Bill Gurley and Jack Altman back Pursuit, a startup that helps companies sell to governments
Mike Vicic grew up in Michigan. His family dedicated their lives to public service, he recalls. His parents were teachers, his uncle was in the FBI, and both of his grandparents served in the Army. “Growing up, public service was always a really great way to spend your life and career,” he told TechCrunch. “I […]
Uber is now entering the hotel business thanks to AI
Uber customers in the US can now book hotels directly through the app. It’s one of several new features announced Wednesday that go far beyond the company’s original ride-hailing purpose and penetrate even deeper into users’ lives. Uber announced a new hotel booking feature Wednesday at its annual product-focused GoGet event in New York City. […]
Apple loses bid to suspend App Store fee changes; lawsuit goes to Supreme Court
Epic Games has scored another procedural victory in its battle with Apple over App Store fees, as the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals granted the Fortnite maker’s latest motion. The decision means that for now, Apple must continue to allow developers to link to external payment options within their apps without charging a fee […]
Earth AI vertically integrates critical mineral exploration
A model is only as good as its data. For Roman Teslyuk, the data wasn’t retrieving fast enough. “I hate delays,” Earth AI founder and CEO Teslyuk told TechCrunch. For the past few years, Earth AI has been searching for important minerals like copper, platinum and palladium in parts of Australia where no one thought […]
Meet Shapes, an app that brings humans and AI into the same group chat
Shapes, an app where humans and AI characters chat in shared group conversations, is emerging from stealth with $8 million in seed funding. Consider Discord. However, there are AI characters alongside humans. Shapes was founded in 2022 and has over 400,000 monthly active users. The app’s founders, Anushk Mittal and Nouri Dhingra, believe Shapes can […]
Divine, the Jack Dorsey-backed Vine reboot, is now available to the public
A new project that brings back Vine’s 6-second loop videos is now available for download on the App Store and Google Play. This Vine reboot is called Divine and will provide access to an archive of approximately 500,000 Vine videos restored from the original service’s backups and allow creators to post new Vines again. Divine […]
Colby Adcock’s Scout AI raises $100 million to train models for war. we visited the boot camp
At a U.S. military base in central California, a four-seater all-terrain vehicle roams a hillside path. This is training, but not for the people in the vehicle. An effort to train AI models to enter conflict zones. The autonomous military ATV is operated by Scout AI, a startup founded in 2024 by Colby Adcock and […]
Google expands access to Pentagon AI after Anthropic rejection
According to multiple reports, Google has given the U.S. Department of Defense access to its AI for sensitive networks, allowing virtually all lawful uses. The deal follows Anthropic’s public stance against the Trump administration after the model maker refused to give the same terms to the Pentagon. The Pentagon wanted unrestricted use of AI, but […]
Report says Paragon is not cooperating with Italian authorities investigating spyware attack
Last year, WhatsApp and Apple notified several people in Italy, including journalists and activists, that they had been targeted by government spyware. In particular, WhatsApp accused Israeli-American surveillance technology maker Paragon Solutions of providing technology to a hacking campaign that targeted around 90 people around the world using the spyware Graphite. This notice caused a […]
US Supreme Court appears divided over use of controversial ‘geofence’ search warrants
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in a landmark case that could redefine digital privacy rights for people across the country. The case, Chattry v. United States, focuses on the government’s controversial use of so-called “geofencing” search warrants. Law enforcement and federal investigators use these warrants to force tech companies like Google to hand […]