Category: Apps
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‘AI granny’ scambaiter wastes telephone fraudsters’ time with boring chat
Telephone scams are nothing new, but with the advent of AI, it has become harder than ever for people to know whether the person they’re speaking to is in fact who they say they are. But U.K. mobile network O2 is turning the tables, creating what it calls an “AI granny” to keep scammers on…
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The $7,500 EV tax credit is on Trump’s chopping block
Republicans have long opposed the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles contained in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Now, it seems President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team has made that a priority with plans to end the tax credit as part of broader tax reform legislation, Reuters reported citing two unnamed sources. TechCrunch has confirmed…
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Bluesky is courting the Swifties
Bluesky has grown by 2 million users — about 15% — since Donald Trump won the U.S. election last week. But the emerging social platform isn’t just acting as a refuge for left-leaning X users who are disappointed in Elon Musk’s alliance with the president-elect. A community of Taylor Swift fans, or Swifites, has also…
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Chinese autonomous driving startup Pony AI seeks up to $224M in US IPO
Pony AI is inching closer to its initial public offering in the U.S., but as it does so, it continues to drop its minimum target for what it hopes to raise in the transaction. Pony operates a fleet of 190 “robotrucks” in Beijing and Guangzhou and more than 250 robotaxis in Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and…
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How to use Bluesky, the Twitter-like app that’s taking on Elon Musk’s X
Bluesky is continuing to blow up. The Twitter-like service and alternative to Elon Musk’s X, has now surpassed 16 million users after seeing rapid growth in the days following the U.S. presidential election. While many are leaving X over the service’s increasing right-wing leanings and Musk’s campaigning for Trump, others are unhappy with other changes…
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Sam Altman and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive AI Health assistant has a bare-bones demo
In a splashy op-ed in Time published this summer, Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman announced Thrive AI Health, a venture with the goal of building an AI-powered assistant to promote healthier lifestyles. Backed by Huffington’s mental wellness firm Thrive Global and the OpenAI Startup Fund, Thrive AI Health would seek to…
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FTC reportedly begins investigating Microsoft’s cloud business practices
The FTC is reportedly readying an investigation into whether Microsoft used anti-competitive tactics to maintain a dominant position in the cloud market. According to Financial Times, the agency is looking into allegations that Microsoft imposed punitive licensing agreements to prevent customers from moving data off its platforms. Sources told FT that the FTC is also…
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Tech leaders recommend colleagues for Trump’s cabinet
Tech executives have been trying to influence the incoming Trump administration to appoint Silicon Valley insiders for cabinet positions, The New York Times reported. Given Elon Musk’s strong relationship with Donald Trump, many of these persuasion efforts have been directed towards him, including by friends of Musk like Joe Lonsdale, the co-founder of Palantir and…
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Heroku CEO Bob Wise departs
Bob Wise, the CEO of Heroku, Salesforce’s cloud platform as a service (PaaS), has left. A Salesforce spokesperson confirmed the news to TechCrunch in a statement via email. “Bob Wise has left Salesforce for his next career move,” the spokesperson said. “We appreciate all that Bob has done for Salesforce and Heroku and we wish…
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Bluesky says 1 million people signed up for the platform in last 24 hours
Bluesky said Thursday evening that over 1 million people signed up for the platform in the last 24 hours, making it one of the busiest days for the company. This also meant the social network crossed the mark of 16 million users overall. The platform’s announcement comes hours after Instagram head Adam Mosseri said that…