After a successful unveiling at CES, Rabbit is letting journalists try out the R1 a small orange gadget with an AI-powered voice interface. This comes just weeks after the launch of the Humane Ai Pin, which is similarly pitched as a new kind of mobile device with AI at its center. While were still [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Act fast! Applications for our Call for Content close today, April 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT. If youre a seasoned startup pro ready to lead a session at TechCrunch Disrupt on October 28-30, nows your chance to apply! Send in your proposal to speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 before the deadline hits. Your topic should [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Aside from the crucial omission of an Ask and Use of Funds slide, just about every slide in the deck felt almost very good but then stumbled by overlooking an important detail. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The OpenAI Startup Fund, a venture fund related to but technically separate from OpenAI that invests in early-stage, typically AI-related companies across education, law, and the sciences, has quietly closed a $15 million tranche. According to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, two unnamed investors contributed the $15 million in [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google is testing a new Speaking practice feature in Search that helps users improve their conversational English skills. The company told TechCrunch that the feature is available to English learners in Argentina, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Venezuela who have joined Search Labs, its program for users to experiment with early-stage Google Search experiences. The [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Jeff Lawson, the co-founder and recently departed CEO of enterprise infrastructure software company Twilio, is the proud new owner of satirical online newspaper The Onion. Alright, the news is out yes, I bought The Onion, Lawson wrote in a LinkedIn post earlier today, after it first emerged in The New York Times yesterday. The [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apples App Store isnt always as trustworthy as the company claims. The latest example comes from RockAuto, an auto parts dealer popular with home mechanics and other DIYers, which is upset that a fake app masquerading as its official app has not been removed from the App Store, despite numerous complaints to Apple. RockAuto Co-Founder [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Rubriksstrong IPOpricing and warm reception by the public markets after its listing add more weight to the perspective that the public markets are not as closed to tech startups as some thought. If Rubriks result isnt enough to break the logjam, well, maybe theres something else going on. But there was a lot more that [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Darktrace is set to go private in a deal that values the U.K.-based cybersecurity giant at around $5 billion. A newly-formed entity called Luke Bidco Ltd, formed by private equity giant Thoma Bravo, has tabled an all-cash bid of 6.20 ($7.75) per share, which represents a 44% premium on its average price for the three-month [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration closed a long-standing investigation into Teslas Autopilot driver assistance system after reviewing hundreds of crashes involving its misuse, including 13 that were fatal and many more involving serious injuries. At the same time, NHTSA is opening a new investigation to evaluate whether the Autopilot recall fix that Tesla implemented [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Ultra-fast fashion ecommerce giant Shein will be subject to an additional layer of governance rules targeted at very large online platforms (VLOPs) under the European Unions Digital Services Act (DSA), the Commission announced Friday. Shein had reported passing an average of 45 million monthly users in the region which is the threshold for the [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Global Founders Capital, the Berlin-based early stage VC firm with close ties to the German startup factory Rocket Internet, is going to become the venture arm of Rocket Internet. The VC previously raised two $1 billion funds and, just a few years ago, its name appeared in dozens of deals per year. But then, things [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

xAI, Elon Musks 10-month-old competitor to the AI phenom OpenAI, is raising $6 billion on a pre-money valuation of $18 billion, according to one trusted source close to the deal. The deal which would give investors one quarter of the company is expected to close in the next few weeks unless the terms [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Goldman Sachs said in a report late Thursday that Indian food delivery giant Zomatos quick commerce arm Blinkit is now more valuable than its core food delivery business, as per the banks sum-of-the-parts analysis. The investment bank estimates Blinkits implied value at 119 Indian rupees per share ($1.43) or about $13 billion, while Zomatos food [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 to ban the use of most noncompete agreements on Tuesday. This ruling means companies cant require their employees, that arent senior executives, to wait a set amount of time before joining a competitor or launching their own company in the same category. While the FTCs ruling will impact industries [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Norwest Venture Partners, a 65-year-old firm backed solely by Wells Fargo, has raised its 17th fund at $3 billion. Thats a noteworthy number, given that NVP last raised the same amount in December 2021. That was the peak of the venture boom, and at that time, the firm said it increased its capital pool by [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Space and defense startup True Anomaly has laid off around 25% of its workforce and cancelled its summer internship program, TechCrunch has learned. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

This will mark Starliners second flight to the ISS: The first, an uncrewed mission called Orbital Flight Test-2, took place in May 2022. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As part of its Q1 2024 earning release, Snap revealed that total watch time on its TikTok competitor, Spotlight, increased more than 125% year-over-year. Snapchat launched the TikTok-like feed in late 2020 as a way to compete with the rising popularity of TikTok. The company is touting the success of its short-from video feed a [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google Cloud had a blockbuster quarter, driving parent company Alphabet's revenues and stock price to impressive highs. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Metas move into the open social web, also known as the fediverse, is puzzling. Does the Facebook owner see open protocols as the future? Will it embrace the fediverse only to shut it down, shifting people back to its proprietary platforms and decimating startups building in the space? Will it bring its advertising empire to [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Kaiser, one of the largest healthcare organizations in the United States, said it was notifying 13.4 million members of a data breach earlier in April. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Sanctuary AI often isnt mentioned in the same breath as humanoid robotics firms like Boston Dynamics, Agility, Figure and 1X, but the Canadian company has been operating in the space for some time. In fact, a new robot introduced on Thursday is actually the seventh-generation of its Phoenix line. While a recent iteration introduced legs [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The contract is part of a larger push from the Force to procure space capabilities from private industry on timelines that have been previously unheard of. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

As a TikTok ban gets closer to becoming a reality in the United States, it might be time to start thinking about other platforms to adopt early in case youre left to fill the void left by the popular app at some point in the future. On Wednesday, President Biden signed a bill that would [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Hurry up! Our Call for Content ends tomorrow, April 26 at 11:59 p.m. PT. If youre a startup expert eager to lead a session at TechCrunch Disrupt on October 28-30, nows the time to apply! Submit your proposal to speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 before the deadline. Your topic should empower startup founders, builders, and [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Social media platform TikTok says that a bill banning the app in the U.S. is unconstitutional and that it will fight this latest attempt to restrict its use in court. The bill in question, which President Joe Biden signed Wednesday, gives Chinese parent company ByteDance nine months to divest TikTok or face a ban on [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

President Joe Biden signed the bill this week that could ban TikTok from the U.S. if its parent company ByteDance doesnt sell the platform. According to young political content creators, the ban could decimate Gen Zs access to political news and information. An unfortunately large amount of 18- to 24-year-olds find out information about local [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

This restores, with some changes and protections, the rules passed back in 2015 allowing the FCC to enforce basic rules of connectivity and fairness in broadband. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

This share price gives Rubrik a fully diluted valuation of $6.6 billion, up 88% from its last primary valuation of $3.5 billion in 2019. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

SkyBridge was among the recipients of a small distribution of $4,800 in grant funding from Bluesky, distributed across projects. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Threads and Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced today that Threads is launching a new feature that lets users filter out words and phrases from their feeds and mentions. The Hidden Words feature automatically mutes common words, phrases, and emojis that might be offensive to users. In addition to these preset filters, users can add their [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The company announced that it would start to let customers accept cryptocurrency payments, starting with USDC stablecoins, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Fintoc's API lets online businesses accept instant payments coming directly from the customer's bank account. This method, known as A2A, offers an alternative to credit card transactions. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The Federal Trade Commission voted 3-2 this week to ban noncompete agreements. While the FTC estimates that nearly one in five American workers is subject to a noncompete, these agreements havent been a huge issue in Silicon Valley, because theyre not enforceable in California. This has arguably been one of the regions competitive advantages, as [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

With RevenueCat Billing, essentially a web SDK, developers can accept subscription payments from any website. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Teampay represents this new class of fintech companies that came up, said Paystand CEO Jeremy Almond. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

On April 24, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a bill that would ban TikTok if its owner ByteDance doesnt sell the app. The bill requires ByteDance to secure a deal within nine months, with a 90-day extension available to close it. After this deadline, the U.S. will bar app stores from listing the app. TikTok [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Ding, ding, ding! Dinner is served. Fresh out of the cold tin can. Petlibro, a pet tech startup that designs automatic food and water dispensers for cats, launched its first refrigerated smart feeder on Thursday. The companys new Polar Wet Food Feeder aims to solve a widely known problem among pet owners: how to keep [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Carv, a data layer platform that lets web3 gaming and AI companies, as well as gamers, control and monetize their data, has raised a $10 million Series A round led by Tribe Capital and IOSG Ventures. Carvs new round comes approximately five months after it received a strategic investment led by HashKey Capital. The startup [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Two veteran security experts are launching a startup that aims to help other makers of cybersecurity products to up their game in protecting Apple devices. Their startup is called DoubleYou, the name taken from the initials of its co-founder, Patrick Wardle, who worked at the U.S. National Security Agency between 2006 and 2008. Wardle then [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

ICICI Bank, one of Indias top private banks, exposed the sensitive data of thousands of new credit cards to customers who were not their intended recipients. The Mumbai-based bank confirmed to TechCrunch Thursday that its digital channels erroneously mapped about 17,000 credit cards issued in the past few days to wrong users. The issue came [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Generative AI has captured the public imagination with a leap into creating elaborate, plausibly real text and imagery out of verbal prompts. But the catch and there is often a catch is that the results are often far from perfect when you look a little closer. People point out strange fingers, floor tiles [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Metas tracking ads business could be facing further legal blows in the European Union: An influential advisor to the blocs top court affirmed Thursday that the regions privacy laws limits on how long peoples data can be used for targeted advertising. In the non-legally binding opinion, Advocate General Athanasios Rantos said use of personal data [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

TikTok suspended a gamification feature in the European Union following an intervention by the bloc. With attention on TikToks growing pile of US legal woes, the announcement went mostly unnoticed when it occurred late local time Wednesday. TikToks move came just two days after the EU opened an investigation into a so-called task and reward [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Its still unclear whether cloud gaming will ever become the next big thing. The appeal is clear: The game youre playing runs in a data center near you, and the video output is directly streamed to your local device. When you interact with the game, everything is relayed back to the data center. When it [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The company produces plant-based ingredients from raw microalgae biomass, generated from spirulina or chlorella, that it claims is more nutritious than meat. 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Swiggy plans to raise $1.25 billion in an initial public offering and has secured approval from its shareholders, the Indian food delivery and instant commerce startup disclosed in a filing to the local regulator. The Bengaluru-headquartered startup, which competes with publicly-listed Zomato and StepStone Group-backed unicorn Zepto, plans to raise $450 million through issuance of [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Metas Twitter/X rival Threads is growing at a stable pace. The social network now has more than 150 million monthly active users up from 130 million in February Mark Zuckerberg mentioned during the companys Q1 2024 earnings call. Since the last quarterly earnings call, Threads has notably taken steps towards integrating with ActivityPub, [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Advances in generative AI have taken the tech world by storm. Biotech investors are making a big bet that similar computational methods could revolutionize drug discovery. On Tuesday, ARCH Venture Partners and Foresite Labs, an affiliate of Foresite Capital, announced that they incubated Xaira Therapeutics and funded the AI biotech with $1 billion. Other investors [] 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.