The US Department of Justice is still calling for Google to sell its web browser Chrome, according to a Friday court filing. The DOJ first proposed that Google should sell Chrome last year, under then-President Joe Biden, but it seems to be sticking with that plan under the second Trump administration. The department is, however, [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google has quietly updated the webpage for its Responsible AI and Human Centered Technology (RAI-HCT) team, the team charged with conducting research into AI safety, fairness, and explainability, to scrub mentions of diversity and equity. A previous version of the page used language such as marginalized communities, diverse, underrepresented groups, and equity to describe the [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A federal judge is allowing an AI-related copyright lawsuit against Meta to move forward, although he dismissed part of the suit. In Kadrey vs. Meta, authors including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Ta-Nehisi Coates have alleged that Meta has violated their intellectual property rights by using their books to train its Llama AI models, and [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week were looking at OpenAI potentially charging $20,000 a month for a specialized AI agent, the unexpected return of early-internet darling Digg, a company genetically engineering mice to have mammoth-like fur, and more! Lets do this. OpenAI could charge up to $20,000 per month for specialized AI agents. [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Last year was a monumental year for the AI industry in the U.S. and beyond. There were 49 startups that raised funding rounds worth $100 million or more in 2024, per our count at TechCrunch. Three companies raised more than one mega-round last year, and seven companies raised rounds at $1 billion or larger. How [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Something special went down in the desert outside of Las Vegas this weekend: two EVs took on the Mint 400 for the first time. Since the Mint 400 launched back in 1969, vehicles in this iconic desert endurance race have been powered by dead dinosaurs. Spectators and race participants alike are used to the smell [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The downsides of doomscrolling and screen addiction are well documented, but while many of us would like to spend less time glued to a smartphone, its easier said than done. Much has been written about the so-called dumbphone revival, where individuals regain some respite from pings and push notifications by downgrading to a basic feature [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Europe is waking up to the need to invest in defense, and so are European VCs. But with a painful history of Soviet occupations, Lithuania didnt wait for the third anniversary of Russias invasion of Ukraine to reach its third anniversary to commit 5% to 6% of its GDP to military spending and fund [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Investor interest in AI coding assistants is exploding. Anysphere, the developer of AI-powered coding assistant Cursor, is in talks with venture capitalists to raise capital at a valuation of nearly $10 billion, Bloomberg reported. The round, if it transpires, would come about three months after Anysphere completed its previous fundraise of $100 million at a [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Microsoft is accelerating its push to compete with OpenAI, its longtime collaborator, by developing its own powerful AI models and exploring alternatives to power products like Microsofts Copilot bot. Microsoft has developed its own AI reasoning models comparable to models like OpenAIs o1 and o3-mini, the The Information reports. OpenAI is said to have refused [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

TechCrunch will be on the ground at SXSW 2025 the annual tech, music, comedy, and film conference that kicked off Friday in Austin in search of the zeitgeist of this AI-centric era. Yup, were one sentence in and AI has already made its entrance. And why not? A quick scan of the massive [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Signal President Meredith Whittaker warned Friday that agentic AI could come with a risk to user privacy. Speaking on stage at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, the advocate for secure communications, referred to the use of AI agents as putting your brain in a jar, and cautioned that this new paradigm of computing [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Intuitive Machines Athena lunar lander is dead, just one day after it touched down at the moons south pole and tipped over. Luckily, the company says it was able to accelerate several program and payload milestones and deploy a few of the experiments that were riding shotgun before Athenas lander ran out of juice. The [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Just over two months into 2025, the number of pending AI bills in the U.S. has grown to 781, according to an online tracking tool. The tool, maintained by consulting firm MultiState, shows that the number of pending U.S. bills pertaining to AI now exceeds the total number of AI bills proposed in all of [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Discord is in early stage discussions with bankers to IPO. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Twitter alternatives new and old have found audiences willing to try out a newer social networks since Elon Musk took over the company in 2022. Mastodon, Bluesky, Spill and T2 are some of the social media platforms people are among them. So is Metas Threads platform. What is Threads? How do you create [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Metas Threads has begun testing a new feature that would allow people to add their interests to their profile on the social network. Instead of only advertising to profile visitors the sort of topics you might post about, the new interests feature will also direct users to active conversations about the topic. The company thinks [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Just weeks after Google said it would review its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs,the Google for Startups Founders Fund webpage is peppered with changes. Most notably Google is now using past tense to describe all of its fund programs for underrepresented founders. This is a change that took place after December, according to the internet [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google on Friday added a new, experimental embedding model for text, Gemini Embedding, to its Gemini developer API. Embedding models translate text inputs like words and phrases into numerical representations, known as embeddings, that capture the semantic meaning of the text. Embeddings are used in a range of applications, such as document retrieval and classification, [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

xAI, Elon Musks AI company, has acquired a 1 million-square-foot property in Southwest Memphis to expand its AI data center footprint, according to a press release from the Memphis Chamber of Commerce. The new land will host infrastructure to complement xAIs existing Memphis data center. xAIs acquisition of this property ensures well remain at the [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

On June 5, TechCrunch Sessions: AI will kick off and you can be part of the industry-changing conversations that will be taking place. We have an open invitation for members of the AI community to lead breakout sessions and discussions with over 1,200 startup founders, VC leaders, and AI aficionados attending our newest event, which [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apple is delaying the rollout of the more personalized Siri experience it promised as part of its rollout of Apple Intelligence. According to a statement from the tech giant published on Friday by Apple blog Daring Fireball, the company admits it will take us longer than we thought to deliver on these new Siri features. [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Welcome to Startups Weekly your weekly recap of everything you cant miss from the world of startups. Want it in your inbox every Friday? Sign up here. Sometimes problems are just that: problems. But often, they are also fodder. This week brought us a mix of startups facing adversity, sometimes of their own doing, [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

With the rise of AI companions who serve as online friends or romantic interests, experts are questioning how the technology affects our real-world social connections and relationships. According to Kasley Killam, author of the social health-focused book The Art and Science of Connection: Why Social Health Is the Missing Key to Living Longer, Healthier, and [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

DeepSeek has gone viral. Chinese AI lab DeepSeek broke into the mainstream consciousness this week afterits chatbot app rose to the top of the Apple App Store charts (and Google Play, as well). DeepSeeks AI models, which were trained using compute-efficient techniques,have led Wall Street analystsand technologists to question whether the U.S. can maintain its [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The administrators of Garantex, Aleksej Besciokov and Aleksandr Mira Serda, allegedly knew their crypto exchange was used to launder money, according to U.S. prosecutors. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google is testing a new AI-powered Gemini side panel within Google Calendar that lets users quickly and conversationally check their schedule, create an event, and look up event details. The feature is available as part of the tech giants early access testing program, Google Workspace Labs. You can access Gemini by clicking the Ask Gemini [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Unidentified hackers breached NTT Coms network to steal personal information of employees at thousands of corporate customers 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Russian propaganda may be influencing certain answers from AI chatbots, including OpenAIs ChatGPT and Metas Meta AI, according to a new report. NewsGuard, a company that develops rating systems for news and information websites, claims to have found evidence that a Moscow-based network named Pravda is publishing false claims to affect the responses of AI [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

CollX, a company offering an online trading card marketplace, has raised $10 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Austin-based Brand Foundry Ventures and Philadelphia-based 114 Ventures, both of which were previous investors in the company. Other investors such as Next Coast Ventures, FJ Labs, and Ben Franklin Technology Partners also participated [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

TechCrunch Sessions: AI kicks off on June 5 in Zellerbach Hall at UC Berkeley and we want AI leaders to take part in industry-changing conversations. Make your mark by leading breakout sessions and discussions with over 1,200 startup founders, VC leaders, and other industry pioneers at TC Sessions: AI. But dont wait, you have [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Metas next major open AI model may have a voice focus, per a report in Financial Times. According to the piece, Meta is planning to introduce improved voice features with Llama 4, the next flagship in its Llama model family, which is expected to arrive in weeks. Reportedly, Meta has been particularly focused on allowing [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

X is actively workingto expand the reach of xAIs Grok model to more users on the platform. Multiple users noted today that people can now mention Grok in replies and ask a question to get an explanation about a post. Users of the Elon Musk-owned social media platform could already access Grok through a button [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The FBI is warning that scammers are impersonating the BianLian ransomware gang using fake ransom notes sent to U.S. corporate executives. The fake ransom notes, first reported by U.S. cybersecurity company GuidePoint Security, claim that hackers have gained access to an organizations network to steal sensitive data, and threaten to publish the stolen data unless [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

SpaceXs Starship spiraled out of control while in space during a test flight Thursday, marking the second launch in a row that the vehiclehas run into a fatal problem on its way to orbit. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly halted flights into major Florida airports and appears to have diverted some others out of [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google co-founder Larry Page is building a new company called Dynatomics thats focused on applying AI to product manufacturing, according to The Information. Page is reportedly working with a small group of engineers on AI that can create highly optimized designs for objects and then have a factory build them, per The Information. Chris Anderson, [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Intuitive Machines has landed a second spacecraft on the moon, just one year after accomplishing the feat for the first time ever. Unfortunately, much like that first attempt, it seems the companys spacecraft may have tipped on its side. The lunar lander, called Athena, touched down on the moons surface at around 12:30 p.m. ET [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The problematic code changed file permissions that broke some systems, users say. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Scale AI is being investigated by the U.S. Department of Labor for compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

OpenAIs flagship AI chatbot, ChatGPT, returned to solid growth in the latter half of 2024, according to a new report published on Thursday by VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). While it took ChatGPT nine months to grow from 100 million weekly active users in November 2023 to 200 million in August 2024, its now taken [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

DataBreaches.net declined to comply, citing a lack of jurisdiction. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

AI company founders have a reputation for making bold claims about the technologys potential to reshape fields, particularly the sciences. But Thomas Wolf, Hugging Faces co-founder and chief science officer, has a more measured take. In an essay published to X on Thursday, Wolf said that he feared AI becoming yes-men on servers absent a [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Shield AI is now one of the U.S.'s biggest defense tech startups by valuation, raising $240 million at a $5.3 billion valuation in its latest round. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

An international coalition of law enforcement agencies seized the official website of Garantex, which has previously been sanctioned by the U.S. and E.U. governments. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Nearly 6,500 artists demanded in an open letter that fine art auction house Christies cancel its first show dedicated solely to works created with AI. Yet, the show, Augmented Intelligence, went on and reportedly exceeded expectations. According to Christies, the show brought in more than $700,000, with many lots reaching beyond their high estimates. [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The new version for macOS can edit code in supported developer tools, including Xcode, VS Code, and JetBrains. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Spotify has acknowledged an issue thats causing some of its paid Premium subscribers to encounter ads when trying to play music. In an X post published on Thursday by Spotifys customer service account, the company said its looking into the problem and linked to its Community website where the issue has been documented by users [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Mistral AI, the French company behind AI assistant Le Chat and several foundational models, is officially regarded as one of Frances most promising tech startups and is arguably the only European company that could compete with OpenAI. But compared to its $6 billion valuation, its global market share is still relatively low. However, the recent [] 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! TechCrunchs transportation team well at least myself and senior reporter Rebecca Bellan are hittin the road. Destination: SXSW, the annual tech, music, film, and culture [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

ONE also announced the close of a new funding round. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.