We’re thrilled by the overwhelming response to our call for speakers at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. After a careful selection process, we’ve narrowed it down to 20 impressive finalists—10 breakout sessions and 10 roundtables. Now it’s your turn to help shape the agenda. Audience Choice voting […]

We were thrilled by the remarkable interest in speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, taking place October 27–29 at Moscone West in San Francisco. After an in-depth review process, we’ve selected 20 exceptional finalists—10 for breakout sessions and 10 for roundtables. Now, we’re putting the final decision in your hands. Audience Choice voting is open through […]

On November 1, more than 19,000 members of the Unity community joined us from around the world, both virtually and in-person, for a full day of gamedev inspiration, education, and connection. Following the keynote, attendees were able to experience fellow creators’ projects, participate in expert-led sessions, network with peers, and even attend a first-of-its-kind, multiplatform virtual concert.With over 20 streamed sessions throughout the day and five unique local experiences, here is a roundup of notable highlights from Unite 2022.Senior Machine Learning Developer Florent Bocquelet expanded on a tool and Real-Time Live! Audience Choice Award-winning project that first debuted this summer at SIGGRAPH 2022. The session “Authoring character poses with AI” walked attendees through how the technology – which is not yet available – is being designed to work in the Editor to enable easier creation of natural-looking poses.Benoit Gagnon, a senior software developer, modeled ways for users to handle persistent data in a multiplayer context during the session “Persistent worlds: Managing player and world state.” The technical deep dive also covered PlayerPrefs, CloudSave, and general-purpose DBs, and offered a glimpse at what’s next from Unity Gaming Services.Of the more than 20 virtual sessions, nine featured leading minds from creators like you who use Unity day in and day out to optimize your projects, including:Renaud Forestié, director and Unity Asset Store publisher at More MountainsNic Gomez, senior games designer at AltaFreya Holmér, studio founderBen Hopkins, expert graphics engineer at Owlchemy LabsRohan Jadav, platform engineer at SuperGamingBrandon Jahner, CTO at MalokaManesh Mistry, lead programmer at ustwo GamesErick Passos, SDK lead developer at Photon EngineWe also caught up with creators from Triangle Factory, Vinci Games, and Obsidian Entertainment during the keynote session.Get the inside scoop on the Unite 2022 experiences hosted in five unique locations at Unity offices around the world.After networking and breakfast, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Create Solutions Marc Whitten welcomed the Austin crowd before the global keynote stream. For the rest of the day, attendees had the chance to check out exclusive in-person sessions, global virtual streams, and panels, and chat live with experts at the “Ask the Experts” booth. The day concluded with a fireside chat between Marc Whitten and Jeff Hanks, director of marketing for industries.Kicking off with breakfast burritos, Unity Senior Vice President Peter Moore welcomed a packed crowd at the Brighton office for the Unite 2022 keynote stream. The day continued with enthusiasm as attendees filled rooms to watch session streams, live panels, and roundtable discussions. Topics exclusive to Brighton ranged from understanding your audience from a scientific perspective to how Unity identifies and fixes bugs. Brighton also featured a very popular iiRcade machine and four “Studio Spotlights” featuring local studios who talked about their latest games and how Unity helped bring each to life.At yet another Unity office, Copenhagen guests were also welcomed with breakfast and an introduction from Senior Director of Product Management Andrew Bowell. In addition to its own iiRcade console and chances to check out the Made with Unity games featured in the keynote – Cult of the Lamb, Turbo Golf Racing, and Hyper Dash – attendees were treated to exclusive panel discussions as well as a fireside chat between Head of Marketing Strategy, Analytics, and Insights Deborah-Anna Reznek and Senior Vice President of AI Danny Lange.Despite a rainy day, Montreal welcomed a solid mix of students and teams from mid- to large-sized studios. Luc Barthelet, senior vice president of technology, kicked off the day. Following the keynote stream, participants had their choice of roundtables, panels, and presentations to attend. The Montreal office also hosted 24 Unity Insiders from around the world, including Ireland, the Netherlands, Brighton, Portugal, Vancouver, and Toronto. This group participated in a VIP experience that featured exclusive tracks catered to their areas of interest.The San Francisco experience had a great turnout and offered a choice of three different tracks for attendees, which included breakout focus groups, roundtables with Unity experts, and panel discussions. One such session featured Clive Downie, senior vice president and general manager for Consumer, as he moderated an interactive discussion with Ingrid Lestiyo, senior vice president and general manager for Operate Solutions, and the creators of Ramen VR (pictured below) amid a packed room. Another standout session was CEO John Riccitiello’s fireside chat with indie game developer Thomas Brush. To cap off the memorable day, attendees continued the festivities with a happy hour.It was so great to connect with our Unity community at a Unite event again (for the first time since 2020). Please continue to join us on our journey toward making the world a better place with more creators: connect with us through the forums, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitch. And keep your eyes peeled in the coming months for on-demand session recordings so you can check out anything you missed.

Here’s the deal: Only 4 days left to save up to $900 on your TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 ticket — and an additional 90% off for your +1. From October 27–29, San Francisco’s Moscone West transforms into the epicenter of tech innovation as 10,000 tech, startup, and VC leaders gather for the 20th anniversary of TechCrunch Disrupt — celebrating two decades of championing startups, driving innovation, and fueling growth across the ecosystem. The clock’s ticking. Lock in your ticket here before the price jumps on May 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. What makes the 20th TechCrunch Disrupt unmissable Disrupt isn’t just a conference — it’s a catalyst. It’s where big ideas meet unexpected moments. In the middle of thousands of ambitious minds, it’s the personal connections that leave a lasting mark. A conversation that sparks a pivot. A speaker who reframes your thinking. A stranger who becomes your next collaborator. This is where momentum starts. Real talk, real insight These tech leaders didn’t just build the future — they’re here to show you how. Six stages packed with the insight and inspiration you need. With topics ranging from AI and space to startup launches, IPOs, and next-gen tech, there’s something for every innovator. Image Credits:Matthias Balk / Getty Images Adam Bain, 01 Advisors Astro Teller, X, The Moonshot Factory David Cramer, Sentry David George, Andreessen Horowitz Gale Wilkinson, VITALIZE Venture Capital Nikola Todorovic, Wonder Dynamics, an Autodesk Company Nirav Tolia, Nextdoor Ryan Petersen, Flexport Sangeen Zeb, GV (Google Ventures) Zeya Yang, IVP See the growing speaker lineup You’ll hear from technologists on the edge of AI breakthroughs. Investors who don’t just fund trends but shape them. Startup founders who somehow found the clarity to bet everything on a problem no one else thought to solve. SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 20: Audience members watch panels during TechCrunch Disrupt 2022 on October 20, 2022 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Kimberly White/Getty Images for TechCrunch)Image Credits:Kimberly White / Getty Images The Disrupt difference This isn’t a spectator event — it’s three days of full-throttle innovation and real interaction. Techcrunch event Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot for our leading AI industry event with speakers from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Cohere. For a limited time, tickets are just $292 for an entire day of expert talks, workshops, and potent networking. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you’ve built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | June 5 REGISTER NOW Dynamic breakout sessions built for real dialogue with today’s top tech leaders.  Interactive, deep-dive roundtables that go beyond the surface.  The energetic Startup Battlefield, our live global pitch competition where the world’s most promising early-stage startups compete for a $100,000 equity-free prize — and get real-time feedback from top VCs. Ready to compete? Submit your application before June 9. Cutting-edge demos and next-gen tech from around the world, all under one roof in our immersive Expo Hall. Startups: want in? Secure your table here before your competitor does. What happens at Disrupt isn’t just seen — it’s felt. Image Credits:Eric Slomonson, The Photo Group Lock in your savings before May 25 Now’s the moment to act. Early Bird pricing saves you up to $900 on your pass. Want to bring a colleague, cofounder, or friend? You can grab a second ticket at 90% off. These savings expire on May 25 at 11:59 p.m. PT. Secure your spot today and be a part of the Disrupt experience.

Big Tech’s appetite for energy is growing rapidly as adoption of AI accelerates. But just how much energy does even a single AI query use? And what does it mean for the climate? Hear from MIT Technology Review editor in chief Mat Honan, senior climate reporter Casey Crownhart, and AI reporter James O’Donnell as they explore AI’s energy demands now and in the future. Speakers: Mat Honan, editor in chief, Casey Crownhart, climate reporter, and James O’Donnell, AI reporter. Related Coverage: Power Hungry: AI and our energy future We did the math on AI’s energy footprint. Here’s the story you haven’t heard. Everything you need to know about estimating AI’s energy and emissions burden These four charts sum up the state of AI and energy

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. By putting AI into everything, Google wants to make it invisible If you want to know where AI is headed, this year’s Google I/O has you covered. The company’s annual showcase of next-gen products, which kicked off yesterday, has all of the pomp and pizzazz, the sizzle reels and celebrity walk-ons, that you’d expect from a multimillion dollar marketing event.But it also shows us just how fast this still-experimental technology is being subsumed into a line-up designed to sell phones and subscription tiers. Never before have I seen this thing we call artificial intelligence appear so normal. Read the full story. —Will Douglas Heaven AI could keep us dependent on natural gas for decades to come Last December, Meta announced plans to build a massive $10 billion data center for training its artificial intelligence models in rural northeast Louisiana. Stretching for more than a mile, it will be Meta’s largest in the world, and it will have an enormous appetite for electricity.To power the data center, a Meta contractor called Entergy will build three large natural-gas power plants with a total capacity of 2.3 gigawatts. It’ll also upgrade the grid to accommodate the huge jump in anticipated demand.The choice of natural gas as the go-to solution to meet the growing demand for power from AI is not unique to Louisiana. The fossil fuel is already the country’s chief source of electricity generation, and large natural-gas plants are being built around the country to feed electricity to new and planned AI data centers. That’s all but wiping out any prospect that the US will wean itself off natural gas anytime soon. Read the full story. —David Rotman This story is part of Power Hungry: AI and our energy future—our new series shining a light on AI’s energy usage. Check out the rest of the package here. Take a new look at AI’s energy use Big Tech’s appetite for energy is growing rapidly as adoption of AI accelerates. But just how much energy does a single AI query use? And what does it mean for the climate? Join editor in chief Mat Honan, senior climate reporter Casey Crownhart, and AI reporter James O’Donnell at 1.30pm ET today for a subscriber-only Roundtables conversation digging into our new package of stories about AI’s energy demands now and in the future. Register here. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 Democrats are on the hunt for a digital thought leaderThey’re (finally) realizing how far they’re lagging behind their opponents’ online efforts these days. (NYT $) + AI’s impact on elections is being overblown. (MIT Technology Review) 2 At least two newspapers printed an AI-generated summer reading list The only problem is, some of the books don’t actually exist. (404 Media)+ It’s a useful reminder to never take anything chatbots produce as fact. (Axios)+ Even regional newspapers aren’t safe from AI slop. (The Atlantic $)+ Why AI hallucinates, and why we can’t stop it. (MIT Technology Review)3 The Earth may already be too hot to maintain polar ice sheetsEven if it stays at current temperature levels. (WP $)+ Why climate researchers are taking the temperature of mountain snow. (MIT Technology Review) 4 How New York City’s child abuse algorithm flags families for investigationCritics believe it’s open to racial bias. (The Markup) 5 Here’s what it’s like to interview for a job at DOGE  The hiring process is remarkably fast, for a government entity. (Wired $)+ The department reportedly tried to enter the US government’s publishing operation. (Politico)+ DOGE’s tech takeover threatens the safety and stability of our critical data. (MIT Technology Review) 6 Fortnite has finally returned to Apple’s App StoreAfter five years and a lengthy legal battle. (NYT $)+ The recent ruling has major implications for the iOS economy. (Reuters) 7 Most chatbots can be tricked into dispensing dangerous informationFrom hacking advice, to describing how to make drugs. (The Guardian)+ Anthropic has a new way to protect large language models against jailbreaks. (MIT Technology Review) 8 Young Indonesians are being trafficked to scam farmsFraudulent job ads on Telegram and Facebook lure them into a life of crime. (Rest of World)+ Inside a romance scam compound—and how people get tricked into being there. (MIT Technology Review) 9  Inside the building in China where stolen western iPhones are stripped and soldYou’ll find a buyer for every single component inside the Feiyang Times. (FT $) 10 Amazon has started randomly refunding customers for old purchasesSome orders were placed as far back as 2018. (Bloomberg $) Quote of the day “Anybody who’s a computer scientist should not be retired right now. They should be working on AI.” —Google cofounder Sergey Brin says people with the right technical skills should copy him and quit being retired, TechCrunch reports. One more thing This fuel plant will use agricultural waste to combat climate changeA startup called Mote plans to build a new type of fuel-producing plant in California’s fertile Central Valley that would, if it works as hoped, continually capture and bury carbon dioxide.It’s among a growing number of efforts to commercialize a concept first proposed two decades ago as a means of combating climate change, known as bioenergy with carbon capture and sequestration, or BECCS.It’s an ambitious plan. However, there are serious challenges to doing BECCS affordably and in ways that reliably suck down significant levels of carbon dioxide. Read the full story. —James Temple We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.) + These creepy little Labubu toys are everywhere. But why?+ Happy 25th birthday to one of London’s finest institutions, the Tate Modern gallery.+ Why the Mission Impossible film franchise just won’t die.+ Hummingbirds can fly backwards!? Wow.

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. This baby boy was treated with the first personalized gene-editing drug Doctors say they constructed a bespoke gene-editing treatment in less than seven months and used it to treat a baby with a deadly metabolic condition. The rapid-fire attempt to rewrite the child’s DNA marks the first time gene editing has been tailored to treat a single individual.The baby who was treated, Kyle “KJ” Muldoon Jr., suffers from a rare metabolic condition caused by a particularly unusual gene misspelling. Researchers say their attempt to correct the error demonstrates the high level of precision new types of gene editors offer. The project also highlights what some experts are calling a growing crisis in gene-editing technology. That’s because even though the technology could cure thousands of genetic conditions, most are so rare that companies could never recoup the costs of developing a treatment for them. Read the full story.—Antonio Regalado Access to experimental medical treatments is expanding across the US —Jessica Hamzelou A couple of weeks ago I was in Washington, DC, for a gathering of scientists, policymakers, and longevity enthusiasts. They had come together to discuss ways to speed along the development of drugs and other treatments that might extend the human lifespan. One approach that came up was to simply make experimental drugs more easily accessible. Now, the state of Montana has passed a new bill that sets out exactly how clinics can sell experimental, unproven treatments in the state to anyone who wants them. The passing of the bill could make Montana something of a US hub for experimental treatments. But it represents a wider trend: the creep of Right to Try across the US. And a potentially dangerous departure from evidence-based medicine. Read the full story. This article first appeared in The Checkup, MIT Technology Review’s weekly biotech newsletter. To receive it in your inbox every Thursday, and read articles like this first, sign up here. Take a new look at AI’s energy use Big Tech’s appetite for energy is growing rapidly as adoption of AI accelerates. But just how much energy does even a single AI query use? And what does it mean for the climate?Join editor in chief Mat Honan, senior climate reporter Casey Crownhart, and AI reporter James O’Donnell at 1.30pm ET on Wednesday May 21 for a subscriber-only Roundtables conversation exploring AI’s energy demands now and in the future. Register here. The must-reads I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology. 1 xAI has blamed Grok’s white genocide fixation on an ‘unauthorized modification’Made by an unnamed employee at 3.15am. (TechCrunch)+ The topic is one the far-right comes back to again and again. (The Atlantic $)+ Memphis residents are struggling to live alongside xAI’s supercomputer. (CNBC) 2 Meta has delayed the launch of its next flagship AI modelIts engineers are struggling to improve its Behemoth LLM enough. (WSJ $)  3 Elon Musk is tapping up friends and allies for federal jobsIt’s creating an unprecedented web of potential conflicts of interests. (WSJ $)+ Musk is posting on X less than he used to. (Semafor) 4 The US is slashing funding for scientific researchSuch projects produced GPS, LASIK eye surgery, and CAPTCHAs. (NYT $)+ US tech visa applicants are under seriously heavy scrutiny. (Wired $)+ The foundations of America’s prosperity are being dismantled. (MIT Technology Review)5 Big Tech wants its AI agents to remember everything about you They’re focusing on improving chatbots’ memory—but critics are worried. (FT $)+ AI agents can spontaneously develop human-like behavior. (The Guardian)+ Generative AI can turn your most precious memories into photos that never existed. (MIT Technology Review) 6 People keep making anti-DEI modifications for The Sims 4And the gamemaker EA’s attempts to stamp them out aren’t working. (Wired $) 7 This chatbot promises to help you get over your ex Closure creates an AI version of ex-partners for users to vent their frustrations at. (404 Media)+ The AI relationship revolution is already here. (MIT Technology Review) 8 How this AI song became a viral megahit in JapanYAJU&U is completely inescapable, and totally nonsensical. (Pitchfork)+ AI is coming for music, too. (MIT Technology Review) 9 Your future overseas trip could be by zeppelinIf these startups get their way. (WP $)+ Welcome to the big blimp boom. (MIT Technology Review) 10 Are you a ‘dry texter’? It’s a conflict-averse teen’s worst nightmare. (Vox) Quote of the day “It’s OK to be Chinese overseas.” —Chris Pereira, the CEO of iMpact, a communications firm advising Chinese companies expanding abroad, tells Rest of World that DeepSeek has given Chinese startups the confidence not to hide their origins. One more thingWe’ve never understood how hunger works. That might be about to change. When you’re starving, hunger is like a demon. It awakens the most ancient and primitive parts of the brain, then commandeers other neural machinery to do its bidding until it gets what it wants. Although scientists have had some success in stimulating hunger in mice, we still don’t really understand how the impulse to eat works. Now, some experts are following known parts of the neural hunger circuits into uncharted parts of the brain to try and find out. Their work could shed new light on the factors that have caused the number of overweight adults worldwide to skyrocket in recent years. And it could also help solve the mysteries around how and why a new class of weight-loss drugs seems to work so well. Read the full story. —Adam Piore We can still have nice things A place for comfort, fun and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line or skeet ’em at me.)+ Who knew—Harvard Law School’s Magna Carta may be the real deal after all.+ Early relatives of reptiles might have walked the Earth much earlier than we realised.+ New York University’s MFA Students are a talented bunch.+ The Raines sandwich sounds unspeakably awful