timef 02/07/2025

Hackers with Russian foreign intelligence were blamed for the breach, which also targeted Microsoft. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The GenAI boom of the last few years has unleashed a wave of startups promising to support the process of prompt engineering — i.e., coming up with instructions to precisely steer an AI chatbot to serve useful output. So think tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, which present the user with a blank field […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Pinterest listed the latest attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion as a possible business risk in its latest 10-K filing.  The company wrote in its filing to investors that if its efforts around DEI “are perceived as insufficient or overdone,” then it “may not be able to attract and retain talent” and that the company […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in 2020 and schools transitioned to online learning, both Joe Titus and Paul Suhr were concerned about how to maintain their children’s activity levels in the absence of mandatory physical education classes and sports. The two friends’ solution was Hiveclass, a New York-based edtech platform that hosts online courses for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The states plan to file the lawsuit in defense of Americans' "right to privacy." © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apple is likely to stop providing its encrypted cloud service to U.K. users © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

AI and the large language models (LLMs) that power them have a ton of useful applications, but for all their promise, they’re not very reliable. No one knows when this problem will be solved, so it makes sense that we’re seeing startups finding an opportunity in helping enterprises make sure the LLM-powered apps they’re paying […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The edtech giant has begun notifying individuals outside of the US and Canada affected by the breach © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A few days ahead of the Artificial Intelligence Action Summit in Paris, the French presidency has announced the first of several expected financial initiatives related to AI. France’s Emmanuel Macron and the United Arab Emirates’ Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan have signed an agreement for a significant investment to build a massive data center dedicated […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meta is launching a new program in partnership with UNESCO to collect speech recordings and transcriptions the company said will help the development of future openly available AI. The program, the Language Technology Partner Program, is seeking collaborators who can contribute more than 10 hours of speech recordings with transcriptions, large amounts of written text, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meta Friday announced PARTNR, a new program designed to study human-robot interaction (HRI). The research is specifically focused on how humans and robots might collaborate in the home environment. That includes mundane tasks like cleaning, cooking, and picking up food deliveries. Automated housework is a decades-old dream, most prominently captured by The Jetsons’ Rosie. The […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Indian food delivery company Swiggy’s stock fell below both its IPO price and its last private valuation as mounting losses and a wavering market position in quick commerce pressured its margins in the last quarter. The food delivery company’s stock fell as low as ₹374.80 ($4.29) on Thursday below its November IPO price of ₹390, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

India’s central bank is introducing an exclusive “.bank.in” domain for banks from April 2025 as part of efforts to combat rising digital payment frauds and bolster trust in online banking services. The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) will serve as the exclusive registrar for the new domain, the Reserve Bank of […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Sprinklr has cut 15% of its workforce — around 500 employees — due to business performance not meeting expectations. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

On Thursday, President Trump asked Republican lawmakers to end tax breaks on carried interest.  The tax break allows private equity and venture fund managers to treat their earnings from investments at a lower capital gains rate, rather than as ordinary income.  The removal of the tax break would be a big hit to the VC […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

OpenAI co-founder John Schulman, who left AI company Anthropic earlier this week after a mere five months, is reportedly joining former OpenAI CTO Mira Murati’s secretive new startup, per Fortune. It’s not clear what Schulman’s role there will be. Fortune wasn’t able to learn that information, and Murati has been tight-lipped about the venture since […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A group of more than 100 organizations has published an open letter calling on the AI industry and regulators to mitigate the tech’s harmful environmental impacts just days before leading industry CEOs, heads of state, academics, and nonprofits descend on Paris for a major AI conference. The letter, which bears the signatures of prominent advocacy […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Amazon is joining other Big Tech companies by announcing huge AI spending plans for 2025. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

According to a New York Times report, on Thursday, the U.S. government’s General Services Administration (GSA) removed the spoon emoji as an option that users of its videoconferencing platform can select to express themselves. The move comes a day after workers embraced the digital cutlery to protest the Trump administration’s “Fork in the Road” resignation […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

One of Meta’s earliest employees is suing the company for sexual harassment, sex discrimination, and retaliation, according to a lawsuit filed this week in the state of Washington. Kelly Stonelake, who spent 15 years at the company and rose to the rank of director, alleges in the lawsuit she faced a cycle of gender-based discrimination […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In response to pressure from rivals including Chinese AI company DeepSeek, OpenAI is changing the way its newest AI model, o3-mini, communicates its step-by-step “thought” process. On Thursday, OpenAI announced that free and paid users of ChatGPT, the company’s AI-powered chatbot platform, will see an updated “chain of thought” that shows more of the model’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A 25-year-old Doge staffer resigned over racist posts on X. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! We knew this day was coming: Cruise is dead — at least as a robotaxi company. General Motors completed its acquisition of GM Cruise Holdings LLC; Cruise is […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Tinder hopes to reverse its ongoing decline in active users by turning to AI. In the coming quarter, the Match-owned dating app will roll out new AI-powered features for discovery and matching. The addition aims to offer fatigued singles an alternative to the “swipe” that defined the dating app in its earlier days and influenced […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and the chief executive of the California Community Foundation, Miguel Santana, are launching a program focused on helping residents in Altadena and Pacific Palisades rebuild on their own terms after last month’s wildfires. The California Community Foundation, Snap, Spiegel, and Snap CTO Bobby Murphy are committing $10 million in funding to staff […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A wave of automakers and battery makers — foreign and domestic — have pledged to produce North American–made batteries before 2030. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Dojo is Tesla’s custom-built supercomputer that’s designed to train its “Full Self-Driving” neural networks. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google on Thursday announced that effective this week, it will begin adding a digital watermark to images in Photos that are edited with generative AI. The watermark applies specifically to images that are altered using the Reimagine feature found in Magic Editor on Pixel 9 devices. Announced in 2024, Reimagine utilizes generative AI to alter […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In a bid to boost its subscription service and attract more paying users, Snapchat is rolling out additional features for Snapchat+ subscribers, including allowing Snapchat+ subscribers to create AI-generated stickers in chats. The social media company is also adding the option to send self-destructing Snaps. Snapchat+ subscribers in the U.S. can now create and send […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Ford CEO Jim Farley has a question about President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico, Canada, and China: Why stop there? Farley said in a conference call Wednesday that Trump’s selective approach “doesn’t make sense.” “Why are we having this conversation while Hyundai-Kia is importing 600,000 units in the U.S. with no incremental […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Philadelphia Eagles’ star running back Saquon Barkley has not only become an investor in fintech startup Ramp, he is also the star of the company’s first Super Bowl commercial. Interestingly, it was Barkley who reached out to Ramp about investing, not the other way around as is so often the case with celebrity endorsements.  Barkley […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The European Union has published guidance on what constitutes an AI system under its new AI Act. The risk-based framework for regulating applications of artificial intelligence came into force last summer — with the first compliance deadline (on banned use cases) kicking in last weekend. Determining whether a particular software system falls within the act’s […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Following allegations of potential abuse, Paragon Solutions has cut off Italy from its spyware systems. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Mark Zuckerberg’s charity has told its employees it will remain committed to DEI even as Meta eliminates its DEI programs, The Guardian reports.  Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), founded and co-led by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, reassured its employees after many began expressing concerns about recent changes at Meta as the company scales back […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.