Timef 03/09/2025

Apple announced this week that the “more personalized” version of Siri that it promised last year has been delayed — and according to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, that’s also postponed the launch of the company’s planned smart home hub. In a statement, Apple said the upgraded Siri features, which are part of its broader Apple Intelligence […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Elon Musk lost the latest battle in his lawsuit against OpenAI this week, but a federal judge appears to have given Musk — and others who oppose OpenAI’s for-profit conversion — reasons to be hopeful. Musk’s suit against OpenAI, which also names Microsoft and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman as defendants, accuses OpenAI of abandoning its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The world is bad sometimes, but it feels even worse if you can’t stop staring into the all-consuming abyss that is the 6-inch screen of a smartphone, following you through space and time. It taunts you with its compact, light build that’s small enough to slip into your pocket and take anywhere — yet its […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The US Department of Justice is still calling for Google to sell its web browser Chrome, according to a Friday court filing.  The DOJ first proposed that Google should sell Chrome last year, under then-President Joe Biden, but it seems to be sticking with that plan under the second Trump administration. The department is, however, […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Google has quietly updated the webpage for its Responsible AI and Human Centered Technology (RAI-HCT) team, the team charged with conducting research into AI safety, fairness, and explainability, to scrub mentions of “diversity” and “equity.” A previous version of the page used language such as “marginalized communities,” “diverse,” “underrepresented groups,” and “equity” to describe the […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A federal judge is allowing an AI-related copyright lawsuit against Meta to move forward, although he dismissed part of the suit. In Kadrey vs. Meta, authors including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Ta-Nehisi Coates have alleged that Meta has violated their intellectual property rights by using their books to train its Llama AI models, and […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week we’re looking at OpenAI potentially charging $20,000 a month for a specialized AI agent, the unexpected return of early-internet darling Digg, a company genetically engineering mice to have mammoth-like fur, and more! Let’s do this. OpenAI could charge up to $20,000 per month for specialized AI “agents.” […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Last year was a monumental year for the AI industry in the U.S. and beyond. There were 49 startups that raised funding rounds worth $100 million or more in 2024, per our count at TechCrunch. Three companies raised more than one “mega-round” last year, and seven companies raised rounds at $1 billion or larger. How […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Something special went down in the desert outside of Las Vegas this weekend: two EVs took on the Mint 400 for the first time. Since the Mint 400 launched back in 1969, vehicles in this iconic desert endurance race have been powered by dead dinosaurs. Spectators and race participants alike are used to the smell […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

The downsides of doomscrolling and screen addiction are well documented, but while many of us would like to spend less time glued to a smartphone, it’s easier said than done. Much has been written about the so-called dumbphone revival, where individuals regain some respite from pings and push notifications by downgrading to a basic feature […] © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.