Meta's Oversight Board takes its first Threads case

Meta’s Oversight Board has now extended its scope to include the company’s newest platform, Instagram Threads. Designed as an independent appeals board that hears cases and then makes precedent-setting content moderation decisions, the board to date has decided on cases like Facebook’s ban of Donald Trump, Covid-19 misinformation, the removal …...Read More

SeekOut, a recruiting startup last valued at $1.2 billion, lays off 30% of its workforce

SeekOut, an 8-year-old recruiting startup that uses AI to find candidates, has cut about 30% of its workforce on Thursday, TechCrunch has learned. “Lately, we have been spending roughly $2 to earn $1, and this last fiscal year, we incurred significant cash burn,” SeekOut’s CEO Anoop Gupta and CTO Aravind …...Read More

UK's autonomous vehicle legislation becomes law, paving the way for first driverless cars by 2026

The U.K.’s self-proclaimed “world-leading” regulations for self-driving cars are now official, after the Automated Vehicles (AV) Act received royal assent — the final rubber stamp any legislation must go through before becoming enshrined in law. The government says that fully self-driving vehicles could be on U.K. roads within two years. …...Read More

Everything you need to know about the AI chatbot

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth used by more than 92% of Fortune 500 companies for more wide-ranging needs. And that growth has …...Read More

Fintech lender Solo Funds is being sued again by the government over its lending practices

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing SoLo Funds, a fintech company that enables peer-to-peer lending, alleging that the company used “digital dark patterns” to deceive borrowers and illegally took fees while advertising to consumers that there were no fees. “The CFPB is suing SoLo for using digital trickery to …...Read More

Disrupt Audience Choice vote closes Friday

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 mind for the tech community. With the Disrupt 2024 Audience Choice Program, your vote can make a difference and propel …...Read More

Rollup wants to be the hardware engineer's workhorse

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 — well, a whole lot more like software development. California-based Rollup is the latest startup to come out as part of …...Read More

Google launches a new Android feature to drive users back into their installed apps

Google has a new plan to promote Android apps outside of its Play Store. It was launched last week at its Google I/O 2024 developer conference, where the company spoke of a plan to re-engage users with apps they already have installed on their devices, as well as new ones, …...Read More

Jolla debuts privacy-focused AI hardware

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 the Jolla Mind2, which TechCrunch exclusively revealed at MWC back in February. At a livestreamed launch event Monday, it also …...Read More

OpenAI to remove ChatGPT's Scarlett Johansson-like voice

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 now being paused after OpenAI used it when demoing its new GPT-4o model last week. “We believe that AI voices …...Read More