In BriefPosted:1:47 PM PST March 6, 2025Image Credits:AnthropicAnthropics Claude Code tool had a bug that bricked some systemsThe launch of Anthropics coding tool, Claude Code, is off to a rocky start.According to reports on GitHub, Claude Codes auto-update function contained buggy commands that rendered some workstations unstable and broken. When Claude Code was installed at the root or superuser levels permissions that give programs the ability to make operating system-level changes the buggy commands would let applications modify typically restricted file directories and, in the worst-case scenario, brick systems.The problematic Claude Code auto-update commands changed the access permissions of certain critical system files. Permissions define which programs and users can read or modify files, or run certain apps. One GitHub user said that they were forced to employ a rescue instance to fix the permissions of files Claude Codes commands inadvertently broke.Anthropic told TechCrunch it removed the problematic commands from Claude Code and added a link in the program directing users to a troubleshooting guide. The link initially had a typo but Anthropic says thats been fixed, too.Topics

SpaceXs Starship spiraled out of control while in space during a test flight on Thursday, marking the second launch in a row that the vehiclehas run into a fatal problem on its way to orbit. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) briefly halted flights into major Florida airports and appears to have diverted some others out of caution of space launch debris. The company launched Starship using its Super Heavy booster and things looked normal for the first eight minutes of the flight prior to the problem. The ship successfully separated and headed into space, while the booster came back to the companys launchpad in Texas, where it was caught for a third time by the launch tower.But at around eight minutes and nine seconds into the flight, SpaceXs broadcast graphics showed Starship lose multiple Raptor engines on the vehicle. On-board footage showed the ship started spiraling end over end over the ocean.We just saw some engines go out, it looks like we are losing attitude control of the ship, SpaceX communications manager Dan Huot said on the broadcast. At this point we have lost contact with the ship. Footage posted to social media showed the ship breaking up over the Bahamas and the Dominican Republic a few minutes later. The company posted to X that it immediately began coordination with safety officials to implement pre-planned contingency responses. The high-profile back-to-back explosions come as SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has spent the last few weeks causing chaos across United States federal government with his so-called Department of Government Efficiency. That has included him deploying employees to the FAA, which oversees SpaceXs flights.The FAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. An email sent to the press office received an automated reply saying that the FAAs press box is staffed from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday (ET). SpaceX was hoping to deploy four dummy versions of its Starlink satellites during Thursdays test flight, a step towards the goal of using Starship for commercial missions. The company has been purposely developing Starship by doing test flights in rapid succession, and learning from the things that go both right and wrong. But Thursdays failure comes just a few weeks after the seventh test flight, which saw Starship break up in spectacular fashion over the islands of Turks & Caicos, which caused the FAA to divert a number of flights in that airspace.SpaceX performed whats known as a mishap investigation into that failure. The company determined propellant was leaking inside Starship, which caused fires and a communications blackout with the ship before it self-destructed.Ahead of this test flight, SpaceX said it made improvements to the lines that send fuel to Starships engines and changed the temperature of the propellant. It also added extra vents and a new purge system to better hedge against any leaks.On some of its previous test flights, SpaceX saw its Starship break up as it attempted to re-enter the Earths atmosphere. The company rolled out changes on the seventh test flight that were supposed to help it learn how to better prepare the ship to survive that re-entry. With Flight 8, were focused on finding the real-world limits of Starship so we can prepare to eventually return Starship to the launch site and catch it, the company wrote on X on Thursday.

Intuitive Machines has landed a second spacecraft on the moon, just one year after accomplishing the feat for the first time ever. Unfortunately, much like that first attempt, it seems the companys spacecraft may have tipped on its side. The lunar lander, called Athena, touched down on the moons surface at around 12:30 p.m. ET on Thursday. Its the second private spacecraft to land on the moon this week, after Firefly Aerospaces Blue Ghost touched down on March 2. Intuitive Machines chief technology officer said in a post-landing press conference that Athena is somewhere inside the 50-meter landing zone on Mons Mouton, a flat-topped mountain on the moons south pole. But he said the company was still working on determining where, exactly, Athena touched down.CEO Steve Altemus added during the conference that the company doesnt think Athena is at the correct attitude spaceflight speak for it probably tipped over.Altemus otherwise praised the mission, which he said went much more smoothly than last years trip to the moon. The rest of Athenas mission now hangs in the balance. The spacecraft, which took off for the moon aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on February 26, is carrying a number of technologies that Intuitive Machines hoped to test out. One is a passive laser retroreflector array, which Intuitive Machines hopes to use to communicate with other incoming or orbiting spacecraft. Its a crucial piece of technology for NASAs hopes to build a permanent moon base so much so that the space agency awarded Intuitive Machines a $4.8 billion contract late last year to build out the communications system. (Only $150 million of that is guaranteed.)Athena is also carrying an ice mining experiment for NASA, which the agency had hoped to use to determine whether there are enough natural resources on the moon to one day make fuel or breathable oxygen. Additional payloads include a rover called MAPP that is supposed to test out cellular equipment from Nokia, and solid-state storage billed as the first ever lunar data center.

In BriefPosted:2:17 PM PST March 6, 2025Image Credits:David Paul Morris/Bloomberg / Getty ImagesGoogle co-founder Larry Page reportedly has a new AI startupGoogle co-founder Larry Page is building a new company called Dynatomics thats focused on applying AI to product manufacturing, according to The Information.Page is reportedly working with a small group of engineers on AI that can create highly optimized designs for objects and then have a factory build them, per The Information. Chris Anderson, previously the CTO of Page-backed electric airplane startup Kittyhawk, is running the stealth effort, The Information reports.Page isnt the only entrepreneur exploring ways AI could be used to improve manufacturing processes (although he might be one of the richest).Orbital Materials is creating an AI platform that can be used to discover materials ranging from batteries to carbon dioxide-capturing cells. PhysicsX provides tools to run simulations for engineers working on project areas like automotive, aerospace, and materials science. Elsewhere, Instrumental is leveraging vision-powered AI to detect factory anomalies.Topics

In BriefPosted:10:38 AM PST March 6, 2025Image Credits:SENRYU / Getty ImagesChristies AI art auction reportedly exceeds expectationsNearly 6,500 artists demanded in an open letter that fine art auction house Christies cancel its first show dedicated solely to works created with AI. Yet, the show, Augmented Intelligence, went on and reportedly exceeded expectations.According to Christies, the show brought in more than $700,000, with many lots reaching beyond their high estimates. The top sale was Refik Anadols Machine Hallucinations ISS Dreams A, a dynamic painting that algorithmically reimagines data from the International Space Station and satellites. It fetched $277,200.Christies VP and director of digital art sales, Nicole Sales Giles, told Artnet that the shows success confirmed that collectors recognize creative voices pushing the boundaries of art.Many artists dont feel that way. In the aforementioned letter, the undersigned accused Christies of featuring artwork created using AI models known to be trained on copyrighted work without a license that exploit human artists using their work without permission to build products that compete with them.Topics

The U.S. Secret Service, working with a coalition of international law enforcement agencies, has taken down and seized the website of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange accused of being associated with darknet markets and ransomware hackers.On Thursday, the official Garantex website was replaced with a notice saying the exchanges domain has been seized by the Secret Service following a warrant by the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.This is the latest action taken by Western governments against the Moscow-based exchange.Last month, the European Union also sanctioned Garantex as, saying it is closely associated with EU-sanctioned Russian banks. This was part of a package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.In 2022, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Garantex, alleging that more than $100 million in transactions done on the exchange are associated with illicit actors and darknet markets, including the notorious Russian ransomware gang Conti, and the darknet market Hydra.The takedown notice, seen by TechCrunch, said that the operation was conducted in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Europol, the Dutch National Police, the German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt or BKA), the Frankfurt General Prosecutors Office, the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, and the Estonian National Criminal Police.TechCrunch reached out to all these organizations for comment. At the time of writing, only the FBI responded, declining to comment.TechCrunch also reached out to Garantex via the official email addresses listed on the site before the seizure, as well as through the companys Telegram account. Garantex did not respond to these messages.TechCrunch verified the website seizure notice by analyzing Garantexs internet-facing domain records. As of Thursday, Garantexs web domain is now pointing to servers known to be controlled by the Secret Service. The same server is also host to several other website seizure notices carried out by the Secret Service in recent years.Following the seizure, Garantex made no mention of the law enforcement operation in its official Telegram channels. On Thursday morning, Garantex announced that it was suspending all services, including cryptocurrency withdrawals, according to a machine translation of the announcement.The decision came after stablecoin issuer Tether froze $28 million worth of its cryptocurrency on Garantex.We have bad news, Garantex wrote. We are fighting and will not give up! Please note that all [Tether] in Russian wallets is currently under threat.

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here for free just click TechCrunch Mobility!TechCrunchs transportation team well at least myself and senior reporter Rebecca Bellan are hittin the road. Destination: SXSW, the annual tech, music, film, and culture conference in Austin. We both have panels and if youre at SXSW, please come check these out and introduce yourself.Well be keeping our eyes and ears open for transportation news coming out of the event, including Rivian CEO RJ Scaringes onstage interview. And you all know that Ill be scouting the city for Waymo robotaxis, which are only available via the Uber app.Our SXSW panels include a March 11 interview with Autodesks chief marketing officer Dara Treseder, and San Jose mayor Matt Mahan will focus on transforming urban spaces. On March 12, Rebecca will talk to execs from GM, Dolby, and Google about in-car entertainment, and I will interview Wing CEO Adam Woodruff, Walmart VP of dedicated delivery Warren Moore, and University of North Texas professor Clinton Purtell about the future of drone delivery.Before we jump into the rest of the news, I wanted to touch on the tariffs enacted by the Trump administration, which are expected to upend the automotive industry.Well be following developments of the roller-coaster deployment of this policy, including President Trumps decision to delay tariffs on automobile imports from Canada and Mexico for one month after requests from executives at the Big Three automakers. The catch? The administration expects GM, Ford, and Stellantis to move any offshore operations to the United States by April 2.I feel safe in this prediction: That is not going to happen.A little birdImage Credits:Bryce DurbinWhen Volkswagen revealed its cheapest EV yet, there were a few winks and nods about software that got us wondering. A little bird confirmed what was on our mind.Volkswagens ultra-cheap EV called the ID EVERY1 a small four-door hatchback revealed this week will be the first to roll out with software and architecture from Rivian. The EV is going into production in 2027 with a starting price of 20,000 euros ($21,500), and it will be the first to ship with Rivians vehicle architecture and software as part of a $5.8 billion joint venture struck last year between the German automaker and U.S. EV maker.Another cheap EV, called the ID.2all, which is supposed to come out in 2026, is based on the E3 1.1 architecture and software developed by VWs software unit Cariad, according to our source.Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com or my Signal at kkorosec.07, Sean OKane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com, or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. Or check out these instructions to learn how to contact us via encrypted messaging apps or SecureDrop.Deals!Image Credits:Bryce DurbinLets call this one the deal that Didi dreams of. Im talking about the Chinese ride-hail firm Didi and its hunt for fresh funds for its autonomous vehicle technology unit that could value it at $5 billion.Didi Autonomous Driving, the unit Didi created in 2020, has raised a total of $1.55 billion to date. Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg (which reported the scoop) that the unit aims to raise several hundred million dollars more and is in talks with investors, including a Beijing-based fund, to gauge interest.And in other GIGANTIC deal news, Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD raised $5.6 billion in a primary share sale. The company sold 129.8 million primary shares in the deal, more than was expected.Other deals that got my attention AiDEN Auto, a connected vehicle technology and data privacy startup, raised $4.2 million in a seed funding round led by Nuri Venture Partners. Other investors include If Insurance, Tengro Ventures, Band of Angels, Mentors Fund, Start Equity Ventures, Conxcity, and Weltham Capital, as well as an unnamed group of angel investors and family offices. The San Francisco-based startup, founded by former Volvo engineers, has raised $6.1 million to date.Canoo CEO Anthony Aquila is buying nearly all of the defunct EV startups assets out of bankruptcy. The price? $4 million.CaPow, a company that developed in-motion electric charging systems for robotic fleets, raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by Toyota Ventures. Investors Elements VC, IL Ventures, Payton Planar Magnetics Ltd., Mobilion, and Doral Energy-Tech also participated.Californias Clean Mobility Options Voucher Program issued $33 million in awards toaddress mobility gaps and reduce air pollution, including for electric school buses and e-bikes.Notable reads and other tidbitsImage Credits:Bryce DurbinAutonomous vehiclesAvride has yet another partnership, this time with Hyundai. The companies agreed to jointly develop autonomous vehicles. The deal will focus on AV technology designed for robotaxis. Avride is also expanding its fleet of Hyundai Ioniq 5 vehicles, which will be integrated with its self-driving system. History note: Waymo and Hyundai also have a deal.Politecnico di Milano set a new autonomous speed record with the Indy Autonomous Challenge using a Maserati MC20 Coupe, which reached 197.7 mph.Uber CPO Sachin Kansal and I spoke recently about his career at the ride-hailing firm and his promotion back in October. The deployment of autonomous vehicles through Ubers 14 partnerships (and possibly more in the future) is the next big challenge for the new chief product officer.The Waymo on Uber robotaxi service is now live in Austin. That means Uber users in Austin now have a choice between a Waymo robotaxi and a human driver. Speaking of Waymo, the company is logging more than 200,000 paid robotaxi rides every week doubling its weekly robotaxi rides in less than a year.Electric vehicles, charging, & batteriesAndreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz donated a fleet of Tesla Cybertrucks to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police. He has a history of gifting tech to the department.Volvo unveiled the ES90 sedan, the companys first mass-produced EV that has an estimated 435 miles of range under Europes WLTP rating system. Fun fact: This Volvo is equipped withLuminars Iris lidar integrated into the roofline of the vehicle.Ride-hailingTesla applied for a permit with the California Public Utilities Commission to operate a transportation service in the state. Its important to note that Teslas application for a transportation charter-party carrier permit is different from what ride-hailing app companies Lyft and Uber have. A TCP permit means the company in this case Tesla owns the vehicles and uses employees as drivers. Its also a required first step if the automaker wants to eventually operate a robotaxi service there.Uber is piloting its teenagers-focused Uber for Teens service in India. The service is live inBengaluru, Delhi NCR, and Mumbai. The company plans to expand the service in the coming weeks to 35 cities, including Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune.This weeks wheelsNothing this week, but stay tuned.What is This weeks wheels? Its a chance to learn about the different transportation products were testing, whether its an electric or hybrid car, an e-bike, or even a ride in an autonomous vehicle.

Mistral AI, the French company behind AI assistant Le Chat and several foundational models, is officially regarded as one of Frances most promising tech startups and is arguably the only European company that could compete with OpenAI. But compared to its $6 billion valuation, its global market share is still relatively low.However, the recent launch of its chat assistant on mobile app stores was met with some hype, particularly in its home country. Go and download Le Chat, which is made by Mistral, rather than ChatGPT by OpenAI or something else, French president Emmanuel Macron said in a TV interview ahead of the AI Action Summit in Paris.While this wave of attention may be encouraging, Mistral AI still faces challenges in competing with the likes of OpenAI and in doing so while keeping up with its self-definition as the worlds greenest and leading independent AI lab.What is Mistral AI?Mistral AI has raised significant amounts of funding since its creation in 2023 with the ambition to put frontier AI in the hands of everyone. While this isnt a direct jab at OpenAI, the slogan is meant to highlight the companys advocacy for openness in AI.Its alternative to ChatGPT, chat assistant Le Chat, is now also available on iOS and Android. It reached 1 million downloads in the two weeks following its mobile release, even grabbing Frances top spot for free downloads on the iOS App Store.This comes in addition to Mistral AIs suite of models, which includes:Mistral Large 2, the primary large language model replacing Mistral Large.Pixtral Large, unveiled in 2024 as a new addition to the Pixtral family of multimodal models.Codestral, a generative AI model for code.Les Ministraux, a family of models optimized for edge devices such as phones.Mistral Saba, focused on Arabic language.In March 2025, the company introduced Mistral OCR, an optical character recognition (OCR) API that can turn any PDF into a text file to make it easier for AI models to ingest.Who are Mistral AIs founders?Mistral AIs three foundersshare a background in AI research at major U.S. tech companies with significant operations in Paris. CEO Arthur Mensch used to work at Googles DeepMind, while CTO Timothe Lacroix and chief scientist officer Guillaume Lample are former Meta staffers.Co-founding advisers also include Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve (also a board member) and Charles Gorintin from health insurance startup Alan, as well as former digital minister Cdric O, which caused controversy due to his previous role.Are Mistral AIs models open source?Not all of them. Mistral AI differentiates its premier models, whose weights are not available for commercial purposes, from its free models, for which it provides weight access under the Apache 2.0 license.Free models include research models such as Mistral NeMo, which was built in collaboration with Nvidia that the startup open-sourced in July 2024.How does Mistral AI make money?While many of Mistral AIs offerings are free or now have free tiers, Mistral AI plans to drive some revenue from Le Chats paid tiers. Introduced in February 2025, Le Chats Pro plan is priced at $14.99 a month.On the purely B2B side, Mistral AI monetizes its premier models through APIs with usage-based pricing. Enterprises can also license these models, and the company likely also generates a significant share of its revenue from its strategic partnerships, some of which it highlighted during the Paris AI Summit.Overall, however, Mistral AIs revenue is reportedly still in the eight-digit range, according to multiple sources.What partnerships has Mistral AI closed?In 2024, Mistral AI entered a deal with Microsoft that included a strategic partnership for distributing its AI models through Microsofts Azure platform and a 15 million investment. The U.K.s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) swiftly concluded that the deal didnt qualify for investigation due to its small size. However, it also sparked some criticism in the EU.In January 2025, Mistral AI signed a deal with press agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) to let Chat query the AFPs entire text archive dating back to 1983.Mistral AI also secured strategic partnerships with Frances army and job agency, German defense tech startup Helsing, IBM, Orange, and Stellantis.How much funding has Mistral AI raised to date?As of February 2025, Mistral AI raised around 1 billion in capital to date, approximately $1.04 billion at the current exchange rate. This includes some debt financing, as well as several equity financing rounds raised in close succession.In June 2023, and before it even released its first models, Mistral AI raised a record $112 million seed round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. Sources at the time said the seed round Europes largest ever valued the then-one-month-old startup at $260 million.Other investors in this seed round included Bpifrance, Eric Schmidt, Exor Ventures, First Minute Capital, Headline, JCDecaux Holding, La Famiglia, LocalGlobe, Motier Ventures, Rodolphe Saad, Sofina, and Xavier Niel.Only six months later, it closed a Series A of 385 million ($415 million at the time), at a reported valuation of $2 billion. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), with participation from existing backer Lightspeed, as well as BNP Paribas, CMA-CGM, Conviction, Elad Gil, General Catalyst, and Salesforce.The $16.3 million convertible investment that Microsoft made in Mistral AI as part of their partnership announced in February 2024 was presented as a Series A extension, implying an unchanged valuation.In June 2024, Mistral AI then raised 600 million in a mix of equity and debt (around $640 million at the exchange rate at the time). The long-rumored round was led by General Catalyst at a $6 billion valuation, with notable investors, including Cisco, IBM, Nvidia, Samsung Venture Investment Corporation, and others.What could a Mistral AI exit look like?Mistral is not for sale, Mensch said in January 2025 at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Of course, [an IPO is] the plan.This makes sense, given how much the startup has raised so far: Even a large sale may not provide high enough multiples for its investors, not to mention sovereignty concerns depending on the acquirer.However, the only way to definitely squash persistent acquisition rumors is to scale its revenue to levels that could even remotely justify its nearly $6 billion valuation. Either way, stay tuned.This story was originally published on February 28, 2025 and will be regularly updated.

Private search engine DuckDuckGo is leaning further into the generative AI opportunity. The non-tracking search engine has been dabbling with expanding the role of AI assistance in its product for the past year, including launching a chatbot-style interface last fall available at Duck.ai. In a blog post Thursday, the company said the service is now exiting beta. Its also now simply called Duck.ai, replacing the longer, mouthful name DuckDuckGo AI Chat.Users of Duck.ai can dip into AI models developed by the likes of Anthropic, OpenAI and Meta via a chatbot-style interface that sees their search queries handled in a conversational style. In other words, they get AI-generated answers to search asks powered by cutting-edge AI models that DuckDuckGo is making available, instead of the conventional search engine list of hyperlinks.DuckDuckGo notes that it has expanded the models users of Duck.ai can tap into with recent additions including OpenAIs o3-mini, Metas Llama 3.3, and Mistrals Small 3.While access to Duck.ai is currently free, there is a daily limit on queries and DuckDuckGo says it is exploring a paid plan for access to higher limits and more advanced (and costly) chat models.Simultaneously, the company is dialling up its use of GenAI in its conventional search engine interface at duck.com or duckduckgo.com by expanding the frequency that the search engine shows AI-assisted answers in response to a query. These are generative AI text summaries that can appear in response to search queries, above the usual blue links.We now serve millions of AI-assisted answers daily. If you opt to show them often in our traditional search results, they should appear over 20% of the time, the company writes. Despite deepening its embrace of GenAI, the search firm is being careful to ensure that users retain agency over how much AI babble ends up in their search results. Users are able to choose the frequency that AI-generated answers will appear with sometimes being the default, and other options often, on-demand, and never letting users choose their own level of AI adventure.DuckDuckGo is responding to wider market shifts, as GenAI has continued to upend digital business-as-usual generally and web search specifically. Search kingpin Google has scrambled to fast-follow the viral fallout from OpenAIs AI chatbot, ChatGPT, and now embeds generative responses from its own AI models into search results. More recently, Google has even been experimenting with ditching links entirely in favor of AI summaries with a so-called AI Mode.So what can DDG bring to this competitive frenzy? The company clearly feels its core privacy pledge can transfer into this area. It offers users the chance to tap into major GenAI tools with reduced privacy risks, since they do not need to sign up for an account with an AI giant to get access.Duck.ai allows you to use models from leading model providers without being tracked, its privacy policy suggests. Chats are anonymized via proxying and never used for AI model training, DuckDuckGo also writes in the blog post, which touts the free (and sign-up free) access to what it bills as private, useful, and optional AI.So the pitch here kind of boils down to have your GenAI cake and eat it in secret. Although, if you read the full Duck.ai privacy policy, DuckDuckGo is careful to point out that if your search queries include your own personal data, that could end up sitting on the servers of large language model makers. Albeit, it stipulates, its not tied back to your digital ID since its masking IPs etc.Another feature DuckDuckGo is offering to make it easier to integrate GenAI into users search workflows is the ability to easily switch between its conventional search engine interface to AI chat and vice versa.A chat button displayed below the search box of its search engine (see screengrab below) instantly transports the user to the AI chat interface with the prompt-field there pre-filled with whatever they had just been searching for on DDGs search engine, making it easy to hit the send button and get an AI-generated answer to the same query.Reversing this flow just requires tapping on the same (now highlighted) chat button to flip back to its conventional web search interface. So this is a best of both worlds approach to tapping GenAI in search.Screengrab: natasha lomas/techcrunchWere finding that some people prefer to start in chat mode and then jump into more traditional search results when needed, while others prefer the opposite, DuckDuckGo writes, suggesting some questions just lend themselves more naturally to one mode or the other, too.So, we thought the best thing to do was offer both. We made it easy to move between them, and we included an off switch for those whod like to avoid AI altogether, it adds. (Note: The chat button is also described as optional indicating that users can delve into settings to turn this off too if they dont even want a visual nudge towards GenAI.)While DuckDuckGo started with just Wikipedia as the source for its AI-assisted answers, it has since expanded to include sources from across the web, providing what it dubs as prominent source links with more information on whats underpinning the AI answers.Another update is a Recent Chatsfeaturethat stores users conversations with the AI search interface locally on your device not on DuckDuckGo or other remote servers.Here, too, users can opt to disable the storage if they dont want any record of their chats kept at all, even on their own device. Duck.ai chats are not used for any AI training, either by us or the underlying model providers, DuckDuckGo also writes. To respond with answers and ensure all systems are working, these providers may store chats temporarily, but we remove all the metadata so theres no way for them to tie chats back to you personally.On top of that, we have agreements in place with all providers to ensure that any saved chats are completely deleted within 30 days.Topics

Getting ghosted is never fun. Especially if youre a founder seeking capital from investors.Its similar to dating. You might be left wondering Why is this person not getting back to me? Did I do something wrong? Did the investor hate the product? Did they not care for me personally? Its enough to drive anyone crazy.Ghosting is an undeniable signal of a lack of interest. If a VC wanted to invest, they would definitely respond to your cold call, or get back to you after the pitch.There are a variety of reasons why a VC might vanish after a founder thought they would agree to a meeting, or worse, after one, according to several VCs who talked to TechCrunch.TimeTime is peoples scarcest resource, Mercedes Bent, a partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners wrote in a LinkedIn post on the topic of VC ghosting that went viral. VCs naturally are going to spend more of it on the founders and startups in which they see potential.Writing a thoughtful rejection takes effort, and when a pass wont convert [to an investment], it often gets deprioritized. Not saying this is good, she wrote in her LinkedIn post.Bent also notes that the investing environment has shifted over the past decade so that VCs are having to make decisions faster and thus, have less time to get back to prospects.VC has ballooned at breakneck speed more firms, more capital, more pitches, she wrote. With more focus on volume and speed, there is little room for the intentionality and personal touch that once defined the industry.Such rapid growth has created a churn-and-burn culture where relationships feel increasingly transactional, she added.Better Tomorrow Ventures co-founder and general partner Sheel Mohnot says things most often slip through the cracks when hes super swamped.This is never about the founder and always about what else I have going on in life like if we are fundraising, or its the week of founder camp, our AGM, Money 2020, etc., he told TechCrunch.Eric Bahn, co-founder and general partner of Hustle Fund, relies on an automated email response to help him manage the influx of inbound deal opportunities he receives in his inbox. He estimates that he receives about 30 inbound pitches per day.I have a permanent out of office email message set up that will reply back to every message with instructions on how the founders can engage with our investment team via our website form, he told TechCrunch. Our team takes every submission seriously, but I just cant respond to every email solicitation any longer, as much as Id like to.Now, if he has already taken a meeting with a founder, Bahn claims he will never ghost them.When I have to pass on a deal, I will explain why I am passing and share some feedback, he said. This is a simple etiquette that I wish more VCs would do more consistently as well.Ironically, one investor who wished to not be named cited frustration with AI-generated founder cold outreach, telling TechCrunch: Its so much that its drowning out all the genuine outreach. I can tell its AI-generated because I get dozens with the same structure, but different words and there are always some weird inaccuracies. Its just going to burn all written outreach as a channel to reach new people.So, while VCs may love to back AI startups these days, many of which write emails, they dont want to be on the receiving end of them.Eventually, we will just filter out any email from an unknown sender because its likely an AI-generated message, she added. So to meet someone new, youll literally need to run into them socially (warm intro or in person). Back to the stone ages!One thing that really annoys Bahn is a lack of self-awareness. Dont try to claim that your startup has no competitors or faces no existential risks, for example.Bahn typically asks founders during a pitch what could kill their businesses. A shocking number of founders will respond: nothing.Anyone with simple self-awareness knows that absolutely is not true, he said. So many things can threaten their business: competitors outperforming; markets facing new compliance or regulation; a new pandemic.As a potential investor, Bahn wants to know that you not only see the risks, but have plans to mitigate them. As the legendary CEO, Andy Grove of Intel, once said: only the paranoid survive, he said.Mohnot says if a founder cant explain how theyll grow their business beyond an initial concept, he takes note. But the reverse is also true: Unrealistic expectations is a red flag, noting hes turned off by founders who claim their startup will immediately disrupt an entire industry or are projecting wildly optimistic financial projections without solid evidence.Other things that he finds to be a turnoff: visible tension or lack of complementary skills among founding team members, suggesting potential collaboration issues; lack of technical depth or an overemphasis on fundraising as opposed to building a sustainable, valuable business.Rex Salisbury, founder and general partner of Cambrian Ventures and former partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), wants to see that a founder is on top of things. He views a pitch deck with a date in the file name that is six months old as a red flag. Misrepresenting numbers, however, will get you cut off from Salisbury altogether.Founder behaviorThere are other behaviors that will end your conversations with VCs. For Bahn, if a founder says something racist or sexist, theyre cut off.A founder actually once called a competing founder the c-word in front of me, he shared. I have no tolerance to spend the next decade working with someone that has such little respect for other people.Founders should also keep in mind that even if an investor rejects them now, they might consider working with them later. So being disrespectful when getting turned down will likely kill any chance of that, and could also cause the VC to never talk to a founder again.Bahn says sometimes his firm provided detailed feedback on a rejection and then that founder would turn around and call you names and/or even threaten you. He notices this happens more to his female colleagues than to himself.Im grateful when those moments happen because it means we made the right choice to not choose to work with that founder, Bahn told TechCrunch.That person is also blacklisted we will not respond to that person ever again, and the interaction will be recorded in our internal database, so that our institution can avoid them forever, Bahn adds.All of the VCs, naturally, said dishonesty is an instant deal killer. Addie Lerner Katz, founder and managing partner of Avid Ventures, pointed out that dishonesty can take place in a variety of forms, including exaggerations and a lack of transparency.Shes also turned off when founders speak negatively of current or past investors or colleagues. Negative reference calls are another cause for pause for Lerner Katz.Across each of these buckets, we take yellow flags very seriously and usually view them as disqualifying, she told TechCrunch.Mohnot recalledan incident where a founder lied about a deal with another startup. The other startup happened to be in Mohnots portfolio so a quick text message sorted that one out.But lying in general about metrics, team capabilities, market size or technology performance, will often also be easily exposed by the VC.It happens more often than you think, Mohnot said.All of the VCs still think theres no true excuse for not sending a simple, no thank you follow-up to a founder if they actually had a pitch meeting with a founder. As Bent put it, ghosting happens anyway.Im not saying any of these are good reasons. Its the reality. Its the game, she wrote.But given the risks of behaving badly to a VC who has stopped talking to you, she also suggests the golden rule applies to both parties. Treat people how you want to be treated.

As AI companies race to improve the accuracy of Large Language Models and apps built on top of them, a startup that has emerged as a key partner in fulfilling that effort is announcing a significant round of funding to expand. Turing, which works with armies of engineers to contribute code to AI projects those projects include assisting in the building of LLMs for OpenAI and others, as well as Generative AI apps for enterprises has picked up a Series E of $111 million, doubling its valuation in the process to $2.2 billion.Turing makes around $167 million in ARR (annualized revenue run rate), and it is already profitable, CEO Jonathan Siddharth said in an interview with TechCrunch. The plan will be to use the funding to double down on expanding its business to more customers and to more use cases. Turing today says that it works with some 4 million coders around the world. Malaysias sovereign wealth fund Khazanah Nasional Berhad is leading the round, with participation also from Westbridge Capital, Sozo Ventures, Uphonest Capital, AltaIR Capital, Amino Capital, Plug and Play, MVP Ventures, Fortius Ventures, Gaingels, and Mastodon Capital Management. Palo Alto-based Turing has raised $225 million to date.Turings turn as a major partner to AI companies was not how the company got its start. Originally, it was, effectively, an HR tech startup. Specifically its early product was a platform for vetting and hiring remote-work coders, a business that started to take off during the Covid-19 pandemic with the worlds growing appetite for better tools to source and work with remote teams. That business was strong enough to catapult the company to unicorn status.It was also strong enough to start catching a different kind of attention.As this story from Semafor last year recounts, Siddharth was summoned in 2022 to OpenAI for a meeting, which he thought would be to talk about recruiting engineers for the startup. Instead, it turned out to be a proposition. OpenAI researchers had discovered that code added into training datasets helped improve the models reasoning capabilities, and it wanted Turings help to generate that code.Siddharth obliged and that set off a whole new business focus for the startup, which he says now works with a number of foundational AI companies to provide similar services, as well as with companies that build apps on top of those LLMs.We could not have predicted the ChatGPT moment, he said this week, and he couldnt have predicted how the infrastructure he built for hiring coders would place Turing itself into the middle of the action. I dont think people knew how important software engineering tokens [would be] to teach an LLM to think and reason and code.But it hasnt been a pivot. Siddharth was quick to correct me when I used the word, and he pointed out that Turing still generates substantial revenue from its older business sourcing coding talent, although he would not disclose how much.They are all growing, he said of the different business lines. We are stepping on the gas to scale up R&D, and scale up sales and marketing across all three businesses. We are in rapid expansion mode.However, the main focus in terms of new business, it seems, will be to continue doubling down on its work in AI as a coding provider for the building of future LLMs a division Turing optimistically calls Turing AGI Advancement and in its work on apps and services built on those LLMs under the banner of Turing Intelligence.

In BriefPosted:6:19 AM PST March 6, 2025Image Credits:Alex Wong / Getty ImagesAnthropic submits AI policy recommendations to the White HouseA day after quietly removing Biden-era AI policy commitments from its website, Anthropic submitted recommendations to the White House for a national AI policy that the company says better prepare[s] America to capture the economic benefits of AI.The companys suggestions include preserving the AI Safety Institute established under the Biden Administration, directing NIST to develop national security evaluations for powerful AI models, and building a team within the government to analyze potential security vulnerabilities in AI.Anthropic also calls for hardened AI chip export controls, particularly restrictions on the sale of Nvidia H20 chips to China, in the interest of national security. To fuel AI data centers, Anthropic recommends the U.S. establish a national target of building 50 additional gigawatts of power dedicated to the AI industry by 2027. Several of the policy suggestions closely align with former President Bidens AI Executive Order, which Trump repealed in January. Critics allied with Trump argued that the orders reporting requirements were onerous.Topics

With the release of new AI models that are better at coding, developers are increasingly using AI to generate code. One of the newest examples is the current batch of Y Combinator, the storied Silicon Valley startup accelerator. A quarter of the W25 startup batch have 95% of their codebases generated by AI, YC managing partner Jared Friedman said during a conversation posted on YouTube.Friedman said that this 95% figure didnt include things like code written to import libraries but took into consideration the code typed by humans as compared to AI.Its not like we funded a bunch of non-technical founders. Every one of these people is highly technical, completely capable of building their own products from scratch. A year ago, they would have built their product from scratch but now 95% of it is built by an AI, he said.In a video titled Vibe Coding is the Future, Friedman, along with YC CEO Garry Tan, managing partner Harj Taggar, and general partner Diana Hu, discussed the trend of using natural language and instincts to create code.Last month, former head of AI at Tesla and ex-researcher at OpenAI, Andrej Karpathy described the term vibe coding to describe a way to code using large language models (LLMs) without focusing on code itself.Code generated from AI is far from perfect, through. Studies and reports have observed that some AI-generated code can insert security flaws in applications, cause outages, or make mistakes, forcing devs to change the code or debug heavily.During the discussion, Hu said that even if product builders rely heavily on AI, one skill they would have to be good at is reading the code and finding bugs. You have to have the taste and enough training to know that an LLM is spitting bad stuff or good stuff. In order to do good vibe coding, you still need to have taste and knowledge to judge good vs bad, she said.Tan also agreed on the point of founders needing classical coding training to sustain products in the long run.Lets say a startup with 95% AI-generated code goes out [in the market], and a year or two out, they have 100 million users on that product, does it fall over or not? The first versions of reasoning models are not good at debugging. So you have to go in depth of whats happening with the product, he suggested.VCs and developers have been excited about AI-powered coding. Startups including Bolt.new, Codeium, Cursor, Lovable, and Magic have raised hundreds of millions of dollars in funding in the last 12 months.This isnt a fad. This isnt going away. This is the dominant way to code. And if you are not doing it, you might just be left behind, Tan added.

The U.K. government appears to have quietly scrubbed encryption advice from government web pages, just weeks after demanding backdoor access to encrypted data stored on Apples cloud storage service, iCloud.The change was spotted by security expert Alec Muffet, who wrote in a blog post on Wednesday that the U.K.s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is no longer recommending that high-risk individuals use encryption to protect their sensitive information.The NCSC in October published a document titled Cybersecurity tips for barristers, solicitors & legal professionals, that advised the use of encryption tools such as Apples Advanced Data Protection (ADP).ADP allows users to turn on end-to-end encryption for their iCloud backups, effectively making it impossible for anyone, including Apple and government authorities, to view data stored on iCloud.The URL hosting the NCSC document now redirects to a different page that makes no mention of encryption or ADP. Instead, it recommends that at-risk individuals use Apples Lockdown Mode, an extreme security tool that restricts access to certain functions and features.Muffet reports that the original document, still accessible via the Wayback Machine, has been wholesale deleted from the internet. TechCrunch wasnt able to find any encryption advice on the U.K. governments website.The U.K. Home Office and NCSC did not respond to TechCrunchs questions.The removal of the encryption advice comes weeks after the U.K. government secretly ordered Apple to build a backdoor that would give authorities access to users encrypted iCloud data. Following the order, first reported by The Washington Post, Apple pulled its ADP feature in the U.K., and confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature will no longer be made available to new users in the U.K., and its current users would eventually need to disable it.Apple is challenging the U.K.s data access order in the Investigatory Powers Tribunal (IPT), The Financial Times reported this week.

Fusion power startups have long been stalked by one stubborn question: Will the technology work?But now, with net-positive fusion power no longer the stuff of science fiction, a fresh crop of startups have been founded on more mundane questions: Can reactors be built for less money? How can maintenance be made simpler? The answers could mean the difference between profitability and failure.Francesco Volpe hopes they will be, at least. The founder and CTO of Renaissance Fusion has been studying fusion for decades. He has drawn inspiration from various projects over the years, which have culminated in a unique take on a fusion reactor design thats attracting the attention of investors.Renaissance raised a 32 million Series A1, the company exclusively told TechCrunch. The round was led by Crdit Mutuel Impacts Rvolution Environnementale et Solidaire fund with participation from Lowercarbon Capital. The startup plans to use those funds to build a demonstrator that should prove the basic parts of its novel design.Fusion with a twistFusion power promises to generate large amounts of clean electricity from an abundant source of fuel. Most fusion startups are pursuing one of two approaches: inertial confinement, where lasers compress fuel pellets to ignite fusion pulses, and magnetic confinement, where large magnets corral plasma into long-burning fusion reactions.Stellarators, the kind which Volpe is designing, belong in the latter camp. They are defined by their seemingly random twists and bulges that are meant to stabilize the plasma by working with its quirks rather than fighting against them. One major experiment in Germany has proven the validity of the concept, but its convoluted magnets were challenging to manufacture.Grenoble-based Renaissance set out to simplify the stellarator. It isnt the only company to try to do so Thea Energy is another and its approach blends rather than reinvents.The startups reactor design looks like a polygon of segmented tubes, each decorated with etchings that resemble lines on a topographic map. But the lines arent frippery; instead, they demarcate the high-temperature super conducting (HTS) magnets that define the quirky contours of the plasma inside.I really wanted to simplify these to the bare minimum, Volpe told TechCrunch.The first simplification the segmented tubes was inspired by his graduate research using Wendelstein 7-AS, an experimental stellarator.When you look at that from the top, you kind of recognize a pentagonal form, he said. So I thought, why dont we push this to the limit. Lets literally make cylinders not approximate cylinders, but actual cylinders.Other reactor designs use cylinders, but they tend to shape plasma into a doughnut shape, not the radical curves that define a stellarator. To give his design the necessary twists, Volpe drew on the work of a Spanish colleague, who 3D printed a scaffold to guide cheap, flexible cables into the form of a stellarator. The cables were far simpler to make than most stellarators complex magnets, but the 3D printing part wasnt quite as commercializable.Volpe simplified the idea further. Rather than replicate the plasmas complexity in three-dimensional magnets, he flattened them. The tubes in Renaissances design will be coated with wide sheets of HTS magnets. Into that coating, a laser will etch a series of thin, meandering lines that encircle the tube. These lines will separate one magnet from the next.At points where the superconducting stripes are wider, the magnetic field will be stronger. Theyll push back harder against the plasma in the tube. Where the material is thinner, the magnetic field will be weaker, allowing the plasma to bulge. The exact shape of the plasma will be determined by advanced computer simulations.To protect the tubes from neutrons flying out of the fusion reaction, Renaissance will bathe the inside with liquid lithium. To make sure the liquid flows against the wall and doesnt drip onto the plasma, the company applies an electric current to the liquid metal, giving it a magnetic field that will draw it to the powerful magnets on the outside of the tubes. Suspended within the liquid, small spheres containing molten lead will absorb a portion of the neutron bombardment. The liquid blanket will also do triple duty by breeding more fuel for the reactor and transferring heat to power steam turbines.Magnetic carpetsVolpe said that Renaissance is on track to produce wide HTS carpets in the coming months. A demonstrator, which will integrate tubular HTS magnets and liquid lithium walls, should be ready by the end of 2026. Volpe hopes that the startup can build a complete stellarator by the early 2030s, a timeline thats similar to other fusion startups.Volpe hopes the demonstrator will prove that the concept is greater than the sum of its parts, each of which were promising on their own but together could pave the way to a cheaper fusion reactor. You connect the dots. Its the essence of inspiration, Volpe said.

Infineon Technologies, Germanys leading semiconductor manufacturer, has partnered with Indias six-decade-old chipmaker CDIL Semiconductors to tap into emerging business opportunities in the South Asian nation. The partnership aims to support Indias transition to electric mobility and renewable energy, both of which rely heavily on power semiconductors.India, the worlds most populous country with over 1.4 billion people, aims to expand its EV penetration from the existing 7-8% to 30% and boost non-fossil energy generation from 100GW to 500GW by 2030. However, achieving these ambitious targets requires a robust domestic ecosystem for EVs and battery storage solutions that are cost-competitive with traditional alternatives to drive consumer adoption. Manufacturers in these sectors also seek high-quality inputs at comparable prices to keep their costs low. Infineon and CDIL aim to address all this with their tie-up.As part of the collaboration, Infineon is supplying wafers to CDIL, which will package and assemble them at its Mohali facility in Punjab. The final products will serve Indian customers in sectors such as light EVs including electric two- and three-wheelers and renewable energy products like solar inverters and energy storage systems.Initially, CDIL General Manager Prithvideep Singh told TechCrunch that the partnership aims to produce MOSFETs (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistors), which function as electronic switches to control electricity flow in devices ranging from smartphones to electric cars. However, CDIL plans to expand production by using Infineons wafers to develop IGBTs (insulated-gate bipolar transistors) over time. These components regulate high-voltage electricity in EVs and renewable energy systems.CDILs semiconductor packaging facility currently has an annual capacity of 600 million power semiconductor units. Both companies see this as sufficient for now, though Singh noted that CDIL could scale production based on future demand.Instead of traditional silicon, the semiconductors produced in India will use materials such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride, which offer greater heat resistance and provide more power density in a small space. CDIL has been working specifically on silicon carbide for the last four years and has even exported the material to countries including China.However, Singh told TechCrunch that the Infineon partnership is currently focused on serving domestic demand. The wafer is like an engine. It is one critical component. And then, of course, you have the rest of the car, so its a good mix of both, he said while elaborating on the partnership.Notably, this is Infineons first manufacturing partnership in India, though the company has had a subsidiary in the country for some time and has been exploring the market actively for the last few months. The companys executives even met with Indian government officials last year to discuss opportunities in power semiconductors.We believe that India is still in the more early stage of an exponential curve, but we do believe that this market will accelerate significantly in the next few years because a lot of trends start to overlap you have the electrification and batterification of everything, said Richard Kuncic, Infineons senior vice president and general manager for power systems, in an interview with TechCrunch.The Neubiberg-headquartered company manufactures wafers at three major facilities located in Villach (Austria), Dresden (Germany), and Kulim (Malaysia).India aspires to become a global semiconductor hub and announced billions of dollars in investments in this space last year. However, Infineon has no immediate plans to establish a wafer manufacturing site in India. Instead, the company is looking to form additional partnerships in the Indian market to grow its presence.We are not starting five things just for the sake of it we are doing one after another, Kuncic said when asked about potential collaborations with other local players.

The war in Ukraine has brought drones to the forefront of modern warfare, creating a surge in demand for counter-drone systems.However, legacy solutions to counter drones, such as ground-based defense systems and cyber warfare, often come with a hefty price tag. For German startup Alpine Eagle, these solutions fall short: When now-ubiquitous $500 first-person view (FPV) drones have the capacity to destroy multi-million dollar tanks, cost-effective answers are needed.We use inexpensive, mass-producible systems to establish a symmetry against the numerical advantage of cheap strike drones, Dutch entrepreneur Jan-Hendrik Boelens told TechCrunch. Munich-based Alpine Eagle, which he cofounded in 2023, develops Sentinel, a mix of software and hardware focused on cost efficiency.Unlike ground-based competing solutions, such as Hovers counter-drone turret, Sentinel is airborne, with modular sensors that arent hindered by terrain and other obstacles, while avoiding becoming a stationary target.Its mothership, which is sophisticated, but not meant to be expendable, carries kamikaze interceptors that also help it do more than detecting threats or jamming them: They can either capture objects with nets or destroy hostile drones altogether.While potential applications exist in law enforcement and other sectors, the current geopolitical climate has driven demand for this technology primarily in the military. The Munich-based startup secured the German army as its launch customer, in addition to other government agencies, and said it achieved seven-digit revenues in the first 12 months of operation.This helped it close a 10.25 million Series A round (around $10.96 million) led by British deep tech VC firm IQ Capital. The new funding will help the startup expand its current team of machine learning practitioners and aeronautical engineers, with new hires across product, engineering, business development, and sales bringing its headcount to 40.The fact that the round is led by a British VC firm is no coincidence, as the startup will have the U.K. as a key market in its expansion. Thats also because its market goes beyond battlefields, with recent events also highlighting the need to protect military bases and broader infrastructure.Still, theres no doubt that Alpine Eagle is part of the rise of European defense tech, and of VC interest in the sector, especially in countries that feel the most at threat.In addition to returning investors General Catalyst and HCVC, its cap table now also includes funds from Estonia, Germany, and Poland. We were looking for a consortium of European investors that share both the urgency for building [a] European defense tech ecosystem and that are located in key countries, Boelens said.Despite this sense of urgency, Boelens didnt want to rush Sentinels entry into Ukraine. Our approach there was to make sure that we first have a mature system to deliver to them so that we dont waste their time with something thats not working yet. Weve seen too many startups doing that, and we felt we should only go there once the system is actually doing what its supposed to do.After validating its system with the German army, it is now testing its system in Ukraine and talking to different brigades that helped identify use cases in the front line. One is fiber optic drones; using cables instead of radio frequency makes them harder to detect or jam.Drones that are immune to RF interference can be a challenge even for Epirus, the U.S. defense tech startup co-founded by Joe Lonsdale that just raised a $250 million Series D, and whose flagship product Leonidas beams high-powered microwaves.In contrast, Alpine Eagles airborne system can integrate various sensors including radar panels to detect low-flying drones that often evade ground-based systems.Jamming goes both ways, though. Thats one of the aspects in which Alpine Eagle is using AI, with data processing done onboard the hardware itself for navigation purposes, as well as data collection in order to retrain its algorithms to have more adaptive tactics based on what theyve actually perceived in reality.One key tactical aspect of Sentinel is swarming, which is also a selling point of the latest drone models from German defense tech company Helsing. Applying it to counter drone strategies follows the same logic of limiting costs and casualties, with modern warfare that is increasingly unmanned.We realized that all Western powers have the problem of not having enough soldiers, so we try to build a system where many, many drones can be operated by a single operator by using high automation levels and really promoting the soldier to a mission manager rather than a pilot, Boelens said.

In BriefPosted:11:07 AM PST March 5, 2025Image Credits:JASON REDMOND/AFP / Getty ImagesOpenAI reportedly plans to charge up to $20,000 a month for specialized AI agentsOpenAI may be planning to charge up to $20,000 per month for specialized AI agents, according to The Information. The publication reports that OpenAI intends to launch several agent products tailored for different applications, including sorting and ranking sales leads and software engineering. One, a high-income knowledge worker agent, will reportedly be priced at $2,000 a month. Another, a software developer agent, is said to cost $10,000 a month.OpenAIs most expensive rumored agent, priced at the aforementioned $20,000-a-month tier, will be aimed at supporting PhD-level research, according to The Information. Its unclear when these agentic tools might launch or which customers will be eligible to purchase them. But The Information notes that SoftBank, an OpenAI investor, has committed to spending $3 billion on OpenAIs agent products this year alone.OpenAI needs the money. The company lost roughly $5 billion last year after paying for costs related to running its services and other expenses.Topicsagents, AI, In Brief, OpenAI

In a policy paper published Wednesday, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, and Center for AI Safety Director Dan Hendrycks said that the U.S. should not pursue a Manhattan Project-style push to develop AI systems with superhuman intelligence, also known as AGI.The paper, titled Superintelligence Strategy, asserts that an aggressive bid by the U.S. to exclusively control superintelligent AI systems could prompt fierce retaliation from China, potentially in the form of a cyberattack, which could destabilize international relations.[A] Manhattan Project [for AGI] assumes that rivals will acquiesce to an enduring imbalance or omnicide rather than move to prevent it, the co-authors write. What begins as a push for a superweapon and global control risks prompting hostile countermeasures and escalating tensions, thereby undermining the very stability the strategy purports to secure.Co-authored by three highly influential figures in Americas AI industry, the paper comes just a few months after a U.S. congressional commission proposed a Manhattan Project-style effort to fund AGI development, modeled after Americas atomic bomb program in the 1940s. U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright recently said the U.S. is at the start of a new Manhattan Project on AI while standing in front of a supercomputer site alongside OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman.The Superintelligence Strategy paper challenges the idea, championed by several American policy and industry leaders in recent months, that a government-backed program pursuing AGI is the best way to compete with China.In the opinion of Schmidt, Wang, and Hendrycks, the U.S. is in something of an AGI standoff not dissimilar to mutually assured destruction. In the same way that global powers do not seek monopolies over nuclear weapons which could trigger a preemptive strike from an adversary Schmidt and his co-authors argue that the U.S. should be cautious about racing toward dominating extremely powerful AI systems.While likening AI systems to nuclear weapons may sound extreme, world leaders already consider AI to be a top military advantage. Already, the Pentagon says that AI is helping speed up the militarys kill chain. Schmidt et al. introduce a concept they call Mutual Assured AI Malfunction (MAIM), in which governments could proactively disable threatening AI projects rather than waiting for adversaries to weaponize AGI.Schmidt, Wang, and Hendrycks propose that the U.S. shift its focus from winning the race to superintelligence to developing methods that deter other countries from creating superintelligent AI. The co-authors argue the government should expand [its] arsenal of cyberattacks to disable threatening AI projects controlled by other nations as well as limit adversaries access to advanced AI chips and open source models.The co-authors identify a dichotomy that has played out in the AI policy world. There are the doomers, who believe that catastrophic outcomes from AI development are a foregone conclusion and advocate for countries slowing AI progress. On the other side, there are the ostriches, who believe nations should accelerate AI development and essentially just hope itll all work out.The paper proposes a third way: a measured approach to developing AGI that prioritizes defensive strategies.That strategy is particularly notable coming from Schmidt, who has previously been vocal about the need for the U.S. to compete aggressively with China in developing advanced AI systems. Just a few months ago, Schmidt released an op-ed saying DeepSeek marked a turning point in Americas AI race with China.The Trump administration seems dead set on pushing ahead in Americas AI development. However, as the co-authors note, Americas decisions around AGI dont exist in a vacuum.As the world watches America push the limit of AI, Schmidt and his co-authors suggest it may be wiser to take a defensive approach.

President Donald Trump has delayed tariffs on automobile imports from Canada and Mexico for one month after requests from executives at the Big Three automakers General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis with the expectation that automakers will move any offshore operations to the United States by April 2.The reprieve, which Politico first reported, comes less than two days after Trump issued 25% tariffs on all goods from the U.S.s neighbors, which had previously been duty-free under a North American trade agreement (sometimes characterized as NAFTA 2.0) negotiated during his first term. The exemption applies to automakers that comply with the USMCA, per The Wall Street Journal.Several automakers, including the Big Three, have complex supply chains and operate several manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Canada. For example, GM produces its Chevy Equinox in Mexico and Canada, and both Fords Lincoln Nautilus SUVs and Stellantis Dodge Chargers are made in Ontario. Multiple automotive suppliers also have factories in the two countries.Car prices are already at historic highs, and the tariffs threaten to send sticker prices skyrocketing by as much as $12,000, according to Jeff Schott, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who was interviewed by the Detroit Free Press. That could lead to less demand, leaving dealers stuck with unaffordable cars on their lots.In an address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump urged manufacturers to move their operations onshore. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing Wednesday that Trump expects GM, Ford, and Stellantis to shift production to the U.S. before the tariffs kick off at the end of the month. He told them that they should get on it, Leavitt said. Ford CEO Jim Farley said last month at an investor talk the company doesnt have excess capacity at its plants to shift production. Farley noted that Ford could withstand tariffs in the short term, but if they persisted, they would blow a hole in the U.S. industry that weve never seen.Through February, nearly half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. were built in the U.S., but 17.4% of them were built in Mexico, and 7.4% in Canada, according to data from Edmunds.com. Since President Trumps successful USMCA was signed, Ford has invested billions in the United States and committed to billions more in the future to both invest in American workers and ensure all of our vehicles comply with USMCA, reads a statement from Ford. We will continue to have a healthy and candid dialogue with the Administration to help achieve a bright future for our industry and U.S. manufacturing.This article has been updated with information from the White House press secretary and a statement from Ford.

Theres a new Bluesky app in the works from a popular developer of iOS applications. Tapbots, the company behind the popular Mastodon client Ivory, born out of its earlier efforts with Tweetbot (RIP), is readying a new app called Phoenix, designed for Blueskys growing social network of over 32 million users.In a post on Bluesky, the company shared its website teasing the new app, which is expected to launch sometime later this summer.On its site, Tapbots clarified that its work on a Bluesky client doesnt mean its abandoning its efforts in the fediverse, also known as the open social web. However, Ivorys development will temporarily slow as the new efforts are underway.Ivory, which launched in 2023, brought back Tweetbots look and feel and several of its features to offer an alternative to Mastodons official social app, an open source, decentralized alternative to larger platforms like X. As a federated app, Ivory is integrated with ActivityPub, the protocol powering a host of federated social apps including not only Mastodon, but also PeerTube, Pixelfed, Metas Threads, Flipboard, and others.Bluesky, meanwhile, is built on a different protocol, the AT Protocol (or atproto for short). Since Twitters acquisition by Elon Musk and its transformation into X, many former Twitter users have moved on to other networks, including Mastodon and Bluesky. For an indie operation like Tapbots, that meant its customer base was split between two services, making it harder to generate revenue with just one app. For us to continue to thrive as a company, we must support both, Tapbots shared on its website. Unfortunately, we cant survive on Mastodon alone.The company also explains that it decided to launch a dedicated app for Bluesky users instead of combining the two networks into one app because this would offer users a better experience. Those who want to maintain a presence on both social networks will be able to take advantage of a planned cross-posting feature, it added. Unfortunately for Mastodon users, work on Ivory will need to slow as the team works to launch Phoenix.It would be a lie if we said Ivory would be in full development while we are trying to get Phoenix up and running, the website explains. However, we did not want to start Phoenix development until after we released Ivory v2.3. Once Phoenix is out the door, development will happen concurrently and both apps will get all the huge improvements we have planned throughout the apps.News of Phoenixs launch was first reported by MacStories.Though the company has not announced Phoenixs monetization strategy, it will likely be a subscription model similar to Ivorys a free app with in-app purchases for access to premium features. Currently, Ivory is $1.99 per month or $14.99 per year.Phoenix will enter a limited public alpha phase ahead of its summer 2025 launch.

President Donald Trump has delayed tariffs on automobile imports from Canada and Mexico for one month after requests from executives at the Big Three automakers General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis with the expectation that they will move any offshore operations to the United States by April 2.The reprieve, which Politico first reported, comes less than two days after Trump issued 25% tariffs on all goods from the U.S.s neighbors, which had previously been duty-free under a North American trade agreement (sometimes characterized as NAFTA 2.0) negotiated during his first term.The automakers have complex supply chains and operate several manufacturing facilities in Mexico and Canada. For example, GM produces its Chevy Equinox in Mexico and Canada, and both Fords Lincoln Nautilus SUVs and Stellantiss Dodge Chargers are made in Ontario. Multiple automotive suppliers also have factories in the two countries.Car prices are already at historic highs, and the tariffs threaten to send sticker prices skyrocketing by as much as $12,000, according to Jeff Schott, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, who was interviewed by the Detroit Free Press. That could lead to less demand, leaving dealers stuck with unaffordable cars on their lots.In an address to Congress on Tuesday, Trump urged manufacturers to move their operations onshore. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a briefing Wednesday that Trump expects GM, Ford, and Stellantis to shift production to the U.S. before the tariffs kick off at the end of the month. He told them that they should get on it, Leavitt said. Ford CEO Jim Farley said last month at an investor talk the company doesnt have excess capacity at its plants to shift production. Farley noted that Ford could withstand tariffs in the short term, but if they persisted, they would blow a hole in the U.S. industry that weve never seen.Through February, nearly half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. were built in the U.S., but 17.4% of them were built in Mexico, and 7.4% in Canada, according to data from Edmunds.com. This article has been updated with information from the White House press secretary.

The CEO of Canoo is buying nearly all of the defunct EV startups assets out of bankruptcy, according to a court filing.A new entity controlled by the CEO, Anthony Aquila, has offered to purchase substantially all of the assets for $4 million in cash. The sale will also wipe clean a more-than-$11 million debt Canoo owed to a financial firm run by Aquila, which loaned money to the startup during its final months. The sale proposal comes just six weeks after Canoo filed for a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation in Delaware and wound down its business. The startup, which went public in 2020 as part of a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, never sold more than a handful of its electric vans to government entities like NASA, the United States Postal Service, and the Department of Defense, before it failed.Canoo has told the court that as of February 24 it had around $145 million in assets and $175 million in liabilities, and around $12 million in cash and equivalents. Other interested parties can submit higher and better offers for the companys assets before a deadline of March 28, according to a filing.But the bankruptcy trustee wrote in the filing that the best course of action would be to proceed with the sale to Aquila. The trustee cited a number of reasons for this, such as a lack of financing currently available to support EV manufacturing. He wrote that the failure of other EV startups (like Fisker and Nikola, though he did not name them specifically) has produced a glut of EV related assets that are available at fire-sale prices. He also wrote that Canoos estate doesnt have the money to cover rents, security costs, and insurance necessary to maintain the integrity of the assets.As long as it goes through, Aquilas new entity called WHS Energy Solutions, Inc. and created in Delaware will receive Canoos manufacturing equipment, completed vehicles, intellectual property, contracts, and other inventory and assets. WHS Energy Solutions is not taking over any of Canoos leases, and will not be responsible for any of the claims other creditors have against Canoos estate.Aquila has told the bankruptcy trustee that a principal motivation for buying the assets is the CEOs desire to honor [Canoos] commitment to provide service and support for certain government programs. While the viability of all government spending is currently uncertain, the Buyer has been advised by these agencies that unless they can be assured that the Buyer can provide assurance promptly that it will be able to continue to provide the services and support provided by the Debtors, the programs will be materially delayed and the government will have to begin the time-consuming process of seeking and qualifying other contractors, the trustee wrote in the filing.CEOs or founders trying to buy up the assets of their bankrupt startups is not uncommon, even in the world of electric vehicles. In 2023, the former CEO of bankrupt EV startup Lordstown Motors purchased most of its assets and started a new company called LandX Motors. But more often than not, the assets get sold to other companies or auctioned off in pieces.Its unclear what Aquila plans to do with Canoos assets if he is successful in completing the transaction. The Canoo CEO did not respond to a request for comment. Only Aquilas financial firm and related entities held secured claims, meaning their debt was backed by collateral pledged by Canoo. The debts owed to its many other creditors which include automotive supplier Magna (owed nearly $3 million), and financial advisors Yorkville (which sold millions of shares of Canoo stock and are owed $7 million) are behind Aquilas in line to get paid back.

Volkswagens ultra-cheap EV called the ID EVERY1 a small four-door hatchback revealed Wednesday will be the first to roll out with software and architecture from Rivian, according to a source familiar with the new model. The EV is expected to go into production in 2027 with a starting price of 20,000 euros ($21,500). A second EV called the ID.2all, which will be priced in the 25,000 euro price category, will be available in 2026. Both vehicles are part of the automakers new of category electric urban front-wheel drive cars that are being developing under the so-called Brand Group Core that makes up the volume brands in the VW Group. And both vehicles are for the European market.The EVERY1 will be the first to ship with Rivians vehicle architecture and software as part of a $5.8 billion joint venture struck last year between the German automaker and U.S. EV maker. The ID.2all is based on the E3 1.1 architecture and software developed by VWs software unit Cariad.VW didnt name Rivian in its reveal Wednesday, although there were numerous nods to next-generation software. Kai Grnitz, member of the Volkswagen Brand Board of Management responsible for Technical Development, noted it would be the first model in the entire VW Group to use a fundamentally new, particularly powerful software architecture. This means the future entry-level Volkswagen can be equipped with new functions throughout its entire life cycle, he said. Even after purchase of a new car, the small Volkswagen can still be individually adapted to customer needs.Sources who didnt want to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed to TechCrunch that Rivians software will be in the ID EVERY1 EV. TechCrunch has reached out to Rivian and VW and will update the article if the companies respond.The new joint venture provides Rivian with a needed influx of cash and the opportunity to diversify its business. Meanwhile, VW Group gains a next-generation electrical architecture and software for EVs that will help it better compete. Both companies have said that the joint venture, called Rivian and Volkswagen Group Technologies, will reduce development costs and help scale new technologies more quickly.The joint venture is a 50-50 partnership with co-CEOs. Rivians head of software, Wassym Bensaid, and Volkswagen Groups chief technical engineer, Carsten Helbing, will lead the joint venture. The team will be based initially in Palo Alto, California. Three other sites are in development in North America and Europe, the companies have previously said. image credits: VWThe ID. EVERY1 represents the last piece of the puzzle on our way to the widest model selection in the volume segment, Thomas Schfer, CEO of the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand and Head of the Brand Group Core, said in a statement. We will then offer every customer the right car with the right drive systemincluding affordable all-electric entry-level mobility. Our goal is to be the worlds technologically leading high-volume manufacturer by 2030. And as a brand for everyonejust as you would expect from Volkswagen.The Volkswagen ID EVERY1 is just a concept for now and with only a few details attached to the unveiling. The concept vehicle reaches a top speed of 130 km/h (80 miles per hour) and is powered by a newly developed electric drive motor with 70 kW, according to Volkswagen. The German automaker said the range on the EVERY1 will be at least 250 kilometers (150 miles). The vehicle is small but larger than VWs former UP! vehicle. The company said it will have enough space for four people and a luggage compartment volume of 305 liters.

AI models are being cranked out at a dizzying pace, by everyone from Big Tech companies like Google to startups like OpenAI and Anthropic. Keeping track of the latest ones can be overwhelming.Adding to the confusion is that AI models are often promoted based on industry benchmarks. But these technical metrics often reveal little about how real people and companies actually use them.To cut through the noise, TechCrunch has compiled an overview of the most advanced AI models released since 2024, with details on how to use them and what theyre best for. Well keep this list updated with the latest launches, too.There are literally over a million AI models out there: Hugging Face, for example, hosts over 1.4 million. So this list might miss some models that perform better, in one way or another.AI models released in 2025Coheres Aya VisionCohere released a multimodal model called Aya Vision that it claims is best in class at doing things like captioning images and answering questions about photos. It also excels in languages other than English, unlike other models, Cohere claims. It is available for free on WhatsApp.OpenAIs GPT 4.5 OrionOpenAI calls Orion their largest model to date, touting its strong world knowledge and emotional intelligence. However, it underperforms on certain benchmarks compared to newer reasoning models. Orion is available to subscribers of OpenAIs $200 a month plan.Claude Sonnet 3.7Anthropic says this is the industrys first hybrid reasoning model, because it can both fire off quick answers and really think things through when needed. It also gives users control over how long the model can think for, per Anthropic. Sonnet 3.7 is available to all Claude users, but heavier users will need a $20 a month Pro plan. xAIs Grok 3Grok 3 is the latest flagship model from Elon Musk-founded startup xAI. Its claimed to outperform other leading models on math, science, and coding. The model requires X Premium (which is $50 a month.) After one study found Grok 2 leaned left, Musk pledged to shift Grok more politically neutral but its not yet clear if thats been achieved.OpenAI o3-miniThis is OpenAIs latest reasoning model and is optimized for STEM-related tasks like coding, math, and science. Its not OpenAIs most powerful model but because its smaller, the company says its significantly lower cost. It is available for free but requires a subscription for heavy users.OpenAI Deep ResearchOpenAIs Deep Research is designed for doing in-depth research on a topic with clear citations. This service is only available with ChatGPTs $200 per month Pro subscription. OpenAI recommends it for everything from science to shopping research, but beware that hallucinations remain a problem for AI.Mistral Le ChatMistral has launched app versions of Le Chat, a multimodal AI personal assistant. Mistral claims Le Chat responds faster than any other chatbot. It also has a paid version with up-to-date journalism from the AFP. Tests from Le Monde found Le Chats performance impressive, although it made more errors than ChatGPT.OpenAI OperatorOpenAIs Operator is meant to be a personal intern that can do things independently, like help you buy groceries. It requires a $200 a month ChatGPT Pro subscription. AI agents hold a lot of promise, but theyre still experimental: a Washington Post reviewer says Operator decided on its own to order a dozen eggs for $31, paid with the reviewers credit card.Google Gemini 2.0 Pro ExperimentalGoogle Geminis much-awaited flagship model says it excels at coding and understanding general knowledge. It also has a super-long context window of 2 million tokens, helping users who need to quickly process massive chunks of text. The service requires (at minimum) a Google One AI Premium subscription of $19.99 a month.AI models released in 2024DeepSeek R1This Chinese AI model took Silicon Valley by storm. DeepSeeks R1 performs well on coding and math, while its open source nature means anyone can run it locally. Plus, its free. However, R1 integrates Chinese government censorship and faces rising bans for potentially sending user data back to China.Gemini Deep ResearchDeep Research summarizes Googles search results in a simple and well-cited document. The service is helpful for students and anyone else who needs a quick research summary. However, its quality isnt nearly as good as an actual peer-reviewed paper. Deep Research requires a $19.99 Google One AI Premium subscription.This is the newest and most advanced version of Metas open source Llama AI models. Meta has touted this version as its cheapest and most efficient yet, especially for math, general knowledge, and instruction following. It is free and open source.OpenAI SoraSora is a model that creates realistic videos based on text. While it can generate entire scenes rather than just clips, OpenAI admits that it often generates unrealistic physics. Its currently only available on paid versions of ChatGPT, starting with Plus, which is $20 a month.Alibaba Qwen QwQ-32B-PreviewThis model is one of the few to rival OpenAIs o1 on certain industry benchmarks, excelling in math and coding. Ironically for a reasoning model, it has room for improvement in common sense reasoning, Alibaba says. It also incorporates Chinese government censorship, TechCrunch testing shows. Its free and open source.Anthropics Computer UseClaudes Computer Use is meant to take control of your computer to complete tasks like coding or booking a plane ticket, making it a predecessor of OpenAIs Operator. Computer use, however, remains in beta. Pricing is via API: $0.80 per million tokens of input and $4 per million tokens of output.x.AIs Grok 2Elon Musks AI company, x.AI, has launched an enhanced version of its flagship Grok 2 chatbot it claims is three times faster. Free users are limited to 10 questions every two hours on Grok, while subscribers to Xs Premium and Premium+ plans enjoy higher usage limits. x.AI also launched an image generator, Aurora, that produces highly photorealistic images, including some graphic or violent content.OpenAI o1OpenAIs o1 family is meant to produce better answers by thinking through responses through a hidden reasoning feature. The model excels at coding, math, and safety, OpenAI claims, but has issues deceiving humans, too. Using o1 requires subscribing to ChatGPT Plus, which is $20 a month.Anthropics Claude Sonnet 3.5Claude Sonnet 3.5 is a model Anthropic claims as being best in class. Its become known for its coding capabilities and is considered a tech insiders chatbot of choice.OpenAI GPT 4o-miniOpenAI has touted GPT 4o-mini as its most affordable and fastest model yet thanks to its small size. Its meant to enable a broad range of tasks like powering customer service chatbots. The model is available on ChatGPTs free tier. Its better suited for high-volume simple tasks compared to more complex ones.Cohere Command R+Coheres Command R+ model excels at complex Retrieval-Augmented Generation (or RAG) applications for enterprises. That means it can find and cite specific pieces of information really well. (The inventor of RAG actually works at Cohere.) Still, RAG doesnt fully solve AIs hallucination problem.

OpenAI has begun rolling out its newest AI model, GPT-4.5, to users on its ChatGPT Plus tier. In a series of posts on X, OpenAI said that the rollout will take 1-3 days, and that it expects rate limits to change. GPT-4.5 launched first for subscribers to OpenAIs $200-a-month ChatGPT Pro plan last week.Wed like to give everyone with access to GPT-4.5 a sizable rate limit, but we expect rate limits to change as we learn more about demand, the company wrote in a post.GPT-4.5 is OpenAIs largest AI model yet, trained using more computing power and data than any of the companys previous releases. But its not necessarily OpenAIs best. On several AI benchmarks, GPT-4.5 falls short of newer AI reasoning models from Chinese AI company DeepSeek, Anthropic, and OpenAI itself.GPT-4.5 is also very expensive to run, OpenAI admits so expensive that the company says its evaluating whether to continue serving GPT-4.5 in its API in the long term. To cover costs, the company is charging $75 per million tokens (~750,000 words) fed into the model and $150 per million tokens generated by the model, which is 30x the input cost and 15x the output cost of OpenAIs workhorseGPT-4omodel.All that being said,GPT-4.5s increased size has given it both a deeper world knowledge and higher emotional intelligence, OpenAI claims.GPT-4.5 hallucinates less frequently than most models, as well, according to OpenAI which in theory means it should be less likely tomake stuff up.GPT-4.5 is also a skilled rhetorician. One of OpenAIs internal benchmarks found the model is particularly good at convincing another AI to give it cash and tell it a secret code word.

As part of the iOS 18.4 software update, currently in public beta, Apple is introducing AI-powered summaries of App Store reviews. The new feature will leverage Apple Intelligence, the companys built-in AI technology, to offer an overall summary based on the reviews others have left on the App Store.The review summaries will be generated by large language models (LLMs) and will highlight key information into a short paragraph, Apples website explains. The summaries will also be refreshed weekly for apps and games that have enough reviews to generate a summary though Apple did not say what that threshold is. App Store users can tap and hold on the review to report any problems with the feature while app developers can alert Apple to problems via App Store Connect. AI summaries will first be in the U.S. in English and will later roll out to all apps with a sufficient number of reviews in additional markets and languages over the course of the year. It will also be available in iPadOS 18.4. The feature, first spotted by Macworld in the recent beta release, may encourage unscrupulous app developers to flood their ratings and review sections with fake reviews left by bots or other paid commenters who praise the app or game or make positive remarks about its features or pricing. While this sort of thing is unfortunately already a common practice in the app industry or really, any on any site that offers customer reviews of a product adding AI summaries could worsen the problem. Consumers may begin to rely too heavily on the review summary itself instead of more carefully reading through all reviews, both good and bad.The feature also tests the ability of Apples AI to carefully extract and parse any negative comments or concerns in the App Store reviews and highlight them for customers in these AI summaries. Apple is not the only tech giant to look to AI for analyzing reviews. Amazon introduced AI summaries for product reviews on its platform back in 2023. Googles Gemini AI can also be used for product reviews summaries, as one developer tutorial explains. The company also added AI-powered review summaries in Google Maps last year. While the AI summaries are available now to beta testers with the latest release (iOS 18.4, beta 2 and iPadOS 18.4, beta 2), the feature will reach the general public in April when the new software rolls out to all.Other anticipated features include an expanded set of Apple Intelligence languages that are supported, access to Apple Intelligence for EU users, access to Visual Intelligence on the iPhone 15 Pro, new Control Center options for Siri, and an AI-powered feature to prioritize important notifications over others.iOS 18.4 will bring Apple Intelligence-powered Priority Notifications

If you spend any amount of time online, you probably noticed that your user experience keeps getting worse.Websites are waterlogged with autoplay ads, pop-ups, and tracking scripts. Customer service chatbots are useless, despite the promises of generative AI. Social media algorithms boost rage-bait to keep you scrolling and engaged. Dating apps hide all the good ones behind a paywall. Your printer wont work without a monthly subscription. Oh, and good luck canceling that subscription in three clicks or less.This is the backwash of the internets shift from a user-first experience to one designed to maximize engagement, ad revenue, and subscriptions.Ed Zitron, CEO of EZPR and host of the Better Offline podcast, calls it the rot economy, the result of a tech industry that has become so obsessed with growth that you, the paying customer, are a nuisance to be mitigated far more than a participant in an exchange of value.In a recent episode of the Equity podcast, I spoke to Zitron who is writing a book called Why Everything Stopped Working about why the stagnation of major companies creates the perfect opportunity for startups to challenge incumbents across various industries.Zitron didnt hold back when describing Big Techs decline, criticizing its obsession with quarter-to-quarter growth that leads to subpar products: Theyre ugly, theyre expensive, they dont work very well, you dont like using them. He argued that many of these dominant players have grown fat and lazy and overconfident, their business models based on the idea that its just easier to stay with us.You can beat that, Zitron said. Anything you see on the web that sucks right now is at threat.As Zitron sees it, there are numerous areas that are ripe for disruption. One of the most obvious is social media, where he notes that to use Instagram right now is to fight Meta to get to the things you want and get past what Meta wants you to see. And Facebook is even worse, he laments.This crummy user experience, combined with the political maneuverings on Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, is why were seeing people defect from X and Meta and sign up for platforms on the decentralized web, which is a system of independent, privately owned servers that work together to provide private and secure access to information and services.Bluesky and Mastodon have emerged as popular alternatives to X, and many startups are throwing their hats in the ring to challenge Instagram and TikTok. In the decentralized space, Bluesky is launching a photo-sharing app called Flashes, and Pixelfed is already attracting users. Many TikTok users have downloaded RedNote as the ByteDance-owned app remains in limbo.Enterprise and productivity softwareZitron similarly sees massive opportunities when it comes to enterprise and productivity offerings like Microsoft 365 that arent great.Zitron said of Microsoft broadly, They dont make great products. They havent in some time. Here, he added that he would maybe put the gaming [division] aside from this complaint. I quite like the Xbox division, he said. Then he added: But they love laying people off and Im sure that that place is going to slop soon.But its not just Microsoft. Zitron argued that many once-beloved Silicon Valley darlings like Microsoft, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Zoom lost their way after going public. The pressure to deliver quarter-over-quarter growth to appease shareholders invariably forces companies to prioritize short-term gains over long-term product quality.He pointed to Google Docs as an example of growing corporate overreach designed to benefit a company at its users expense.Google Docs was beloved for being this really clean, easy-to-use thing, Zitron said. The problem is now its telling me that it needs AI. I must use Gemini in it now.Zitron called Adobe the weakest company in tech at the moment, calling them desperate and calling for a replacement. Some potential challengers weve seen include Figma, Affinity, and Blender.Generally, Zitron thinks consumers will have a role to play in this shift as they cotton onto the self-serving laziness of incumbents.I believe in the next year, were going to see a real shift in consumers, both business and otherwise, away from these shitty companies. And when I say shitty companies, I mean most of Big Tech.Search Google in particular is already facing an assault by numerous startups, and deservedly so in Zitrons mind. Google Search used to surface the best links for your query. Now it surfaces a page of sponsored links that dont answer your question.Google search is bad now, he said, noting that DuckDuckGo apparently makes money and may be able to rise if the judge in Googles search antitrust trial forces the company to share its datasets with competitors.Zitron didnt list all the other search competitors, but its worth mentioning a few. Perplexity, for example, is competing with chatbot style search that answers questions directly in a conversational way while citing resources. Diem is a female-focused social search engine with an AI chatbot thats fighting against data bias in a world designed for men. In the decentralized space, Marginalia Search boosts obscure, non-commercial sites rather than SEO-optimized junk, while OpenSearch is an independent, crawler-based engine.For users who prioritize not just a better search experience but also a more privacy-focused search, theres Kagi, a paid, private search engine with a focus on high-quality results and no ads.Theres also Brave Search, a fully independent search index that doesnt rely on Google or Bing. Brave also has a privacy-focused browser that blocks ads and trackers by default.EmailZitron believes email is another area that a startup could take on. While email is one of the dominant communication tools, most of our inboxes are cluttered with spam and disorganized due to clunky UX from giants like Outlook, Gmail, and Yahoo. The same is true for enterprise email, like Microsoft Exchange and Google Workspace.There are plenty of opportunities for disruption here, notes Zitron. He says an offering from the end-to-end encrypted email service Proton isnt as usable as it needs to be, but its not the only game in town (rival services include Tutanota and Skiff). At the same time, increasingly popular alternatives Superhuman, Hey, and Shortwave are trying to rethink user experience in email.Build products that dont suckZitron sees opportunities for disruption everywhere, and not just in a purely digital sense. He also sees an opportunity for startups to take on Amazons shipping and logistics business by creating a coalition of other companies with smaller businesses a Shopify for the delivery side.Whether its coming up with a new real estate technology to replace the fat and happy Zillows of the world, or a better version of Canva thats not bloated with AI offerings, Zitron has called for a fresh take on the venture capital model. He says VC has too long focused on growth at all costs, which has created a stranded generation of startups that raised too much money and have nowhere to go as a result.Zitrons PR business is to draw attention to startups, so its in his interests to underscore the many shortcomings of Big Tech in comparison. Still, it was an inspiring chat.If youre hankering for a better user experience, or youre working on something to take down the bigs, youll definitely enjoy it. Check out our chat here.

Flex, which offers personal finance software and payments infrastructure for business owners, has raised $25 million in equity funding while securing a $200 million credit facility, it told TechCrunch exclusively.The equity funds were raised at a valuation of just under $250 million. The company last raised a $20 million Series A announced in September 2023.Flex was officially formed in 2022Flexbase Technologies) to a fintech for business owners. The company came out of stealth in September of 2023 with a business credit card and expense tracking product. Today, Flex markets itself as an all-in-one finance platform for mid-market business owners to manage their finances from the time the owner makes revenue, to the time they personally spend it, Rahman says.Rahman likens Flexs offering to that of fintech giants Ramp and Brex but with a focus on mid-market business owners who are also CEOs of their companies rather than enterprises or venture-backed startups.Business owners tend to co-mingle their personal and business expenses, deposits, and payments, leading to accounting reconciliation issues and cashflow gaps, Rahman said. Our growth validates the demand from business owners for an all-in-one ecosystem that simplifies their finances.Flex, he said, serves as more of a financial co-pilot for thousands of businesses and their owners, such as Shoreside Support, a logistics company; Freebird, a male grooming company; and MOD Partners, a construction business.All business entities and personal life sit in a single dashboard, Rahman explained to TechCrunch. They can decide in app which transaction business, which is personal. This can be complex from a software and compliance standpoint.Flexs average customer makes $25 million in revenue a year. Many of the startups customers, Rahman claims, have switched from the American Express Centurion Card, commonly known as the Black Card.Flex, he said, offers things like AI underwriting as well as AI invoice processing and expense management, which automatically ingests and schedules bill payments for owners.Its card also offers 0% interest for 60 days on all purchases.Titanium Ventures led Flexs $25 million equity round, which included participation from Companyon Ventures, Florida Funders, MS&AD Ventures, AAF Management, and First Look Partners. Victory Park Capital provided the $200 million credit facility.In total, Flex has secured $45 million in equity and $300 million in credit facilities with the debt exclusively funding its credit card offering, according to Rahman.Flex primarily makes revenue from transaction and interchange fees associated with its cards and bill pay products in addition to deposit products such as banking. Its personal platform is a subscription membership.Flex CEO Zaid RahmanImage Credits:FlexWhile Rahman declined to reveal hard revenue figures, he told TechCrunch that the company surpassed $1 billion in annualized total payment volume (TPV) in 18 months after launching its card and bill pay automation product. Its growing 25% month over month currently and Rahman expects to grow revenue by 5x in 2025.At the end of 2024, Flex had 64 employees, up from 28 at the end of 2023. It plans to use its new capital in part to build out an AI and B2B payments team in New York and San Francisco.Flex has found a segment of the large B2B market ignored by both innovators in B2B fintech and large incumbents owner-owned businesses, said Yash Patel, general partner at Titanium Ventures, who is joining Flexs board of directors.Want to reach out with a tip? Email me at maryann@techcrunch.com or send me a message on Signal at 408.204.3036. You can also send a note to the whole TechCrunch crew at tips@techcrunch.com. For more secure communications,click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and links to encrypted messaging apps.

Apple has introduced a new MacBook Air on its website, offering improved performance while retaining the familiar design. The new laptop is equipped with Apples M4 chip, the most recent addition to the M-series chip lineup.The MacBook Air comes in two sizes. Customers can choose between a 13-inch and a 15-inch display. Pricing starts at $999 for the 13-inch model, which is $100 lower than the previous entry price of $1,099.This update maintains 16GB of RAM in the base configuration, unchanged from last years model. This means that the entry-level MacBook Air still meets the minimum requirements for Apple Intelligence.Previous MacBook Air models had two Thunderbolt 3 ports. Apple still offers two Thunderbolt ports, but it is upgrading those ports to Thunderbolt 4. Customers also get a MagSafe 3 charging port and a good old 3.5mm headphone jack port.While the MacBook Air is lighter and more affordable than the MacBook Pro, these advantages come with some trade-offs. For instance, the MacBook Pro offers longer battery life and boasts a nicer mini-LED display with higher pixel density.Despite these differences, the MacBook Air remains one of the top-selling laptops due to its good balance between performance and price. Although the M4 update isnt a radical change, it is likely to maintain strong sale, similar to the M3 MacBook Air.Apple first introduced the M4 chip with the iPad Pro in May 2024. Over the past year, the company has gradually transitioned its product lineup to the M4 chip, with the MacBook Pro, Mac Mini, and iMac now featuring M4 chips or their Pro and Max variants.