timef 05/29/2025

Chinese AI startup DeepSeek’s newest AI model, an updated version of the company’s R1 reasoning model, achieves impressive scores on benchmarks for coding, math, and general knowledge, nearly surpassing OpenAI’s flagship o3. But the upgraded R1, also known as “R1-0528,” might also be less willing to answer contentious questions, in particular questions about topics the […]

Reflecting on 10 years since its launch, the honeypot maker explains why the company did not take on any VC funding.

Meta AI now has one billion monthly active users across its apps, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, as first reported by CNBC. The new milestone doubles the 500 million monthly active users Meta AI had back in September 2024. The “focus for this year is deepening the experience […]

We’re on the final stretch! TechCrunch Sessions: AI kicks off in just 7 days. Main stage and breakout sessions feature AI leaders from Google Cloud, Anthropic, OpenAI, Twelve Labs, and more. It’s your moment to connect, learn, and network at high velocity. Now’s the time to move—lock in your ticket and save $300, plus score […]

Apple will reportedly change the way it names its operating systems, per a Bloomberg report.  Operating systems will now be named by year, meaning the update after the current iOS 18 will be iOS 26 rather than, say, iOS 19. The change paves the way for a less confusing, more consistent branding among Apple products. […]

Volteras has raised $11.1 million to expand its connected car offerings to automakers and companies that want to interact with EVs.

Nearly two years after suing OpenAI and Microsoft for copyright infringement, The New York Times has agreed to license its editorial content to Amazon to train the tech giant’s AI platforms. 

Zeal Capital Partners announced on Wednesday the close of its second fund, raising $82 million. Limited partners in the fund include Citi Impact Fund, M&T Bank, Wells Fargo, and Spelman College. It hopes to invest in at least 25 early-stage companies, writing check sizes between $1 million and $2.3 million, with 50% of the fund […]

In the construction industry, managers can easily become disconnected from what’s happening on-site. Among the many tasks to juggle are staying apprised of costs, communicating with all stakeholders, and assessing risk related to aspects like contractor billing and performance. Buildots wants to change all of that through AI and computer vision. Founded in 2018 by […]

As Kevin Malone from “The Office” once said, “Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?”  For Julia LeStage and Lisa Le, the creators of a new dating app called LoveJack, finding love online doesn’t have to feel like filling out a mountain of paperwork. Sometimes, all you need are a few […]

X said it will work on "making some improvements" to the encrypted DMs feature. It didn't mention when the feature might be available again.

Elon Musk confirmed on Wednesday that he's ending his stint as a U.S. special government employee and as the de-facto head of DOGE.

NVIDIA and AMD will soon begin selling new GPUs made for AI workloads in China to comply with US chip export restrictions.

Home services in India — whether it is cleaning, dishwashing, or laundry — have traditionally been offline and informally run. This has often resulted in delays and uncertainties for consumers, as well as inconsistent pay and job insecurity for workers. Recently, however, startups have begun viewing this area as ripe for transformation, leveraging technology to […]

Sahil Lavingia has published a diary recounting his time as a member of Elon Musk’s DOGE workforce. It’s a short read — Lavingia’s DOGE stint lasted just 55 days — but it is does provide new details on the temporary government organization formed by President Trump’s executive order. Lavingia is a well-known name in Silicon […]

Horizon3.ai, a cybersecurity startup that provides tools like autonomous penetration testing, is seeking to raise $100 million in a new funding round and has locked down at least $73 million, the company revealed in an SEC filing this week. NEA led the round, according to two people familiar with the deal. One person said that […]

As Nvidia reports earnings for the first quarter of its fiscal year 2026, which closed on April 28, the company has released numbers on how the Trump administration’s recent chip export restrictions are affecting business. Nvidia reported that it incurred a $4.5 billion charge in Q1 due to licensing requirements impacting its ability to sell […]

The fashion retailer's outages began Monday.

GameStop announced on Wednesday that it bought 4,710 Bitcoin, which is worth over $500 million at the time of the purchase. The video game retail chain has struggled to stay relevant in a time when digital gaming purchases are increasingly popular — plus, the company took on a new kind of notoriety when it unwittingly […]

Three years ago, Stellantis announced it was pairing up with Amazon to create in-car software that would bring a slew of connected products and services to vehicles by 2024 as part of the automaker’s broader plan to generate $22.5 billion annually from software. That never happened. And now, the partnership is “winding down,” Reuters reported. […]

DeepSeek has gone viral. Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week after its chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeek’s AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques, have led Wall Street analysts — and technologists — to question whether the U.S. can maintain its […]

Chinese startup DeepSeek has released an updated version of its R1 reasoning AI model on the developer platform Hugging Face after announcing it in a WeChat message Wednesday morning. The updated R1, which is under a permissive MIT license, meaning it can be used commercially, is a “minor” upgrade, according to DeepSeek’s WeChat announcement. The […]

Karat Financial, the company known for its credit cards for creators, is launching a creator-focused business banking product. Powered by digital bank Grasshopper, Karat’s banking product is a natural extension of its credit card offering with Visa. “Six years in, the problem we’re solving is still the same,” co-founder and co-CEO Eric Wei told TechCrunch. […]

Odyssey, a startup founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, has developed an AI model that lets users “interact” with streaming video. Available on the web in an “early demo,” the model generates and streams video frames every 40 milliseconds. Via basic controls, viewers can explore areas within a video, similar to a […]

Spotify will begin recommending podcasts on its Home page and provide a Following feed for staying up-to-date with the latest episodes.

The redesign adds new AI features, Reimagine and Auto Frame, which were previously only available on Pixel devices.

Meta wants to grow its retail footprint, Business Insider reported on Wednesday. As Meta continues to invest in wearables, these stores would ideally help Meta boost the sales of hardware like the Ray-Ban Meta glasses and the Meta Quest VR headsets. These products may be easier to sell if customers can try them out at […]

Netflix co-founder Reed Hastings is joining Anthropic’s board of directors, the company announced on Wednesday. Hastings’ appointment adds a veteran big tech executive to one of OpenAI’s largest — and youngest — competitors in the AI race. The Netflix co-founder seems likely to help Anthropic grow from a startup into a major company, pulling from […]

AMD has acquired Enosemi, a startup designing custom materials to support silicon photonics product development. The terms of the deal, announced Wednesday, weren’t disclosed. Silicon photonics uses light — photons — to transmit data, offering a faster and more efficient alternative to traditional electrical communication. AMD and other chipmakers have shown an increasing interest in the […]

A Detroit landowner is in violation of city codes for storing unsold Tesla Cybertrucks in his parking lot.

Over three and a half years after family locator app Life360 acquired lost item tracker Tile for $205 million, the two services are finally fully integrated. On Wednesday, Life360 announced that the item-finding capabilities of Tile, a competitor to Apple’s AirTag and other Bluetooth-based trackers, are now available from inside its main app. The update […]

Microsoft announced on Wednesday that it has started rolling out the beta version of its Copilot for Gaming experience. Beta testers can access the experience in the Xbox app on iOS and Android. The early version of the experience allows the assistant to answer questions about the games you’re interested in, give you links to […]

AI-powered office suite Context raises $11 million in seed funding from Lux Capital, Qualcomm Ventures and General Catalyst

Rillet directly pulls data from their customers' banks and platforms to generate financial statements, including the balance sheet and income statement.

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov on Wednesday said Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is investing $300 million worth of cash and equity in the chat app.