Apple hides your email address from apps and websites, but not the police
Apple provided federal officials with the true identities of at least two customers who used one of the company’s privacy features designed to hide email addresses from apps and websites. “Hide My Email” is a feature that allows paying Apple iCloud+ customers to generate an anonymous email address and forward messages to their personal private […]
Mantis Biotech is creating a “digital twin” of humans to help solve medical data availability issues
Large language models trained on massive datasets can accelerate genomics research, streamline clinical documentation, improve real-time diagnostics, support clinical decision-making, accelerate drug discovery, and even generate synthetic data to advance experiments. But their promises to transform biomedical research often run into bottlenecks. Beyond the structured data that healthcare relies on, these models struggle in edge […]
AI chip startup Rebellions raises $400 million in pre-IPO round at $2.3 billion valuation
Fresh off a successful Series C funding round in November, South Korean fabless AI chip startup Rebellions has raised an additional $400 million. The capital injection comes ahead of an IPO scheduled for later this year and was led by Mirae Asset Financial Group and Korea National Growth Fund. This also comes as the company […]
Qodo raises $70M for code verification as AI coding scales
AI coding tools generate billions of lines of code each month, creating a new bottleneck in ensuring software works as intended. Qodo, a startup that develops AI agents for code review, testing, and governance, is betting that validation will define the next stage of software development. The New York-based startup has raised $70 million in […]
StarCloud raises $170 million Series A to build data centers in space
StarCloud’s latest funding round values the space computing company at $1.1 billion, making it one of the first startups to reach unicorn status after graduating from Y Combinator. The company’s Series A, which closed 17 months after its Demo Day presentation, was led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures. This is another sign of interest in […]
Pixel 10a has no camera protrusion, which is great
For years now, smartphone manufacturers have been increasing the size of their devices’ camera protrusions in an effort to improve their cameras. Even if such a design improves camera performance, it can sometimes introduce usability issues. With the Pixel 10a, Google has taken a new approach by completely removing the camera protrusion and creating a […]
‘Project Hail Mary’ becomes Amazon MGM’s biggest box office success
Amazon’s bet on “Project Hail Mary” paid off, with the film recently surpassing “Creed III” to become the company’s highest-grossing movie ever. And it’s a big gamble, with a reported budget of around $200 million. That’s a lot of money for any movie, but especially for sequels or movies that aren’t part of an existing […]
Sora shutdown could be a reality check moment for AI video
OpenAI announced this week that it is shutting down its Sora app and associated video model, just six months after the app’s launch. On the latest episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed what this decision means for OpenAI and the industry as a whole. This move seems to be […]
SXSW returns as top networking and ideas festival for founders and venture capitalists
The atmosphere was different at this year’s SXSW, the annual March festival where technology and pop culture meet in Austin. It reminded me of SXSW in 2019, when people packed downtown and snaked lines from local ventures. Participants said it was the same this year, but a friend who lives locally and has attended many […]
Bluesky tackles AI with Attie, an app that creates custom feeds
Bluesky’s team built another app. This time, it’s not a social network, but an AI assistant that can design its own algorithms, create custom feeds, and one day even vibecode its own apps. At last weekend’s Atmosphere conference, former Bluesky CEO and current Chief Innovation Officer Jay Graber and Bluesky CTO Paul Frazee first announced […]