AI coding tools are getting better fast. If you don’t work in code, it can be hard to notice how much things are changing, but GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 have made a whole new set of developer tricks possible to automate, and last week Sonnet 2.4 did it again. At …
Read More »Sam Altman says Sora will add ‘granular,’ opt-in copyright controls
OpenAI may be reversing course on how it approaches copyright and intellectual property in its new video app Sora. Prior to Sora’s launch this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI had been telling Hollywood studios and agencies that they needed to explicitly opt out if they didn’t want …
Read More »Instacrops will demo its water-saving, crop-boosting AI at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025
Agriculture is a thirsty industry, consuming 70% of all fresh water used worldwide. In some countries, like India or Chile, it can be more than 90%. For Mario Bustamante, who lives in Chile, the problem hits close to home. “Lack of water is a big issue here,” he told TechCrunch. …
Read More »Startups and the U.S. government: It’s getting complicated
The tie between startups and the U.S. government have strengthened in recent years, a shift buoyed by an interest in using AI, automation, space, robotics, and climate tech for defense. And while that has provided another welcome path to capital, the relationship is getting complicated. A growing share of startups …
Read More »If you’re not an AI startup, good luck raising money from VCs
New PitchBook data illustrates how dramatically AI is dominating startup investment, with 2025 on-track to become the first year when AI accounts for more than half of all VC money invested. PitchBook reports that VCs have poured $192.7 billion into the industry so far this year, out of a total …
Read More »Newsom signs bill giving Uber and Lyft drivers in California the right to unionize
Drivers for ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft will soon have the right to unionize in California as independent contractors, thanks to a bill signed Friday by Governor Gavin Newsom. This is part of a larger deal between lawmakers, unions, and ride-hailing companies, resulting in the passage of separate bills …
Read More »A breach every month raises doubts about South Korea’s digital defenses
South Korea is world-famous for its blazing-fast internet, near-universal broadband coverage, and as a leader in digital innovation, hosting global tech brands like Hyundai, LG, and Samsung. But this very success has made the country a prime target for hackers and exposed how fragile its cybersecurity defenses remain. The country …
Read More »Anker offered Eufy camera owners $2 per video for AI training
Earlier this year, Anker, the Chinese company that makes Eufy security cameras, offered its users money in exchange for videos of package and car thefts. The popular internet-connected security camera maker said it would pay its customers $2 per video to train its AI systems to help better detect thieves …
Read More »Event startup Partiful wasn’t stripping GPS locations from user-uploaded photos
Social event planning app Partiful, which calls itself “Facebook events for hot people,” has firmly replaced Facebook as the go-to platform for sending party invitations. But what Partiful also has in common with Facebook is that it’s collecting a tsunami of user data, and Partiful could have done better at …
Read More »Google’s Gemini AI app could soon be getting a big makeover
After the success of OpenAI’s video editing app Sora, now at the top of the U.S. App Store, Google may be looking to give its Gemini AI app a more visually focused revamp. The company is seemingly experimenting with a new user interface that would shift the app from having …
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