OpenAI announced a new o3 model on Friday. In a tweet ahead of its final livestream for its “12 Days of OpenAI” event, the company confirmed previous reports that it is skipping o2 due to copyright concerns, and is releasing early evals for the o3 model. It appears to be a successor to its o1…
Category: TC
agi house, AI, early stage, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, South Korea, TC, Venture
‘Genius Girl’ goes from inspiring a Korean TV show character to raising a $100 million AI fund
Principle Venture Partners will write early-stage checks anywhere from $100,000 to “single digit millions.” © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, sam altman, Sequoia, TC, Venture
Sam Altman once owned some equity in OpenAI through Sequoia
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman sat before Congress in 2023 to testify about the dangers of AI. He told American lawmakers at the time that he owns no equity in OpenAI, something he’s said many times, claiming he just runs the company because he loves it. However, Altman recently said he actually did have some equity…
Global IT News, Global Security News, Space, TC
K2 Space will fly its extra-large satellite for the first time in 2026
K2 Space is betting that the future of the space hardware will be big — really big. The startup is building massive spacecraft under the assumption that launch costs will continue to drop as SpaceX’s Starship and other heavy-lift vehicles come online. It looks like the Space Force is taking up their side of that…
android apps, app ecosystem, app store, appfigures, Apple, Apps, Global Security News, Google Play, iOS apps, TC
App downloads decline 2.3% in 2024, but consumer spending grows to $127B
The global app economy continued to recover in 2024, after an earlier slowdown in 2022 — at least in terms of consumer spending. In 2024, global consumer spending in mobile apps and games reached $127 billion across the App Store and Google Play, up 15.7% from the prior year. However, those increases were driven by…
AI, ChatGPT, Global IT News, Global Security News, newsletter, openai, TC, this week in AI, this week in ai newsletter
Who wants ‘Her’-like AI that gets stuff wrong?
Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, smash the link and sign up here. Last week, OpenAI launched Advanced Voice Mode with Vision, which feeds real-time video to ChatGPT, allowing the chatbot to “see” beyond the confines of its app layer. The premise is that…
AI, Copilot, Enterprise, free, GitHub, GitHub Copilot, Global IT News, Global Security News, TC
GitHub launches a free version of its Copilot
Microsoft-owned GitHub today announced a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool, which will also now ship by default with Microsoft’s popular VS Code editor. Until now, most developers had to pay a monthly fee, starting at $10 per month, with only verified students, teachers, and open source maintainers getting free…
AI, animation, Creative, Explorer, film, Funding, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, Media & Entertainment, odyssey, Pixar, TC, tool, world models
AI startup Oddysee’s new tool can generate photorealistic 3D worlds
Odyssey, a startup founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke, is developing an AI-powered tool that can transform text or an image into a 3D rendering. The tool, dubbed Explorer, is similar in some ways to the so-called world models recently demoed by DeepMind, World Labs, and Israeli upstart Decart. Given a caption like “A…
AI, Exclusive, Fundraising, Global IT News, Global Security News, Gusto, Hauler Hero, SaaS, servicetitan, Startups, TC, waste management
Hauler Hero wants to bring waste management software into the 21st century
After nearly four years of working in sales at tradesperson software company ServiceTitan, Mark Hoadley (pictured above) was looking for a change and to potentially start something of his own in a similar industry. Hoadley’s brother-in-law, and now co-founder, Ben Sikma, was working on M&A in the waste management space at the time. Sikma discovered…
activitypub, Apps, at proto, Bluesky, fediverse, flipboard, Global IT News, Global Security News, Mastodon, open social web, Social, social media, surf, TC
Flipboard lauches Surf, a new app for browing the open social web
Social magazine app maker Flipboard is reinventing itself for the new era of the open social web. While the company’s original app allowed users to collect content from blogs, news websites, and traditional social media services like Facebook and Twitter in order to create curated magazines, its new app called Surf, launching into invite-only beta…
Databricks, Exclusive, Global IT News, Global Security News, Insight Partners, TC, Venture
Insight VC describes Databricks’ wild $10B deal and the bad advice the CEO ignored
It’s been a wild week for investors clawing their way into Databricks’ record-breaking $10 billion fund raising, one of the VCs told TechCrunch. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
block, bob lee, Cash App, Fintech, Global IT News, Global Security News, TC
Bob Lee verdict: Cash App creator’s killer found guilty of second-degree murder
A San Francisco jury has found Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing of Bob Lee, the Cash App creator and former CTO of Block, according to NBC News Bay Area on Tuesday. The jury found Momeni not guilty of first-degree murder, meaning jurors decided the murder of Lee was not premeditated. Lee…
block, bob lee, Cash App, Fintech, Global IT News, Global Security News, TC
Cash App creator Bob Lee’s killer found guilty of second-degree murder
A San Francisco jury has found Nima Momeni guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Bob Lee, the Cash App creator and former CTO of Block, according to NBC News Bay Area on Tuesday. The jury found Momeni not guilty of first-degree murder, meaning jurors decided the murder of Lee was not premeditated.…
celebrity VCs, Exclusive, Global IT News, Global Security News, stephen curry, TC, Venture
Stephen Curry’s Penny Jar Capital files to raise a Fund II
Penny Jar Capital is the early-stage firm founded by Bryant Barr and Richard Scudellari and where basketball star Stephen Curry serves as a special advisor. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Apps, Automattic, Enterprise, Global IT News, Global Security News, In Brief, pineapple pizza, TC, wordpress
Pineapple on pizza is delicious — and if you disagree, you can’t log in to WordPress.org
There are few matters in life that divide a room more than the prudence of putting pineapple on pizza. But if you’re of the persuasion that tropical fruit has no place on a pie, you’ll have to swallow a bitter pill — if you want to access the WordPress.org developer portal and forum, at least.…
adam mosseri, Apps, Global IT News, Global Security News, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta, Social, TC, Threads
Mark Zuckerberg says Threads now has 100M daily active users
Meta’s X rival Threads is growing steadily with more than 100 million people using the service daily, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Monday. Zuckerberg also noted that Threads now has 300 million monthly active users, up from 275 million monthly active users in November. While Meta has regularly released updated numbers about monthly active…
Blue Origin, Fleet Space Technologies, Global IT News, Global Security News, NASA, Space, TC, TC Space
TechCrunch Space: Sayonara
Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. This will be the final TechCrunch Space newsletter you receive in 2024, so to all our readers, have a wonderful holiday and see you next year. There’s a lot to look forward to next year. I expect to see much more progress from SpaceX on Starship, big changes…
Enterprise, Global IT News, Global Security News, Google, Google India, India, Preeti Lobana, Sanjay Gupta, TC
Google names new India chief
Google has appointed Preeti Lobana to lead its India business, filling a key position that had been vacant since Sanjay Gupta’s promotion to Asia-Pacific president in July. Lobana, who was vice president of advertising technology at Google, takes over as the company pushes its AI products in India amid intensifying competition in the digital market.…
Global IT News, Global Security News, Media & Entertainment, Startups, TC
Revisiting 19th-century Paris with VR
While I have fond memories of past efforts to combine VR content with real-world locations, I’d assumed the pandemic had put those ambitions to an end. If I wanted VR in 2024, I thought I’d have to buy a headset, and it would be a largely solitary experience at home or in the office —…
AI, david sacks, Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Global IT News, Global Security News, Government & Policy, Marc Andreessen, TC
Trump’s Silicon Valley advisers have AI ‘censorship’ in their crosshairs
President-elect Donald Trump has surrounded himself with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs — including Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, and David Sacks — who are now advising him on technology and other issues. When it comes to AI, this crew of technologists is fairly aligned on the need for rapid development and adoption of AI throughout the U.S.…
AI, AI chatbots, generative ai, Global IT News, Global Security News, hiring, Klarna, TC
Klarna’s CEO says it stopped hiring thanks to AI but still advertises many open positions
Klarna CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski recently told Bloomberg TV that his company essentially stopped hiring a year ago and credited generative AI for enabling this massive workforce reduction. However, despite Siemiatkowski’s bullishness on AI, the company is not relying entirely on AI to replace human workers who leave, as open job listings — for more humans…
AI, Global IT News, Global Security News, openai, TC
OpenAI whistleblower found dead in San Francisco apartment
A former OpenAI employee, Suchir Balaji, was recently found dead in his San Francisco apartment, according to the San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. In October, the 26-year-old AI researcher raised concerns about OpenAI breaking copyright law when he was interviewed by The New York Times. “The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner…
AI, content moderation, Global IT News, Global Security News, Pavel Durov, social media, TC, Telegram
AI helps Telegram remove 15 million suspect groups and channels in 2024
Telegram launched a new page touting its moderation efforts, which have spiked since its founder’s arrest. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
climate tech, defense tech, Global IT News, Global Security News, LLMs, space technology, Startups, TC
The 51 most disruptive startups of 2024
These startups have fascinating new technologies, business models, founder stories or are pushing an industry forward in exciting ways. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.