Tech

Azar has facilitated over 100 billion video chats with its app, which randomly connects strangers around the globe. But until recently, the Seoul-based app — which shares a parent company, Match, with Tinder, Hinge, and OkCupid — hasn’t been available in the U.S. The U.S. market could be tough to …

DNA and genetic testing firm 23andMe is in turmoil following a data breach last year and its ongoing financial decline. The once-pioneering giant now faces an uncertain future amid efforts to take the company private, intensifying concerns about what might happen to the genetic data of 23andMe’s some 15 million …

As a part of TechCrunch’s ongoing Women in AI series, which seeks to give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch interviewed Dr. Rebecca Portnoff, who is vice president of data science at the nonprofit Thorn, which builds tech to protect …

Midjourney is planning to release an upgraded web tool that’ll let users edit any uploaded images from the web using Midjourney’s generative AI. The upgraded tool, which Midjourney CEO David Holtz said will be released “early next week,” will also allow users to retexture objects in images to “repaint” their …

This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The …

Penguin Random House, the trade publisher, is adding language to the copyright pages of its books to prohibit the use of those books to train AI. The Bookseller reports that new books and reprints of older titles from the publisher will now include the statement, “No part of this book …

Toyota-backed autonomous vehicle company Pony AI has joined the list of Chinese firms going public on the U.S. stock market after a multi-year ban from Beijing on offshore capital raising.  Zeekr, a luxury Chinese electric vehicle startup, debuted on the New York Stock Exchange in May, and WeRide, another AV …

Welcome back to Week in Review. This week, we’re diving into the recent layoffs at Meta; the fallout from the battle between WordPress and WP Engine; and whether Cybertrucks are simply too big to exist in Europe. Let’s get into it. Multiple teams at Meta were hit by layoffs this …

Mira Murati, the OpenAI CTO who announced her departure last month, is raising VC funding for a new AI startup, according to Reuters. This startup will reportedly focus on building AI products based on proprietary models and could raise more than $100 million in this round. At the time of …

Drone-maker DJI filed a lawsuit Friday against the US Department of Defense over its inclusion on a DoD list of “Chinese military companies.” A DJI spokesperson said the company filed the suit after “attempting to engage with the DoD for more than sixteen months” and deciding “it had no alternative …