TechCrunch

Greenairy is building smart plant towers to clean the air in your office

As it turns out, the cure for stuffy, chemical-infused office air might be a tower of leafy greenery....

1 week ago

CIA officer admits to creating fake top secret government program to steal over $190 million, including gold bars

CIA officer David Rush, who worked on highly sensitive intelligence programs, reached a plea deal with U.S. prosecutors after he was caught siphoning money and gold with a fake government contract....

1 week ago

Meta rolls out new AI tools to detect ads that secretly lead to child sexual abuse material

Meta launches new AI tools after discovering ads on its platforms that may look normal but direct users to harmful content elsewhere online....

1 week ago

Healthleap raises $38M for its AI that flags hospital patients who may need a closer look

The financing includes an $8M seed round co-led by Sequoia Capital and First Round Capital, and a $30 million Series A led by Hummingbird Ventures....

1 week ago

SpaceX alumni nab $100M to rethink shipping with autonomous freight trains

Parallel Systems raised $100M to scale production of its autonomous electric rail vehicle, which can shuttle thousands of pounds of freight up to 500 miles....

1 week ago

Tony Fadell on why the first wave of AI gadgets failed — and what comes next

The “father of the iPod” says the first generation of AI gadgets failed to solve real problems — and the next wave will need to earn consumers’ trust....

1 week ago

Google experiments with an AI-powered gaming platform

Google Labs is working on a new AI-powered game-creation platform called Playground for users to build browser-based games using simple text prompts....

1 week ago

OpenAI’s Alexander Embiricos is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 — days after the launch of Dots

OpenAI’s Alexander Embiricos is coming to the AI Stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, just days after the launch of Dots. Join this conversation by registering for your pass. Get you pass now to save up ...

1 week ago

Get hands-on: The full lineup of interactive roundtables at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

From Nvidia and Chime to Obvious Ventures and Anthropic, explore the entire roundtable agenda at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Register now to save up to $100 on your pass and get a second pass at 50% off....

1 week ago

Google’s new SynthID website can identify AI-generated media

Google on Tuesday launched a new site that lets anyone verify whether a piece of media, be it an image, a video or an audio clip, is generated using AI....

1 week ago

Ring’s first smart lock can be hand-cranked when its battery dies

Amazon-owned Ring is entering the smart lock market with a device designed to tackle a common concern: getting locked out when the battery dies...

1 week ago

Spotify expands audiobooks to over 180 markets

Spotify will make 350,000 titles available in over 120 languages for this expansion...

1 week ago

How to find out if Amazon thinks you have ‘flat buttocks’

"I stumbled upon a page of assumptions that Amazon has made about me based on my purchases and I’m literally speechless," one shopper wrote on Threads....

1 week ago

Apple is reportedly partnering with LG to launch a smart lock, thermostat, and doorbell

Apple appears poised to push into the smart home market with a slate of new devices and a key partner....

1 week ago

Silicon Valley’s AI wunderkind launches Underdog, the most private Instinct/Muse competitor yet

Sigil Wen, backed by a Silicon Valley's who-who, has built an on-device AI assistant that promises to be free, fully private, and capable for everyday tasks....

1 week ago

How AI decision models could change content moderation

On Tuesday, Musubi announced a lightweight decision model made for real-time moderation called PolicyLM-1.7B, released with open weights....

1 week ago

AI computing startup Lambda to raise $4B ahead of planned IPO

Nvidia-backed Lambda is raising up to $4 billion at a $14.5 billion pre-money valuation ahead of a planned 2027 IPO, led by Coatue and Blackstone....

1 week ago

The next hurdle for AI agents: getting websites to let them in

Personal AI agents promise to shop, book flights, and make reservations for you. But deliberate blocks and anti-bot defenses are getting in the way, leaving consumers caught in the middle. A new stand...

1 week ago

Hark releases an AI personal assistant with a focus on privacy

The AI lab's personal assistant is an operating system from the future designed to compete with Muse, Dots and Instinct....

1 week ago

India’s JioHotstar takes partnership route for Middle East expansion

JioHotstar will be offered inside Starzplay rather than through a stand-alone service....

1 week ago

Mirror Particle is building a ‘world model’ of human behavior

Mirror Particle will launch at TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield with a world model built from scratch to predict human behavior, arguing LLM roleplay falls short for market research and brand st...

1 week ago

Furientis lands $25M from Benchmark to mass-produce low-cost missile interceptors

The storied Silicon Valley firm makes its first pure defense investment....

1 week ago

Learn all about scaling, fundraising, founder how-tos, and more at TechCrunch Founder Summit, November 4

There isn’t a single manual to read or prompt to give an LLM that can equip you with the skills and knowledge to build a company. But on November 4, TechCrunch Founder Summit gives founders the next-b...

1 week ago

LibreOffice says ‘no AI’ is now a software feature

The maker of the open source document editor says it has no plans to add AI to its software's default configuration, citing user privacy....

1 week ago

Vinod Khosla believes ex-Deepmind engineer’s Wajo will win agent market on trust

Wajo's Fo agent can hire humans to complete a task....

1 week ago

Bluesky wants to give you your own domain on the open web

Bluesky says the process will still take 18-24 months, so don't expect your new, shortened 'bsky' handle any time soon....

1 week ago

Emmys will move from broadcast TV to Prime Video in 2027

Non-Amazon Prime subscribers will be able to watch the awards show on the platform....

1 week ago

Pinterest’s AI now turns beauty Pins into action plans

Pinterest’s new AI-powered Beauty Guides translate hair and nail Pins into salon terminology, with estimated costs, appointment times and maintenance needs....

1 week ago

Uber is spending $2.3B to get into catering

It's the latest in a string of deals meant to grow Uber Eats into a food delivery behemoth....

1 week ago

Paramount closes historic Warner Bros. merger to form Skydance

The deal brings together two major streaming platforms, Paramount+ and HBO Max, along with networks including CBS, CNN, MTV, TBS, Comedy Central, and Food Network....

1 week ago

Glimpse wants to give hardware companies an X-ray view of every critical part

Called Explore, Glimpse's new image processing software lets hardware makers speed up quality control checks using CT scanners....

1 week ago

Flai’s AI dealership software is booking 50,000 appointments per month

Flai's revenue has grown 20x in a year, and the company just closed a $27 million Series A funding round....

1 week ago

Facebook tests going Reels-first in India

Meta is testing a new Facebook UX in India that sends some users directly into full-screen video when they open the app, putting Reels front and center....

1 week ago

Type One Energy raised $200M to build a fusion power plant by 2034

Type One Energy is betting that its lean approach to fusion power will get a power plant on the grid faster, and investors have rewarded it with $200 million....

1 week ago

Lucid Motors’ EV output falls to lowest level in almost two years

The company is deliberately limiting production after years of struggling to find mass-market demand for its EVs....

1 week ago

OpenAI will start watermarking ChatGPT’s text in the EU

OpenAI will watermark ChatGPT and Codex text in the EU to comply with the AI Act. Editing can make the invisible marks harder to detect, it says....

1 week ago

Etched fields funding offers at $40B+ valuation, sources say

Just a couple of months after its last big raise, the AI chip startup is already being plied with investment offers at double or more its current value, sources tell TechCrunch....

1 week ago

After Factory’s public spat with Khosla, Menlo proudly invests

Days after Vinod Khosla called Factory a struggling also-ran, Menlo has shown up with a check and a glowing blog post....

1 week ago

Reflection debuts Beam, an open-weight AI model to rival Chinese models at lower compute cost

Nvidia-backed Reflection AI unveils Beam, its first open-weight model, which it says rivals GLM-5.2 on reasoning with far less inference compute. Weights are due this month....

1 week ago

Instinct brings its AI agent to group chats, even for friends without an account

Instinct is launching group chats that let friends use its AI agent together for tasks like planning trips, organizing carpools, and coordinating events. The company says personal accounts remain sepa...

1 week ago

TikTok rolls out an AI shopping assistant and one-click checkout

TikTok describes its new Shopping Assistant as a conversational AI agent designed to help users discover and purchase products....

1 week ago

At 19, Ghost founder raises $11 million to build a $3,499 computer for your personal AI

Ghost announced Monday its official emergence from stealth and an $11 billion seed round led by Andreessen Horowitz....

1 week ago

Hot Girl Hotline is like ‘Dear Abby’ for the AI era

Founded by two sisters, Hot Girl Hotline uses AI to give young women personalized dating and relationship advice, with an emphasis on safety and avoiding emotional dependency....

1 week ago

5 startups that caught VCs’ attention at the latest PearX demo day

TechCrunch attended Pear’s latest demo day and discovered which startups generated the most buzz, from spatial models to chips for local AI....

1 week ago

HackerRank’s AI interviewer offers a glimpse into what job interviews could become

HackerRank’s AI interviewer has already conducted more than 500,000 interviews, with Snowflake, Snorkel, and Capgemini among its early testers....

1 week ago

OpenAI launches visual ads that appear alongside image generation results

OpenAI said the new visual ads will show up after your image generation results appear in the U.S. only for now....

1 week ago

Open or closed AI? How founders are choosing what to build on at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

Learn how founders are choosing between building on open or closed AI at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026. Register now to save up to $100 and get a second pass at 50% off....

1 week ago

Lola Vision Systems is trying to make it easier to run AI models on chips

Lola Vision Systems is one of TechCrunch's Battlefield 200 Companies...

1 week ago

The final Disrupt Stage lineup: Three days of conversations you won’t hear anywhere outside of TechCrunch Disrupt 2026

The full TechCrunch Disrupt Stage lineup revealed, featuring Max Hodak, Mark Wahlberg, Benchmark partners, and more. Register now to save up to $100 on your pass and get a second at 50% off....

1 week ago