TechCrunch

Travis Kalanick’s Atoms might be getting into the robotaxi business

The Uber founder has said that Atoms will allow him to complete "unfinished business."...

19 minutes ago

TechCrunch Mobility: Tesla Cybercab hits the road — and a snag

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for the future of transportation and now, more than ever, the role AI is playing in it....

56 minutes ago

Seattle Times and Newsday are the latest publications to sue OpenAI and Microsoft

Two more news organizations are suing OpenAI and Microsoft over the supposed use of their journalism to train AI....

18 hours ago

Hikers rescued after using Google Gemini for planning

The sheriff’s office said the hikers “were advised by Gemini to bring far less food and water than their group required."...

21 hours ago

OpenAI confirms ‘wiki incident,’ says it’s ‘working on a framework’ for more disclosure

OpenAI acknowledged its role in a recently reported incident where AI agents took over a German wiki forum....

22 hours ago

Clucky’s new alarm app wakes you up with a crowing rooster

Clucky's new alarm app has an option where users are woken up to the sound of a rooster. They then complete a mission to turn it off....

1 day ago

Oura is going public, but these smart ring companies are coming for its crown

While Oura has largely dominated the smart ring market for years, a growing number of rivals are now racing to dethrone it by trying all sorts of approaches to get an edge over it....

1 day ago

XDOF, just three months out of stealth, is in talks for a Series B at a $1.2B valuation

The round is being raised just months after the robot data startup exited from stealth....

1 day ago

OpenAI’s rogue agents keep escaping, with no formal process to investigate them

OpenAI’s latest agent swarm incident adds urgency to calls for independent investigations as researchers and lawmakers question whether AI labs should control the scope of their own safety reviews....

1 day ago

AI compute provider Nscale is looking for $3.5B in pre-IPO financing

Nscale, which recently struck a $45 billion deal with Anthropic, is in talks to raise additional funds in anticipation of an upcoming IPO....

1 day ago

Judge blocks X rival from using Twitter name, but allows ‘Tweet’ for now

A federal judge temporarily barred an X rival from using the Twitter name, but found that X was likely to have abandoned the “Tweet” trademark and bird logo. The startup has since relaunched as Tweet....

1 day ago

What will Apple’s John Ternus era look like?

It’s officially the Ternus era at Apple. Tim Cook stepped down as CEO this week, handing the company to former hardware chief John Ternus, whose first memo promised a “huge launch next week” — timin...

1 day ago

No little kids allowed, and other new info about Tesla’s Cybercab

The company says no children under 13 can ride -- even with a parent. That's more restrictive than the Model Y SUVs it's using as robotaxis....

2 days ago

Another swarm of OpenAI agents reached the open internet without the frontier lab’s knowledge

It's the latest failure of OpenAI's internal monitoring and security systems....

2 days ago

CD sales are making an unexpected comeback amid a retro tech boom

U.S. CD revenue jumped 58.6% in the first half of 2026, reversing last year’s decline as interest in retro tech and physical media continues to grow....

2 days ago

Krafton doubles down on India with another $250M bet beyond gaming

Krafton's planned investment in India is set to surpass $500 million with its latest commitment....

2 days ago

Google’s Gemini Spark can now manage your Google Photos library

Gemini Spark can edit and curate photo albums, create shared collections, turn photos into calendar events, and handle other Google Photos tasks for AI Pro and Ultra subscribers....

2 days ago

Less than 24 hours to apply for your TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 Side Event

Less than 24 hours left to apply to host a Side Event during TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 and make your mark in the Silicon Valley scene. Apply before the application closes tonight at midnight PT....

2 days ago

US military disabled ad tracking on troops’ devices following reports of targeted attacks

A senator's letter confirms the U.S. military moved to prevent the tracking after foreign adversaries used location data to target troops....

2 days ago

Feds launch investigation into Tesla’s Cybercab deployment

The investigation was launched just a few hours after Tesla put the first production Cybercabs on the road in Austin....

2 days ago

The sameness problem behind those unappetizing AI-generated menus

While restaurant owners might look to generative AI as a shortcut to sprucing up their menu, customers can viscerally sense that something is wrong with the food....

2 days ago

Crusoe reportedly raises $3B at a $30B valuation

The round came together after the data center developer reportedly secured a $13 billion contract with Jane Street....

2 days ago

Oura files to go public

The ring maker says that its business has shown significant revenue growth over the past year....

2 days ago

Tesla is asking people if they want to buy and run Cybercab fleets

The company published a form on its website Thursday soliciting info from people who are interested in "Cybercab fleet vehicle purchasing."...

2 days ago

Startup ARR is less secure than ever, new research shows

The AI era has completely broken enterprise buying patterns, and startups haven't yet figured out how to navigate....

2 days ago

The Cybercab is Tesla’s ‘fork in the road’ moment

The company is about to formally launch the gold two-seater, with no steering wheel or pedals -- a move that could change Tesla forever....

2 days ago

Accel reportedly in talks to lead $1B round for Thinking Machines at $40B valuation

The high-profile startup's annual revenue run rate stands at at over $100 million....

2 days ago

Utilities are racing to link up with fusion startups, with Realta Fusion the latest to benefit

The grid has been straining under the weight of new AI data centers, and that has utilities courting fusion startups....

2 days ago

Abliteration.ai is making a business out of removing AI guardrails

Abliteration.AI is making powerful AI models without guardrails easier to access, arguing that giving defenders the same tools as bad actors could ultimately improve cybersecurity....

2 days ago

Meta is paying to peek at how you use their latest AI model

Most AI tools allow you to opt-out of sharing your usage with the model provider to improve future versions. Meta has taken that idea and put a price tag on it. For its new Muse Spark model, intended ...

2 days ago

OpenAI launches Astra, its powerful (and controversial) new model

OpenAI claims that Astra represents "a new frontier on computer and browser use," and that it handles tasks with unmatched "speed, accuracy, and safety."...

2 days ago

Qualcomm backs Ultrahuman in $70M round on bet to turn smart rings into computers

Ultrahuman is targeting a $200 million annual revenue run rate by January 2027 as it builds a new Qualcomm-powered smart ring....

3 days ago

Circular unveils Ring 3 series with contactless payments and on-finger vibration alerts

Smart ring maker Circular on Thursday unveiled its upcoming Ring 3 series, which consists of a Pro model and a Slim option. Both of the smart rings will feature an integrated NFC chip for contactless ...

3 days ago

Ollie is betting its focus on privacy can help it win the AI assistant race

The family-focused AI assistant wants access to the details of your everyday life, but says it won’t use that data to train AI models or share it with others....

3 days ago

Google launches AI voice features in Gmail, Docs and Keep

Users can search for emails or draft documents using the new conversational feature...

3 days ago

Google’s latest AI weather model gives you no excuse to forget your umbrella

Scientists at Google Deepmind and Google Research released a new artificial intelligence model for weather forecasting today that sees our changing atmosphere more clearly and predicts its behavior mo...

3 days ago

TikTok comments are getting more interactive with voice comments, polls, and more

TikTok’s comments section is getting an upgrade. The social network announced on Thursday that it’s rolling out new features for its comment sections, including voice comments, comment polls, photo ca...

3 days ago

Volunteer at TechCrunch Founder Summit in Boston

Our rebranded Boston event, TechCrunch Founder Summit (formerly All Stage), is back on November 4th! And we are looking for some incredible volunteers to help us make this event happen. If you are int...

3 days ago

Amazon’s Zoox expands its robotaxi service to Las Vegas airport

Zoox is expanding to this critical ride-hailing destination a few weeks after it started charging for robotaxi rides....

3 days ago

The Builders Stage brings practical strategies for scaling startups to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

The Builders Stage is returning to TechCrunch Disrupt, bringing together founders, startup operators, and investors for practical conversations on what it takes to build and scale....

3 days ago

Palo Alto Networks paid $500M for Thrive-backed Console, sources say

The acquisition also leaves Sequoia-backed Serval as the de-facto startup leader in AI IT service automation, industry watchers believe....

3 days ago

TechCrunch Disrupt 2026’s new Real World AI Stage features Nvidia, robots, and extinct animals

On our new Real World AI stage, we’ll be focusing on the intersection between the digital and physical, and all the ways we’ll continue to see a blending of the two....

3 days ago

Google spared from ad-business breakup, but judge orders changes to how it operates

Google has dodged an effort to break up its ad business, but a judge said Wednesday that the company will need to adjust its business to benefit competitors....

3 days ago

OpenAI’s new reasoning technique alarms AI safety experts

OpenAI’s new Astra model will use “recurrent depth,” a technique that allows the model to operate outside of the sequential thinking that characterizes most reasoning models....

3 days ago

MapQuest is now the No. 1 U.S. app after bucking Trump’s ‘Lake America’ renaming

The once-dominant mapping app has surged to the top of Apple’s U.S. App Store after refusing to adopt Trump’s “Lake America” name, drawing more than half of its 2026 U.S. downloads in just six days....

3 days ago

It sure looks like hackers breached a major ID card verification service

An identity theft search site claimed to have more than 150 million driver's license photos stolen from an ID verification service. The crime site has now shut down....

3 days ago

Delivery Hero board backs Uber’s $15B takeover bid

If approved, the combined company would become one of the largest food delivery platforms in the world....

3 days ago

Pangram’s Max Spero on why AI detection is harder than ‘Real or Fake’

The internet has a trust problem, and it’s not just because social media feeds are filling up with AI slop. AI-generated text and images are now making their way into job applications, product reviews...

3 days ago

X shifts US creator payouts from Stripe to X Money

X says U.S. creator payouts will now be handled through its X Money payments service, a change that appears to replace the previous Stripe-powered payout system....

3 days ago