The Latest
Fintech
Fintech lender Solo Funds is being sued again by the government over its lending practices
10 seconds ago
SoLo Funds CEO Travis Holoway: “Regulators seem driven by press releases when they should be motivated by true consumer protection and empowering equitable solutions.”
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is not just about groundbreaking innovations, insightful panels, and visionary speakers — it’s also about listening to YOU, the audience, and what you feel is top of…
AI
TechCrunch Minute: Slack may be training its AI off of your messages — and opting out is harder than you’d think
9:00 AM PDT • May 20, 2024
Slack is under fire for its shady policies around using customer data to train its AI. According to Slack’s privacy principles, customer data like messages…
Hard tech startups generate a lot of buzz, but there’s a growing cohort of companies building digital tools squarely focused on making hard tech development faster, more efficient, and —…
Startups
Maven takes the clout-chasing out of social media as Reddit teams up with OpenAI
8:57 AM PDT • May 20, 2024
Last week was a big one for AI news, and one thing that stood out to us was OpenAI’s deal with Reddit. Per the terms of…
Apps
Google launches a new Android feature to drive users back into their installed apps
20 mins ago
Google says the new SDK would help Google expand on its core mission of connecting the right audience to the right content at the right time.
Jolla has taken the official wraps off the first version of its personal server-based AI assistant in the making. The reborn startup is building a privacy-focused AI device — aka…
OpenAI is removing one of the voices used by ChatGPT after users found that it sounded similar to Scarlett Johansson, the company announced on Monday. The voice, called Sky, is…
Consumer demand for the latest AI technology is heating up. The launch of OpenAI’s latest flagship model, GPT-4o, has now driven the company’s biggest-ever spike in revenue on mobile, despite…
Dating app maker Bumble has acquired Geneva, an online platform built around forming real-world groups and clubs. The company said that the deal is designed to help it expand its…
Where we’ll be next
Oct 28th
TechCrunch Disrupt 2024
San Francisco, CA
Jun 11th
StrictlyVC – Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
May 21st
StrictlyVC – London
London
CyberArk — one of the army of larger security companies founded out of Israel — is acquiring Venafi, a specialist in machine identity, for $1.54 billion.
Venture
OpenseedVC, which backs operators in Africa and Europe starting their companies, reaches first close of $10M fund
9 hours ago
Founder-market fit is one of the most crucial factors in a startup’s success, and operators (someone involved in the day-to-day operations of a startup) turned founders have an almost unfair advantage…
A Singapore High Court has effectively approved Pine Labs’ request to shift its operations to India.
The AI Safety Institute, a U.K. body that aims to assess and address risks in AI platforms, has said it will open a second location in San Francisco.
Companies are always looking for an edge, and searching for ways to encourage their employees to innovate. One way to do that is by running an internal hackathon around a…
Featured Article
I’m rooting for Melinda French Gates to fix tech’s broken ‘brilliant jerk’ culture
Women in tech still face a shocking level of mistreatment at work. Melinda French Gates is one of the few working to change that.
1 day ago
Blue Origin has successfully completed its NS-25 mission, resuming crewed flights for the first time in nearly two years. The mission brought six tourist crew members to the edge of…
Creative Artists Agency (CAA), one of the top entertainment and sports talent agencies, is hoping to be at the forefront of AI protection services for celebrities in Hollywood. With many…
Expedia says Rathi Murthy and Sreenivas Rachamadugu, respectively its CTO and senior vice president of core services product & engineering, are no longer employed at the travel booking company. In…
Welcome back to TechCrunch’s Week in Review. This week had two major events from OpenAI and Google. OpenAI’s spring update event saw the reveal of its new model, GPT-4o, which…
