timef 03/17/2025

GTC, Nvidia’s biggest conference of the year, will return this week, with the biggest announcements probably coming Tuesday. If you can’t make it in person, don’t sweat it. TechCrunch will be on the ground covering the major developments, and we’ve made it easy for you to follow along. Many of the biggest presentations, talks, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Bumble is finally catching up with competitor Tinder with a new ID verification feature as dating app users urge for more safety measures.  In addition to ID verification, the company also released three more features, including a feature that flags inappropriate messages in chat before users hit send and the ability to share date details […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Marko Elez emailed a spreadsheet containing personal information to two Trump administration officials. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Last week, at the Abundance Summit in Los Angeles, billionaire entrepreneur Travis Kalanick gave attendees a rare glimpse into his vision for the future of his newest company, CloudKitchens. While today the eight-year-old L.A.-based outfit is known for a growing real estate portfolio that it uses to it host – and set up – restaurants […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

We’ve been blown away by the overwhelming response to speak at TechCrunch Sessions: AI on June 5 in Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley. After thorough consideration, we’ve selected six standout finalists. The power to choose who will take the stage and share their AI expertise with 1,200 AI leaders and enthusiasts is now in your […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

It’s only been around six months since Snap released the fifth generation of Spectacles, its AR glasses for developers, and the company is already enhancing its latest pair with new Lenses and platform features. Snap announced on Monday that it’s launching the ability to create Spectacles-focused Lenses that tap GPS, new hand-tracking capabilities, and more. Now, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

TechCrunch All Stage (formerly Early Stage) returns to Boston on July 15, and the agenda for our tentpole East Coast founder event is almost complete. We’re excited to share this sneak peek at some of the fantastic speakers and sessions we have on tap.  For builders who are just starting on their founder journey, our […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Palmetto has developed a virtual view of how every residential building in the U.S. was built. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Roblox announced Monday that it’s launching the first iteration of its 3D model, dubbed “Cube,” to allow creators to create 3D objects using generative AI. The company also launched an open-source version so anyone off the platform can build on it. Announced last year at Roblox’s annual developer conference, the company is demoing Cube at […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Discord on Monday announced the launch of its Discord Social SDK, a free toolkit that allows developers to leverage the platform’s social infrastructure to enhance their games’ social and multiplayer experiences. The toolkit allows developers to improve their in-game experiences, whether players have a Discord account or not. Social integrations include a unified friends list […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As duties under the U.K.’s Online Safety Act (OSA) related to tackling illegal content came into force Monday, the internet watchdog, Ofcom, said it has launched a new enforcement program focused on online storage and file-sharing services. The regulator said its evidence shows that file-sharing and file-storage services are “particularly susceptible” to being used for […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A lot of the focus in generative AI up to now has been on text-based interfaces used to generate text, images and more. The next wave appears to be voice, and it’s rolling in fast. In the latest development, Google today announced that it would be adding Chirp 3 — its HD voice interface — […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google is doubling down on building out its AI business in the U.K., and on Monday morning in London, the CEO of Google DeepMind Demis Hassabis and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian appeared alongside customers BT and WPP to spell out some of its plans. The company said it will be expanding UK data residency […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A broad coalition drawn from across the ranks of Europe’s tech industry is calling for “radical action” from European Union lawmakers to shrink reliance on foreign-owned digital infrastructure and services to bolster the bloc’s economic prospects, resilience, and security in increasingly fraught geopolitical times. In an open letter to European Commission president, Ursula von der […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

After reporting in January that Apple is adding an “Air” option to its iPhone lineup, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman is offering more details about the upcoming slimmer iPhone. The iPhone 17 Air will launch this fall, Gurman says — and like the MacBook Air, it will be thinner than standard models, while combining high-end and low-end […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Meta won a legal victory this week against Sarah Wynn-Williams, a former employee who recently published a memoir of her time at the company titled “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.” An arbitrator ruled that Wynn-Williams, who worked at Facebook (now Meta) from 2011 to 2017, may have violated the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Users on social media have discovered a controversial use case for Google’s new Gemini AI model: removing watermarks from images, including from images published by Getty Images and other well-known stock media outfits. Last week, Google expanded access to its Gemini 2.0 Flash model’s image generation feature, which lets the model natively generate and edit […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Chinese search engine Baidu has launched two new AI models — Ernie 4.5, the latest version of the company’s foundational model first released two years ago, as well as a new reasoning model, Ernie X1. According to Reuters, Baidu claims that Ernie X1’s performance is “on par with DeepSeek R1 at only half the price,”, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.