The European Commission has again been urged to more fully disclose its dealings with private technology companies and other stakeholders, in relation to a controversial piece of tech policy that could see a law mandate the scanning of European Union citizens private messages in a bid to detect child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The issue [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Making life better for people with disabilities is a laudable goal, but accessibility tech hasnt traditionally been popular among VCs. In 2022, disability tech companies attracted around $4 billion in early-stage investments, which was a fraction of fintechs intake, for example. One reason is that disability tech startups are often considered too niche to attain [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Tesla has gutted its charging team in a new round of layoffs, despite recently winning over major automakers like Ford and General Motors and making its connector the defacto standard in North America. CEO Elon Musk announced the new layoffs in an overnight email to executives, first reported by The Information, in which he said [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A bipartisan bill designed to protect children from online sexual exploitation is headed to President Bidens desk. Proposed by Senators Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Marsha Blackburn (R-SC), the bill aims to strengthen the National Center for Missing and Exploited Childrens (NCMEC) CyberTipline. When an online service provider detects child sexual abuse material (CSAM), the platform [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

After many users complained about their alarms ringing silently on iPhones, Apple said that it is aware of the issue and is working on a fix. Wall Street Journal reporter Joanna Stern and NBC correspondent Emilie Ikeda said that Apple confirmed that it is working on an issue of some users alarms not playing a [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Samsung Electronicssaid on Tuesday that its operating profit surged more than 930% in the first quarter of 2024, driven by soaring demand for its servers, memory chips and storage used in AI applications. The company, which struggled in 2023 as the macroeconomic slowdown hurt demand for its products, said its memory chip business returned to [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

OpenAI has landed a new content deal with the FT. But instead of being a merely simple deal in which OpenAI gets words, and FT gets money, the two are teaming up a bit more deeply. Look to see FT.com links in ChaptGPT in the future. But the FT-OpenAI tie-up tells us a bit more [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Productive Use of Renewable Energy (PURE) technologies, especially those in the solar irrigation and cold chain segment, saw increased investor interest last year, despite a 43% funding slump recorded in the global off-grid solar sector. The global association for the off-grid solar energy industry, GOGLA, says PURE technologies raised $65 million in 2023, double the [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Shinkei raised $6 million to help it go from pilot to production, with a goal of 10 machines in actual use by the end of the year. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Sam's Club customers who pay either at a register or through the Scan & Go mobile app can now walk out of the store without having their purchases double-checked. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As data access becomes increasingly tied to business success, making data available to all business users, regardless of their data wrangling skills has grown in importance. The founders of Seam, an early stage startup, experienced the need to make data more accessible first hand when they were at Okta, and decided to launch a company [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission said on Monday that it is fining the four U.S. major wireless carriers around $200 million in total for illegally sharing and selling customers real-time location data without their consent. AT&Ts fine is more than $57 million, Verizons is almost $47 million, T-Mobiles is more than $80 million, and Sprints [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Hans Tung, a managing partner at Notable Capital, formerly GGV Capital, has a lot of thoughts on the state of venture today. Notable Capital is a venture firm with $4.2 billion in assets under management, focusing on investments in the U.S., Latin America, Israel, and Europe. Tung, whose portfolio includes the likes of Airbnb, StockX [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Browser Company, makers of the Arc web browser, released its Windows version today. The company started testing the Windows client in December, and it said that more than 150,000 people have been using it. The startup, which aims to replace your current browser, recently raised $50 million at a $550 million valuation. Today, The [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

You know that mildly jarring experience whenever that well-known celebrity shows up in an entirely different context e.g. a musician making a horror flick cameo; an NFL player rearing their head in a comedy series; or a Hollywood movie icon selling mobile phone plans on TV? Well, its starting to feel like that with [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

When Julie Trias and Elizabeth Nammour were working together at Airbnb on the companys data team, they had to deal with data spread across a variety of sources, and that growing sprawl led to challenges in keeping data safe. The founders own frustration with the existing crop of data protection options motivated them to launch [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Instagram is introducing a few new changes to its ranking systems to better highlight content from smaller, original creators. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The era of stationary spacecraft may soon be over. Portal Space Systems, a company headed by propulsion expert Jeff Thornberg, is looking to help usher in a new renaissance in in-space transportation with its ultra-mobile Supernova satellite bus. Think of it as maneuverability-as-a-service tech that could propel transfers from low Earth orbit to geostationary [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Ansa, a startup that helps merchants develop and offer branded virtual wallets, has raised a $14 million Series A round of funding, the company has told TechCrunch exclusively. Renegade Partners led Ansas latest financing, which included participation from existing backers Bain Capital Ventures, BoxGroup and Wischoff Ventures and new investor B37 Ventures. With this latest [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Security review automation platform SafeBase has raised new cash from investors including Zoom's corporate VC arm. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

With the number of people using e-mail globally approaching 5 billion, newsletters delivered regularly into peoples inboxes continue to look like a sticky way of getting attention for whatever it is that youre writing. Now, in a signal of the popularity of the medium, one of the startups building a platform for creating and distributing [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The integrated payments on WeTransfer are powered by Stripe and are rolling out to all users globally. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Wander the pits at any professional motorsports event, especially something like Formula 1, and youll see endless computer displays full of telemetry. Modern teams are awash in real-time digital feedback from the cars. Ive been in many of these pits over the years and marveled at the streams of data, but never have I seen [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As Bumble prepares for its app relaunch this summer, the women-first dating platform announced a series of product updates on Tuesday, including a new feature that lets women prepare questions to send to matches, additional dating intention preferences and prompts, and more. Allowing women to make the first move has been Bumbles modus operandi ever [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

UnitedHealth's CEO said in congressional testimony that the portal used by the hackers to break into Change Healthcare was not protected with a basic security feature. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Yelp announced a new AI-powered chatbot today for consumers that helps them connect with relevant businesses for their tasks. The company joins a long list of organizations leaning into AI chatbots as an assistive medium. The company is rolling out the AI assistant on its iOS app under the Projects tab with plans to expand [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The European Union said on Tuesday that it suspects Metas social networking platforms, Facebook and Instagram, of breaking the bloc rules for larger platforms in relation to election integrity. The European Commission (EC) has opened formal infringement proceedings to investigate Meta under the Digital Services Act (DSA), an online governance and content moderation framework. Penalties [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Realising that a former partner had, unbeknownst to him, put previously private, intimate videos of them onto a porn site, tech founder Dan Purcell felt devastated. He resolved to come up with a solution to help prevent such violations happening again. His Ceartas startup has now raised $4.5 million in a Seed round from European [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Food is significant to Nigerians, with households spending nearly 60% of their income on it, the highest globally, according to official reports. This strong affinity for food, coupled with the rise of online shopping, sets the stage for Nigerias food delivery market to potentially reach $2 billion to $3 billion by 2032. Despite the promising [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The eyes arent just a window into the soul; tracking saccades can help doctors pick up a range of brain health issues. Thats why French-Belgian medtech startup neuroClues is building accessible, high-speed eye-tracking technology that incorporates AI-driven analysis. It wants to make it easier for healthcare service providers to use eye tracking to support the [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

In 2024, its hard to wake up without reading about yet another large funding round in an enterprise AI company. Intuition, a new VC firm based in Paris, is doing something radical and betting on consumer tech exclusively. Behind the scenes, Hugo Amsellem (pictured left) and Etienne Boutan (pictured right) will be the general partners [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Gideon Valkin's solo VC firm Andrena Ventures raised $12 million from backers including several VCs and entrepreneurs, and made its first investment into AI startup Nustom. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

French startup Carbonfact believes that the best carbon accounting solutions will focus on one vertical. Thats why the company has decided to provide a carbon management and reporting tool for the fashion industry exclusively. And Carbonfact recently raised a $15 million funding round led by Alven, the French VC firm that led Carbonfacts seed round [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Googles trying to make waves with Gemini, its flagship suite of generative AI models, apps and services. So what is Gemini? How can you use it? And how does it stack up to the competition? To make it easier to keep up with the latest Gemini developments, weve put together this handy guide, which well [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Finally, something that both sides of the aisle can agree on: social media companies are too powerful. According to a survey by the Pew Research Center, 78% of American adults say social media companies have too much influence on politics to break it down by party, thats 84% of surveyed Republicans and 74% of [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Welcome back to TechCrunch Space. Let's jump in! 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

NIST, the U.S. government agency charged with testing emerging tech, has created a new platform to evaluate generative AI. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Were still well over a month out from WWDC, but Apple went ahead and snuck in another event. On Tuesday, May 7 at 7AM PT/10AM ET, the company is set to unveil the latest additions to the iPad line. According to the rumor mill, that list includes: a new iPad Pro, iPad Air, Apple Pencil [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Financial losses, founder revolts, public firings and overflowing office sewage mark the storied institutions annus horribilis. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google told TechCrunch that Flutter will have new updates to share at I/O this year. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

EV startup Fisker Inc. is laying off more employees to preserve cash, one week after warning investors it would have to make cuts to stave off impending bankruptcy, according to an internal email viewed by TechCrunch. Founder and CEO Henrik Fisker told employees Monday morning in the email that the company is continuing to evaluate [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Whether or not Epic Games will be able to bring Fortnite to the iPhone and iPad as planned still remains to be seen. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Metas Threads social network passed the 150 million monthly users mark recently, but the company is not slowing down its growth engine. To increase engagement, the social media giant is running a limited-time bonus program for Threads. Over the last few days, many accounts have posted about this program. The company confirmed to TechCrunch about [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

GitHub's new Copilot Workspace brings AI-powered assistive software engineering tools front and center. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

TechCrunch recently broke the news that Elon Musks xAI is raising $6 billion at a pre-money valuation of $18 billion. The deal hasnt closed yet, so the numbers could change. But it sounds like Musk is making an ambitious pitch to investors about his 10-month-old startup a rival to OpenAI, which he also co-founded [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Flipping houses is not for the faint of heart, no matter how fun or easy HGTV might make it seem. One startup wants to make the process less complicated by offering a different way to borrow money to fund such a purchase. Founded in late 2020, Backflip offers a service to real estate investors for [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Were off to an AI-heavy start to the week. OpenAI has a new deal with the Financial Times that caught our eye. Sure, its another content licensing deal, but there appears to be a bit more in the tie-up than just content flowing one way, and money the other. On this early-week episode of Equity, [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Biz Stone, a Twitter co-founder, is among those who have joined the board of directors of Mastodons new U.S. non-profit, announced Mastodon CEO Eugen Rochko over the weekend. Mastodons service, an open source, decentralized social network and rival to Elon Musks X, has gained increased attention following the Twitter acquisition as users sought alternatives to [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

True to its business concept, Turkeys instant delivery juggernaut Getir rose quickly. Now, with the quick commerce industry in free fall, it is nosediving just as fast. On Monday, the company once valued close to $12 billion announced it would shut down its operations the U.S., the U.K. and Europe to focus solely [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

India's Ola has let go its chief executive, Hemant Bakshi, merely four months after appointing him to the post, and is cutting about 180 jobs. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.