Tech

Around half a million writers will be eligible for a payday of at least $3,000, thanks to a historic $1.5 billion settlement in a class action lawsuit that a group of authors brought against Anthropic. This landmark settlement marks the largest payout in the history of U.S. copyright law, but …

California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings met with and sent an open letter to OpenAI to express their concerns over the safety of ChatGPT, particularly for children and teens.  The warning comes a week after Bonta and 44 other attorneys general sent a letter to …

Dot, an AI companion app that aimed to be a friend and confidante, is shutting down, the company announced on Friday. On a message published on its website, the startup behind Dot, New Computer, said that the product will remain operational until October 5, giving users time to download their …

Common Sense Media, a kids-safety-focused nonprofit offering ratings and reviews of media and technology, released its risk assessment of Google’s Gemini AI products on Friday. While the organization found that Google’s AI clearly told kids it was a computer, not a friend — something that’s associated with helping drive delusional …

It’s been a tumultuous year for the U.S. semiconductor industry. The semiconductor industry plays a sizable role in the “AI race” that the U.S. seems determined to win, which is why this context is worth paying attention to: from Intel’s appointment of Lip-Bu Tan to CEO — who wasted no …

For the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch, Disrupt 2025 (taking place October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco) gets real about one of the most pressing founder questions: compensation and equity. On the Builders Stage, a panel of experts who’ve lived it, scaled it, and solved it will tackle the …

Online gaming platform Roblox is launching a TikTok-like short-form video feed for sharing gameplay moments, the company unveiled on Friday at the Roblox Developers Conference. The company also announced increased earnings for creators, new AI tools to boost creation, and other advancements in performance. The new short-form video experience, called …

Warner Bros. is suing AI startup Midjourney for copyright infringement, alleging that the company allows users to generate images and videos of characters like Superman, Batman, and Bugs Bunny without permission. As first reported by Reuters, Warner Bros. says that Midjourney knowingly engaged in wrongful conduct, noting that the company …

Tesla spent $400,000 advertising on Elon Musk’s social media platform X in 2024, according to a new regulatory filing. But the automaker appears to be on track to spend just a fraction of that in 2025 as sales have struggled. In the first two months of 2025, Tesla spent $10,000 …

Sodium-ion battery startup Natron ceased operations this week, ending the company’s 12-year quest to commercialize its technology in the U.S. The company had $25 million worth of orders lined up for its Michigan factory, but it couldn’t deliver them until it had UL certification, according to Raleigh’s The News and …