Ro CEO Zachariah Reitano says the benefits of being a private company are growing
Ro co-founder and CEO Zachariah Reitano said while he’d “never say never” about potentially taking the seven-year-old telehealth company public, he thinks the benefits of being a private company are growing. Reitano dodged multiple questions from Axios reporter Dan Primack about whether or not the company has plans to IPO in the near term — or in general — at Axios’s BFD event on October 22nd. “I might give an unsatisfying answer, but the truth is that right now, we...
37 minutes ago
Lending fintech SoLo Funds faces class action lawsuit
In Brief Posted: 1:13 PM PDT · October 22, 2024 SoLo Funds is facing a new class action lawsuit according to a copy seen by TechCrunch and first reported by Bloomberg. It accuses SoLo Funds of misleading consumers by advertising zero interest fees on loans yet encouraging “tip fees” and “donation fees” to obtain said loans. The complaint alleges these are hidden fees that the company makes hard to opt out of, making their loans more expensive than borrowers expected. ...
about 2 hours ago
Feds clear way for EVTOL startups to bring flying vehicles to U.S. airspace
Federal regulators have cleared the path for electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft to share U.S. airspace with planes and helicopters – a win for the burgeoning industry and a timely decision for startups like Joby Aviation and Archer Aviation that are expected to launch air taxi networks commercially in 2025. The Federal Aviation Administration published Tuesday its much-anticipated final ruling on the integration of “powered-lift” vehicles, a category the FAA revived two years ago to accommodate eVTOLs and one...
about 3 hours ago
Cement startup Furno lands $20M grant to build low-carbon micro-kilns in Chicago
Cement startup Furno will receive a $20 million grant from the Department of Energy, funds that will help the company build up to eight micro-kilns at a concrete plant in Chicago. Chicago might not seem like the sort of place where cement is hard to come by. But with the nearest kiln 100 miles away, concrete companies have to pay handsomely for the stuff to keep up with demand. Furno’s micro-kilns promise to reduce pollution and eliminate transportation costs. Furno’s...
about 3 hours ago
LinkedIn confirms the ‘follower purge’ was just a bug that’s now resolved
LinkedIn users on Tuesday began noticing a problem with their follower counts on the platform: They were dropping rapidly, and sometimes by many hundreds of users at once. With no official word at the time from LinkedIn, many began speculating that the situation was the result of LinkedIn purging fake accounts from the platform. Some even spoke with authority on the matter, claiming that the problem was due to a decision by the company to clean out fake, inactive, or...
about 4 hours ago
One Zero could be raising $100M
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week we’re looking at One Zero potentially raising $100 million, Apple Pay expanding support for loan options, and another way Stripe is making crypto a big priority for its business. If you’d like to receive the Fintech newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday, sign up here! The big story One Zero, a fintech startup with a lofty goal to “bring private banking to the masses,” is in the process of raising at least $100 million,...
about 4 hours ago
OpenAI hires its first chief economist
In Brief Posted: 10:38 AM PDT · October 22, 2024 OpenAI has hired its first chief economist: Aaron Chatterji, formerly the chief economist at the Commerce Department under President Joe Biden and a senior economist in President Barack Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers. Chatterji, who’s also a professor of business and public policy at Duke, will study AI’s economic impacts at OpenAI, leading research into how AI might influence economic growth and job prospects. “Our hope is that this work will...
about 5 hours ago
Farewell to Foursquare’s app
“I would be lying if I didn’t admit that I have been in a real funk these last few days over this news,” writes Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley, speaking about the company’s plan to sunset the Foursquare City Guides app later this year in favor of focusing on its check-in app Swarm. The move reverses Foursquare’s ambitious 2014 decision to split up its app into two different properties: one for exploration and discovery and the other, Swarm, for sharing your...
about 5 hours ago
SEC fines four companies $7M for ‘misleading cyber disclosures’ regarding SolarWinds hack
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced on Tuesday that it charged and imposed penalties on four companies for making misleading disclosures linked to the 2019 SolarWinds data breach. The four companies charged are cybersecurity firms Check Point, which will pay a civil penalty of $995,000; Mimecast, which will pay $990,000; and the tech companies Unisys, which will pay $4 million, and Avaya, which will pay $1 million. All of these companies were victims of the hack suffered by SolarWinds,...
about 6 hours ago
Researchers link Polyfill supply chain attack to huge network of copycat gambling sites
One of the biggest digital supply chain attacks of the year was launched by a little-known company that redirected large numbers of internet users to a network of copycat gambling sites, according to security researchers. Earlier this year, a company called FUNNULL purchased Polyfill.io, a domain hosting an open source JavaScript library that — if embedded in websites — can allow outdated browsers to run features found in newer browsers. Once in control of Polyfill.io, FUNNULL used the domain to...
about 6 hours ago
Thousands of creatives sign petition against AI data scraping
In Brief Posted: 8:49 AM PDT · October 22, 2024 What do the actor Kevin Bacon, the novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, the musician Robert Smith, and the journalist and historian Sidney Blumenthal have in common? They are among the 11,500 signatories of a petition against unlicensed use of creative works for AI training. “The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be...
about 7 hours ago
6 days to go: TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 kicks off and ticket prices go up
The clock is ticking down! Just 6 days to go until TechCrunch Disrupt 2024! Join 10,000 industry leaders from around the world at Moscone West in San Francisco from October 28-30 to witness groundbreaking discussions with top-tier industry experts, elite networking, an exciting showcase of the newest tech innovations, and so much more. Time is running out! These last 6 days are your chance to save up to $400 on tickets. Once Moscone West opens its doors, prices will jump...
about 7 hours ago
Artiphon’s new Orba instrument can sample sounds live
Almost exactly two years after releasing the Orba 2, Artiphon is completing the trilogy. The newly announced Orba 3 finds the Nashville-based startup baking live sampling into its clever handheld instrument. The feature arrives by way of a built-in microphone, which lets users record their voice, instruments, and other sounds. All of that can be accomplished on-device, meaning there’s no need for an external system to load sounds onto the instrument. Instead, you click the big, red Sample button on...
about 7 hours ago
The US AI Safety Institute stands on shaky ground
One of the only U.S. government offices dedicated to assessing AI safety is in danger of being dismantled if Congress doesn’t choose to authorize it. The U.S. AI Safety Institute (AISI), a federal government body that studies risks in AI systems, was created in November 2023 as a part of President Joe Biden’s AI Executive Order. The AISI operates within NIST, an agency of the Commerce Department that develops guidance for the deployment of various categories of technologies. But while...
about 7 hours ago
Anthropic’s new AI model can control your PC
In a pitch to investors last spring, Anthropic said it intended to build AI to power virtual assistants that could perform research, answer emails, and handle other back-office jobs on their own. The company referred to this as a “next-gen algorithm for AI self-teaching” — one it believed that could, if all goes according to plan, automate large portions of the economy someday. It took a while, but that AI is starting to arrive. Anthropic on Tuesday released an upgraded...
about 7 hours ago
Footwork, Construct Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners discuss how to raise capital in 2025 at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
The fundraising landscape is shifting fast, and in 2025, the old rules no longer apply. Startups navigating flat, down, or extension rounds must be more strategic than ever in securing their next round of capital. Traditional metrics like $100 million in revenue for an IPO or $1 million ARR for a Series A are becoming outdated. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, we’ll explore the evolving dynamics founders must understand to succeed in today’s challenging capital markets. On the Builders Stage, we’ll...
about 7 hours ago
Ex-SpaceX engineers land $14M to scale new method for 3D printing metal
3D printing objects using metal is a well-established technique, but it tends to be too complex, expensive, or imprecise to match traditional methods at scale. Armed with $14 million from Nvidia and Boeing, Freeform aims to change that, building a new metal additive printing process that they say changes the game — and yes, there’s an AI angle too. Co-founders Erik Palitsch (CEO) and TJ Ronacher (President) both worked at SpaceX, where they were principal architect and lead analyst of...
about 7 hours ago
Stability claims its newest Stable Diffusion models generate more ‘diverse’ images
Following a string of controversies stemming from technical hiccups and licensing changes, AI startup Stability AI has announced its latest family of image generation models. The new Stable Diffusion 3.5 series is more customizable and versatile than Stability’s previous-generation tech, the company claims — as well as more performant. There are three models in total: Stable Diffusion 3.5 Large: With 8 billion parameters, it’s the most powerful model, capable of generating images at resolutions up to 1 megapixel. (Parameters roughly...
about 8 hours ago
Interface.ai raises $30M to help banks field customer requests
Interface.ai, a customer automation platform for banks and other financial institutions, today announced that it closed a $30 million funding round led by Avataar Venture Partners. $20 million of the round was equity, while the remaining $10 million was in the form of debt. It’s Interface’s first outside capital; the startup had been completely bootstrapped. “Interface is trusted by more than 100 financial institutions across North America, processing millions of interactions every day,” CEO and co-founder Srinivas Njay told TechCrunch....
about 8 hours ago
Spotify now lets you create custom cover art for your playlists
Spotify is rolling out the ability for users to design and customize their own playlist cover art, the company announced on Tuesday. While users have already been able to upload a custom image for a playlist, this new feature lets you design you own cover art right in the app. The feature is rolling out in 65 markets in beta on the Spotify mobile app on iOS and Android. It’s available to both free and premium users. To access the...
about 9 hours ago
Marc Andreessen says AI model makers are in ‘a race to the bottom’ and it’s not good for business
In Brief Posted: 6:22 AM PDT · October 22, 2024 Marc Andreessen, general partner at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, was on stage at the Ray Summit conference earlier this month, talking about AI. CFO.com has pulled out the best quotes so you don’t have to watch the full interview. “Maybe all of these companies are in a race to the bottom,” Andreessen said when talking about large language model (LLM) development. While that might be stating the obvious, many aspiring...
about 9 hours ago
As Ozlo’s Sleepbuds go on sale, company raises funds for tinnitus treatment
Bose gave up on Sleepbuds after two generations. It was a sad, premature end for a promising product. The headphone maker came closer to creating a truly great pair of sleep headphones than anyone else. Ultimately, however, it seems the company was no longer interested in pursuing the product, which proved a major setback for the category at large. The two generations of Sleepbuds we got weren’t without their faults, however. At the top of the list was a case...
about 9 hours ago
iPad Mini 2024: Keeping up with the pack
It was a lean few years for the iPad. The tablet fell out of favor with Apple, as the company turned its focus to other categories like mobile, content, wearables, and mixed reality. The same could have been said about the Mac a few years prior, but the laptop/desktop has had a renaissance in Cupertino, thanks largely to the arrival of Apple Silicon. One could argue that the iPad is experiencing its own moment. Apple certainly made a statement in...
about 9 hours ago
WhatsApp introduces contact storing directly within the app, teases usernames
WhatsApp announced today a new feature that will allow users to save contacts within the app. That means that even if you lose your phone or link a new device to your primary number, you will see all the contacts stored within WhatsApp in a cloud storage. Until now, WhatsApp relied on your phone’s contact book to sync contacts that are using the app. If a new person messaged you on the app, and you wanted to save their details,...
about 9 hours ago
Paccurate helps companies ship in smaller boxes, saving them money while helping the earth
Paccurate co-founder and CEO James Malley likes to joke that once you get into supply chain tech, the category doesn’t let you back out. Ten years ago, Malley and Patrick Powers were working together as consultants when they started getting asked the same question over and over. Their clients were asking for help reducing the empty space in their packaging boxes to avoid newly implemented fees from shippers like FedEx and UPS. Malley and Powers couldn’t find good software that...
about 9 hours ago
Turnover Labs is helping chemical plants to reuse their waste CO2
As petrochemical plants and other emitters look to reduce emissions, they’re finding that sopping up and storing all the carbon dioxide they produce doesn’t come cheap. First they have to capture it, an energy-intensive process that requires specialized equipment. Then they have to transport it and stash it away, which can be tricky depending on where the plant is located. “When it comes to a petrochemical plant, a lot of them want to do carbon capture and sequestration,” said Marissa...
about 10 hours ago
Socket lands a fresh $40M to scan software for security flaws
The software supply chain, which comprises the components and processes used to develop software, has become precarious. According to one recent survey, 88% of companies believe poor software supply chain security presents an “enterprise-wide risk” to their organizations. Open source supply chain components are especially fraught, thanks to the logistical hurdles in keeping each component well-maintained. Security firm Synopsys found in its 2023 report that 89% of businesses’ codebases contained open source tools over four years out of date. A 2024 report by the...
about 10 hours ago
Desktop AI assistant app Highlight spins out of Medal with $10M in funding
Earlier this year, Medal, a startup known for its video game clipping features, launched a cross-platform AI assistant called Highlight. Now, the company is spinning off Highlight into a new entity, which has raised $10 million in a funding round. General Catalyst led the funding round with Valor, SV Angel, and Conviction Embed participating in the round. Medal also put in $3 million in the new entity out of $13 million it raised in July. Medal’s co-founder, Pim de Witte,...
about 10 hours ago
After learning that you can name group chats, Tim Cook chose the safest name possible
In Brief Posted: 4:23 AM PDT · October 22, 2024 This week’s cover of WSJ Magazine is extremely minimalistic. That’s not surprising given that the main story is an in-depth interview with Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple and the king of minimalistic design. In Cook’s interview with the WSJ’s Ben Cohen, we learn he still believes the Vision Pro is going to be a success. He also sticks to his line that Apple isn’t lagging behind on artificial intelligence....
about 11 hours ago
Zoom partners with Suki to offer AI-powered medical note-taking
Startups that build AI medical assistants and medical scribes, which save doctors time that they would otherwise spend taking notes and populating medical records, have been booming over the past year. And incumbents now want to get in on the action. On Tuesday, video-conferencing company Zoom said it is partnering with Suki, one such AI medical scribe provider, to offer doctors on its platform an AI scribe that can take notes about their consultations with patients. Zoom is used for...
about 11 hours ago
CrewAI uses third-party models to automate business tasks
Back in 2022, João Moura was directing AI engineering efforts at Clearbit, a startup creating a unified hub for business intelligence tools. There, Moura was responsible for leading the development of AI integrations, as well as defining Clearbit’s AI product roadmap. After a year, HubSpot acquired Clearbit, and Moura had the itch to go it alone. He’d founded startups before, including Urdog, which sold a smart collar for pets. But this go-around, Moura had a more technically ambitious concept in...
about 11 hours ago
Tim Cook’s other job
In Brief Posted: 10:37 PM PDT · October 21, 2024 In May, while unveiling the newest iPad at an Apple event, CEO Tim Cook wore a custom-made, one-of-a-kind pair of Nike sneakers whose decorative stitching included the words “Made on iPad.” It wasn’t just a collab between Apple and Nike. As Bloomberg reminds readers, Cook has been on Nike’s board since 2005, when Cook was still second banana at Apple under Steve Jobs and the iPhone did not yet exist...
about 17 hours ago
Passionfroot is a marketplace for business-focused content creators looking for brand partnerships — and vice versa
As the creator economy is growing rapidly, brand partnerships remain one of the prime ways creators can earn money. Other services like link-in-bio apps with affiliate links or Pateron-like subscriptions become secondary ways to increase creators’ income. For platforms and startup, the biggest challenge remains to match brands and creators for collaboration. Berlin-based startup Passionfroot is building a toolkit and a marketplace for business, productivity, and thought leadership-focused creators for brand collaborations. The company, founded by Jen Phan, who had a...
about 17 hours ago
Meta suspends accounts tracking private jets of Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and other celebrities
In Brief Posted: 9:43 PM PDT · October 21, 2024 Instagram and Threads accounts that track the private jets of celebrities – including Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Kylie Jenner – were suspended on Monday, according to the owner of many such accounts, Florida college student, Jack Sweeney. Links to Instagram/Threads accounts tracking the flights of former President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and other celebrity accounts, produced an error message on Monday...
about 18 hours ago
India’s Neysa bags $30M to compete with global AI hyperscalers
Even though India isn’t at the forefront of the global AI innovation battle, demand for AI in the country is growing as businesses seek efficiencies and tech companies promote AI developments as a cure-all. The South Asian nation is projected to have an AI market touching $17 billion by 2027, according to a joint report by the IT industry body Nasscom and consulting firm BCG. Neysa, an Indian startup led by seasoned tech entrepreneur Sharad Sanghi, aims to leverage this...
about 22 hours ago
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 Side Events schedule: Mercury, Jetro, Enterprise Ireland, and more to host
With TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 only a week away, we’re thrilled to announce the complete list of companies behind the Side Events, set to amplify the excitement for thousands of attendees and Silicon Valley residents. From casual happy hours to insightful discussions and energizing morning runs, Disrupt Week — spanning October 26 to November 1 — features an exciting mix of Side Events happening across San Francisco, organized by a diverse collection of innovative companies. Registering/RSVPing to a Side Event does...
about 22 hours ago
TechCrunch Space: Inverted
Hello, and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. We are insanely close to TechCrunch Disrupt — have you checked out the final agenda for the Space Stage yet!? Come hear the latest and greatest insights from top space entrepreneurs and investors. NB: If you’re wondering why last week’s TechCrunch Space didn’t include a single mention of Starship’s fifth integrated flight test, it’s because these editions are finalized on Friday. Sometimes that means we miss important news — very important, chopstick-y news....
1 day ago
Meta tests facial recognition for spotting ‘celeb-bait’ ads scams and easier account recovery
Meta is expanding tests of facial recognition as an anti-scam measure to combat celebrity scam ads and more broadly, the Facebook owner announced Monday. Monika Bickert, Meta’s VP of content policy, wrote in a blog post that some of the tests aim to bolster its existing anti-scam measures, such as the automated scans (using machine learning classifiers) run as part of its ad review system, to make it harder for fraudsters to fly under its radar and dupe Facebook and...
1 day ago
Meta’s smart glasses outsell traditional Ray-Bans in some stores, even before AI features roll out
In Brief Posted: 2:45 PM PDT · October 21, 2024 The Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses are the top selling product in 60% of all Ray-Ban stores throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, according to Upload VR. The detail came from EssilorLuxottica CFO Stefano Grassi, who revealed during the eyewear giant’s earnings call last week that Ray-Ban Meta proved to be a significant driver for the company’s sales. In Europe, Meta has yet to rollout multimodal AI features for its...
1 day ago
One Zero, the AI fintech started by the founder of Mobileye, is raising $100M, say sources
Amnon Shashua, the founder and CEO of Mobileye, has an eye for complicated problems that he believes can be solved with AI, and that AI itself can be fixed to become more reliable. On the sidelines of building and running his self-driving car technology company — which he took public, then sold to Intel, then spun out again — he’s been hatching a number of other ideas. Now, one of these is raising money and gaining significant momentum. One Zero,...
1 day ago
‘Blade Runner 2049’ producer accuses Musk and Tesla of circumventing copyright with AI imagery
In Brief Posted: 1:22 PM PDT · October 21, 2024 In an interesting variation of the usual “stop stealing our stuff” lawsuit already deployed dozens of times against AI companies, today brings a more nuanced form of alleged theft. Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind “Blade Runner 2049,” is suing Tesla, Elon Musk, and Warner Bros Digital for what they claim is a willful circumvention of its IP rights, according to Hollywood Reporter. Musk had asked to use imagery from...
1 day ago
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 over a year since Elon Musk announced his bid to buy Twitter, and those who opposed the sale have tried setting up shop on platforms like Mastodon, Substack Notes, T2… but none of these Twitter alternatives have really captured lightning in a bottle like Bluesky. Bluesky remains invite-only in its beta, but as more people get on the site, the...
1 day ago
Nevoya wants to break the EV truck adoption logjam
Los Angeles is known for glitz, but there’s also a lot of grit in the air — literally. Thousands of containers are moved off and onto ships at the area’s two major ports every day, almost always transferred via pollution-spewing diesel trucks. This has made Los Angeles a hotbed for all kinds of new electric vehicle and charging infrastructure projects. A new startup called Nevoya is pouncing on the opportunity. “It’s the best place in the country” for electric trucks,...
1 day ago
Benchmark is raising $170M for its latest partners-only fund
While fund sizes of many venture capital firms have ballooned into billions of dollars over the last decade, Benchmark Partners, one of Silicon Valley’s most successful investors, has stuck to raising approximately $425 million in capital every few years. That’s what the storied firm told in a letter to its limited partners when it announced its latest fund this summer, reported the Information. However, Benchmark’s partners are not limiting themselves to whatever capital commitment they make for their main investment...
1 day ago
X rolls out its real-time search tool, Radar, to Premium+ subscribers
As competition from newcomers like Bluesky and Threads increases, X on Monday launched a “Radar” trend analysis tool that aims to offer subscribers real-time insights into emerging trends and conversations on the platform. The tool, previously known as Insights, was initially targeted at Verified Organizations (businesses), allowing marketers to track topics and trends on the app. If subscribed, marketers could perform keyword analytics, visualize trend activity, and filter conversations in real time. In addition to tracking conversation volume over time,...
1 day ago
‘Content kleptocracy’: News Corp outlets sue Perplexity over scraped stories
News Corp’s Dow Jones and the NY Post have sued growing AI startup Perplexity over what they describe as a “content kleptocracy.” In a lawsuit filed in New York on Monday, the media organization claimed that Perplexity engages in copyright violations on a “grand scale,” simultaneously duplicating and misrepresenting original content created by others: Its AI “answer engine” copies on a massive scale, among other things, copyrighted news content, analysis, and opinion as inputs into its internal database. It then...
1 day ago
Poshmark reverses decision to lower selling fees after sellers experience a drop in sales
Shortly after the social marketplace Poshmark announced it would lower selling fees and increase fees for buyers, the company decided to revert back to its original fee structure following outrage among sellers. In an email to sellers sent on Monday (and viewed by TechCrunch), founder and CEO Manish Chandra wrote an apology about the fee change, saying it resulted in shoppers spending less on purchases, “leaving our sellers with less cash in their pockets—despite the seller fee reduction.” Chandra added,...
1 day ago
xAI, Elon Musk’s AI startup, launches an API
Image Credits:Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic / Getty Images 9:51 AM PDT · October 21, 2024 In August, Elon Musk’s xAI promised to make Grok, the company’s flagship generative AI model powering a number of features on X, available via an “enterprise API.” Now, that API has arrived — albeit a bare-bones at the moment. The xAI API only has one model available, “grok-beta,” priced at $5 per million input tokens (~750,000 words) or $15 per million output tokens. Tokens are subdivided bits of...
1 day ago
Daze, a creative, AI-powered messaging app for Gen Z, is blowing up prelaunch
On TikTok, Daze’s most popular video has been viewed 8 million times. Across TikTok and Instagram, the startup behind a new messaging app aimed at Gen Z, has seen around 48 million combined views. Pre-launch, the app’s waitlist is already bursting with roughly 156,000 signups. Driving the demand for this next-generation alternative to iMessage and WhatsApp isn’t some smooth-talking influencer or paid advertising, but simply product demo videos of the app in action, which have impressed a younger audience. Founded...
1 day ago
ShoBizzy, a networking app for the TV industry, aims to open new doors for freelancers
With the current unemployment crisis in Hollywood, many TV and film crew members are concerned about finding their next job. This is particularly the case for freelancers, who often face unstable work and irregular pay. Shobizzy is the latest professional networking app for the entertainment industry that aims to address this challenge. And, as more workers could be at risk of being out of a job, Shobizzy recently expanded its offering to allow users to pursue opportunities in additional areas...
1 day ago
Ireland adopts Online Safety Code for video-sharing platforms including TikTok
Ireland’s media and internet watchdog, Coimisiún na Meán, has adopted and published an Online Safety Code that will apply to video-sharing platforms headquartered in the country from next month — including the likes of Bytedance’s TikTok, Google-owned YouTube and Meta’s Instagram and Facebook Reels. Under the Code, in-scope platforms are required to have terms and conditions that ban uploads or sharing of a range of harmful content types — including cyberbullying; promoting self-harm or suicide and promoting eating or feeding...
1 day ago
Final countdown: 7 days until TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 kicks off
T-minus 7 days until TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 officially kicks off! One of the year’s biggest tech events is ready to dominate the Bay Area’s thriving tech landscape for almost the entire week. Get ready for one of the biggest tech gatherings, taking place October 28-30 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Tech experts from every corner of the globe will come together to engage with the latest innovations, learn trends, and connect through unparalleled networking. Forge powerful connections with the...
1 day ago
Uprise wants to help small businesses make better financial decisions
Small business creation has been on the rise in the U.S. since the pandemic. There are a lot of tech tools designed to help these companies with things like payroll or setting up retirement benefits — but more tools doesn’t mean small businesses know how to use them to make smart decisions. Uprise is looking to change that. The startup looks to serve as a financial advisor to these small businesses. It embeds itself into financial service products SMBs are already...
1 day ago
A closer look at the AirPods Pro’s new hearing aid features
In November 2022, the FDA passed a resolution allowing Americans to purchase hearing aids over-the-counter. The move launched a mini-industry, with companies rushing to make available technology that was previously mired in healthcare restrictions. Consumer electronics firms saw opportunity, as well. In September, Apple announced that it would be bringing hearing aid features to the AirPods Pro 2, as part of an upcoming iOS update. I had the opportunity to test a demo version of the feature at the iPhone...
1 day ago
Groww pays $160M tax as it returns to India amid a startup relocation wave
In Brief Posted: 2:04 AM PDT · October 21, 2024 Indian stock trading and mutual fund startup Groww paid $159.4 million in taxes as it shifted its domicile from the U.S. back to India, the company said in a statement on Monday. Nearly a dozen Indian startups are in the process of relocating their headquarters to India from the U.S. and Singapore to better comply with Indian laws and facilitate IPOs in the country. The shift in domicile creates a...
1 day ago
DataCrunch wants to be Europe’s first AI cloud hyperscaler — powered by renewable energy
A fledgling startup is setting out to become one of Europe’s first “AI compute” hyperscalers, with renewable energy playing a pivotal part in its pitch to prospective customers. The AI goldrush has spurred unprecedented demand for “compute,” which refers to the processing power, infrastructure and resources needed for tasks such as running algorithms, executing machine learning models, and processing data. One of the big beneficiaries of this demand has been Nvidia, emerging as a $3 trillion powerhouse off the back...
1 day ago
The WordPress vs. WP Engine drama, explained
Social 8 seconds ago The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight between WordPress… Image Credits: TechCrunch Transportation 44 mins ago Despite hydrogen’s challenges, BMW thinks the only way to actually achieve a shift to zero-emissions transportation is through a mix of BEVs and hydrogen vehicles. AI 46 mins ago Google’s NotebookLM has been updated with YouTube and audio files...
2 days ago
Perplexity is reportedly looking to fundraise at an $8B valuation
In Brief Posted: 2:18 PM PDT · October 20, 2024 AI search engine Perplexity is in fundraising talks and hopes to raise around $500 million at an $8 billion valuation, according to the Wall Street Journal. If a deal happens with those terms, it would more than double Perplexity’s valuation from its $3 billion valuation when it raised from SoftBank over the summer. The WSJ reports that the company currently receives about 15 million queries a day and brings in...
2 days ago
Women in AI: Marissa Hummon thinks AI will help make the power grid greener
As a part of TechCrunch’s ongoing Women in AI series, which seeks to give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch interviewed Marissa Hummon, the chief technology officer at the energy company Utilidata, where she is working to make the electric grid more sustainable. “The work that I’m doing at Utilidata is pushing against the status quo of the utility industry,” Hummon told TechCrunch, adding that AI is poised to help...
2 days ago
Lyft is working on a ‘service animal opt-in feature’ for passengers
In Brief Posted: 10:19 AM PDT · October 20, 2024 Uber and Lyft need to do more to support disabled passengers, especially those who are blind or visually impaired, according to protesters who gathered outside the companies’ headquarters on October 15. Wired spoke to protesters who shared stories about drivers passing them by or refusing to let them bring their guide dogs on a ride. They said ride-hailing companies should do more to educate drivers on accommodating passengers with visual...
2 days ago
Can AI sandbag safety checks to sabotage users? Yes, but not very well — for now
AI companies claim to have robust safety checks in place that ensure that models don’t say or do weird, illegal, or unsafe stuff. But what if the models were capable of evading those checks and, for some reason, trying to sabotage or mislead users? Turns out they can do this, according to Anthropic researchers. Just not very well … for now, anyway. “As AIs become more capable,” writes Anthropic’s Alignment Science team, “a new kind of risk might emerge: models with...
2 days ago
Gusto’s head of technology says hiring an army of specialists is the wrong approach to AI
As founders plan for an increasingly AI-centric future, Gusto co-founder and head of technology Edward Kim said that cutting existing teams and hiring a bunch of specially trained AI engineers is “the wrong way to go.” Instead, he argued that non-technical team members can “actually have a much deeper understanding than an average engineer on what situations the customer can get themselves into, what they’re confused about,” putting them in a better position to guide the features that should be...
2 days ago
Investments in generative AI startups topped $3.9B in Q3 2024
Not everyone is convinced of generative AI’s return on investment. But many investors are, judging by the latest figures from funding tracker PitchBook. In Q3 2024, VCs invested $3.9 billion in generative AI startups across 206 deals, per PitchBook. (That’s not counting OpenAI‘s $6.6 billion round.) And $2.9 billion of that funding went to U.S.-based companies across 127 deals. Some of the biggest winners in Q3 were coding assistant Magic ($320 million in August), enterprise search provider Glean ($260 million...
2 days ago
Joseph Jacks bets on open source startups, a ‘paradox of philanthropy and capitalism’
Open source might be many things, but one thing it’s not is a business model — by most estimations, at least. However, that hasn’t stopped Joseph Jacks and OSS Capital from seeking some of the earliest-stage, open source startups and funding them through their formative years. These include the likes of open source Qualtrics-alternative Formbricks, which raised a pre-seed round of funding last year. Elsewhere, there is Notion alternative AppFlowy; Jira alternative Plane; Calendly alternative Cal.com; Postman alternative Hoppscotch; and...
2 days ago
Throne’s toilet camera takes pictures of your poop
Throne is an Austin-based health startup. It sells a camera. That clips onto the side of a toilet bowl. It takes pictures of your poop. Currently in beta, the system utilizes artificial intelligence to examine your dookie as a way of determining things like gut health and hydration. Turns out we have a surprising amount to learn from our logs. Throne calls its underlying technology “artificial gut intelligence.” That AI is “trained by physicians to help you understand what your...
2 days ago
Former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati is reportedly fundraising for a new AI startup
In Brief Posted: 2:36 PM PDT · October 19, 2024 Mira Murati, the OpenAI CTO who announced her departure last month, is raising VC funding for a new AI startup, according to Reuters. This startup will reportedly focus on building AI products based on proprietary models and could raise more than $100 million in this round. At the time of her departure, Murati wrote on X that OpenAI had “fundamentally changed how AI systems learn and reason through complex problems”...
3 days ago
DJI sues Department of Defense over listing as a Chinese military company
Drone-maker DJI filed a lawsuit Friday against the US Department of Defense over its inclusion on a DoD list of “Chinese military companies.” A DJI spokesperson said the company filed the suit after “attempting to engage with the DoD for more than sixteen months” and deciding “it had no alternative other than to seek relief in federal court.” “DJI is not owned or controlled by the Chinese military, and the DoD itself acknowledges that DJI makes consumer and commercial drones,...
3 days ago
What we know about the layoffs at Meta
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re diving into the recent layoffs at Meta; the fallout from the battle between WordPress and WP Engine; and whether Cybertrucks are simply too big to exist in Europe. Let’s get into it. Multiple teams at Meta were hit by layoffs this week. The company confirmed the layoffs in a statement to TechCrunch and noted that the changes were made to reallocate resources. The cuts reportedly impacted teams working on Reality Labs,...
3 days ago
I just spent my first week ever with an EV, the Chevy Equinox — here’s what it was like
The funnest car I ever drove was the original Tesla Roadster. This was in 2011, back when Elon Musk’s EV company was courting press instead of denigrating us, and they offered me a test drive. I took the car up I-280 — a beautiful, mostly deserted highway with perfectly banked curves that seemed designed for Silicon Valley types to test out their speedmobiles — and was blown away by its responsive acceleration and the ease with which it handled at 120...
3 days ago
Four takeaways from Pony AI’s IPO filing
Toyota-backed autonomous vehicle company Pony AI has joined the list of Chinese firms going public on the U.S. stock market after a multi-year ban from Beijing on offshore capital raising. Zeekr, a luxury Chinese electric vehicle startup, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in May, and WeRide, another AV startup, also hopes to file an IPO in the U.S. this year at a $5 billion valuation, but its plans have been delayed as of August. Pony was valued at...
3 days ago
Penguin Random House is adding an AI warning to its books’ copyright pages
In Brief Posted: 11:26 AM PDT · October 19, 2024 Penguin Random House, the world’s largest trade publisher, will be adding language to the copyright pages of its books to prohibit the use of those books to train AI. The Bookseller reports that new books and reprints of older titles from the publisher will now include the statement, “No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or...
3 days ago
Midjourney plans to let anyone on the web edit images with AI
Midjourney is planning to release an upgraded web tool that’ll let users edit any uploaded images from the web using Midjourney’s generative AI. The upgraded tool, which Midjourney CEO David Holtz said will be released “early next week,” will also allow users to retexture objects in images to “repaint” their colors and details according to captions. Editing existing images with AI has become a hot-button topic lately. Platforms like Meta have wrestled with how to label images edited with AI...
3 days ago
Women in AI: Dr. Rebecca Portnoff is protecting children from harmful deepfakes
As a part of TechCrunch’s ongoing Women in AI series, which seeks to give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch interviewed Dr. Rebecca Portnoff, who is vice president of data science at the nonprofit Thorn, which builds tech to protect children from sexual abuse. She attended Princeton University before receiving her PhD in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley. She has been working her way up the ladder...
3 days ago
23andMe faces an uncertain future — so does your genetic data
DNA and genetic testing firm 23andMe is in turmoil following a data breach last year and its ongoing financial decline. The once-pioneering giant now faces an uncertain future amid efforts to take the company private, intensifying concerns about what might happen to the genetic data of 23andMe’s some 15 million customers. Best known for its saliva-based test kits that offer a glimpse into a person’s genetic ancestry, 23andMe has seen its value plummet more than 99% from its $6 billion...
3 days ago
Match’s random video chat app Azar could be the next Chatroulette — for better or for worse
Azar has facilitated over 100 billion video chats with its app, which randomly connects strangers around the globe. But until recently, the Seoul-based app — which shares a parent company, Match, with Tinder, Hinge, and OkCupid — hasn’t been available in the U.S. The U.S. market could be tough to crack. For millennials who grew up with access to platforms like Omegle and Chatroulette, random video chat apps were like Ouija boards. But instead of conjuring the jumpscare-inducing signs of...
3 days ago
Claude: Everything you need to know about Anthropic’s AI
Anthropic, the AI vendor second in size only to OpenAI, has a powerful family of generative AI models called Claude. These models can perform a range of tasks, from captioning images and writing emails to solving math and coding challenges. With Anthropic’s model ecosystem growing so quickly, it can be tough to keep track of which Claude models do what. To help, we’ve put together a guide to Claude, which we’ll keep updated as new models and upgrades arrive. Claude...
3 days ago
SpaceX wins $733M Space Force launch contract
SpaceX was awarded an eight-launch, $733 million contract by the U.S. Space Force on Friday, as part of an ongoing program intended to foster competition among launch providers. The award includes seven launches for the Space Development Agency and one for the National Reconnaissance Office, all anticipated to use Falcon 9s and occur no earlier than 2026. The massive new contract is part of a U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command (SSC) program with the catchy name of “National Security...
4 days ago
Eric Schmidt’s SandboxAQ aims for $5B valuation for its AI/quantum Google moonshot
VCs are spending gobs of money on AI startups – especially those run by big names in tech – so SandboxAQ is putting its hand out again, even though it raised a whopping $500 million in early 2023. The spinout from Google parent company Alphabet is reportedly seeking to raise another round that would value it at $5 billion, sources tell Bloomberg. Its last $500 million round, completed in February, 2023, had backers like Breyer Capital, T. Rowe Price funds,...
4 days ago
Fluid Truck files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and pursues sale after leadership shakeup
Less than two months after Fluid Truck’s board ousted its sibling co-founders from their executive positions, the company has laid off 30% of its staff, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and found a potential buyer to take on the business, pending court approval, according to bankruptcy filings and information from a former employee. Fluid has also been approved on an interim basis as of today for a $7 million loan to keep the business operational and fund the restructuring...
4 days ago
Acrew Capital hits five years, raises $700M
Acrew Capital has raised $700 million in fresh funds. The San Francisco-based venture capital firm announced in a blog post on Thursday that it raised $700 million to invest in companies building in data and security, healthcare, or fintech. This fundraise brings the firm’s assets under management to $1.7 billion. It’s unclear how much of the $700 million will go to the firm’s early-stage strategy, which invests $1 million to $15 million into seed and Series A companies, and how...
4 days ago
Why changes to the block on Elon Musk’s X are driving users away
Elon Musk’s X is planning to make a change to how the block function works, breaking from the established standards of other social media apps. When the policies around blocking change, people who have been blocked by someone will still be able to see that person’s posts, so long as they’re public. They just won’t be able to like, repost, or reply to these posts. “Blocking public posts makes no sense,” Musk said on X last year. “It needs to...
4 days ago
Investors bet on the power of light, diamonds in the trash, and more
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. This week brought us some exciting fundraising news from around the world, and even some exits. But if you are looking for tech IPOs, you will have to look at India. Meanwhile in the U.S., startups could help data centers reduce their environmental impact. Image Credits:Table Space As mentioned, we have some...
4 days ago
Microsoft could end up with substantial equity in the restructured, for-profit OpenAI
In Brief Posted: 9:07 AM PDT · October 18, 2024 How much equity in OpenAI will Microsoft get once the former becomes a for-profit company? That’s the multi-billion-dollar question — one the two parties are racing to answer ahead of two-year deadline. The Wall Street Journal reports that both Microsoft and OpenAI have hired investment banks to negotiate Microsoft’s equity — which could be substantial. The tech giant is said to have sunk nearly $14 billion into OpenAI. As of...
4 days ago
WP Engine files an injunction to get its WordPress.org access back
Web hosting provider WP Engine has filed an injunction in a court in North California, asking it to intervene and restore its access to the WordPress.org open-source repository. After WP Engine filed a lawsuit against WordPress co-creator Matt Mullenweg and Automattic last month, Mulleweng — who also owns WordPress.org — blocked the company’s access to the open-source project. This also meant that WP Engine couldn’t update its Advanced Custom Fields (ACF) plug-in, which is used to create and customize their edit...
4 days ago
Bluesky surges into the top 5 as X changes blocks, permits AI training on its data
Social networking startup Bluesky, which just reported a gain of half a million users over the past day, has now soared into the top 5 apps on the U.S. App Store and has become the No. 2 app in the Social Networking category, up from No. 181 a week ago, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures. The growth is entirely organic, we understand, as Appfigures confirmed the company is not running any App Store Search Ads. In addition,...
4 days ago
Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software under investigation by federal safety regulator
The top U.S. automotive safety regulator has opened a new investigation into Tesla’s so-called “Full Self-Driving (Supervised)” software after four reported crashes in low-visibility situations — including one where a pedestrian was killed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) announced Friday that it is probing the driver assistance system to find out whether it can “detect and respond appropriately to reduced roadway visibility conditions” such as “sun glare, fog, or airborne dust.” The agency...
4 days ago
Nebius to resume Nasdaq trading after severing ties with Russia and Yandex
Nebius, the company formerly known as Yandex that’s now focused on cloud infrastructure for AI uses (aka “AI compute”), is to begin trading on the public markets once again — more than two years after the Nasdaq halted trading due to economic sanctions imposed in the wake of Russia’s Ukraine invasion in 2022. The Netherlands-based company is vying to become one of Europe’s leading players in the burgeoning “GPU-as-a-service” space, and sits in a somewhat unique position — it is a...
5 days ago
Byju’s founder says his edtech startup, once worth $22B, is now ‘worth zero’
In Brief Posted: 11:44 PM PDT · October 17, 2024 Byju Raveendran, the founder of the embattled edtech group Byju’s, acknowledged on Thursday afternoon that he made mistakes, mistimed the market, and that his startup, once valued at $22 billion, is now effectively worth “zero.” Speaking to a group of journalists, Raveendran said the company’s aggressive acquisition of more than two dozen startups to expand into new markets proved fatal when financing dried up in 2022. Byju’s was planning to...
5 days ago
The surprising way OpenAI could get out of its pact with Microsoft
In Brief Posted: 11:39 PM PDT · October 17, 2024 The New York Times on Thursday published a look at the “fraying” relationship between OpenAI and its investor, partner, and, increasingly, rival, Microsoft, reporting their five-year romance has cooled owing to financial pressure on OpenAI, the amount of computing power Microsoft is providing OpenAI, and disagreements between the two about ground rules. Most fascinating perhaps is a clause in OpenAI’s contract with Microsoft that reportedly cuts off Microsoft’s access to...
5 days ago
Former watch trader is now building the AWS of grid storage, Terralayr
Phillip Man was burned out. He had founded a watch trading company with his flatmate, but the grind was wearing him down. “We did that for ten years,” Man said. “It’s very difficult to keep yourself motivated when you know the whole reason for your operation is to sell expensive stuff to wealthy people.” He had previously been a jet fuel trader at Glencore — “the evil side of energy,” he said — and felt himself drawn back to that...
5 days ago
Amazon indicates employees can quit if they don’t like its return-to-office mandate
In Brief Posted: 6:17 PM PDT · October 17, 2024 AWS CEO Matt Garman has harsh words for remote workers: return to the office or quit. The Amazon executive recently told employees who don’t like the new five-day in-person work policy that, “there are other companies around,” presumably companies they can work for remotely, Reuters reported on Thursday. Amazon’s top boss, Andy Jassy, told employees last month that there will be a full return-to-office starting in 2025, an increase from...
5 days ago
Automattic offered employees another chance to quit — this time with nine months’ severance
Days after 159 people accepted Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg’s offer of a six-month severance package to employees who wanted to leave, the company floated a new offer late on October 16 of a nine-month severance package to anybody who quit immediately. Employees had four hours to decide whether they wanted to take the deal. In Slack message seen by TechCrunch, Mullenweg posted that people who accepted the offer would lose access not only to Automattic but also to WordPress.org. This...
5 days ago
General Catalyst reportedly to back Saudi Arabian startup
In Brief Posted: 3:41 PM PDT · October 17, 2024 Despite Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights abuses, some investors are warming up to investing in the country’s startups. General Catalyst is planning to invest in a Saudi Arabia-based fintech startup, Lean Technology, the firm’s first investment in the Middle Eastern nation, the Information reported. Other Saudi Arabian startups that US-based investors recently backed include a lending platform Tamara, that last year received capital from Coatue Management. While not a...
5 days ago
Stripe in talks to acquire Bridge for $1 billion
In Brief Posted: 2:52 PM PDT · October 17, 2024 Stripe is in talks to acquire stablecoin platform Bridge for a whopping $1 billion, according to Forbes. The talks are reportedly in advanced stages, although nothing has been finalized. Bridge, cofounded by Coinbase alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, has built an API that helps companies accept stablecoins. The pair raised $58 million from investors like Index Ventures and Sequoia Capital, according to PitchBook. If the deal with Stripe goes...
5 days ago
Elon Musk’s X is changing its privacy policy to allow third parties to train AI on your posts
On Wednesday, social network X (formerly Twitter) updated its Privacy Policy to indicate that it would allow third-party “collaborators” to train their AI models on X data, unless users opt out. While X owner Elon Musk trained xAI’s Grok AI chatbot on X user data, leading to an investigation by the EU’s lead privacy regulator, the company hadn’t yet amended its policy to indicate its data may also be used by third parties. The addition to the policy implies that...
5 days ago
Sam Altman’s Worldcoin becomes World and shows new iris-scanning Orb to prove your humanity
Worldcoin, the Sam Altman co-founded “proof of personhood” crypto startup that scans people’s eyeballs, announced on Thursday that it dropped the “coin” from its name and is now just “World.” The startup also unveiled its next generation of iris-scanning “Orb” and other tools at a live event in San Francisco. Co-founder and CEO of World, Alex Blania, said the startup’s old name “just doesn’t work anymore,” potentially signaling the startup is looking to expand its identity beyond its original cryptocurrency...
5 days ago
All mobile phones must be hearing aid compatible under new FCC rules
In Brief Posted: 12:59 PM PDT · October 17, 2024 The FCC Thursday issued rules requiring that all mobile phones — including smartphones — sold in the U.S. be compatible with hearing aids. The news comes two years after the FDA made hearing aids available to all Americans without a prescription. The FCC has not yet issued a specific timeline for compliance, only noting that the rules will be fully in effect “after a transition period.” The rules discourage handset...
5 days ago
Microsoft said it lost weeks of security logs for its customers’ cloud products
Microsoft has notified its customers that it wasn’t consistently storing security logs for its cloud products during a two-week window in September, leaving network defenders with a potential blind spot for detecting possible intrusions. According to a notification sent to affected customers, Microsoft said that “a bug in one of Microsoft’s internal monitoring agents resulted in a malfunction in some of the agents when uploading log data to our internal logging platform.” The notification said that the logging outage was...
5 days ago