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Replit CEO on Cursor Deal, Apple Rivalry, and Future Plans
At TechCrunch's sold-out StrictlyVC event in San Francisco on Thursday night, we covered a lot of ground in a short time, beginning with the question everyone in the industry is asking right now: in a world where rival Cursor is reportedly in talks to be acquired by SpaceX for $60 billion, is Replit also bound to sell?
Meta Acquires Assured Robot Intelligence for AI Advancements
Meta bought humanoid startup Assured Robot Intelligence to beef up its AI models for robots, the company said.
Uber's Plan to Turn Drivers into Self-Driving Sensors
Praveen Neppalli Naga, Uber's chief technology officer, revealed the plan in an interview at TechCrunch's StrictlyVC event in San Francisco on Thursday night, describing it as a natural extension of a nascent program the company announced in late January called AV Labs.
Reddit Search Usage Surges 30% Year-Over-Year
The company saw a 30% year-on-year jump in the number of people using search every week, CEO Steve Huffman said on Thursday.
Ubuntu Services Disrupted by DDoS Attack
A group of hacktivists have claimed responsibility for a distributed denial-of-service attack, which has affected several Ubuntu and Canonical websites, and prevented users from updating the Linux-based operating system.
OpenAI Enhances ChatGPT Security with Yubico Partnership
OpenAI is launching additional opt-in protections for ChatGPT accounts. The new security initiative includes a new partnership with security key provider Yubico.
Faraday Future Pays $7.5M Amid SEC Probe
The perpetually struggling EV company made the payments while being investigated by the SEC. That four-year probe was ultimately closed in March.
OpenAI Restricts Access to GPT-5.5 Cyber for Critical Cyber Defenders
OpenAI will begin rolling out its cybersecurity testing tool, GPT-5.5 Cyber only "to critical cyber defenders" at first.
Hackers Exploit cPanel Bug Used by Millions of Websites
Web hosts are scrambling to fix the bug under active attack by hackers. One company said hackers have been abusing the bug for months.
Rivian Reduces DOE Loan to $4.5B for Georgia Factory
Rivian has reworked its loan deal with the Department of Energy and now expects to borrow $4.5 billion to build its new factory in Georgia, down from the original amount of $6.6 billion.
Legal AI Rivalry: Legora Valued at $5.6B, Harvey Battle Intensifies
The two wildly fast-growing rivals have raised massive sums, pushed into each other's home turf, and now have dueling ad campaigns.
Apple Faces AI-Driven Mac Supply Shortages
Apple said it will be supply-constrained on Mac mini, Studio, and Neo in the next quarter, too.
Anthropic Seeks $900B+ Valuation in Upcoming AI Fundraise
Anthropic is asking investors to submit allocations for the AI company’s latest fundraise within the next 48 hours, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Skio's $105M Exit: AI Fintech Success Story
Subscription billing fintech Skio sold to its competitor Recharge in what was a healthy exit, according to its founder and former CEO.
Apple's Record Sales Amid Chip Shortage Concerns
Cook warned that Apple is facing supply-chain headwinds from RAMageddon that could impact its business.
ChatGPT Images 2.0: A Hit in India for Creative Visuals
Users in India are embracing ChatGPT Images 2.0 for creative, personal visuals — from avatars to cinematic portraits.
Elon Musk Testifies on xAI's Grok Training with OpenAI Models
"Distillation" is a hot topic as frontier labs try to prevent smaller competitors from copying their models.
Instagram's New AI Tool Targets Content Aggregators
The update targets content aggregators that don't post original content and instead simply re-upload others' posts.
Spotify Adds Verified Artist Badges to Combat AI Impersonation
Spotify looks for an identifiable artist presence both on and off platform, like concert dates, merch, and linked social accounts on their artist profile.
Netflix Launches 'Clips' for Vertical Video Discovery
Netflix is redesigning its mobile app and introducing Clips, a vertical video feed intended to help users discover new content by sharing highlights from original Netflix programming.
Meta's AI Tools Now Handle 10 Million Weekly Conversations
Meta said over 8 billion advertisers have used at least one of its GenAI tools
137 Ventures Secures $700M for Growth-Stage Startups
VC firm 137 Ventures has raised over $700 million to back growth-stage startups. Its portfolio includes SpaceX, Anduril, Hadrian.
X Unveils AI-Powered Ad Platform for Revenue Growth
X is rolling out a rebuilt ads platform powered by AI as it works to grow revenue again.
AI Dental Software Fixes Data Exposure Bug
The security bug is now fixed, but the patient who found it said it was challenging to alert the software company about the issue.
Uber Partners with Hertz for Lucid Robotaxi Fleet Management
Hertz is creating a new affiliate company called "Oro Mobility" to provide fleet management solutions "across a range of mobility segments."
Stripe's Link: AI Agents' Secure Digital Wallet
Link lets users connect cards, banks, and subscriptions, then authorize AI agents to spend securely via approval flows.
Salesforce Crowdsources AI Roadmap with Customer Input
Salesforce lets its customers lead its product roadmap with the thinking that if one enterprise customer has a problem, the others likely do too.
TikTok Launches Campus Hub for College Students
The new hub features dedicated college group chats and personalized feeds designed to help students stay connected with their campus communities, even while they’re away for the summer.
BioticsAI Founder on FDA Approval and Healthcare Challenges
BioticsAI CEO Robhy Bustami joined Isabelle Johannessen on Build Mode to discuss how the company has navigated a highly regulated space and kept the team motivated while cutting through all the red tape.
Google's Gemini AI Rolls Out in Millions of Vehicles
Google announced on Thursday that it will begin rolling out Gemini to cars with Google built-in, marking a significant upgrade from the current Google Assistant. The move signals Google’s push to bring more advanced, conversational AI into the driving experience. The announcement follows closely behind news from General Motors, which revealed yesterday that Gemini is […]
Can AI Tool Use During Studies Affect Future Liability?
I graduated from university a couple months back, but have been continuing to use a student version of a coding/design agent that essentially gives me much more features at a significantly cheaper price. If this product launches and is proven to be successful can I be held liable for using this tech in the future and not paying for the full product? I know this situation may be unusual, but it's something that has been top of mind for me.
10 Reasons Selling AI Tools to Developers is Challenging
Nowadays, everyone (including me) wants to sell AI-powered tools, platforms, or products. Few people (including me 6 months ago) have any idea how hard it is to approach and convince technical people for at least 10 reasons: 1 - They're constantly bombarded with messages. 2 - Everyone sells everything, so supply >>> demand. 3 - Extremely high background noise. 4 - They see an AI-generated message from 10km away (they've trolled me several times). 5 - If they have to go through a demo to try the product, they've already closed the tab. 6 - The opinions of devs, who value any glossy slide, count much more. 7 - Product trials are unforgiving; it's like being in court accused of 16 murders. If they find bugs or poor performance at that point, for them the product is broken and the window closes. 8 - They always have a plan B: I'll make it myself. Only 9 - If you don't have a solid track record (or you studied biotech like me), everything is 10x harder. 10 - Like the MasterChef judges, who used to be just chefs and now are atomic hotties, today's CTOs and top devs are stars; literally everyone wants them. It seems easier to scale a dev tool today because there are infinite tools, but in reality it's really tough. On the one hand, you have to earn the trust of technical teams through intros, messages, calls, and events; on the other, you have to scale at the speed of light because you're only six months old. Advice, ideas, scathing comments, insults? Anything goes. \*Not true
AI Tool Comparison: Claude, GPT-4, and Gemini for Article Summarizatio
I've been building a product around AI-powered reading (more on that later) and wanted to share findings on summarization quality across major LLMs. Tested with 50 articles across news, research papers, blog posts, and technical docs: **Claude (Sonnet/Haiku):** \- Best at preserving nuance and avoiding oversimplification \- Strongest at academic content \- Excellent for "explain this without losing the point" **GPT-4:** \- Fastest summaries, often most concise \- Sometimes drops important context \- Good for news, weaker on academic **Gemini:** \- Strongest source citations \- Tends to add information not in the original \- Good for factual but careful with creative content Most surprising finding: **bias detection accuracy**. Claude flagged loaded language and framing in 78% of test articles correctly. GPT 64%. Gemini 51%. Anyone else doing similar comparisons? Would love to hear what you're seeing
AI Calorie Tracker: Dynamic Apple Health Integration for Active Users
Hey everyone, I'm currently in the final stretch of developing my Al calorie tracker (the one that breaks down photos into individual ingredients). One thing I'm obsessed with getting right before the beta launch in 2 weeks is the Apple Health integration. Most apps just show you a static number. I want mine to be dynamic. If you go for a 500kcal run, the app should know and adjust your macro targets for the next meal. My question to the fitness-tech crowd: Do you prefer apps that strictly stick to your base metabolic rate (BMR), or do you want the 'earned' calories from your Apple Watch to be automatically added to your budget? I've seen strong opinions on both sides. I'm also fine-tuning the macro-overflow logic (e.g., saving surplus calories for the weekend). Would love to hear some thoughts from people who actually track daily.
AutoIdeator: Free Open Source Agent Orchestration for Development
[https://github.com/akumaburn/AutoIdeator](https://github.com/akumaburn/AutoIdeator) https://preview.redd.it/rfbgg6e34dyg1.png?width=3809&format=png&auto=webp&s=e436362c48482d09025a394a5e609f67190e6dfa AutoIdeator is an autonomous development system that: 1. Takes a **final goal** — a detailed, multi-sentence description of the intended end result. Describe what the finished project should look like, do, and feel like for the user. **Do not** prescribe implementation steps, phases, milestones, technologies, or task lists — the agents handle planning. The more clearly the desired end state is described, the better convergence will be. 2. Generates improvement ideas via a rotating ensemble of specialized idea agents 3. **Scores and filters ideas** for goal alignment and quality 4. **Critiques ideas constructively** with suggested mitigations 5. **Evaluates strategic alignment** and long-term planning 6. Makes implementation decisions balancing creativity and criticism 7. Implements the plan with parallel coders 8. Reviews, fixes, and commits changes 9. **Runs QA** (build + test verification) 10. **Optimizes slow tests** to keep the suite fast 11. **Verifies goal completion** with 3-step feature inventory, per-feature checks, and auto-remediation 12. **Refactors oversized files** into smaller modules (every other cycle) 13. **Cleans up** temp files and build artifacts 14. Updates project documentation 15. **Records outcomes for learning and deduplication** 16. **Periodically synthesizes synergies** across recent work 17. **Checkpoints state** for pause/resume across restarts 18. Repeats the cycle infinitely until stopped Users can inject suggestions at any time via the Overseer agent, which takes priority over the autonomous idea generation pipeline. Note this system has been tested for some time but only in the dashboard with OpenCode/Claude Code configuration (OpenRouter mode is untested, but I welcome contributions if someone wants to use that mode and notices something is broken).
Elon Musk's xAI Uses OpenAI Tech for Training
Elon Musk's xAI: Leveraging OpenAI for Advanced Training Elon Musk's new venture, xAI, is making waves in the artificial intelligence (AI) community by utilizin…
Sri Lanka Loses $3M in Recent Cyber Attacks Amid Debt Crisis
The government of Sri Lanka has lost more than $3 million in two recent, separate cybersecurity incidents as the country continues to recover from its 2022 debt crisis.
Earth AI Expands to Streamline Critical Mineral Search
When Earth AI started hitting months-long delays in its search for critical minerals, it decided to take matters into its own hands.
Apple's App Store Fee Changes Head to Supreme Court
Apple lost its bid to pause court-ordered App Store payment changes, keeping external purchase links in place as its case with Epic heads toward the Supreme Court.
Uber Expands with AI-Powered Hotel Bookings
Uber announced several new features on Wednesday during its annual event, which push far beyond the company's original ride-hailing purpose and deeper into its users' lives.
Roku's Howdy Streaming Service Hits 1M Subscribers
Roku’s $2.99 streaming service Howdy has topped 1M subscribers, showing demand for cheaper, low-commitment alternatives to pricier streamers.
Pursuit Secures $22M for AI-Driven Government Sales
On Wednesday, Pursuit announced a $22 million Series A round led by Mike Rosengarten, the co-founder of OpenGov, with big-name VCs participating.
Google TV Expands with New Gemini AI Features
Google TV just got more Gemini features, including the ability to transform photos and videos with tools Nano Banana and Veo.
Google Photos AI Creates Virtual Closet from Your Photos
Google says the new feature will leverage AI technology to automatically create a copy of your wardrobe that's based on the pieces of clothing appearing in your Google Photos library.
Parallel Web Systems Valued at $2B After $100M Raise
The AI agent-tool startup founded by former Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal has raised $100 million, led by Sequoia, months after raising a previous $100 million.
Zap Energy Expands to Nuclear Fission, Alongside Fusion
Surprise! Fusion startup Zap Energy says it will be developing fission reactors alongside its fusion devices.
Google Adds 25M Subscriptions in Q1, Boosted by YouTube and Google One
Google added 25M paid subscriptions in Q1, reaching 350M total, as YouTube and Google One grow.
Google Cloud Hits $20B Revenue Milestone, Faces Capacity Constraints
Google Cloud topped $20B in quarterly revenue for the first time, fueled by surging demand for AI. But capacity constraints mean it could have grown even faster.
Microsoft's Nadella: Ready to Leverage OpenAI Deal for Cloud Customers
Microsoft gets to offer OpenAI's tech to its cloud customers and doesn't have to pay for it. "We fully plan to exploit it," Nadella said.
Microsoft's Copilot Surpasses 20M Paid Users with High Engagement
Despite the lingering perception that no one really uses Copilot, Microsoft said on Wednesday that the number of users and engagement is growing.