
TechCrunch Industry News
3,880 episodes — Page 7 of 78
How Al Gore used AI to track 660M polluters; plus, UK police arrest man linked to ransomware attack
Former Vice President Al Gore’s latest project gives polluters nowhere to hide. Climate Trace, a non-profit that Gore co-founded, launched a tool Wednesday that uses AI to track fine particulate pollution from more than 660 million sources worldwide. Also, the U.K.’s National Crime Agency said on Wednesday that a man was arrested in connection to the ransomware attack that has caused delays and disruptions at several European airports since the weekend. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
SpaceX boasts an impressive alumni list. Some have gone on to found the sector’s biggest startups; others become astronauts
NASA unveiled its 2025 astronaut class this week, and two familiar names popped out: Anna Menon and Yuri Kubo. Both spent more than a decade at SpaceX, where they played critical roles in the company’s rise to the behemoth it is today. In other news, while many vibe coding startups have become unicorns, with valuations in the billions, one area where AI-assisted coding has not yet taken off is on mobile devices. Despite the numerous apps now available that offer vibe coding tools on mobile platforms, none are gaining noticeable downloads, and few are generating any revenue at all. According to an analysis of global app store trends by the app intelligence provider Appfigures, only a small handful of mobile apps offering vibe coding tools have seen any downloads, let alone generated revenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Meta launches super PAC to fight AI regulation as state policies mount, also Alloy is bringing data management to the robotics industry
Meta has raised the stakes in Big Tech’s fight against AI regulation. The Facebook-maker is investing “tens of millions” of dollars into a new super PAC to fight state-level tech policy proposals that could stifle AI advancement, reports Axios. Also, Sydney, Australia-based Alloy thinks it can help with that issue: the startup is building data infrastructure for robotics companies to help them process and organize all the data their robots collect from various sources, including sensors and cameras. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Oakland Ballers let an AI manage the team. What could go wrong?
The Oakland Ballers, an independent Pioneer League baseball team, took that concept of “playing the percentages” to the next level: they let an AI manage the team for a game. The Ballers were founded by edtech entrepreneur Paul Freedman as a salve to the departure of the beloved Oakland A’s, the Major League baseball team that owner John Fisher ripped away from local fans in what’s regarded as one of the most insidious managerial moves in sports history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Trump says Lachlan and Rupert Murdoch might invest in TikTok deal, also, Google isn’t kidding around about cost cutting
The Trump administration has been talking up a potential TikTok deal this weekend, with President Donald Trump telling Fox News on Sunday that Rupert Murdoch and his son Lachlan are “probably” going to be involved. Also, Google is ending its enterprise subscription to the Financial Times, and it’s not the only enterprise media subscription on the chopping block, sources say. The cuts reflect broader cost-reduction efforts at the search giant, even as the company reports strong financial performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mastodon has a new plan to make money: Hosting and support services for the open social web
Mastodon, the non-profit organization that maintains the software powering the decentralized alternative to social networks like Threads and X, has a new plan to make money. Instead of relying entirely on donations and grants as before, the company announced Friday that it will now offer paid hosting, moderation, and support services for organizations that want to join the open social web. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
US government charges British teenager accused of at least 120 ‘Scattered Spider’ hacks; plus, OpenAI’s research on AI models deliberately lying is wild
The U.S. Department of Justice on Thursday unsealed federal charges against British teenager Thalha Jubair, who prosecutors accuse of being involved in at least 120 cyberattacks, including the U.S. Courts system, and the extortion of dozens of U.S. companies. In other news, Every now and then, researchers at the biggest tech companies drop a bombshell. There was the time Google said its latest quantum chip indicated multiple universes exist. Or when Anthropic gave its AI agent Claudius a snack vending machine to run and it went amok, calling security on people, and insisting it was human. This week, it was OpenAI’s turn to raise our collective eyebrows. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nvidia buys $5 billion stake in Intel, planning AI chip collaboration, also,Bumble BFF’s revamped app is here, focusing on friend groups
Nvidia has agreed to buy a $5 billion stake in Intel as part of a broader deal to together develop “multiple generations” of data center and PC products. Also, With friendship apps continuing to gain popularity, Bumble announced on Wednesday the relaunch of its Bumble For Friends app. With younger generations seeking to expand their social circles, the revamped app aims to help users connect with new friends beyond the traditional one-on-one matching that BFF has been known for. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Amazon launches AI agent to help sellers complete tasks and manage their businesses, also, Lyft and Waymo are partnering to bring robotaxis to Nashville
Amazon announced on Wednesday that it’s introducing an always-on AI agent that will help sellers on its platform run their businesses. The company is updating Seller Assistant, its AI tool for third-party sellers, to help handle tasks on the seller’s behalf. Waymo has struck a deal with ride-hailing company Lyft to launch a robotaxi service in Nashville in 2026. The company said Wednesday it will begin testing its fleet of all-electric and autonomous Jaguar I-Pace vehicles in the Nashville area in the coming months and will open up the service to the public next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sonair built its 3D ultrasonic sensor with robotic safety in mind, and Terra Oleo’s oil-producing microbes could replace destructive palm oil plantations
As robots increasingly enter human spaces, robotics companies will need to think about safety differently than they did when robots were largely siloed from their human counterparts. Sonair thinks its sensors can help robotics companies reach their safety goals — with a solution that is both better and cheaper than popular LIDAR technology. Also, When most kids rebel against their families, they might become a ski bum, join a band, or go to art school. Shen Ming Lee decided to start a company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Silicon Valley bets big on ‘environments’ to train AI agents
For years, Big Tech CEOs have touted visions of AI agents that can autonomously use software applications to complete tasks for people. But take today’s consumer AI agents out for a spin, whether it’s OpenAI’s ChatGPT Agent or Perplexity’s Comet, and you’ll quickly realize how limited the technology still is. Making AI agents more robust may take a new set of techniques that the industry is still discovering. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Calm launches standalone iOS app for sleep support, also, Google launches new protocol for agent-driven purchases
Calm is launching a new standalone app for more personalized sleep support, the company announced on Tuesday. The new Calm Sleep app is available on iOS and is designed to help people wind down, sleep better, and wake up refreshed. On Tuesday, Google announced a new open protocol for purchases initiated by AI agents — automated software programs that can shop and make decisions on behalf of users — with backing from more than 60 merchants and financial institutions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Awake’s new app requires heavy sleepers to complete tasks in order to turn off the alarm ... and more tech news
A new iOS app called Awake, designed specifically for heavy sleepers who must complete missions to turn off their alarms, launched Monday. The app is only available to users with the iOS 26 update, which also came out on Monday. he U.S. has reached a “framework” deal with China for social media platform TikTok, CNBC reported, citing Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. CNBC quoted Bessent as saying, “it’s between two private parties, but the commercial terms have been agreed upon.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
‘Selling coffee beans to Starbucks’ – how the AI boom could leave AI’s biggest companies behind ... and more
How much do foundation models matter? It might seem like a silly question, but it’s come up a lot in conversations with AI startups, which are increasingly comfortable with businesses that used to be dismissed as “GPT wrappers,” or companies that build interfaces on top of existing AI models like ChatGPT. Also, following its long-awaited launch of lossless streaming for paid subscribers, Spotify is upgrading its service for free users, too. On Monday, the company announced that free users globally will now be able to search and play any song they want or play a song shared by a friend or an artist they follow on social media. And AI-powered chatbots are playing a growing role in spiritual life. A New York Times story that examined the popularity of religious chatbots and apps. For the most part, these apps are supposed to point people to religious doctrine and scripture to answer their questions, although at least one website purports to allow users to chat with God. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Pilot union urges FAA to reject Rainmaker’s drone cloud-seeding plan
Rainmaker Technology’s bid to deploy cloud-seeding flares on small drones is being met by resistance from the airline pilots union, which has urged the Federal Aviation Administration to consider denying the startup’s request unless it meets stricter safety guidelines. The FAA’s decision will signal how the regulator views weather modification by unmanned aerial systems going forward. Rainmaker’s bet on small drones hangs in the balance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apple’s latest iPhone security feature just made life more difficult for spyware makers
The feature is called Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE) and is designed to help stop memory corruption bugs, which are some of the most common vulnerabilities exploited by spyware developers and makers of phone forensic devices used by law enforcement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Justice Department sues Uber for allegedly discriminating against people with disabilities, also, FTC launches inquiry into AI chatbot companions
The U.S. Justice Department has filed a lawsuit against Uber, accusing the ride-hailing company of violating federal law by discriminating against people with physical disabilities. In particular, the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) civil rights division claims that the company and its drivers “routinely refuse to serve individuals with disabilities, including individuals who travel with service animals or who use stowable wheelchairs.” Also, the FTC announced on Thursday that it is launching an inquiry into seven tech companies that make AI chatbot companion products for minors: Alphabet, CharacterAI, Instagram, Meta, OpenAI, Snap, and xAI. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How Bill Gates’s fellowship program is adapting to global uncertainty, plus a California bill that would regulate AI companion chatbots is close to becoming law
There’s plenty of uncertainty to go around this year, including a global trade war, shifting policy priorities, and an economy that’s starting to stumble. Breakthrough Energy, a climate tech organization founded by Bill Gates, has also been shifting in response. The group always placed long bets, though it appears to be reappraising some of them. Its policy team was scrapped in March, for example, and it didn’t continue funding a publication that covered the climate tech world. In other news, the California State Assembly took a big step toward regulating AI on Wednesday night, passing a bill that regulates AI companion chatbots in order to protect minors and vulnerable users. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OpenAI and Oracle reportedly ink historic cloud computing deal, also Thinking Machines Lab wants to make AI models more consistent
Oracle sent its shares soaring after markets closed yesterday after reporting that it signed multiple multi-billion-dollar contracts with several customers. Now, we have an idea of who those customers might be. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Vimeo to be acquired by Bending Spoons in $1.38B all-cash deal, plus Anchor’s co-founders are back with Oboe
Video platform Vimeo announced on Wednesday that it has agreed to be acquired by Bending Spoons, one of Europe’s largest mobile app developers, in an all-cash deal valued at approximately $1.38 billion. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Vimeo will be delisted from exchanges once the deal closes. The announcement comes as Bending Spoons was interested in a potential takeover of Vimeo as far back as March of last year. he co-founders who sold their last startup Anchor to Spotify are launching their next project: Oboe, an AI-powered educational app that enables anyone to create lightweight, flexible learning courses on nearly any topic they choose, simply by entering a prompt. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Apple’s creator-centric iPhone 17 Pro will make the vlogging camera obsolete
Apple unveiled its new line of iPhones on Tuesday, and the iPhone 17 Pro is making a direct appeal to content creators. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Sam Altman says that bots are making social media feel ‘fake’ ... and more
After watching Reddit's OpenAI and Anthropic communities, Sam Altman thinks social media cannot be trusted. And bots are to blame. Also, OpenAI executives are discussing a potential relocation out of California as increasing political resistance threatens the company's efforts to convert from nonprofit to for-profit status, according to The WSJ, but the company says it has no plans to leave. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
4 claim that Meta suppressed children’s safety research, also Salesloft says Drift customer data thefts linked to March GitHub account hack
Meta changed its policies around researching sensitive topics — like politics, children, gender, race, and harassment — six weeks after whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked internal documents that showed how Meta’s own research found that Instagram can damage teen girls’ mental health. Also, Salesloft said a breach of its GitHub account in March allowed hackers to steal authentication tokens that were later used in a mass-hack targeting several of its big tech customers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Are bad incentives to blame for AI hallucinations?
A new research paper from OpenAI asks why large language models like GPT-5 and chatbots like ChatGPT still hallucinate, and whether anything can be done to reduce those hallucinations. In a blog post summarizing the paper, OpenAI defines hallucinations as plausible but false statements generated by language models, and it acknowledges that despite improvements, hallucinations remain a fundamental challenge for all large language models, one that will never be completely eliminated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why is an Amazon-backed AI startup making Orson Welles fan fiction? Plus, Anthropic’s $1.5B copyright settlement sucks for writers
Why is a startup that bills itself as the Netflix of AI, and that recently raised money from Amazon’s Alexa Fund, talking about remaking a movie that was first released in 1942? Also, 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 this isn’t a victory for authors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tesla proposes new pay package for Elon Musk worth up to $1T, also, Snapchat's new Lens, and Rivian cut more workers
Tesla has proposed a new 10-year compensation plan for CEO Elon Musk that could be worth as much as $1 trillion even as the EV maker’s car business stumbles and it sets its sights on humanoid robotics and AI. Also, Snapchat is launching a new Lens that lets users create and edit images using a text-to-image AI generator, the company told TechCrunch exclusively. The new “Imagine Lens” is available to Snapchat+ Platinum and Lens+ subscribers. And, Rivian is laying off around 150 workers — its second small staff cut in a matter of months — as the company readies itself for the all-important launch of its more-affordable R2 SUV next year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Facebook is trying to make ‘pokes’ happen again, also, Stripe will build a new blockchain
The classic feature from Facebook’s early days lets users get a friend’s attention with a virtual nudge of sorts. While the poke fell out of use ages ago, the company has more recently seen an uptick in its use among younger users, which has now prompted it to make the poke a more central part of the Facebook experience. Also, the classic feature from Facebook’s early days lets users get a friend’s attention with a virtual nudge of sorts. While the poke fell out of use ages ago, the company has more recently seen an uptick in its use among younger users, which has now prompted it to make the poke a more central part of the Facebook experience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Captions rebrands as Mirage; also, JetBlue will use Amazon’s satellites for free in-flight internet
Captions, an AI-powered video creation and editing app for content creators that has secured over $100 million in venture capital to date at a valuation of $500 million, is rebranding to Mirage, the company announced on Thursday. Also, JetBlue will use Amazon’s Project Kuiper satellites for free in-flight internet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Roblox expands use of age-estimation tech and Scale AI is suing a former employee and rival Mercor
Amid lawsuits alleging child safety concerns, online gaming service Roblox announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding its age-estimation technology to all users and partnering with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) to provide age and content ratings for the games and apps on its platform. The company said that by year’s end, the age-estimation system will be rolled out to all Roblox users who access the company’s communication tools, like voice and text-based chat. This involves scanning users’ selfies and analyzing facial features to estimate age. Also, Scale AI, which helps tech companies prepare data to train their AI models, filed a lawsuit against one of its former sales employees and its rival Mercor on Wednesday. The suit claims the employee, who was hired by Mercor, “stole more than 100 confidential documents concerning Scale’s customer strategies and other proprietary information,” according to a copy seen by TechCrunch. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Netflix updates its Moments feature and PayPal and Venmo are giving out Comet invites
Netflix launched a scene-clipping feature for mobile last year called “Moments,” which lets users quickly save their favorite scenes from shows and movies within the Netflix app. The streaming giant rolled out an update on Wednesday, allowing users to specify both a starting point and an endpoint when saving a scene. Also, invites to Perplexity’s new AI-powered web browser, Comet, are one of the web’s hottest commodities these days. The new product was made available first to the AI firm’s $200-per-month Max subscribers and a small group of invitees. But now there’s a new way to jump ahead on the waitlist. On Wednesday, PayPal announced it’s giving its customers, including PayPal and Venmo users, early access to Comet as well as a free year’s subscription to Perplexity’s premium service, Perplexity Pro, normally $200 per year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google avoids break up, but has to give up exclusive search deals in antitrust trial , and more tech news
Google will not be forced to break up its search business, but a federal judge has tentatively ordered other changes to the tech giant’s business practices to keep it from further anticompetitive behavior. Also, the battle over $20 billion worth of climate-related funding authorized by Congress continues as an appellate court ruled on Tuesday in favor of the Environmental Protection Agency, which had terminated Biden-era grants made to nonprofits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
OpenAI to route sensitive conversations to GPT-5 and introduce parental controls
OpenAI said Tuesday it plans to route sensitive conversations to reasoning models like GPT-5 and roll out parental controls within the next month — part of an ongoing response to recent safety incidents involving ChatGPT failing to detect mental distress. The new guardrails come in the aftermath of the suicide of teenager Adam Raine, who discussed self-harm and plans to end his life with ChatGPT, which even supplied him with information about specific suicide methods. Also, Instagram is testing a new Picture-in-Picture feature for watching reels, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Tuesday. The feature allows users to watch reels in a small, floating window on their screen while browsing other apps to allow for multitasking. The feature was first spotted by app researcher Radu Oncescu. Users who are part of the test will see a pop-up notifying them about the new feature and how to turn it on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Space investing goes mainstream as VCs ditch the rocket science requirements
Five years ago, investor Katelin Holloway made what she calls a “literal moon shot” investment. A founding partner of the generalist venture firm Seven Seven Six admits she and her team had “no clue” what rocket company Stoke Space was talking about when they pitched the firm on its reusable launch technology. She says, ‘we knew full well we were not the specialist.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Taco Bell is having second thoughts about relying on AI at the drive-through plus cracks are forming in Meta’s partnership with Scale AI
Taco Bell’s chief digital officer says the company is having an “active conversation” about when to use and not use AI. The company has apparently rolled out voice AI-powered ordering at more than 500 drive-throughs. Also, it’s only been since June that Meta invested $14.3 billion in the data-labeling vendor Scale AI, bringing on CEO Alexandr Wang and several of the startup’s top executives to run Meta Superintelligence Labs. But the relationship between the two companies is already showing signs of fraying. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Murder at Burning Man turns Silicon Valley’s desert playground into a crime scene plus Nvidia's two mystery customers
A homicide investigation has rocked the final days of Burning Man after a man was found dead “lying in a pool of blood” Saturday night at the Nevada desert festival, according to the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office. According to the New York Times, the grim discovery occurred around 9:14 p.m. just as the festival’s iconic wooden “Man” effigy began its traditional burn. Also, customers, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Last week the chipmaker reported record revenue of $46.7 billion during the quarter that ended on July 27 — a 56% year-over-year increase largely driven by the AI data center boom. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Mastodon says it doesn’t ‘have the means’ to comply with age verification laws; also Trump administration’s deal is structured to prevent Intel from selling foundry unit
Decentralized social network Mastodon says it can’t comply with Mississippi’s age verification law — the same law that saw rival Bluesky pull out of the state — because it doesn’t have the means to do so. Also, The Trump administration seems intent on controlling Intel’s ability to make key business decisions around its floundering foundry business unit. According to reporting from the Financial Times, at a Deutsche Bank conference on Thursday, Intel’s CFO David Zinsner shared new details about the company’s recent deal with the Trump administration, which gave the U.S. government a 10% equity stake. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Anthropic users face a new choice – opt out or share your chats for AI training
As TechCrunch's Connie Loizos writes, Anthropic is making some big changes to how it handles user data, requiring all Claude users to decide by September 28 whether they want their conversations used to train AI models. While the company directed us to its blog post on the policy changes when asked about what prompted the move, we’ve formed some theories of our own. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
MathGPT.ai expands to over 50 institutions, also Mississippi’s age assurance law puts decentralized social networks to the test
Following a successful pilot program at 30 colleges and universities in the U.S., MathGPT.ai is preparing to nearly double its availability this fall, with hundreds of instructors planning to incorporate the tool. Schools implementing MathGPT.ai in their classrooms include Penn State University, Tufts University, and Liberty University, among others. In other news, an overly broad age assurance law in Mississippi is leading to arguments about which platforms — Bluesky, Mastodon, or others — offer the best solution for avoiding crackdowns on internet freedoms. The company that makes the Bluesky social app announced last week that it would block access to its service in the state of Mississippi, rather than comply with the new age verification law. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Nvidia reports record sales as the AI boom continues, also 911 centers are so understaffed, they’re turning to AI to answer calls
Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company, reported another quarter of sustained sales growth in its earnings statement Wednesday, with $46.7 billion in revenue, a 56% increase compared to the same period last year. That growth was largely fueled by AI-dominated data center business, which saw a 56% year-over-year increase in revenue. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A 1997 Radiohead song is topping the charts, thanks to TikTok, plus Anthropic settled its AI book-training lawsuit, and US sanctioned a fraud network used by North Koreans
Thanks to an unexpected surge in popularity on TikTok, Radiohead now has its fourth-ever song on the Billboard Hot 100: the morosely gorgeous track “Let Down” from the 1997 album “OK Computer.” “Let Down” never broke through to mainstream attention like Radiohead’s “Creep” or “Karma Police,” but it’s by no means a deep cut, like the Pavement B-side “Harness Your Hopes” that went viral due to a quirk in Spotify’s recommendation algorithm. This Radiohead song is a fan favorite from an album that’s considered among the best rock records of all time. Anthropic has settled a class action lawsuit with a group of fiction and nonfiction authors, as announced in a filing on Tuesday with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned an international fraud network used by North Korea to infiltrate U.S. companies with hackers posing as legitimate job seekers, agency officials announced Wednesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
DOGE uploaded live copy of Soc. Sec. database to ‘vulnerable’ cloud server, plus Libby is adding AI and folks are not happy
A top Social Security Administration official turned whistleblower says members of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, better known as DOGE uploaded hundreds of millions of Social Security records to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of most Americans at risk of compromise. Library e-book and audiobook app Libby is adding AI, much to the disappointment of some readers and librarians, who would prefer not to have AI inserted into their favorite apps. The new feature, “Inspire Me,” allows users to get book recommendations by using prompts or from their previously saved titles in Libby. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Tesla could have avoided that $242.5M Autopilot verdict, plus more tech news
Months before a jury awarded a $242.5 million verdict against Tesla over its culpability in a 2019 fatal crash, the automaker had a chance to settle for $60 million. Instead, Tesla rejected that offer, according to new legal filings that were first reported by Reuters. Also, Google is tightening security measures around Android app distribution, the company announced on Monday. Starting next year, Google will begin to verify the identities of developers distributing their apps on Android devices, not just those who distribute via the Play Store. And, Tech founder Ethan Agarwal, who has raised tens of millions of dollars from VCs across two startups, is running for the 2026 California gubernatorial seat, as reported by Axios. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Bounce launched a service for moving accounts between Bluesky and Mastodon, Elon Musk xAI is suing Apple and OpenAI, and Silicon Valley is pouring millions into pro-AI PACs to sway midterms
Today, Mastodon users unhappy with the service can opt to move their account to a different Mastodon server, while Bluesky is developing technology that allows users to migrate their account to a new PDS (Bluesky’s term for “personal data server”) on its network. However, Mastodon runs on the ActivityPub Protocol and Bluesky on the AT Protocol, which has limited the ability to migrate accounts across the two platforms until now. Also, Elon Musk’s X and xAI filed a lawsuit against Apple and OpenAI on Monday, alleging that the two companies are colluding to stifle competition. And Andreessen Horowitz and OpenAI President Greg Brockman are among the Silicon Valley veterans putting more than $100 million into a network of political action committees (PACs) that will advocate against strict AI regulations in next year’s midterm elections, reports The Wall Street Journal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The Trump administration’s big Intel investment comes from already awarded grants ... and more Tech news
Intel officially announced an agreement with President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday afternoon, following Trump’s statement that the government would be taking a 10% stake in the struggling chipmaker. While Intel says the government is making an “$8.9 billion investment in Intel common stock,” the administration does not appear to be committing new funds. Instead, it’s simply making good on what Intel described as “grants previously awarded, but not yet paid, to Intel.” Also, Meta’s former policy chief Nick Clegg seems to be walking a tightrope as he promotes his upcoming book, “How to Save the Internet.” And in a new blog post, OpenAI warns against “unauthorized opportunities to gain exposure to OpenAI through a variety of means,” including special purpose vehicles, known as SPVs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Not everybody is happy about Meta’s $10B data center, Waymo will start testing in NYC, and more
When Meta selected a site in Louisiana for its largest data center to date, it signed a deal with Entergy to power the site with three massive natural gas power plants. Earlier this week a state regulator approved Entergy’s plans. The power plants are expected to come online in 2028 and 2029, and at full strength, they’ll generate 2.25 gigawatts of electricity. Ultimately, the AI data center could draw 5 gigawatts of power as it’s expanded. The power plant project has been controversial among Louisianans. Waymo has been granted a permit to test its autonomous vehicles in New York City, the first such approval granted by the city. The company told TechCrunch it plans to start testing “immediately.” And a former software developer has been sentenced to four years in prison for sabotaging his former employer’s network after leaving the company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Microsoft AI chief says it’s ‘dangerous’ to study AI consciousness, plus former X employees may get severance
The debate over whether AI models could one day be conscious — and merit legal safeguards — is dividing tech leaders. In Silicon Valley, this nascent field has become known as “AI welfare,” and if you think it’s a little out there, you’re not alone. Also, more than two years after leaving the company, some former Twitter employees may finally receive their severance pay. Elon Musk’s X is tentatively settling a class action lawsuit filed by workers who were let go soon after he purchased Twitter. This news comes in the form of a court filing where both parties asked the court to delay an upcoming hearing so that they could work out a deal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Hackers who exposed North Korean government hacker explain why they did it
Earlier this year, two hackers broke into a computer and soon realized the significance of what this machine was. As it turned out, they had landed on the computer of a hacker who allegedly works for the North Korean government. The two hackers decided to keep digging and found evidence that they say linked the hacker to cyberespionage operations carried out by North Korea, exploits and hacking tools, and infrastructure used in those operations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Google, sorry, but that Pixel event was a cringefest
Late-night host Jimmy Fallon shouted,“I P 6 8! I P 6 8!,” trying and failing to fake excitement about the new Pixel smartphones. Fallon, who likely had never heard the technical term before, didn’t seem to realize that IP68 — a rating that indicates phones can survive being submerged in water — isn’t all that interesting as a selling point, nor is this water resistance feature new to Google’s Pixel line. It’s been around since the 2018 Pixel 3. We’re on the Pixel 10 now, for reference. In a surreal moment that illustrated the tendency to overhype anything associated with AI advances, Google decided to pull out all the stops for its Pixel 10 live event on Wednesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Zoox taps ex-UberPool exec’s startup for routing software help, also Notion now works without an internet connection
When James Cox, the former leader of Uber’s ride-share product, UberPool, left that company in 2019, the Silicon Valley giant had abandoned its autonomous vehicle development and sold off the division entirely. While UberPool had struggled to take hold, Cox felt a massive opportunity had been missed: taking the core of UberPool’s tech and applying it to robotaxis. , one of the most annoying issues with using Notion was that you couldn’t get much done offline because of its cloud-first architecture. As TechCrunch’s Ivan Mehta writes, the company has finally solved that problem, adding support for an offline mode to its apps. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Appeals court says NLRB structure unconstitutional and Meta rolls out AI-powered translations to creators globally
A federal appeals court handed SpaceX a win on Tuesday, in a ruling that prevents the National Labor Relations Board from prosecuting unfair labor practices against the company. The ruling by the Fifth District Court of Appeals, which suggests the structure of the NLRB is likely unconstitutional, could have far-reaching effects. Also, Meta is rolling out an AI-powered voice translation feature to all users on Facebook and Instagram globally, the company announced on Tuesday. The new feature, which is available in any market where Meta AI is available, allows creators to translate content into other languages so it can be viewed by a broader audience. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices