timef 01/30/2025

Authorities said the two forums — Cracked and Nulled — had more than 10 million users. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Amazon is the latest company to announce a price hike for its music streaming subscriptions. The company revealed this week that the price of an Amazon Music Unlimited Individual plan for Prime members is going from $9.99 per month to $10.99. As for subscribers without a Prime membership, the price of their subscription is going […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

OpenAI says it plans to let U.S. National Laboratories, the Department of Energy’s network of R&D labs, use its AI models for nuclear weapons security and other scientific projects. Per CNBC, OpenAI will work with Microsoft, its lead investor, to deploy a model on the supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The model will be a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Web-based party games are making a comeback, now with the infusion of generative AI. Among the startups joining the trend, the current forecast looks good for one startup, Little Umbrella, which leverages AI for its social party games.  The company announced on Thursday its $2 million seed funding round. Little Umbrella plans to use the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

At an event in New York City on Thursday, Microsoft unveiled two additions to the Surface line of PCs. The new Surface Pro and Surface Laptop both arrive with Copilot+ PC certification. Announced in May 2024, the program aims to identify business-focused devices that are designed specifically for the company’s AI platform, Copilot. It’s a […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google Maps is planning to comply with President Donald Trump’s executive order to rename several American landmarks, including the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. However, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said in a press conference on Wednesday that Mexico will send a letter to Google questioning its choice to update the body of water’s name. […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In the U.S., AI-generated creations — books, movies, and so forth— that have been edited by a human can likely be copyrighted, but those without any human modifications or additions cannot. That’s according to a report published by the U.S. Copyright Office (USCO) on Wednesday, which outlined scenarios in which AI-generated content might be eligible […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Backline, a new security startup that uses AI agents to automatically remediate security vulnerabilities, is coming out of stealth with a $9 million seed round led by StageOne Ventures. This is the third startup by Maor Goldberg, the company’s co-founder and CEO. He previously co-founded Whitebox Security, which he sold to SailPoint in 2015, as […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The newest generation of startups aiming to solve cross-border payments are focusing on stablecoins — cryptocurrency coins often pegged to actual currencies or other commodities to help them keep stable prices — to build solutions that work faster and often cheaper than classic financial rails. This trend is also driving a surge in investor interest […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Savant Labs launched its automation platform for data analysts in 2023. The company, which competes with the likes of Alteryx, on Thursday said it had raised $18.5 million in a Series A round led by Dell Technologies Capital. Unlike some other low-code/no-code tools, Savant’s focus is squarely on business analysts. Analysts, its CEO and founder […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Move over, DeepSeek. Seattle-based nonprofit AI lab Ai2 has released a benchmark-beating model called Tulu3-405B. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The internal DeepSeek database was exposed to the internet without a password. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Jared Zhao originally got interested in data analytics during his time at UC Berkeley because he was drawn to how it could turn raw data into a story. Zhao founded his first data analytics startup Polyture in 2021. But advancements in generative AI just a year later made Zhao realize what Polyture was building was […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

New York Blood Center said it does not have a "specific timetable for system restoration" following the attack, which has led to canceled appointments and delays © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

SuperOps has raised $25 million in an all-equity Series C round led by March Capital to bolster AI integration into tools supporting managed service providers and IT teams. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

India’s IT minister on Thursday praised DeepSeek‘s progress and said the country will host the Chinese AI lab’s large language models on domestic servers, in a rare opening for Chinese technology in India. “You have seen what DeepSeek has done — $5.5 million and a very very powerful model,” IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

French startup Swan has raised another €42 million (around $44 million at current exchange rates). The company considers this round as the second part of the Series B round that was originally announced in September 2024. Swan helps other companies offer financial products at scale. The company can generate both virtual and physical cards that […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

SoftBank is in talks to invest up to $25 billion in OpenAI as part of a broader partnership that could see the Japanese conglomerate spend more than $40 billion on AI initiatives with the Microsoft-backed startup, according to Financial Times. The potential investment would make SoftBank OpenAI’s largest single backer, the report said, surpassing Microsoft […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meta says its controversial decision to put an end to its fact-checking program hasn’t impacted advertiser spend. On its Q4 2024 call, Meta CFO Susan Li assured investors that advertiser demand remains strong and the company’s commitment to brand safety remains unchanged, despite the new measures. Meanwhile, CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that the community notes […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meta is doubling down on AI spending despite markets briefly panicking over concerns DeepSeek will reduce AI demand. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

LinkedIn, the social platform where people look for and talk about work, may be less visible in Microsoft’s earnings compared to the years when it was an independent company. But around earnings time, LinkedIn often reveals some figures that point to how it continues to grow.  On Wednesday, as Microsoft reported its Q2 numbers, the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Wednesday that his company will launch a paid ride-hailing robotaxi service in Austin, Texas this coming June, the latest in a long line of sky-high promises he has yet to meet about autonomy. Musk was unsurprisingly light on details. He said that there will be no people in the cars, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Threads, Meta’s microblogging service, is growing at a fast pace as users gravitate to the app over rivals like X. During the company’s fourth-quarter earnings presentation on Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Threads now has 320 million monthly active users (MAUs), up from 300 million last month. The app had 275 million monthly active […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A cybersecurity company says hackers are pushing Mac and Windows malware through sites that are using outdated versions of WordPress. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Microsoft’s close partner and collaborator, OpenAI, might be suggesting that DeepSeek stole its IP and violated its terms of service. But Microsoft still wants DeepSeek’s shiny new models on its cloud platform. Microsoft today announced that R1, DeepSeek’s so-called reasoning model, is available on Azure AI Foundry service, Microsoft’s platform that brings together a number […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

8VC, a venture firm led by Palantir founder Joe Lonsdale, is seeking nearly $1 billion for its sixth fund, according to a regulatory filing. The Austin-based firm’s latest fund aims to raise nearly 14% more than its previous $880 million flagship vehicle, which closed in February 2023. TechCrunch has reached out to the firm for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Chinese AI company DeepSeek has been accused of IP theft, faced privacy inquiries in Europe, and has been the target of an enormous cyberattack. Now, it appears the company has a new headache on its hands: a U.S. trademark conflict. On Tuesday, DeepSeek filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) seeking […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

These days, nothing is certain about the tech market or the world at large. Even NVIDIA’s seemingly bulletproof stock took a hammering on Monday, enduring a $589 billion market cap decline after China-based DeepSeek raised questions for investors about more efficient AI models. But Apple’s stock has remained steady ahead of its first quarter earnings […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

After MoviePass’s historic implosion, subscribers to the “Netflix for movie theaters” were already cautious around the company’s 2023 relaunch. These moviegoers may grow even more skeptical after MoviePass sent out an email blast on Wednesday, which surveyed customers about their interest in web3. “Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain technologies are transforming the business landscape at an unprecedented […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Extreme weather conditions will be more common, according to the study, adding fresh urgency to a burgeoning group of climate adaptation startups. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Waymo plans to start testing autonomous vehicles in 10 new cities this year, starting with Las Vegas and San Diego, according to The Verge. Although this doesn’t mean the company will launch commercial operations in any of these cities — or even test them in autonomous mode. Waymo told The Verge it will send less […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meta continues to target creators in the days following the U.S. TikTok ban. In addition to paying TikTok creators big bonuses to publish reels, Instagram announced on Wednesday that it’s introducing new ways for creators to better understand how their short videos are performing. The platform is introducing additional metrics that allow creators to see […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In an essay on Wednesday, Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, weighed in on the debate over whether Chinese AI company DeepSeek’s success implies that U.S. export controls on AI chips aren’t working. Amodei, who recently made the case for stronger export controls in an op-ed co-written with former U.S. deputy national security advisor Matt […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

American teens have lost their faith in Big Tech, according to a new report from Common Sense Media, a nonprofit offering reviews and ratings for media and technology, which more recently includes AI products. In the study released Wednesday, the organization surveyed over 1,000 teens on whether major technology companies like Google, Apple, Meta, TikTok, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Netflix announced on Wednesday that it’s giving iOS users a new feature that allows them to download an entire season of their favorite TV show with one tap. The feature first became available to Android users.  The Season Download button is available in the Netflix app, located next to the Share button on a show’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

With its 700,000 customers, Alan could be considered as a mature company. But the health insurance company that wants to become a digital companion for your health is still growing like a startup. On Wednesday, the company shared some financial metrics. The most impressive one is its top-line revenue. In 2024, the company generated €505 […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Last year, Wizards of the Coast and Resolution Games announced an exciting development: Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), the popular tabletop role-playing game (RPG), is being adapted for virtual reality.  Until now, specific details about the new game have been kept closely under wraps. However, on Wednesday, the companies finally unveiled the official title and more […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A court filing says 37 million MGM customers had personal data stolen in the cyberattacks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The jury is still out on whether the Chinese AI upstart DeepSeek is a game changer or part of an elaborate plan by its hedge fund parent company to short Nvidia and other tech stocks. Whichever it might be (maybe both?), DeepSeek and its large language model have made some major waves. And now, it’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

UVeye started as a play to scan cars for security threats, but the Israeli startup really hit its stride when its founders realized the AI-powered computer vision systems could perform more typical vehicle inspections. Now, the company is evolving its funding strategy. UVeye announced Wednesday morning a $191 million extension to its 2023 Series D […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Lily Vittayarukskul was studying aerospace engineering when her aunt was diagnosed with terminal colon cancer. Her aunt had lived under the same roof as Vittayarukskul while she was growing up and helped raise her. “We went all in on her care,” she recalled. Post-chemotherapy, Vittayarukskul’s aunt “became very frail,” so her family  – originally from […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.