company has been scrambling to secure the targeted accounts and alert victims. O
Amazon will show AI product images when you search for some reason
In what may be one of the more questionable uses of AI to date, Amazon announced on Wednesday that it will display AI-generated images of products within its shopping app based on users’ search queries. That’s right — a retailer where people shop for real-world products thinks that displaying fake p
Still facing copyright lawsuits, AI music generator Suno raises another $400M
Suno, the AI music-generation company, announced on Wednesday that it has raised a $400 million Series D round, valuing the company at $5.4 billion. It was only about seven months ago that Suno raised at a $2.45 billion valuation, underscoring that investors are confident in the company’s future des
These two founders left Goldman and Meta to build voice AI for markets everyone else overlooked
Customer support and service are among the hottest sectors in voice AI right now. But building a product that sounds human and responds without noticeable delay turns out to be much harder in some markets than others — and most of the major players weren’t built with Africa and the Middle East in mi
GitLab cuts 14% of staff as it scales its platform to serve AI workloads
Developer platform GitLab has laid off about 14% of its workforce, about 350 employees, as part of a broader restructuring effort it detailed last month. The company said in May that it was going to reduce its workforce as it exited 22 countries, flattened management layers, and invested in infrastr
Publishers will be able to opt out of AI Search, thanks to new regulation
The U.K. has just imposed legal guardrails on Google’s AI search onslaught. On Wednesday, Google announced compliance with the U.K.’s regulatory requirements, which state that the tech giant must offer publishers a way to opt out of being aggregated into AI search. To opt out, publishers will be abl
TikTok launches TikTok Pro Events, an app for cultural moments like the FIFA World Cup
TikTok announced on Wednesday that it’s launching a new stand-alone app in the U.S. dedicated to cultural milestones like the upcoming FIFA World Cup. The new app, called TikTok Pro Events, allows users to engage with other fans, explore trending videos, and access curated creator feeds. Users aged
The worst hacks and breaches of 2026 (so far)
If we look back at the year of 2026 so far, it might be easy to see cybersecurity falling by the wayside, as much of the world’s attention remains on wars raging, the climate worsening, and we’re seemingly just one dodgy sneeze away from the next global pandemic. But cybersecurity remains a powerful
Meet Wander, a StumbleUpon-inspired tool for discovering the ‘small web’
As search becomes increasingly dominated by AI summaries and commercial content, people are experimenting and coming up with ways to make the web feel more human like it used to, building everything from “small web” search engines to decentralized social networks. One of the newer efforts in that d
Meta’s AI agent for WhatsApp Business is now available globally
For years, WhatsApp has been a communication layer for businesses of all sizes around the world. Meta is now infusing AI into that layer in a bid to turn WhatsApp into a viable piece of workflow software for small and medium businesses. The company on Wednesday said it is making its customer suppor
Coralogix raises $200M on bet that someone needs to watch the AI agents
Coralogix, a Boston-headquartered software monitoring startup founded in Israel, has raised $200 million in a new funding round, betting that the rise of AI agents will drive demand for a new generation of tools to monitor, troubleshoot, and manage increasingly autonomous software systems. The Serie
Plex adds new social features ahead of a major price hike for its lifetime pass
Plex has come a long way from being just a personal media server. Over the past few years, it has transformed into a streaming hub, today featuring ad-supported content and movie rental options. Now, the company is setting its sights on competing with social networking platforms like Reddit and Lett
The world’s largest privately owned laser just turned on
Fusion startup Xcimer Energy on Wednesday flipped the switch on its Phoenix laser system, which the company says is the largest privately owned example in the world. Xcimer’s approach to fusion power is modeled after the National Ignition Facility (NIF), which proved in December 2022 that a controll
Squishmallows, dentures, and an ‘I Heart Hot Dads’ bag: Uber has found thousands of items left in robotaxis
For the past 10 years, Uber’s annual Lost & Found Index has provided a rather quirky anthropological snapshot of its riders — and even a few insights into society. The annual catalogue of millions of forgotten items ranges from mundane modern-day tools such as smartphones and laptops, to more eyebro
Cyera eyes $12B valuation at 80x ARR multiple despite operating losses
Data storage security company Cyera is finalizing a round led by Evolution Equity Partners of at least $300 million at a $12 billion valuation, according to four people with knowledge of the deal. Calcalist was first to report the funding deal, although TechCrunch’s sources added new details about t
Cyberdecks are having a moment, rejecting big tech surveillance with style and substance
When I reach out to the self-proclaimed “open source baddie” CC for an interview, I’m pretty sure she’s emailing me back from a pink mermaid purse. “I’m just having so much fun,” she tells me about her seashell cyberdeck. “It’s a Tamagotchi. It’s also an e-reader. It’s networked to my vault and my s
Uber caps employee AI spending after blowing through budget in 4 months
AI is getting expensive, and some companies are cutting back on usage in an attempt to moderate costs. That cohort includes Uber, which recently instituted internal usage caps as a way to cut down on its exorbitant AI spend. Bloomberg reports that the company has instituted a new rule that places a
New Microsoft tool lets devs spin up AI behavior tests using text descriptions
AI researchers and labs have advanced by leaps and bounds in evaluating AI models for everything from safety and compliance to sycophancy and alignment. But it appears companies and developers are faced with a new, specific need: making sure their AI system behaves as intended for their specific pro