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Ford announced Wednesday at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show that it is developing an AI assistant that will debut in its smartphone app before expanding to its vehicles in 2027. The company is also previewing the next generation of its BlueCruise advanced driver assistance system, which will be cheaper to manufacture and more capable, ultimately enabling eye-off driving in 2028. Wednesday’s announcement was one of the only announcements from a major automaker at CES, marking a sharp reversal from the late 2010s when they dominated the show. And it wasn’t created at a fancy keynote event. Rather, Ford discussed the…
After many years leading General Catalyst’s seed strategy, Niko Bonatsos has left the company. Bonatsos, known for backing IPO-hopped Discord and $10 billion startup Mercor, told TechCrunch he plans to start a new early-stage VC firm with “friends.” Mr. Bonatsos is the latest investor to leave General Catalyst, which recently expanded beyond the traditional venture model. In recent years, General Catalyst has announced an asset management business, a strategy focused on PE-style AI rollups, and a Customer Value Fund (CVF) that provides non-dilutive financing secured by recurring revenue to late-stage startups. Other recent departures from General Catalyst include Deep Nishar…
Over the past few days, several posts on LinkedIn and Twitter/X have gone viral after Artisan AI, one of San Francisco’s most talked-about AI companies, suddenly disappeared from LinkedIn. The company’s LinkedIn page, each employee’s profile, and posts from executives all displayed the message “This post cannot be viewed.” Artisan CEO Jaspar Carmichael-Jack confirmed to TechCrunch that the startup had been banned from the site. However, after working with LinkedIn over the past two weeks to address the social network’s concerns, Artisan is now back. “Every startup always has some problem that comes back to haunt them. [from things] They’re…
OpenAI announced ChatGPT Health on Wednesday, saying the company will provide a dedicated space for users to have conversations with ChatGPT about their health. People are already using ChatGPT to ask questions about medical issues. According to OpenAI, more than 230 million people ask health and wellness questions on the platform every week. However, the ChatGPT Health product separates these conversations from other chats. That way, your health won’t come up in a standard conversation with ChatGPT. If people start chatting about their health outside of the health section, the AI aims to prompt them to switch to that section.…
Lux Capital, a 25-year-old VC firm known for investing in cutting-edge science and technology, has closed its ninth fund at $1.5 billion, the largest in its history. It’s not hard to see why limited partners continue to flock to Luxe, even though 2025 marked the lowest number of new VC funds raised in the U.S. in a decade, according to PitchBook. The company has been investing in defense technology for years before geopolitical changes made the sector one of the most desirable investment categories. Lux was a seed-stage investor in Anduril, which was last valued at $30.5 billion, and Applied…
Archaeologists have discovered a rare 2,000-year-old war trumpet in England that may have been used in Queen Boudica’s war against Rome. The war trumpets, also known as carnics, were part of metal artefacts discovered in west Norfolk last year ahead of house construction.The treasure was announced on Wednesday (January 7) by Preconstruct Archeology, the company that led the initial excavation, and Historic England, the organization coordinating the research and conservation efforts.Relics in the treasury include a nearly completed war trumpet with an animal head. A boar’s head military flag, or decorated pole identifying a group of soldiers. 5 shield bosses,…
Several 60,000-year-old arrowheads excavated from a rock cave in South Africa are the world’s oldest evidence of the existence of poisonous weapons, a new study has found.This discovery postpones confirmation of the use of poisonous weapons by hunter-gatherers by more than 50,000 years.In a new study, scientists chemically analyzed the tips of 10 arrows discovered decades ago in the rock shelter of Umhlatuzana. The results showed that five of the bottles still contained traces of the slow-acting poison. These substances, likely derived from a species of tumbleweed, would have weakened the intended prey and greatly reduced the time and energy…
Scientists have announced that they may have extracted Leonardo da Vinci’s DNA from a Renaissance painting for the first time.Trace DNA embedded in a red chalk sketch called “Saint Son”, which some claim was created by da Vinci, shows similarities to genetic material recovered from letters written in the 1400s by Frosino di ser Giovanni da Vinci, a cousin of Leonardo da Vinci’s grandfather Antonio da Vinci.Specifically, the painting and letter contain Y-chromosome sequences that match a haplogroup, or genetic lineage, of a common ancestor in Tuscany, where Leonardo da Vinci was born. The researchers published their findings on the…
Six months after first setting its sights on space, NASA’s SPHEREx spacecraft has unveiled its first complete cosmic all-sky mosaic.The first of at least four such maps expected from SPHEREx, the new map, which combines more than 100 individual exposures, promises to reveal unprecedented night sky detail.”It’s incredible that SPHEREx has collected so much information in just six months,” Sean Domagal Goldman, acting director of the Astrophysics Division at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement. “This information is especially valuable when used in conjunction with data from other missions to better understand the universe.” you may like “Every…
January 7, 2026Ravi LakshmananCybercrime/Software Security A cybercriminal organization known as Black Cat is believed to be involved in search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning campaigns that use fraudulent sites promoting popular software to trick users into downloading backdoors that can steal sensitive data. According to a report published by the China National Computer Network Emergency Response Technology Team/Coordination Center (CNCERT/CC) and Beijing Weiwu Online (also known as ThreatBook), the operation is strategically designed to push fake sites to the top of search results on search engines such as Microsoft Bing, specifically targeting users looking for programs such as Google Chrome, Notepad++,…