Router maker Zyxel tells customers to replace vulnerable hardware exploited by hackers
Taiwanese hardware maker Zyxel says it has no plans to release a patch for two actively exploited vulnerabilities affecting potentially thousands of customers. Threat intelligence startup GreyNoise warned late last month that a critical-rated zero-day vulnerability impacting Zyxel routers was being actively exploited. GreyNoise said the flaws allow attackers to execute arbitrary commands on affected devices, leading to complete system compromise, data exfiltration, or network infiltration. The vulnerabilities were discovered by threat intelligence organization VulnCheck in July last year and...
43 minutes ago
European AI startups raised $8 billion in 2024
In just a few days, France will host the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit, with heads of state flocking to Paris to meet global tech leaders. They’ll most likely announce some big investments and diplomatic agreements focused on safety or the environmental impact of artificial intelligence. Ahead of the summit, early-stage VC firm Galion.exe, growth investment firm Revaia, and advisory firm Chausson Partners have teamed up to create the French AI Report, which looks at the current trends in the tech...
about 4 hours ago
Hitachi Ventures raises $400M fund to invest in everything from fusion to AI
Hitachi Ventures secured $400 million for a fourth fund, the firm exclusively told TechCrunch. The size of the new fund is a vote of confidence in a range of deep tech verticals. The corporate VC’s sprawling portfolio mimics that of its limited partner’s, including energy, manufacturing, biotech, and AI. “We are open to other breakthrough opportunities,” said managing director and CEO Stefan Gabriel. “There’s a lot around quantum, nuclear, life science, space tech. Not too broad — we have a...
about 5 hours ago
Google wants Search to be more like an AI assistant in 2025
Google Search is in the midst of a “journey” around AI, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said during the company’s earnings call on Tuesday. The start of that journey was AI overviews, a controversial and monumental shift in how Google delivers information to billions of Search users. But that was just the beginning. “As AI continues to expand the universe of queries that people can ask, 2025 is going to be one of the biggest years for search innovation yet,” said...
about 9 hours ago
Krafton leads Cashfree’s $53M funding at $700M valuation
Cashfree, an Indian payments startup that facilitates and processes more than $80 billion for its customers each year, has raised $53 million in a new round of funding as it gears up to deepen its presence in some international markets. Krafton, maker of sleeper hit titles such as PUBG and BGMI, led Cashfree’s Series C financing round alongside existing investor Apis Growth Fund, the two said Wednesday. The funding values the eight-year-old startup at $700 million, according to a source...
about 9 hours ago
Brightpick’s new warehouse robot can reach 20-foot-high shelves
Brightpick, a maker of autonomous mobile robots, on Tuesday announced a lofty addition to its current line. The appropriately named Giraffe system is notable for its large, retractable platform capable of reaching up to 20 feet (6 meters) in height to pick items from warehouse shelves. It’s a novel approach to warehouses with ceilings well out of the grasp of both standard AMRs and their human coworkers. Giraffe accomplishes the feat by way of a telescoping arm with three overlapping...
about 10 hours ago
Alphabet praises DeepSeek, but it’s massively ramping up its AI spending
Booming AI budgets seemed at risk last week when DeepSeek crashed Nvidia’s stock based on speculation that its cheaper AI models would lower demand for AI chips and data centers. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai has certainly noticed the Chinese AI company, praising its work as “tremendous” in Alphabet’s latest earnings call (while adding that some of Gemini’s models are just as efficient). But just like Meta, Alphabet isn’t throwing down the towel in Big Tech’s AI spending wars. In its latest earnings report, Alphabet...
about 11 hours ago
Two space startups have merged to create the next generation of telescopes
On a clear spring evening in Michigan, the stars aligned — just not in the way Upfront Ventures partner Nick Kim expected. He’d just led a $9.5 million seed round for OurSky, a software platform for space observational data, and was eager to see what its telescope partner PlaneWave Instruments could do. But when they rolled out the telescopes that night at PlaneWave’s manufacturing facility, he was stuck waiting. “It took them quite a long time to get the first...
about 11 hours ago
Snap says TikTok uncertainty benefited its business
During Snap’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, CEO Evan Spiegel said that the uncertainty surrounding TikTok’s future has positively affected its business. “We’re not trying to draw too many conclusions from some of the engagement lift we saw when [TikTok] went dark for that brief period of time. I would say that the overall environment of uncertainty is benefiting our business,” he said on the call. Among the appealing features that attract users to Snapchat is Spotlight, which serves as...
about 11 hours ago
a16z hires acquitted former Marine Daniel Penny as an investor
In Brief Posted: 3:15 PM PST · February 4, 2025 Powerhouse venture firm Andreessen Horowitz has hired Daniel Penny as an investor, its webpage confirms. Penny is the former Marine who was tried last year and found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the death of a homeless man on a New York City subway. After the man acted erratically, Penny held him in a chokehold and the man was later pronounced dead. The case polarized the nation. Penny...
about 12 hours ago
AMD pulls up the release of its next-gen data center GPUs
AMD says that it plans to launch its next major data center GPUs, the AMD Instinct MI350 series, sooner than originally announced. During the company’s Q4 2024 earnings call Tuesday, AMD CEO Lisa Su said AMD plans to sample the MI350 with “lead customers” this quarter, and “accelerate” production shipments to “mid-year.” “So, we had previously stated that we thought we would launch [the MI350] in the second half of [2025],” Su said. “And frankly, that bring-up has come up...
about 12 hours ago
Miist, founded by a 25-year-old, wants people to vape their way out of smoking addiction and migraines
As a university student, Dalton Signor was troubled by how many people around him smoked or vaped, including his grandmother and 14-year-old sister. Signor (pictured center) felt that existing smoking cessation medicines, whether patches, gums, or lozenges, are not very effective because they take too long to start working. “They take about 30 minutes to provide relief, but the average person relapses in 11 minutes,” he told TechCrunch. So, three years ago, he set out to develop a withdrawal-inhibitor inhaler...
about 13 hours ago
Google removes pledge to not use AI for weapons from website
In Brief Posted: 1:05 PM PST · February 4, 2025 Google removed a pledge to not build AI for weapons or surveillance from its website this week. The change was first spotted by Bloomberg. The company appears to have updated its public AI principles page, erasing a section titled “applications we will not pursue,” which was still included as recently as last week. Asked for comment, the company pointed TechCrunch to a new blog post on “responsible AI.” It notes,...
about 14 hours ago
Spyware maker Paragon confirms US government is a customer
Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions confirmed to TechCrunch that it sells its products to the U.S. government and other unspecified allied countries. Paragon’s executive chairman John Fleming said in a statement to TechCrunch on Tuesday that, “Paragon licenses its technology to a select group of global democracies — principally, the United States and its allies.” Fleming also said that Paragon “requires that all users agree to terms and conditions that explicitly prohibit the illicit targeting of journalists and other civil...
about 14 hours ago
Okta competitor SailPoint races toward $11.5B IPO
Cybersecurity company SailPoint is hoping to go public — again. This time, the company plans to sell $1 billion worth of stock and hit an $11.5 billion valuation in its planned IPO. That’s how the math works out for a proposed offering it announced Tuesday of 47.5 million shares, at between $19 to $21. SailPoint’s owner, Thoma Bravo, plans to also sell 2.5 million shares. SailPoint offers identity management wares to enterprises and is a competitor to $16 billion market-cap...
about 14 hours ago
Figure drops OpenAI in favor of in-house models
Figure AI founder and CEO Brett Adcock announced Tuesday that the humanoid robotics firm is exiting a deal with OpenAI. The Bay Area-based robotics company has instead opted to focus on in-house AI, owing to a “major breakthrough.” Adcock was tightlipped in terms of specifics, but he promised to deliver “something no one has ever seen on a humanoid” in the next 30 days. OpenAI has been a longtime investor in Figure. The pair announced a deal last year that...
about 14 hours ago
Hugging Face researchers aim to build an ‘open’ version of OpenAI’s deep research tool
A group of developers at AI dev platform Hugging Face, including Thomas Wolf, the company’s co-founder and chief scientist, say they’ve built an “open” version of OpenAI’s deep research tool. Deep research, which OpenAI unveiled during an event Sunday, crawls the web to compile research reports on any subject. While impressive, deep research is currently only available in limited preview to users subscribed to OpenAI’s $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan. The Hugging Face team’s project, which they’re calling Open Deep Research,...
about 14 hours ago
Amazon continues renewable energy spree with 476 MW purchase
Renewables notched another win as Amazon signed contracts to buy 476 megawatts of wind and solar on the Iberian Peninsula. The power purchase agreements with multinational utility Iberdrola should help Amazon feed new data centers it has planned in the region. Last May, the company said it would invest $17 billion in infrastructure projects, including data centers, in Spain. Amazon’s power bill has been soaring lately as it adds data centers to deal with rising demand for AI and cloud...
about 16 hours ago
A review of Tapestry, an app powered by the growing open web
A new app called Tapestry, which launched Tuesday, aggregates and organizes information from across the web and social networks in a single place. It is, in some ways, like this generation’s FriendFeed, for those old enough to remember the earlier attempt from the Web 2.0 era to aggregate feeds and social media updates in a single destination for discovery and discussion. But while FriendFeed encouraged discussions on-site, building a social network of its own — and ultimately attracting an acquisition...
about 16 hours ago
E-fuels startup will make diamonds before powering jet planes
September 11 left a lasting impression on Stephen Beaton, and like many others of his generation, he joined the military. But at the U.S. Air Force academy, his journey took a bit of a turn. There, his chemistry studies deepened his interest in liquid fuels. “As a product of September 11, seeing the spike in oil prices, I always thought, ‘how could we replace fossil fuels?’ I thought that it was important for national security.” Beaton’s passion took him to...
about 16 hours ago
TED Talks has put out an all-call for a new leader
In Brief Posted: 10:42 AM PST · February 4, 2025 Chris Anderson, who has run TED for 25 years, is looking to bestow the operation on anyone who has a good plan for its future, he announced in a blog post. TED is best known for its TED Talks, where ideas from tech to humor have been explored. It has featured famed tech moguls (Bill Gates, Elon Musk, Sam Altman); cultural stars (America Ferrera, Elizabeth Gilbert) and psychology icons (Mel...
about 16 hours ago
Challenging Bluesky, Threads now allows for public custom feeds
Meta’s Threads is doubling down on support for custom feeds as it faces challenges from the growing social network Bluesky, now with over 30 million users, which also offers custom feeds as one of its key features. On Tuesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that users can now set their custom feeds to be public and follow custom feeds made by others. Meta thinks that its custom feeds are superior to others because they can be built without technical skills...
about 16 hours ago
This Week in AI: Billionaires talk automating jobs away
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. You might’ve noticed we skipped the newsletter last week. The reason? A chaotic AI news cycle made even more pandemonious by Chinese AI company DeepSeek’s sudden rise to prominence, and the response from practically ever corner of industry and government. Fortunately, we’re back on track — and not a moment too soon, considering last weekend’s newsy developments from OpenAI. OpenAI CEO...
about 17 hours ago
An angel investor was so intrigued by this startup, he joined as a co-founder
Welcome to TechCrunch Fintech! This week we’re looking at a startup out to help people navigate long-term care, a flurry of activity in Africa, another fintech company shutdown, and more. To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important fintech stories delivered to your inbox every Tuesday at 8:00 a.m. PT, subscribe here. The big story Image Credits:Waterlily Long-term care is not something most people think about until they are older, or until they are forced to. And by...
about 17 hours ago
China may probe Intel for antitrust: Report
In Brief Posted: 9:49 AM PST · February 4, 2025 Amid China’s retaliation to recently-announced U.S. tariffs, Intel may find itself in the hot seat with China’s regulators. China is apparently considering an antitrust probe into semiconductor giant Intel, according to reporting from the Financial Times. This would be in addition to the set of tariffs against the U.S. that China announced on Monday. Per the FT, the country also reopened a long-dormant antitrust probe into Google in December, ahead...
about 17 hours ago
EU puts out guidance on uses of AI that are banned under its AI Act
The first compliance deadline kicked in a couple of days ago for the European Union’s AI Act, a risk-based framework for regulating uses of artificial intelligence — banning a narrow selection of so called “unacceptable risk” use-cases of AI, such as social scoring that could lead to detrimental or unfavourable treatment; or harmful manipulation using “subliminal techniques”. On Tuesday the EU’s executive body, the Commission, followed that fixed deadline up by putting out guidance for developers on how to comply...
about 17 hours ago
A comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs
Last year’s techwide reckoning continues. In 2023, layoffs have yet again cost tens of thousands of tech workers their jobs; this time, the workforce reductions have been driven by the biggest names in tech like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Yahoo, Meta and Zoom. Startups, too, have announced cuts across all sectors, from crypto to enterprise SaaS. The reasoning behind these workforce reductions follows a common script, citing the macroeconomic environment and a need to find discipline on a tumultuous path to...
about 17 hours ago
Cruise to slash workforce by nearly 50% after GM cuts funding to robotaxi operations
Autonomous vehicle company Cruise is laying off 50% of its workforce — cuts that extend to the CEO and several other top executives — as it prepares to shut down operations. What remains of Cruise will move under parent company General Motors as the automaker directs its resources towards improving its hands-free driver assistance system Super Cruise — and eventually rolls out personal autonomous vehicles. The layoffs were announced by Craig Glidden, Cruise’s president and chief administrative officer, according to...
about 18 hours ago
Deel unloads $300M in secondary sale, brings General Catalyst on as an investor
In Brief Posted: 9:11 AM PST · February 4, 2025 Fintech-turned-HR outfit Deel is trying to lay the groundwork for an IPO. On Tuesday, it said its annual revenue run rate climbed to $800 million in 2024 after growing by 70%. The startup, which helps businesses globally hire, manage and pay employees remotely, also said it has sold $300 million in secondary shares to General Catalyst and an unnamed “sovereign investor” – giving early investors a payout. CNBC reported that...
about 18 hours ago
DSTLRY, the comic books marketplace, launches new customization features for artists
DSTLRY, a venture-backed digital comic books marketplace, on Tuesday added a pair of features designed to bring customization to the platform. The first feature, dubbed Commissioned Digital Remarques, allows creators to add personalized sketches and signatures to digital comics. The second, Unlimited Digital Covers, expands platform-wide access to alternative comic book covers. Commissioned Digital Remarques brings the tradition of in-person comic customization into the digital realm. At conventions, waiting in line for an artist’s sketch or signature is a major...
about 18 hours ago
How Max Altschuler accidentally founded a VC firm that just raised another $54M
Four years after accidentally launching a VC firm, GTMfund founder and general partner Max Altschuler has raised a second $54 million fund. He was aiming for $50 million. GTMfund is one of a rising crop of “operator led” funds, meaning the limited partner investors are people who have worked, or are currently working, at successful tech companies (known in VC parlance as “operators”). “They are, for the most part, active at their current company, or maybe just finished a run...
about 18 hours ago
Apple launches Invites, a new app for creating custom invitations
Apple on Tuesday launched a new app called “Invites” that allows users to create custom invitations for any occasion. With Invites, users can create and share invitations on their iPhone, RSVP, contribute to Shared Albums, and curate event soundtracks. To create an invitation, you need an iCloud+ subscription. However, anyone can RSVP, regardless of whether they have an Apple Account or Apple device. The launch marks Apple’s latest instance of “Sherlocking” a service, or simply put, introducing a new feature...
about 18 hours ago
Former Tesla engineer heading government agency reportedly outlines ‘AI-first strategy’
In Brief Posted: 8:23 AM PST · February 4, 2025 Thomas Shedd, the former Tesla engineer now serving as the director of Technology Transformation Services, reportedly outlined an “AI-first strategy” for the U.S. government department. According to a report from Wired citing multiple sources, the Musk ally described the plan to run the office like a “startup software company” during a Monday meeting. The New York Times notes that the cost-cutting measure arrives as the department is said to be...
about 18 hours ago
Deepfake videos are getting shockingly good
Researchers from TikTok owner ByteDance have demoed a new AI system, OmniHuman-1, that can generate perhaps the most realistic deepfake videos to date. Deepfaking AI is a commodity. There’s no shortage of apps that can insert someone into a photo, or make a person appear to say something they didn’t actually say. But most deepfakes — and video deepfakes in particular — fail to clear the uncanny valley. There’s usually some tell or obvious sign that AI was involved somewhere....
about 19 hours ago
LogicStar is building AI agents for app maintenance
Swiss startup LogicStar is bent on joining the AI agent game. The summer 2024-founded startup has bagged $3 million in pre-seed funding to bring tools to the developer market that can do autonomous maintenance of software applications, rather than the more typical AI agent use-case of code co-development. LogicStar CEO and co-founder Boris Paskalev suggests the startup’s AI agents could end up partnering with code development agents — such as, say, the likes of Cognition Labs’ Devin — in a...
about 19 hours ago
Spotify reports its first full year of profitability, adds 35M monthly active users
On Tuesday morning, Spotify announced its fourth-quarter earnings, marking its first full year of profitability since its inception 17 years ago. The operating income for the quarter reached a record €477 million ($509.48 million) and amounted to €1.4 billion ($1.495 billion) for the 2024 fiscal year. Spotify also reported an addition of 35 million monthly active users (MAUs), the largest Q4 net addition in the company’s history, surpassing internal projections of 25 million. This increase brings the total to 675...
about 20 hours ago
OpenAI’s Operator agent helped me move, but I had to help it, too
OpenAI gave me one week to test its new AI agent, Operator, a system that can independently do tasks for you on the internet. Operator is the closest thing I’ve seen to the tech industry’s vision of AI agents — systems that can automate the boring parts of life, freeing us up to do the things we really love. However, judging from my experience with OpenAI’s agent, truly “autonomous” AI systems are still just out of reach. OpenAI trained a...
about 20 hours ago
Sotira lands $2M to help brands offload and monetize their surplus inventory
An estimated 20% to 30% of all inventory in the U.S. is surplus, with much of it ending up in landfills. A startup called Sotira wants to help address this problem: It leverages AI to help companies offload and monetize their surplus inventory. Sotira partners with brands to offload millions of pounds of surplus grocery, health and wellness, and cosmetics goods all over the United States. To fuel its mission, the company has closed a $2 million pre-seed funding round....
about 20 hours ago
Snap unveils AI text-to-image model for mobile devices
Snap has unveiled an AI text-to-image model for mobile devices that will power some of Snapchat’s features in the coming months. The company said on Tuesday that the model can produce high-resolution images in around 1.4 seconds on an iPhone 16 Pro Max. The new diffusion model runs entirely on the device, which reduces computational costs compared to models that rely on large servers. Snap notes that the model can create “stunning” visual results by “transferring rich representations from large-scale diffusion...
about 20 hours ago
LinkedIn amps up vertical video tools as uploads jump 36%
Video reigns supreme on social media like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. And now, video is becoming a bigger business for LinkedIn. The Microsoft-owned social network for the working world has yet to go full TikTok. But with a big boost of usage — today it said that video uploads jumped by 36% compared to last year, while video creation on the platform itself grew 100% — LinkedIn is adding in more features to woo more video activity: a new full-screen...
about 21 hours ago
Walkstar is a new iOS app that pauses songs when you stop moving
There are plenty of pedometer and step counter apps in the world, but this new app has a fun twist. Walkstar, which launched Tuesday in the App Store, enhances your workout by syncing your tunes with your movement. The moment you pause, the music fades away, making it a perfect motivator for those looking to maintain an active lifestyle. When you start walking or running for at least 10 seconds, the music begins to play. If the app detects that...
about 21 hours ago
Canada’s StackAdapt snaps up $235M for its AI-based programmatic platform
While the U.S. and Canada duke it out over tariffs between the two countries, a tech company based out of Toronto is announcing a major round of funding led by a homegrown VC. StackAdapt, a programmatic advertising startup, says that it has raised $235 million in equity funding, with Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG) — the investment arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan — leading the growth round. Intrepid Growth Partners, a firm based between Toronto and London, is also...
about 22 hours ago
Archive raises $30M to solve fashion’s pollution problem with online resales
The fashion industry has concerned Emily Gittins since adolescence. The sector is, after all, one of the most polluting in the world. According to some sources, it is responsible for nearly 10% of the earth’s CO2 emissions and more than 20% of all water waste. Yet people still want more, fast. “The way we consume today is hugely problematic,” Gittins told TechCrunch. In 2021, Gittins teamed up with Ryan Rowe to launch Archive, a company that provides software to fashion...
about 22 hours ago
Egypt’s Khazna banks $16M for its financial super app and expansion into Saudi
A large portion of Egypt’s population lacks access to traditional banking, forcing many to rely on cash transactions and informal lending. Khazna, a fintech startup founded in 2019, is tackling this issue by offering financial services tailored for low- and middle-income workers. The company provides solutions like salary advances, digital payments, and microloans to help employees and contractors access much-needed financial services. Khazna recently secured $16 million in pre-Series B funding, bringing its total funding to over $63 million. The...
about 24 hours ago
Grubhub confirms data breach affecting customers and drivers
U.S. food delivery giant Grubhub says hackers accessed the personal details of customers and drivers after breaching its internal systems. Grubhub is a popular food-ordering and delivery platform with over 375,000 merchants and 200,000 delivery providers using its platform in more than 4,000 U.S. cities. New York-based Wonder Group acquired the company last fall in a deal valued at $650 million — a fraction of the $7.3 billion Just Eat Takeaway paid for it back in 2020. On Monday, the...
1 day ago
OpenAI partners with Korea’s Kakao after inking SoftBank Japanese JV
On the heels of Chinese AI firm DeepSeek making a huge splash in OpenAI’s American backyard, OpenAI is diving into expanding in Asia, with major commercial deals that will also help it train its AI on more Asian-language content and user behavior — a gateway to doing more business in these markets in the future on its own. Today, OpenAI unveiled a strategic collaboration with Kakao, the South Korea tech company that operates one of the region’s most popular messaging...
1 day ago
Waabi and Volvo team up to build self-driving trucks at scale
Self-driving truck startup Waabi is partnering with Volvo Autonomous Solutions to jointly develop and deploy autonomous trucks, an important milestone as it gets closer to a commercial launch. The tie up also marks Volvo’s second partnership to co-develop self-driving big rigs with a startup partner. In May 2024, Volvo teamed up with Aurora Innovation to reveal the Volvo VNL Autonomous truck. Waabi will be using the same truck, but it will have Waabi’s tech on it, including its sensor suite,...
1 day ago
SoftBank-backed billionaire to invest $230M in Indian AI startup Krutrim
Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal is investing $230 million into an AI startup he founded as the country pushes to establish itself in a field dominated by U.S. and Chinese firms. Aggarwal is financing the investment in Krutrim largely through his family office, a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. In a post on X Tuesday, Aggarwal said Krutrim seeks to attract an investment of $1.15 billion by next year. He will seek to raise the remainder of the capital...
1 day ago
Opera launches a mindfulness-focused browser with break reminders and soundscapes
Norway-based browser maker Opera on Tuesday launched a new browser called “Opera Air,” which focuses on mental well-being and mindfulness with features like break reminders, breathing exercises, soundscapes, and binaural beats for better focus. The company said that people use browsers for a lot of their work online, and it wanted to ship a browser that is not just a utility tool but a stress and focus management system. Image Credits: Opera Opera opted for a new lightweight design language...
1 day ago
AI agents for e-commerce startup, founded by Google and DeepMind alums, raises $10M seed
AI is changing how we shop online, making our experiences more personalized. Smart assistants recommend products, negotiate deals, and even handle customer service. Big retailers and smaller businesses are using AI to improve search, supply chains, and checkout. If AI companies (and their investors) have their way, shopping will soon be focused on chatting with an assistant, with businesses automating everything behind the scenes. Dubai-based Qeen.ai (stylized as qeen.ai) is working to make this a reality in the Middle East and beyond. The...
1 day ago
Neuralk-AI is developing AI models specifically designed for structured data
Tabular data is a broad term that encompasses structured data that generally fits into a specific row and column. It can be a SQL database, a spreadsheet, a .CSV file, etc. While there has been tremendous progress on artificial intelligence applied to unstructured and sequential data, these large language models are fuzzy by design. They are built to manipulate input tokens to generate a coherent output without necessarily following a fixed structure. The best LLMs are also either expensive to...
1 day ago
Accel backs Indian AI startup building ‘ChatGPT for presentations’
Presentations.ai, an Indian startup that uses AI to help companies quickly generate presentation decks, has raised $3 million in a seed round led by Accel to scale its software that has emerged from beta after amassing millions of users. Presentations are ubiquitous throughout a business journey — whether a large corporation or a startup — to acquire new customers, update investors, and communicate milestones internally. Yet, businesses still struggle, spending hours cracking compelling presentations, which is even more critical when...
1 day ago
Adam Candeub, a vocal critic of Big Tech, will reportedly join the FCC
Adam Candeub, a known critic of Big Tech, looks poised to join the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Candeub will be general counsel of the FCC, reports Semafor, which cites direct confirmation from FCC chairman Brendan Carr. TechCrunch has reached out to the FCC for more information. Candeub has long been a vocal critic of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. Section 230 protects tech companies and online service providers from prosecution based on what their users post...
1 day ago
Ontario cancels, then restores, $68 million Starlink contract after protesting US tariffs
Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario, one of Canada’s most populous provinces, announced on X that the province’s government would be “ripping up” its $100 million contract with Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet service. The news comes soon after President Donald Trump announced this weekend a 25% tariff on nearly all Canadian imported goods, causing Canada to impose a 25% tariff on U.S. goods in response. “Ontario won’t do business with people hellbent on destroying our economy,” Ford posted on...
1 day ago
Stripe brings aboard new head of ‘startup and VC partnerships’
Asya Bradley, a former fintech founder and investor, has joined payments giant Stripe as its new head of Startup & Venture Capital Partnerships. Bradley announced the news on February 2 in a post on LinkedIn, though her bio shows that she joined Stripe back in November. Neither Stripe nor Bradley were immediately available for comment. Ending in February 2019, Bradley spent three years as the chief revenue office of Synapse, a fintech company that went under in 2024, leaving thousands...
1 day ago
Naver-backed Cinamon wants to make 3D video animation easier using AI
It’s never been easier to create and publish art than it is now, and if you believe the companies building tech around AI, the production process is going to get even more efficient. That’s especially the case with video production, with companies of all sizes using large language models to build tools that let you whip up decent quality videos and animation with a few prompts and actions. Popular tools in this space include Google’s Veo 2, OpenAI’s Sora, Runway,...
1 day ago
No, DeepSeek isn’t uncensored if you run it locally
In Brief Posted: 1:52 PM PST · February 3, 2025 There’s an idea floating around that DeepSeek’s well-documented censorship only exists at its application layer but goes away if you run it locally (that means downloading its AI model to your computer.) But DeepSeek’s censorship is baked-in, according to a Wired investigation which found that the model is censored on both the application and training levels. For example, a locally-run version of DeepSeek revealed to Wired thanks to its reasoning...
1 day ago
Meta says it may stop development of AI systems it deems too risky
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has pledged to make artificial general intelligence (AGI) — which is roughly defined as AI that can accomplish any task a human can — openly available one day. But in a new policy document, Meta suggests that there are certain scenarios in which it may not release a highly capable AI system it developed internally. The document, which Meta is calling its Frontier AI Framework, identifies two types of AI systems the company considers too risky...
1 day ago
DeepSeek: The countries and agencies that have banned the AI company’s tech
DeepSeek, the Chinese AI company, is raising the ire of regulators around the world. DeepSeek’s viral AI models and chatbot apps have been banned by a growing number of countries and government bodies, which have expressed concerns over DeepSeek’s ethics, privacy, and security practices. Corporations have banned DeepSeek, too — by the hundreds. The biggest worry reportedly is potential data leakage to the Chinese government. According to DeepSeek’s privacy policy, the company stores all user data in China, where local laws mandate organizations...
1 day ago
Journalist targeted on WhatsApp by Paragon spyware: ‘I feel violated’
On Friday, at 2:48 p.m., Francesco Cancellato received an ominous notification on his cellphone while he was at home near Milan. “This is a message from WhatsApp,” read the message in Italian, which was obtained by TechCrunch. “In December, WhatsApp interrupted the activities of a spyware company which we believe attacked your device. Our investigations indicate that you may have received a harmful file via WhatsApp and that the spyware may have resulted in accessing your data, including messages saved...
1 day ago
Trump says new US sovereign wealth fund could purchase TikTok
In Brief Posted: 10:52 AM PST · February 3, 2025 President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday to create a U.S. sovereign wealth fund and suggested that it could be used to purchase TikTok. The fund is expected to be created in the next 12 months by the U.S. Treasury and Commerce Departments, though it’s not immediately clear how. Trump has said previously it could be funded by “tariffs and other intelligent things,” per Reuters. Trump signed an executive...
1 day ago
Hot Tub, the first native iPhone porn app, arrives in EU
A native pornography app for iOS is coming to the EU via the approved alternative app store AltStore PAL, made possible by Europe’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). On Monday, the AltStore announced the launch of Hot Tub, an aggregator that offers iOS users a way to search and play videos from a variety of adult websites, including Pornhub, Xvideos, XNXX, and XHamster. While it’s always been possible to browse the web, including porn websites, from the iPhone’s web browser, the...
2 days ago
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025: Secure your ticket at this year’s lowest rates
Missed the 2-for-1 deal for TechCrunch Disrupt 2025? No problem! Super Early Bird prices are still available, with savings of up to $1,130 on individual tickets and up to 30% on group passes. These savings are only good until the end of this month. Celebrate 20 years of TechCrunch Disrupt from October 27-29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. Connect with 10,000+ tech leaders, 250+ sessions, and 200+ experts, and experience the legendary Startup Battlefield 200. Also, get ready for...
2 days ago
The Beatles won a Grammy last night, thanks to AI
In Brief Posted: 7:51 AM PST · February 3, 2025 The Beatles’ AI-assisted track “Now and Then” won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance on Sunday night, marking the first time that a song of its kind has taken home the award. No, Paul McCartney did not use AI to create some creepy LennonGPT bot. Instead, he used noise reduction systems to clean up a decades-old, low quality piano demo from his late bandmate. This technology is similar to what...
2 days ago
OpenAI’s new trademark application hints at humanoid robots, smart jewelry, and more
Last Friday, AI startup OpenAI filed a new application to trademark products associated with its brand — “OpenAI” — with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Normally, this wouldn’t be newsworthy. Companies file for trademarks all the time. But in the application, OpenAI hints at new product lines both nearer-term and of a more speculative nature. For example, the filing lists hardware including headphones, goggles, glasses, remotes, laptop and phone cases, smartwatches, smart jewelry, and virtual and augmented reality...
2 days ago
What PowerSchool won’t say about its data breach affecting millions of students
It’s only January, but the recent hack of U.S. edtech giant PowerSchool has the potential to be one of the biggest breaches of the year. PowerSchool, which provides K-12 software to more than 18,000 schools to support some 60 million students in the United States, confirmed the breach in early January. The California-based company, which Bain Capital acquired for $5.6 billion in 2024, said at the time that hackers used compromised credentials to breach its customer support portal, allowing further...
2 days ago
Hero’s all-in-one, AI productivity app takes on Google’s Calendar and others
People often use multiple apps for notes, schedule management, and to-dos. But why not combine them all in one app? That’s the ethos behind Hero, an all-in-one productivity app with an AI assistant (of course!). The iOS app was developed by former Meta employees Brad Kowalk and Seung W. Lee. Both met while working on Facebook stories where Kowalk was the product manager and Lee was an engineer. Kowalk also worked on new AI experiences at the company until 2022....
2 days 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...
2 days ago
Riot raises $30 million for its cybersecurity product suite focused on employees
French startup Riot has raised a $30 million Series B round after reaching $10 million in annual revenue in 2024. Originally focused on educating employees about cybersecurity risks, the company now wants to go one step further and nudge employees so that they minimize their attack surface. Left Lane Capital is leading today’s round with existing investors Y Combinator, Base10 and FundersClub participating once again. From what TechCrunch has learned, Riot’s has reached a post-money valuation north of $170 million...
2 days ago
Samsung chief Jay Y. Lee cleared of all charges in 2015 merger case
A Seoul appeals court on Monday upheld the acquittal of Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Jay Y. Lee in accounting fraud and stock manipulation in a case related to a controversial 2015 merger of two Samsung affiliates, Cheil Industries and Samsung C&T. The Seoul High Court dismissed the prosecution’s appeal in the case involving Lee, who faced 19 charges related to unfair trading and stock price manipulation under the Financial Investment Services and Capital Markets Act associated with the controversial 2015...
2 days ago
Tana snaps up $25M as its AI-powered knowledge graph for work racks up a 160K+ waitlist
An app that helps people and teams in the working world simplify their to-do lists — ideally by organising and doing some of the work for them — has remained one of the unsolved goals in business technology. Leaning into AI, on top of battle scars from once building Google Wave, a startup called Tana believes it’s cracked the code on how to reach it. Today, Tana is emerging from stealth, announcing $25 million in funding from an interesting list...
2 days ago
DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng receives a hero’s welcome back home
In Brief Posted: 7:19 PM PST · February 2, 2025 DeepSeek founder Lian Wenfeng is being hailed as a hero in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, where he grew up and reportedly returned for the Lunar New Year, joined by bodyguards. Wenfeng—who, at 40, is already a billionaire due to his hedge fund, High-Flyer—has gained even greater admiration from locals following DeepSeek’s breakthrough research, which demonstrated that powerful AI models could be built with fewer Nvidia chips. The finding...
2 days ago
India expands Aadhaar authentication for businesses, raising privacy concerns
India has eased restrictions on its Aadhaar authentication service, a digital identity verification framework linked to the biometrics of over 1.4 billion people, to let businesses including those offering services such as e-commerce, travel, hospitality, and healthcare use the verification system to authenticate their customers. The update has raised privacy concerns as New Delhi has yet to define the guardrails it would consider to avoid misuse of individuals’ biometric IDs. On Friday, the Indian IT ministry introduced the Aadhaar Authentication...
2 days ago
OpenAI unveils a new ChatGPT agent for ‘deep research’
OpenAI is announcing a new AI “agent” designed to help people conduct in-depth, complex research using ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot platform. Appropriately enough, it’s called deep research. OpenAI said in a blog post published Sunday that these this new capability was designed for “people who do intensive knowledge work in areas like finance, science, policy, and engineering and need thorough, precise, and reliable research.” It could also be useful, the company added, for anyone making “purchases that typically require...
2 days ago
Dub: The copy trading app that has teens talking
Social media changed everything from news consumption to shopping. Now, Dub thinks it can do the same for investing through an influencer-driven marketplace where users can follow the trades of top investors with a few taps. Think of it as TikTok meets Wall Street. Founded by 23-year-old Steven Wang — a Harvard drop-out who began investing in second grade with his parents’ blessing – Dub is betting the future of investing isn’t about picking stocks but instead picking people. The...
3 days ago
Apple reportedly launching a new event invite feature code-named Confetti
In Brief Posted: 9:05 AM PST · February 2, 2025 Apple will be giving iCloud users a new way to invite people to parties, meetings, and other events, according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The company has code-named the service Confetti, and it could launch as early as this week, Gurman says. There aren’t many details about how it will actually work, but Confetti is reportedly tied to iCloud and could also be the beginning of a broader revamp of Apple’s...
3 days ago
Google’s X spins out Heritable Agriculture, a startup using AI to improve crop yield
Google’s X “moonshot factory” this week announced its latest graduate. Heritable Agriculture is a data- and machine learning-driven startup aiming to improve how crops are grown. As the firm noted in an announcement post published Tuesday, plants are incredibly efficient and impressive systems. “Plants are solar powered, carbon negative, self-assembling machines that feed on sunlight and water,” Heritable wrote. Yet agriculture puts a massive strain on the planet and its resources, accounting for around 25% of anthropogenic greenhouse emissions. It’s...
3 days ago
AI systems with ‘unacceptable risk’ are now banned in the EU
As of Sunday in the European Union, the bloc’s regulators can ban the use of AI systems they deem to pose “unacceptable risk” or harm. February 2 is the first compliance deadline for the EU’s AI Act, the comprehensive AI regulatory framework that the European Parliament finally approved last March after years of development. The act officially went into force August 1; what’s now following is the first of the compliance deadlines. The specifics are set out in Article 5,...
3 days ago
Shein app relaunches in India with Reliance partnership
Chinese fast-fashion retailer Shein has relaunched in India through a partnership with Reliance Retail, nearly five years after it was banned amid diplomatic tensions between New Delhi and Beijing. The new Shein India Fast Fashion app, developed and launched by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Retail, marks a significant return to one of Asia’s largest retail markets. The app’s revival comes under stringent conditions that give Reliance complete control over operations and data. Under the partnership structure disclosed recently by India’s...
3 days ago
Senator warns of national security risks after Elon Musk’s DOGE granted ‘full access’ to sensitive Treasury systems
A senior U.S. lawmaker says representatives of Elon Musk were granted “full access” to a U.S. Treasury payments system used to disperse trillions of dollars to Americans each year, and warned that Musk’s access to the system poses a “national security risk.” Sen. Ron Wyden, a Democratic senator from Oregon and ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, said in a post on Bluesky on Saturday that sources told his office Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent gave Musk’s team, known as...
3 days ago
X expands lawsuit over advertiser ‘boycott’ to include Lego, Nestlé, Pinterest, and others
X is now suing more advertisers in an antitrust lawsuit focusing on what the company’s CEO Linda Yaccarino has claimed is a “systematic illegal boycott.” The company formerly known as Twitter first filed the lawsuit against the World Federation of Advertisers and its brand safety initiative known as the Global Alliance of Responsible Media in August 2024. Shortly afterwards, the WFA discontinued GARM, writing that “recent allegations that unfortunately misconstrue its purpose and activities have caused a distraction and significantly...
4 days ago
Adobe exec Scott Belsky departs for indie movie studio A24
In Brief Posted: 10:38 AM PST · February 1, 2025 Adobe’s chief strategy officer Scott Belsky announced this week that he will be joining A24, the independent movie studio behind “Civil War,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” and many more titles. Belsky first joined Adobe in 2012 through the acquisition of Behance, leaving briefly in 2016 to become a VC at Benchmark but eventually returning Adobe, where he also served as executive vice president of design and emerging products. A24,...
4 days ago
DeepSeek gets Silicon Valley talking
Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re looking at DeepSeek’s major boost in the U.S.; Elon Musk admitting he was wrong about FSD; teens losing trust in Big Tech; and more! Let’s do it. DeepSeek went viral this week after its AI models led Wall Street analysts and technologists to question whether the U.S. can maintain its lead in the AI race — and whether the demand for AI chips will sustain. DeepSeek even claims that its R1...
4 days ago
Here are all the IPOs reported to be in the works for 2025
Tech is upbeat about more companies going public this year, thanks in part to a new presidential administration that has promised to ease regulations and embrace industries like crypto and AI. But there were already early signs of bullishness — especially in fintech — thanks to the wildly successful 2024 IPO of ServiceTitan, a SaaS platform for the trades. TechCrunch has compiled a chronological list of companies that have either announced that they plan to go public this year or...
4 days ago
Here are the apps battling to be become the ‘TikTok for Bluesky’
TikTok’s potential U.S. ban has sparked a flurry of development within the open social web community. Several new applications are being built that could one day serve as a TikTok replacement for those who favor the open source, decentralized social network Bluesky and the technology that powers it, the AT Protocol. Though the TikTok ban is currently on pause after President Trump gave parent company ByteDance a 75-day extension to negotiate a deal, the fact that the government was able...
4 days ago
Venture debt lenders will play a big role in fire sales and startup shutdown this year, experts say
When accounting startup Bench abruptly failed last month, the shutdown was forced when the company’s lenders called in the startup’s loan. In late 2023, the digital freight company Convoy faced financial challenges, leading venture lending firm Hercules Capital to assume control of the company to recover its investments. Divvy Homes, which sold for about $1 billion to Brookfield Properties last week, has left some of the company shareholders without any payout, TechCrunch reported last week. Although the specific role of...
4 days ago
How to delete X and move on with your life
As Elon Musk’s X sees a decline in daily active users, some people are deciding to ditch the social network entirely, whether that’s for Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads, or perhaps, better yet, nothing at all. Since the Tesla and SpaceX CEO bought Twitter in 2022, numerous alternatives have cropped up, seeking to ensnare people who are less than satisfied with Musk’s management of the platform. In some cases, that point of no return came when X turned its iconic blue checkmark...
4 days ago
AI agents could birth the first one-person unicorn — but at what societal cost?
Thanks to the advent of cloud computing and distributed digital infrastructure, the one-person micro-enterprise is far from a novel concept. Cheap on-demand compute, remote collaboration, payment processing APIs, social media, and e-commerce marketplaces have all made it easier to “go it alone” as an entrepreneur. But what about scaling that one-person business into something meatier — an enterprise of unicorn proportions? Historically, this would have been an unfathomably tough task, due to the skills and resources required, not only to...
4 days ago
India pledges fresh billion for startups
India announced a new $1.15 billion Fund of Funds for startups on Saturday while unveiling sweeping regulatory reforms and an ambitious nuclear energy program, as New Delhi seeks to boost tech innovation and clean energy in the world’s fifth-largest economy. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, presenting the federal budget for 2025-26, said the fund builds on earlier startup funding programs that have already deployed more than $1 billion from alternate investment funds. The new fund will have an “expanded scope” compared...
4 days ago
Elon Musk is reportedly taking control of the inner workings of US government agencies
People working for, or with, Elon Musk are reportedly taking over the inner workings of multiple government agencies, including the Office of Personnel Management and the Treasury Department. The Washington Post reported Friday that the highest-ranking career official at Treasury is leaving the department after “a clash” with people working for Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) over “access to sensitive payment systems,” citing three unnamed sources. The DOGE officials have been asking for access to the system —...
4 days ago
Autonomous vehicle testing in California dropped 50%. Here’s why.
Tech companies developing self-driving vehicle technology have tapped the brakes on testing on California’s public roads, according to new data from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles. The agency reported Friday a total of 4.5 million autonomous vehicle test miles were logged in 2024, a 50% drop from the previous year. That figure covers two kinds of permits: autonomous vehicles with human safety drivers behind the wheel and those that allow for driverless testing. The decline is more pronounced under...
4 days ago
OpenAI used this subreddit to test AI persuasion
OpenAI used the subreddit, r/ChangeMyView, to create a test for measuring the persuasive abilities of its AI reasoning models. The company revealed this in a system card – a document outlining how an AI system works – that was released along with its new “reasoning” model, o3-mini, on Friday. Millions of Reddit users are members of r/ChangeMyView, where they post hot takes hoping to learn about other points of view on a subject. In response to those hot takes, other...
4 days ago
Sam Altman: OpenAI has been on the ‘wrong side of history’ concerning open source
To cap off a day of product releases, OpenAI researchers, engineers, and executives, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, answered questions in a wide-ranging Reddit AMA on Friday. OpenAI the company finds itself in a bit of a precarious position. It’s battling the perception that it’s ceding ground in the AI race to Chinese companies like DeepSeek, which OpenAI alleges might’ve stolen its IP. The ChatGPT maker has been trying to shore up its relationship with Washington and simultaneously pursue an...
4 days ago
Mistral board member and a16z VC Anjney Midha says DeepSeek won’t stop AI’s GPU hunger
Andreessen Horowitz general partner and Mistral board member Anjney “Anj” Midha first spied DeepSeek’s jaw-dropping performance six months ago, he tells TechCrunch. That’s when DeepSeek introduced Coder V2, which rivaled OpenAI’s GPT4-Turbo for coding-specific tasks, according to a paper it released last year. This put DeepSeek on a path to release improved models every couple of months right through R1, he said. R1 is its new open source reasoning model that has upended the tech industry for offering industry standard...
4 days ago
MLCommons and Hugging Face team up to release massive speech dataset for AI research
MLCommons, a nonprofit AI safety working group, has teamed up with AI dev platform Hugging Face to release one of the world’s largest collections of public domain voice recordings for AI research. The data set, called Unsupervised People’s Speech, contains more than a million hours of audio spanning at least 89 different languages. MLCommons says it was motivated to create it by a desire to support R&D in “various areas of speech technology.” “Supporting broader natural language processing research for...
5 days ago
‘Hundreds’ of companies are blocking DeepSeek over China data risks
In Brief Posted: 1:55 PM PST · January 31, 2025 DeepSeek took the U.S. by storm this week: the Chinese company’s chatbot rose to the top of the Apple and Play stores, while major U.S. cloud providers like Microsoft began offering it on their platforms. But “hundreds” of companies – especially ones with ties to government – have blocked the service, Bloomberg reported based on interviews with executives from cybersecurity firms Armis and Netskope. “The biggest concern is the AI...
5 days ago
Guo’s Conviction Partners adds Mike Vernal as GP, raises $230M fund
In Brief Posted: 1:02 PM PST · January 31, 2025 When in mid-2022 Sarah Guo left Greylock to launch her own AI-focused fund, Conviction Partners, she indicated that she was tagging the word “Partners” to the firm’s name because she would eventually bring on other GPs. Now, more than two years later, Guo is being joined by Mike Vernal, who was a partner at Sequoia before leaving the storied firm in 2023. Vernal joins as Conviction reveals it just closed...
5 days ago