Category: Uncategorized

  • Microsoft hangs up on Skype: service to shut down May 5, 2025

    After kickstarting the market for making calls over the internet 23 years ago, Skype is closing down. Microsoft, which acquired the messaging and calling app 14 years ago, said it will be retiring it from active duty on May 5 to double down on Teams. Skype users have 10 weeks to decide what they want… Read more

  • Belgium investigating alleged cyberattack on intelligence agency by China-linked hackers

    The hackers reportedly exploited a flaw in US cybersecurity firm Barracuda’s software to access VSSE’s email server © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Read more

  • OpenAI’s Sora is now available in the EU, UK

    OpenAI is finally making its video generation model, Sora, available to users in the European Union, the U.K., Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland. The company said on Friday that ChatGPT Plus and Pro subscribers in these regions will be able to create videos using the model. The AI startup first unveiled Sora in February 2024,… Read more

  • Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia takes wraps off his first assignment for DOGE

    Almost two weeks after The New York Times reported that Airbnb co-founder Joe Gebbia had joined Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency,” Gebbia clarified his role on Thursday, announcing on X that as a starting point, he’ll be leveraging his design expertise as part of an effort to overhaul the government’s notoriously slow, paper-heavy retirement… Read more

  • Sequoia’s Roelof Botha warns ‘chumps’ not to buy into SPVs

    Sequoia’s Roelof Botha apparently sees another greed cycle brewing in venture capital where the least sophisticated investors could get hurt. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Read more

  • SEC says meme coins are not securities

    The Securities and Exchange Commission issued guidance on Thursday saying it does not view most meme coins, which are crypto tokens that originated from memes, as securities under United States federal law. As a result, the SEC says it does not believe people who purchase or hold meme coins are protected by federal securities law,… Read more

  • Meta is reportedly planning a standalone AI chatbot app

    Meta reportedly plans to release a standalone app for its AI assistant, Meta AI, in a bid to better compete with AI-powered chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini. According to CNBC, Meta could launch a standalone Meta AI app as soon as the company’s next fiscal quarter (April-June). Meta AI is currently only available… Read more

  • Snowflake grows startup accelerator with $200M in new capital

    Snowflake plans to expand its startup accelerator with $200 million in additional commitments, the tech giant that specializes in cloud-based data storage said Thursday. The new injection of capital follows a string of activity by Snowflake over the past several months that illustrates that company’s growth ambitions. The Snowflake Startup Accelerator, formerly known as the… Read more

  • Meta fires around 20 employees for leaking confidential information

    Meta has fired “roughly” 20 employees for leaking confidential information, The Verge reports. “We tell employees when they join the company, and we offer periodic reminders, that it is against our policies to leak internal information, no matter the intent,” Meta told the publication. “We recently conducted an investigation that resulted in roughly 20 employees… Read more

  • Waymo has doubled its weekly robotaxi rides in less than a year

    Waymo is logging more than 200,000 paid robotaxi rides every week, according to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, who shared the stat about the tech giant’s subsidiary on X. Waymo commercially operates robotaxis in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Phoenix. The 200,000-weekly trips milestone is notable for a company that was providing only 10,000 rides a… Read more