Author: Jason

  • Biden administration adds 14 additional Chinese firms to trade blacklist

    Days after pushing for sweeping AI chip export restriction, the Biden administration has added an additional 14 Chinese companies to its restricted trade list. This brings the full list up to 25 names, according to reporting from The Associate Press. Sophgo is, perhaps, the highest profile addition. An entity of Bitmain, the firm sparked international… Read more

  • How to stream Donald Trump’s Inauguration Day 2025

    Donald Trump will take the presidential oath of office on Monday in front of the Capitol building in Washington, D.C., once again. The event takes place at noon ET and is expected to attract considerable attention from both supporters and opponents. How to stream Trump’s inauguration You can watch the inauguration live with cable or… Read more

  • AI researcher François Chollet founds a new AI lab focused on AGI

    François Chollet, an influential AI researcher, is launching a new startup that aims to build frontier AI systems with novel designs. The startup, Ndea, will consist of an AI research and science lab. It’s looking to “develop and operationalize” AGI. AGI, which stands for “artificial general intelligence,” typically refers to AI that can perform any… Read more

  • Trump’s DOT pick wants EV owners to pay to use roads

    Sean Duffy, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to head the U.S. Department of Transportation, thinks owners of electric vehicles should pay to use roads.  “How to do that, I think, is a little more challenging,” Duffy said at his confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Commerce Committee.  The former Republican lawmaker is correct that it would… Read more

  • This Week in AI: Will Biden’s AI actions survive the Trump era?

    Hiya, folks, welcome to TechCrunch’s regular AI newsletter. If you want this in your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. This week was something of a swan song for the Biden administration. On Monday, the White House announced sweeping new restrictions on exporting AI chips — restrictions that tech giants, including Nvidia, loudly criticized. (Nvidia’s business… Read more

  • Bluesky is getting its own photo-sharing app, Flashes

    More good news for those looking to exit Meta’s social app ecosystem in favor of a more open alternative: An independent developer is building a photo-sharing app for Bluesky called Flashes. The soon-to-launch app is powered by the same technology that underpins Bluesky, the AT Protocol, and has been built using code from the developer’s… Read more

  • Google inks deal with The Associated Press to bring more real-time info to Gemini

    In a bid to make its Gemini chatbot app more of one-stop shop, Google says it’s working with The Associated Press to build “a feed of real-time information” in Gemini. Jaffer Zaidi, Google’s VP of global news partnerships, said that the goal is to “further enhance the usefulness of results” in the Gemini experience. “As… Read more

  • Google raises the price of Workspace plans, includes its AI features for free

    Google announced on Wednesday that all AI features in Gmail, Docs, Sheets, and Meet are now available to Workspace customers at no extra charge, though the plan will see a $2 per month increase per user.  This change simplifies access to Workplace AI tools, including email summaries, automated note-taking, chatting with the Gemini bot, and… Read more

  • Colossal Biosciences raises $200M at $10.2B valuation to bring back woolly mammoths

    Colossal Biosciences wants to bring back the woolly mammoth and has raised $200 million at a $10.2 billion valuation to do it. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Read more

  • As Gen Z job applicants balloon, companies are turning to AI agent recruiters

    According to some of the latest statistics, employers are swamped by job applications. In the UK alone, employers running graduate training schemes received an average of 140 applications for each job in 2024, 59 per cent more than in 2023, according to the Institute of Student Employers. And despite some trepidations amongst a few recruiters,… Read more