Watch this four-legged robot adapt to tricky situations like an animal

Researchers at the University of Leeds recently demonstrated a framework for a quadruped robot with a design inspired by the bio-mechanics of four-legged animals. The versatile robot is able to navigate complex environments, maintain stability on uneven ground, and recover after a fall — all without the use of extra-perceptive …...Read More

AI sales rep startups are booming. So why are VCs wary?

When you really probe venture capitalists about investing in AI startups, they’ll tell you that businesses are experimenting wildly but are very slow to add AI solutions into their ongoing business processes. But there are some exceptions. And one of them appears to be an area known as AI sales …...Read More

ChatGPT and Sora went down for the second time this month

ChatGPT, Sora, and OpenAI’s developer-facing API were down on Thursday for more than four hours. OpenAI says it started experiencing a major outage at 11 a.m. PT, but now says its services are slowly coming back online as of 3:16 p.m. PT. Frequent users of ChatGPT may recall that the …...Read More

DeepSeek's new AI model appears to be one of the best 'open' challengers yet

A Chinese lab has created what appears to be one of the most powerful “open” AI models to date. The model, DeepSeek V3, was developed by the AI firm DeepSeek and was released on Wednesday under a permissive license that allows developers to download and modify it for most applications, …...Read More

Executive assistants, high salaries, and other ways early-stage founders will trigger a seed VC

VC Jenny Fielding (pictured above), co-founder of Everywhere Ventures and former Techstars managing director, was basically trolling on X when she posted, “Y’all have strong opinions about pre-seed founders who have EAs to help them schedule? Just checking.” Fielding knew the post was “a little bit snarky,” she told TechCrunch, …...Read More

These were the badly handled data breaches of 2024

For the past few years, TechCrunch has looked back at some of the worst, badly handled data breaches and security incidents in the hope — maybe! — other corporate giants would take heed and avoid making some of the same calamities of yesteryear. To absolutely nobody’s surprise, here we are …...Read More

Watch this robotic ‘Superman Suit’ rotate around a gymnastics bar

Scientists at the Suzumori Endo Robotics lab in Tokyo have developed the Superman Suit: a suit powered by hydraulic artificial muscles that allow it to perform superhuman tasks. In this video, the suit demonstrates the ability to complete 15 rotations around a bar, making anyone into a great gymnast....Read More

PharmEasy investor cuts value of its stake drastically, implying new valuation of $456M

Indian online pharmacy PharmEasy is now being valued at about $456 million after its investor Janus Henderson said in a filing that it valued its stake of 12.9 million shares in the startup at $766,043. The asset manager’s Global Research Fund had originally spent $9.4 million to acquire these shares. …...Read More

Bluesky is testing a trending topics feature

Social network Bluesky said on Christmas that it is testing a trending topics view. The trending topics are visible both on the desktop and mobile apps of the social network for users across the world. On the desktop, you can see trending topics on the right sidebar, and on the …...Read More

$132K - $149K, here's what seed-stage founders pay early employees, based on data

Once a startup has raised its seed round, the perennial question becomes how much should the founders pay themselves and their first few employees? Kruze Consulting, a CPA firm that specializes in venture-backed startups, recently analyzed average salary ranges for over 450 seed-stage startups and shared that data with TechCrunch. …...Read More