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
Main Topics (3)
Latest posts
Already rich, already successful, why the last wave of tech winners is grinding again
A pattern is emerging among people who’ve already made it big. They’re rolling up their sleeves again, seemingly out of fear of missing AI’s defining moment and, presumably, the irresistible allure of making even more money — potentially a lot more. Tom Blomfield, who co-founded GoCardless and Monzo
Uber’s product chief on hotels, robotaxis, and why the company doesn’t want to be “everything for everyone”
Uber has spent the last year quietly pushing beyond the two businesses most people associate it with. There’s ride-hailing, of course, and delivery, but spend time in the app and you’ll now find hotel bookings powered by Expedia, “shop for me” concierge features, and boat rentals in Europe. Under th
Video-generation startup PixVerse raises $439M, valuation soars past $2B
Singapore-based video-generation startup PixVerse said today that it has closed its Series C extension, with a total of $439 million raised in the round. The company told TechCrunch that, with the new tranche of funding, its valuation has crossed over $2 billion. With the cash, the company aims to e
X just tweaked its algorithm to make it more friendly, less battleground
X has made a “tweak” to its algorithm to boost the visibility of posts to users’ “mutuals” — the people they follow who follow them back, head of product, Nikita Bier, said Monday. “We noticed this data was missing from the algo and it made your friends appear less in your replies. This resulted in
Hermes agent maker Nous Research in talks for new funding at $1.5B valuation
Nous Research, the startup behind the open-source Hermes agent, is finalizing a new round of funding led by Robot Ventures, with significant participation from USV and other prominent investors at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to three sources with knowledge of the deal. The company is raising
Satya Nadella has issued a shocking warning to companies using AI
Of all the debates raging about the potential downsides of AI, there is one worry causing the most hand-wringing among AI enthusiasts in Silicon Valley. Their fear is that the giant AI labs that sell proprietary models are somehow acting like Trojan horses. The concern is that, as startups and enter
Apple says former employee exploited ‘rare’ bug to download confidential files after leaving for OpenAI
On Friday, Apple dropped the bombshell news it was suing OpenAI over the alleged theft of trade secrets, claiming that OpenAI stole Apple’s confidential data and engaged in efforts to learn proprietary information while recruiting former Apple employees. In accusing OpenAI of stealing secrets about
The wildest allegations in Apple’s trade secrets lawsuit against OpenAI
Apple’s trade secret lawsuit against OpenAI is packed with a number of extraordinary allegations that paint a picture of a coordinated effort to extract confidential information from current and former Apple employees. But what’s perhaps most striking is how casually the alleged misconduct is descri
Sam Altman’s space data center trash talk is what most experts already believe
Sam Altman and Elon Musk traded barbed social media posts over the weekend, drawing new attention to the gap between vision and reality for the space-compute business. Responding to Musk accusing him of being a scammer, Altman said, “homeboy you’re the one sellling [sic] public market investors on s
Investors send General Fusion soaring in debut as first publicly traded fusion company
General Fusion began trading on the Nasdaq today under the ticker GFUZ, becoming the first publicly listed fusion power company, beating competitor and Trump-backed TAE Technologies by several months. And investors seemed to want in. The stock rallied as trading began Monday and is now up 40% from
12 states sue to block Paramount’s $110B Warner Bros. deal
A coalition of 12 state attorneys general is filing a lawsuit to block the merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), alleging that the deal would harm movie theaters, basic cable distributors, and audiences. The coalition, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, argues tha
Should AI help you get away with killing your spouse?
Quick question: Do you want AI to be so well trained, it could help husbands (or wives, for that matter) plan the perfect murder of their spouses? Just as a gut reaction, that feels like a no for me. I wouldn’t even think it was a particularly hard question. But America contains many diverse perspe
As TV-tracking app TV Time shuts down, its founder builds Bingers, a new home for fans
TV Time, the popular TV and movie-tracking app whose pending shutdown has prompted more than 25,000 users to petition against its closure, is getting a reboot of sorts. One of the app’s original founders, Antonio Pinto, says he’s creating a new TV show tracking app, Bingers, which will attempt to re
Anthropic starts localizing Claude pricing for India, its biggest market after the US
Anthropic has started localizing Claude’s pricing in India, its biggest market outside the U.S., as global AI companies increasingly tailor their offerings to win users in the world’s most populous nation. Local pricing has begun to appear for some users in India on Claude’s website and mobile apps.
SpaceX cleared to fly Starship again after booster failure in May
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has cleared SpaceX to fly Starship prototypes again, after the company identified the probable cause of the failure of the rocket system’s booster stage during a flight in May. SpaceX said over the weekend that the next flight of Starship could happen as so
Waze adds new AI-powered features and customization updates
Waze, the Google-owned navigation app, is getting new AI-powered features and customization updates, including the ability to report road updates conversationally and get personalized navigation. Some of the new features are powered by Google’s Gemini AI assistant, which reflects the tech giant’s b
LAPD lets contract with surveillance giant Flock expire, citing ‘serious concerns’ over civil liberties and privacy
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is reportedly ending its deal with Flock Safety, a surveillance company that helps law enforcement track vehicles using thousands of its license plate cameras placed across the United States. A senior LAPD official told news outlets, first reported by ABC7 an
Uber’s robotaxi lobbying effort puts it on a collision course with Waymo
A proposed bill that would allow autonomous vehicles to operate in Washington, D.C. has become a test case for Uber’s broader robotaxi strategy. Instead of simply partnering with, and investing in, robotaxi developers, Uber is also trying to shape the rules that govern them, an effort that puts it i
TechCrunch Mobility: A robotaxi ultimatum
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, how AI is playing a part. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I am back from vacation. What did I miss? Turns out, quite a lot — including the end of
Reed Jobs would rather talk about curing cancer than his last name
Reed Jobs is easy to like. He’s motormouthed, self-deprecating, prone to video-game analogies, and clearly loves his work. He doesn’t particularly want to discuss the fact that he is Steve Jobs’ son, but he’s not uptight about it, either. When our producer, Maggie, asked if he was on a MacBook for o
This slushie machine was a lifesaver during NYC’s heat wave
Last weekend’s brutal NYC heat wave had me craving a frozen drink almost every afternoon. Normally, that would mean sweating through a walk to 7-Eleven for a Slurpee. This time, though, I stayed home and put the new Ninja Slushi Twist to the test. Ninja’s latest slushie machine builds on the popular
Smart glasses without a camera? Even Realities bets productivity beats recording everyone
In the past few years, multiple tech executives have told us that glasses could be the next big interface for consumer hardware. And yet, today’s smart glasses rely a lot on phones, even if they have good hardware. Even Realities’ G2 smart glasses are in the same boat. They’re a premium-looking pair
OpenAI bets on families as ChatGPT goes deeper into households
More than three years after ChatGPT’s launch brought generative AI into the mainstream, OpenAI is broadening its focus beyond individual users to families. OpenAI is hiring a dedicated product manager in San Francisco to build experiences for families, caregivers, and older adults across its product
US cybersecurity agency CISA had to build its incident playbook during the incident, agency reveals
U.S. federal cybersecurity agency CISA said it did not have a prepared response plan for how it should handle a cybersecurity incident in May, after an investigative reporter notified the agency that a contractor had publicly exposed sensitive keys and credentials for accessing U.S. government syste
Phia accused of ‘cookie stuffing,’ taking affiliate credit on purchases it didn’t earn
Phia, the shopping startup co-founded by Bill Gates’ daughter, Phoebe Gates, and Sophia Kianni, has been accused of a practice known as “cookie stuffing,” which may have helped the product receive commissions and credit for sales it did not actually generate, according to a Bloomberg investigation.