TechCrunch

Ola Electric surges in India’s biggest listing in two years

Manish Singh — Fri, 09 Aug 2024 04:48:11 +0000

Ola Electric, India’s largest electric two-wheeler maker, saw its shares rise as much as 20% on its public debut on Friday, making it the biggest listing among Indian firms in two years. Shares of the Bengaluru-based firm, which counts SoftBank and Temasek among its backers, jumped to as high as ₹91.18 (about $1.1) after starting […]

Rocket Lab’s sunny outlook bodes well for future constellation plans

Aria Alamalhodaei — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 23:33:51 +0000

Rocket Lab surpassed $100 million in quarterly revenue for the first time, a 71% increase from the same quarter of last year. This is just one of several shiny accomplishments executives showed off to investors on Thursday — and a good omen for the space company’s medium-term ambitious plans. Executives continued to tease plans for […]

CloudPay, a payroll services provider, lands $120M in new funding

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 22:20:26 +0000

In 1996, two companies, Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions, formed a venture called CloudPay to provide payroll and payments services to enterprise clients. CloudPay grew quietly over the next several decades, adding workflow automation features to maintain pace with upstart rivals. It’s still growing, CFO Andy Thomson assures TechCrunch. Thomson claims that CloudPay is handling […]

Security bugs in ransomware leak sites helped save six companies from paying hefty ransoms

Zack Whittaker — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 22:20:00 +0000

The vulnerabilities allowed one security researcher to peek inside the leak sites without having to log in.

A comprehensive list of 2024 tech layoffs

Cody Corrall, Alyssa Stringer — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 22:00:00 +0000

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized […]

Rabbit’s r1 refines chats and timers, but its app-using ‘action model’ is still MIA

Devin Coldewey — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 20:29:41 +0000

A new "beta rabbit" mode adds some conversational AI chops to the Rabbit r1, particularly in more complex or multi-step instructions.

Archer to set up air taxi network in LA by 2026 ahead of World Cup

Rebecca Bellan — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 20:00:00 +0000

Los Angeles is notorious for its back-to-back traffic. Three events that promise to bring in millions of spectators from around the world — the 2026 World Cup, the Super Bowl in 2027 and the 2028 Olympics — have LA officials searching for a range of new mobility solutions to address its congestion problems. But they’re […]

Amazon is fumbling in India

Manish Singh — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 19:56:19 +0000

Amazon's decision to overlook quick-commerce in India is now looking like a significant misstep.

OpenAI finds that GPT-4o does some truly bizarre stuff sometimes

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 19:34:29 +0000

OpenAI’s GPT-4o, the generative AI model that powers the recently launched alpha of Advanced Voice Mode in ChatGPT, is the company’s first trained on voice as well as text and image data. And that leads it to behave in strange ways sometimes — like mimicking the voice of the person speaking to it or randomly […]

Box adds crucial piece to its AI platform with Alphamoon acquisition

Ron Miller — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 19:15:35 +0000

On Thursday, Box filled in a missing piece on its AI platform when it bought automated metadata extracting startup, Alphamoon.

OpenAI adds a Carnegie Mellon professor to its board of directors

Kyle Wiggers — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 19:00:00 +0000

OpenAI has announced a new appointment to its board of directors: Zico Kolter. Kolter, a professor and director of the machine learning department at Carnegie Mellon, predominantly focuses his research on AI safety. This makes him an “invaluable technical director for [OpenAI’s] governance,” OpenAI writes in a post on its official blog. AI safety has […]

Spotify and Epic Games call Apple’s revised DMA compliance plan ‘confusing,’ ‘illegal’ and ‘unacceptable’

Sarah Perez — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 18:59:19 +0000

Count Spotify and Epic Games among the Apple critics who are not happy with the iPhone maker’s newly revised compliance plan for the European Union’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). Shortly after Apple announced the updated version on Tuesday, including loosened restrictions along with the addition of two more fees, Spotify shared a statement with TechCrunch […]

Thursday, the dating app that you can use only on Thursdays, expands to San Francisco

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 18:58:31 +0000

Thursday seeks to shake up conventional online dating in a crowded market. The app, which recently expanded to San Francisco, fosters intentional dating by restricting user access to Thursdays. At midnight, all matches disappear. The idea is that by restricting usage to one day a week, potential matches will be encouraged to set up real-life meetings […]

Cohere co-founder Nick Frosst thinks everyone needs to be more realistic about what AI can and cannot do

Rebecca Szkutak — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 18:15:05 +0000

AI companies are gobbling up investor money and securing sky-high valuations early in their life cycle. This dynamic has many calling the AI industry a bubble. Nick Frosst, a co-founder of Cohere, which builds custom AI models for enterprise customers, recently said on TechCrunch’s Found podcast that he doesn’t think the AI industry is in […]

Instagram is embracing the ‘photo dump’

Aisha Malik — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 17:38:48 +0000

Instagram is rolling out the ability for users to add up to 20 photos or videos to their feed carousels, as the platform embraces the trend of “photo dumps.” Back in 2017, Instagram added the ability to post up to 10 photos or videos in one swipeable carousel post. Now, you can post double the […]

Lyft ‘opens a can of whoop ass’ on surge pricing, Tesla’s Dojo explained and Saudi Arabia pumps $1.5B into Lucid

Kirsten Korosec — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 17:05:00 +0000

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! Anyone paying even a little bit of attention to Tesla has probably heard about Dojo. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has referenced Dojo repeatedly over the years, oftentimes […]

Flint Capital raises a $160M through an unusual fund-raising strategy

Margaux MacColl — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Flint Capital just closed its third fund at $160 million. Its has a unique strategy for finding its limited partner investors.

Elon Musk’s X agrees to pause EU data processing for training Grok

Natasha Lomas — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 16:39:34 +0000

Earlier this week it emerged that the DPC had instigated court proceedings seeking an injunction against X over the data processing without consent.

Google DeepMind develops a ‘solidly amateur’ table tennis robot

Brian Heater — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 16:14:43 +0000

During testing, Google DeepMind's table tennis bot was able to beat all of the beginner-level players it faced.

As X sues advertisers over boycott, the app ditches all ads from its top subscription tier

Sarah Perez — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 16:09:20 +0000

The X account announced that its Premium+ subscription would now be "fully" ad-free, leading some to question how this change would affect creator earnings.