TechCrunch

Google admits Spotify pays no Play Store fees because of a secret deal

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 06:15:41 +0000

A Google executive said during a testimony in the Epic vs Google trial that a deal with Spotify allows the audio company to bypass Play Store fees, as reported by The Verge. Don Harrison, Google’s head of partnership, said that Spotify pays no fees when it processes its own payments and pays a measly 4% […]

Indy raises $44 million to simplify taxes and paperwork for freelancers

Romain Dillet — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 05:50:00 +0000

French startup Indy has recently closed a new funding round of $44 million (€40 million) with BlackFin Capital Partners leading the round. Indy started as an automated accounting platform for freelancers and other self-employed people. But the company has been slowly iterating on its product to become an all-in-one platform for freelancers, from accounting to […]

Elon Musk’s ‘thermonuclear’ lawsuit over hate-adjacent ads on X… actually confirms them

Devin Coldewey — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 02:04:40 +0000

Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, has filed a lawsuit alleging defamation by a news organization over claims that major companies had ads appear next to antisemitic content. But the suit appears to confirm the very thing it claims is defamatory. Media Matters last Thursday published an article with screenshots showing ads from IBM, Apple, Oracle […]

A timeline of Sam Altman’s firing from OpenAI — and the fallout

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 01:54:46 +0000

In a dramatic turn of events late Friday, ex-Y Combinator president Sam Altman was fired as CEO of AI startup OpenAI, the company behind viral AI hits like ChatGPT, GPT-4 and DALL-E 3, by OpenAI’s board of directors. Then, the company’s longtime president and co-founder, Greg Brockman, resigned — as did three senior OpenAI researchers. […]

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella suggests that Sam Altman might return to OpenAI

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 01:22:36 +0000

In interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg TV tonight, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella made it clear that it’s possible Sam Altman, who was fired from his role as CEO at OpenAI by the AI startup’s board of directors on Friday, could return to OpenAI in some capacity. That’s despite the fact that Altman announced this morning […]

European investors grab the popcorn for the new ‘series’ of OpenAI, but are fearful of the fallout

Mike Butcher — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 01:04:18 +0000

With the OpenAI saga playing out across the pond, the European tech community has been waiting for the latest updates as if a new series of “Succession” was about to drop. Indeed, events have at times resembled some Greek tragedy about the Gods fighting it out, atop Mount Olympus, while us mere mortals watch on. […]

Chaos at OpenAI adds fuel to the AI talent poaching war

Christine Hall — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 00:02:54 +0000

It may be difficult for just any company to court OpenAI employees even if compensation packages are eye-poppingly high because of loyalty to Sam Altman.

Max Q: SpaceX’s mega-rocket for the moon and Mars goes farther than ever before

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 23:00:38 +0000

In this issue: More on Starship's second launch, news from Blackshark.ai and more

Investors are souring on OpenAI’s nonprofit governance model

Kyle Wiggers — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 22:34:34 +0000

OpenAI was never quite like other generative AI startups — or other startups period, for that matter. Its governance structure is unique and what ultimately led to the abrupt ousting of CEO Sam Altman on Friday. Even after it transitioned from a nonprofit to a “capped-profit” company in 2019, OpenAI retained an unusual structure that […]

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe is now taking over the top product role at the EV maker

Kirsten Korosec — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:05:34 +0000

Rivian founder and CEO RJ Scaringe has taken on another role within the publicly traded EV maker as chief product officer Nick Kalayjian moves out of the job and eventually into an advisory position, according to a regulatory filing and internal emails viewed by TechCrunch. Scaringe will now be responsible for all product development — […]

Avarni gets backing to help large enterprises hit their net-zero goals

Catherine Shu — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:00:26 +0000

For a lot of companies, Scope 3 emissions make up the bulk of their carbon footprint, but are time-consuming and expensive for them to track. As more regulation mandating Scope 3 reporting is passed, however, it is crucial for them to do so. That’s where Avarni comes into the frame. The Sydney-based startup helps companies […]

Don’t expect competition authorities to wade into the Microsoft-OpenAI power-play — yet

Natasha Lomas — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 21:00:09 +0000

As the tech world watches Microsoft suck in top execs and AI engineering talent from OpenAI, the generative AI giant in which it already holds a minority stake worth several billion dollars, one question to consider is what, if anything, can competition regulators do about the visible flight of AI expertise and value into Microsoft’s […]

5 investors have high hopes for defense tech amid growing venture interest

Aria Alamalhodaei — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:30:05 +0000

It is likely not an overstatement to say that the relationship between U.S. defense and Silicon Valley is undergoing its most profound transformation since the 1950s.

Thousands of new honeypots deployed across Israel to catch hackers

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 20:07:37 +0000

On October 7, Hamas launched an unprecedented terrorist attack on Israel, killing more than 1,200 people, with hundreds taken hostage. The attack prompted a deadly response from the Israel Defense Forces, which has reportedly left more than 10,000 people dead in airstrikes and a land incursion. Shortly after the attack, the number of internet-connected honeypots […]

Omegle’s death is the end of an era for anonymous online connection

Amanda Silberling — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 19:18:09 +0000

After 14 years online, Omegle shut down as part of a settlement in a $22 million sex trafficking lawsuit. If anything was a surprise, it was that the anonymous, randomized chat site was still operational. In a time when multibillion-dollar companies nitpick the rules about “female-presenting nipples” and “non-sexually graphic dancing,” how could a website notorious […]

10 gifts for frequent travelers in 2023, from backpacks to portable power

Brian Heater — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 19:10:52 +0000

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been traveling a lot this year. In fact, I’ve been back to my 2019 levels of travel, which has been a breath of fresh air after being pandemic-grounded for a couple of years. I like to return to this list every time TechCrunch does a gift guide. It’s […]

Instagram Threads missed a moment to shine, as OpenAI’s drama took place on X

Sarah Perez — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 18:45:08 +0000

Instagram Threads missed its moment to truly challenge X, this weekend’s OpenAI scandal indicates. Over the past few days, as news spread about the board’s decision to remove Sam Altman as OpenAI CEO, and the impacts of this wild and unexpected change rippled through Silicon Valley’s tech ecosystem, the conversation was largely not taking place […]

With Functional Source License, Sentry wants to grant developers freedom ‘without harmful free-riding’

Paul Sawers — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 18:43:04 +0000

Yet another software license is vying for the attentions of SaaS companies seeking to align themselves with the open source realm, without compromising their commercial endeavors. Sentry, an app performance monitoring (APM) company that helps companies such as Disney, Microsoft and Cisco track and resolve laggy or buggy applications, has transitioned its core product to […]

OpenAI’s crisis will sow the seeds of the next generation of AI startups

Tim De Chant — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 18:42:47 +0000

OpenAI’s meltdown is likely to become the latest installment in what’s becoming a Silicon Valley tradition. It's hard to know how this will end.

Powder, an AI clipping tool for gaming, can detect when a creator yells during a stream

Lauren Forristal — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 18:31:05 +0000

Powder, AI-powered clipping software that takes highlights from gaming streams and turns them into short-form videos, will soon be able to detect shouting for gamers to create even better montages. The platform is also working on speech-to-text software so creators can get a transcript of their entire stream and search for keywords. Powder has developed […]