The crush of traffic going into training and running AI has quickly turned into a major cost and resource headache for organizations. Cast AI is a startup building tools to ease and optimize AI and other workloads with automation — is raising a major round of funding on the back of its strong growth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch…

JetBrains, the company behind a range of popular app development tools, has released its first “open” AI model for coding. On Wednesday, JetBrains made Mellum, a code-generating model the company released for its various software development suites last year, openly available on the AI dev platform Hugging Face. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi…

Yelp said on Tuesday that it’s working on deploying AI-powered “voice agents” to help service providers and restaurants handle calls, answer basic questions, and accomplish tasks like adding a customer to a restaurant waitlist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

Spotify reported on Tuesday that its premium subscriber base grew by 5 million in the first quarter, representing a 12% increase year-over-year. This brings the total to 268 million, marking the second-highest total ever and the highest net addition of paid subs for a first quarter since 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.…

AI-based coding has exploded in popularity on the promise that it will make developers’ jobs faster and easier. But it’s also resulted in something else: a vast increase in lines of code, and thus the likelihood of bugs resulting in crashes or other mishaps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

The world has a trash problem. The amount of stuff we throw away is expected to nearly double, to 3.8 billion metric tons, by 2050. Reducing what we use would go a long way to addressing the issue, but let’s face it, we’re not very good at buying less either. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei published an essay Thursday highlighting how little researchers understand about the inner workings of the world’s leading AI models. To address that, Amodei set an ambitious goal for Anthropic to reliably detect most AI model problems by 2027. Amodei acknowledges the challenge ahead. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis…

Chess.com reaches a new membership milestone as it nears its 20th birthday. Chess.com, the online chess platform that was founded in 2005 and launched in 2007, has surpassed 200 million members. Of those 200 million members, 1.5 million are paying users. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

For years, websites included information about what kind of crawlers were not allowed on their site with a robots.txt file. Adobe, which wants to create a similar standard for images, has added a tool to content credentials with an intention to give them a bit more control over what is used to train AI models. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi…

Volkswagen of America and Uber on Thursday unveiled an ambitious plan to launch a commercial robotaxi service — using autonomous electric VW ID. BUZZ vehicles — in multiple U.S. cities over the next decade. The companies expect to launch a commercial service in Los Angeles, the first city on the list, by late 2026 Learn more about your ad choices. …

Government censorship has found its way to Bluesky, but there’s currently a loophole thanks to how the social network is structured. Earlier this month, Bluesky restricted access to 72 accounts in Turkey at the request of Turkish governmental authorities, according to a recent report by the Freedom of Expression Association. Learn more about your a…

Linktree is launching a set of new features aimed at helping creators earn more money directly from its platform. The new tools include the ability to sell courses and digital products, earn from brand-sponsored links, and build shoppable storefronts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

Xerion says it has a new technique to produce highly refined cobalt in a single step. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

AI labs are increasingly relying on crowdsourced benchmarking platforms such as Chatbot Arena to probe the strengths and weaknesses of their latest models. But some experts say that there are serious problems with this approach from an ethical and academic perspective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

The tech market doesn’t need to be soaring up and to the right to foster healthy M&A activity. Deals can get done even in down markets. But can M&A thrive in an uncertain market? That’s a harder question. The venture market soured in 2022 as fundraising and exits largely dried up Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

A digital rights group blasted the Florida bill, but lawmakers voted to advanced the draft law. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

Some ChatGPT users have noticed a strange phenomenon recently: occasionally, the chatbot refers to them by name as it reasons through problems. That wasn’t the default behavior previously, and several users claim ChatGPT is mentioning their names despite never having been told what to call them. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice…

It looks like humanoid robots have a long way to go before catching up with human runners. Beijing’s E-Town tech hub hosted what it described as the first world’s first humanoid half-marathon on Saturday, with 21 humanoid robots competing alongside thousands of humans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

Graze, a startup that lets people build and monetize custom feeds for Bluesky’s social network, has attracted new capital. Pre-seed investors, led by Betaworks and Salesforce Ventures, have invested $1 million in the company’s small team, which is working to give users control over their algorithms and social media experiences. Learn more about you…

New York City — where you can get a dollar slice at 2am or a McDonald’s delivery in under 30 minutes, but still spend two hours crawling down the highway to catch a flight. Archer Aviation wants to change that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

As TikTok continues to build out its search experience, the social network is now surfacing reviews for select places right within the comments tab of a video. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

You could say that TikTok is ruining our attention spans, and yet, viewers around the world are tuning in to watch a monotonous livestream from a Swedish TV station that they’ve probably never heard of. It’s time for the Great Moose Migration. For thousands of years, moose have crossed the Ångerman River each spring. Learn more about your ad choice…

Reshma Saujani, founder of the non-profit Girls Who Code, got straight to the point. “If I had applied to be the CEO of Girls Who Code, I wouldn’t have gotten the job,” she told Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, on the latest episode of the duchess’ podcast, “Confessions of a Female Founder.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adch…

The science fiction trope of humans superpowered by computer and bionic implants is fast becoming a reality, and today, a startup hoping for a role in how that plays out is announcing some funding. Phantom Neuro, which is developing a wristband-like device that gets implanted under the skin to let a person control prosthetic limbs. Learn more about…

Nvidia says it has commissioned more than a million square feet of manufacturing space to build and test AI chips in Arizona and Texas as part of an effort to move a portion of production to the U.S. The chipmaker says that Nvidia Blackwell chips have started production at TSMC’s chip plants in Phoenix, Arizona. Learn more about your ad choices. Vi…

Demand for solar energy in power-starved Nigeria has soared in the last decade thanks to worsening grid reliability and rising fuel costs. That’s drawn investor interest to Arnergy, a cleantech startup meeting that need. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

A few years ago, Chef Robotics was hurting. But founder Rajat Bhageria turned it around by doing something that early-stage founders fear to do. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

How do you get talented engineers to work for a startup in a mundane field at a time when more exciting companies are paying well and hiring aggressively? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

The purchase covers 12 years of emissions from CO280’s first carbon capture project at a mill on the Gulf Coast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

It would appear the environment and society remain relevant, whatever you might hear in some other quarters. At least, that’s one conclusion to be drawn from the news that European specialist VC Revent has closed a €100 million ($109 million) Fund II to invest in “planetary and societal health” startups. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc…

On Wednesday, Google rolled out updates to several of its first-party media-generating AI models available through its Vertex AI cloud platform. Lyria, Google’s text-to-music model, is now available in preview for select customers, and the company’s Veo 2 video creation model has been enhanced with new editing and visual effects customization optio…

The advisories say the spyware apps are used to target members of civil society who may oppose China’s state interests. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

Amazon has upgraded its AI video model, Nova Reel, with the ability to generate videos up to two minutes in length. Nova Reel, announced in December 2024, was Amazon’s first foray into the generative video space. It competes with models from OpenAI, Google, and others in what’s fast becoming a crowded market. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…

A founder who has carved out a name for himself building products to help restaurants connect better with would-be diners has $50 million for his latest startup: a new take on the idea of customer loyalty. Blackbird Labs has built a payments-meets-loyalty-meets-blockchain platform for restaurants to grow repeat business while reducing some of the f…

IBM is releasing the latest version of its mainframe hardware that includes new updates meant to accelerate AI adoption. The hardware and consulting company on Monday announced IBM z17, the latest version of its mainframe computer hardware. This fully encrypted mainframe is powered by an IBM Telum II processo Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…

Peter Diamandis, a futurist with degrees from both MIT and Harvard, has spent much of the past two decades evangelizing a vision of an “abundant future” driven by exponential technologies that will lengthen our lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

Meta has released a new collection of AI models, Llama 4, in its Llama family — on a Saturday, no less. There are four new models in total: Llama 4 Scout, Llama 4 Maverick, and Llama 4 Behemoth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

X’s plan to boost revenue by selling off dormant usernames on its service is starting to shape up. According to recent changes found in X’s web application, the company is setting up a “handle inquiry” process that will allow Verified Organizations — companies and other organizations that already have a $1,000 per month X subscription Learn more ab…

Starting Wednesday, Meta says it will begin combining the Instagram accounts of the Second Lady of the United States, Usha Vance, and the former Second Gentleman of the United States, Doug Emhoff. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

Tesla trade-ins in the U.S. are at an all time high as some owners become disillusioned with Elon Musk’s politics, and some just want to avoid their car getting keyed by Musk haters. Automakers are pouncing on the opportunity. Polestar, Lucid Motors, Volvo, and Ford Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

OpenAI has been accused by many parties of training its AI on copyrighted content sans permission. Now a new paper by an AI watchdog organization makes the serious accusation that the company increasingly relied on non-public books it didn’t license to train more sophisticated AI models. AI models are essentially complex prediction engines. Learn m…

Rather than divide people into demographic buckets, Northwind Climate analyzes survey responses for behavioral clues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

Tesla recorded 336,681 deliveries, its worst quarterly performance in more than two years as the brand suffers a backlash to CEO Elon Musk’s political maneuverings. The dip in sales comes as Musk continues leading DOGE, the “advisory body” that has laid off thousands of federal employees and attempted to eliminate entire agencies and programs; Rivi…

Oracle has denied at least one breach, despite evidence to the contrary, as it begins notifying healthcare customers of a separate patient data breach. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

Substack continues to double down on video amid TikTok’s uncertain future in the U.S. The company announced on Monday that it’s rolling out a scrollable video feed in its app, making it the latest platform to introduce a TikTok-like feed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices…

As it gears up to go public, Chime is going all in on new features in an effort to attract more customers. The digital bank is offering customers who agree to have their paychecks directly deposited into a Chime savings or checking account an APY of 3.75%, it tells TechCrunch exclusively. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a…

Amazon on Monday unveiled Nova Act, a general-purpose AI agent that can take control of a web browser and independently perform some simple actions. Alongside the new agentic AI model, Amazon is releasing the Nova Act SDK, a toolkit that allows developers to build agent prototypes with Nova Act. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoice…

AI web crawling bots are the cockroaches of the internet, many developers believe. FOSS devs are fighting back in ingenuous, humorous ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoicesBy TechCrunch

President Trump is slapping 25% tariffs on all cars imported to the United States, including from our immediate North American neighbors. He’s also placed a 25% tariff on certain parts used to build cars. It’s a decision that will likely supercharge the cost of new and used cars, but it’s also a gift to Tesla Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…

Americans’ support for a TikTok ban is declining, according to a study from the Pew Research Center. This survey of over 5,000 U.S. adults found that just 34% of respondents supported banning the short form video app. When Pew ran a similar study in 2023, 50% of adults supported the TikTok ban. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices…