Author: Naveed Ahmad

AI

Elon Musk is addressing a wave of exits from xAI, together with two extra co-founders who left this week, bringing the whole to 6 out of the unique 12. At an all-hands assembly Tuesday night time, Musk urged the exits had been about match, not efficiency. “As a result of we’ve reached a sure scale, we’re organizing the corporate to be more practical at this scale,” he stated, according to The New York Times. “And truly, when this occurs, there’s some people who find themselves higher fitted to the early levels of an organization and fewer fitted to the later…

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As Valentine’s Day approaches at Stanford, some college students could also be gearing up for first dates — not with folks they met on Tinder or Hinge, however with matches from a service known as Date Drop, designed by Stanford graduate pupil Henry Weng. Date Drop pairs college students with potential dates as soon as per week primarily based on their responses to a questionnaire. A Stanford whiz child is attempting to disrupt a longtime trade from his Palo Alto dorm? Cease me if you’ve heard this one earlier than! However younger adults are deeply disillusioned with the irritating, demoralizing…

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Roku shared its fourth-quarter earnings for 2025 this week, in addition to some thrilling plans within the pipeline. The corporate is rolling out new streaming bundles, increasing its $3 subscription service, Howdy, to extra platforms, and partnering with extra premium streaming providers following the profitable addition of HBO Max. Launching bundles in 2026 is a brilliant transfer, because it may appeal to extra viewers searching for engaging offers amid rising subscription costs. Many streaming platforms have been growing their charges lately, and Roku goals to enchantment to cost-conscious customers. The optimistic affect of HBO Max on Roku’s premium subscriptions has…

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Anthropic’s Tremendous Bowl advertisements — which characteristic darkly comedic situations of individuals searching for recommendation from chatbots, solely to be steered to “cougar” courting websites and height-boosting insoles — have been paying off. Within the days since, Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude has climbed from No. 41 on the U.S. App Retailer to change into a prime 10 app. As of Friday, Claude sits at No. 7 — its highest rank thus far — suggesting its “no advertisements” pitch resonates strongly with customers. In response to new knowledge from market intelligence supplier Appfigures, Claude’s U.S. downloads throughout each iOS and Android…

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Nothing, the {hardware} firm backed by Tiger International, is opening its first retail retailer in India, its largest market. The shop is situated in Bengaluru, the place a big chunk of Nothing’s userbase in India is concentrated, the corporate stated. The brand new, two-storied location will showcase Nothing’s merchandise and different initiatives. Prospects can even have the ability to purchase {hardware} merchandise and different merchandise from the shop and have choose objects personalized. “We wished to create a enjoyable house. It’s type of impressed by all of the elements which might be associated to the model. As an example, the…

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The Securities and Trade Fee closed its investigation into bankrupt electrical automobile startup Fisker final September, roughly one 12 months after the probe was opened. TechCrunch discovered the investigation was closed when the monetary regulator responded to a Freedom of Info Act (FOIA) request in January. The SEC’s FOIA division stated it had recognized “roughly 21.7 gigabytes of electronically maintained information” associated to the investigation. The company doesn’t usually make information obtainable if investigations are nonetheless open, and it defined in a follow-up electronic mail that it “was closed in September 2025.” It’s not clear how far the investigation progressed.…

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AI firms have been hemorrhaging expertise the previous few weeks. Half of xAI’s founding crew has left the corporate — some on their very own, others by “restructuring” — whereas OpenAI is going through its personal shakeups, from the disbanding of its mission alignment crew to the firing of a coverage exec who opposed its “grownup mode” characteristic.  Watch as TechCrunch’s Fairness podcast hosts Kirsten Korosec, Anthony Ha, and Sean O’Kane dig into the week’s greatest offers and departures, from billion-dollar bets on fusion and robotics to the tech exodus reshaping AI firms.  Subscribe to Fairness on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all of the casts. You can also comply with Fairness on X and Threads, at @EquityPod.  Source…

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A safety lapse by considered one of India’s largest pharmacy chains allowed outsiders to realize full administrative management of its platform, exposing buyer order information and delicate drug-control features, TechCrunch has solely realized. The difficulty affected DavaIndia Pharmacy, the pharmacy arm of Zota Healthcare, which operates a big community of stores throughout India. Safety researcher Eaton Zveare informed TechCrunch that he found the flaw after figuring out insecure “tremendous admin” software programming interfaces on DavaIndia’s web site and privately shared particulars with Indian cybersecurity authorities. The bug is now mounted, and Zveare disclosed his findings. The publicity comes as Zota…

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Airbnb has taken its time to launch AI options inside the app, however CEO Brian Chesky on Friday mentioned the corporate is now planning to bake in options powered by massive language fashions that may assist customers seek for listings, plan their journeys, and help hosts in managing their properties. Talking on the firm’s fourth-quarter convention name, Chesky mentioned the corporate desires to extend its use of enormous language fashions for buyer discovery, help and engineering. “We’re constructing an AI-native expertise the place the app doesn’t simply seek for you. It is aware of you. It can assist company plan…

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Determine Know-how, a blockchain-based lending firm, confirmed it skilled an information breach. On Friday, Determine spokesperson Alethea Jadick informed TechCrunch in an announcement that the breach originated when an worker was tricked with a social engineering assault that allowed the hackers to steal “a restricted variety of information.” The assertion mentioned the corporate is speaking “with companions and people impacted,” and providing free credit score monitoring “to all people who obtain a discover.” Determine’s spokesperson didn’t reply to a sequence of particular questions concerning the breach.  The hacking group ShinyHunters took accountability for the hack on its official darkish net…

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