Author: GT

For the past few days, my Bluesky feed has been increasingly filled with mysterious posts about waffles. The back-and-forth seems to have started with a tongue-in-cheek post by Jerry Chen lampooning a form of social media sanctimoniousness that’s become all too recognizable on Bluesky: “(bluesky user bursts into Waffle House) OH SO YOU HATE PANCAKES??” Bluesky CEO Jay Graber quoted this approvingly, adding, “Too real. We’re going to try to fix this. Social media doesn’t have to be this way.”  Another user then asked, “have y’all banned Jesse Singal yet or” to which Graber simply replied, “WAFFLES!” Singal’s presence on…

OpenAI and Jony Ive face significant technical challenges as they work to develop a screen-less, AI-powered device, according to the Financial Times. Back in May, OpenAI acquired io, the device startup founded by the legendary Apple designer with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, for $6.5 billion. At the time, Altman declared that Ive and his team would help the company “create a new generation of AI-powered computers,” while Bloomberg reported that the first devices to emerge from the deal were scheduled to launch in 2026. The FT now says that OpenAI and Ive aim to create “a palm-sized device without a…

SB 53, the AI safety and transparency bill that California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law this week, is proof that state regulation doesn’t have to hinder AI progress.   So says Adam Billen, vice president of public policy at youth-led advocacy group Encode AI, on today’s episode of Equity.  “The reality is that policy makers themselves know that we have to do something, and they know from working on a million other issues that there is a way to pass legislation that genuinely does protect innovation — which I do care about — while making sure that these products are safe,” Billen told TechCrunch.  At its core, SB 53 is a first-in-the-nation bill that requires large AI labs…

Police say they have arrested a suspect allegedly connected to multiple online threats that led TikTok to evacuate its headquarters near Los Angeles on Friday. A press release from the Culver City Police Department says that TikTok employees reported receiving multiple threats, across various social media platforms, from 33-year-old Hawthorne resident Joseph Mayuyo. After an additional message threatened TikTok’s Culver City headquarters, police say company security evacuated the office “out of an abundance of caution.” Police then investigated Mayuyo’s home, according to the press release. During the investigation, he allegedly posted additional threatening statements, including one declaring that he would…

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for all things “future of transportation.” To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! More than a month ago, I asked you, dear reader, how you thought EV sales would play out once the $7,500 federal tax credit expired on September 30. The majority of those who responded to the poll predicted that EV sales would fall off a cliff. Now, it’s too early to tell yet; we are just a few days past the end of the quarter. But the expiring tax credit did give…

An app called Young Minds wants to give parents control over what their kids do on the internet, while also protecting their children’s privacy and teaching them good online habits.  The startup was founded by Nino Dvalidze (pictured), an entrepreneur and a mother of two from the United Kingdom. Dvalidze told TechCrunch that the idea for Young Minds came from conversations with fellow parents, who are also worried about how to keep their children safe, while also allowing them to have access to the internet, which, she admitted, is “enormously helpful in terms of education and exploration and connection with…

AI coding tools are getting better fast. If you don’t work in code, it can be hard to notice how much things are changing, but GPT-5 and Gemini 2.5 have made a whole new set of developer tricks possible to automate, and last week Sonnet 2.4 did it again.   At the same time, other skills are progressing more slowly. If you are using AI to write emails, you’re probably getting the same value out of it you did a year ago. Even when the model gets better, the product doesn’t always benefit — particularly when the product is a chatbot…

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy’s BWRX-300 small modular reactor incorporates proven components.Courtesy: GE VernovaVan Buren County is a rural redoubt in southwestern Michigan, a quiet corner of a swing state. Pillow soft sand dunes shift and shape along the shores of Lake Michigan. And the county seat – Paw Paw – is named after a quintessentially Midwestern fruit.”It is a beautiful natural environment with gorgeous sand dunes that you don’t see in other parts of the world,” says Daywi Cook, whose family has lived in this area for five generations. “A lot of folks like to live here because of the…

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesia revoked a suspension on TikTok’s local operating license after the Chinese-owned social media platform shared data requested by the government on its live streaming activity during recent deadly protests.On Friday Indonesia’s Communication and Digital Affairs temporarily suspended TikTok’s license, citing a violation of obligations as a private electronic system operator. TikTok had refused to provide complete data on user activity, particularly during protests between Aug. 25-30.In a letter on Sept. 23, TikTok told the ministry its internal policies prevented it from fully complying with the data request, according to a statement released by the ministry’s…

Keith Heyde stands on site in Abilene, Texas, where OpenAI’s Stargate infrastructure buildout is underway. Heyde, a former head of AI compute at Meta, is now leading OpenAI’s physical expansion push.OpenAIIt wasn’t how Keith Heyde envisioned celebrating the holidays. Rather than hanging out with his wife back home in Oregon, Heyde spent late December visiting potential data center sites across the U.S.Two months earlier, Heyde left Meta to join OpenAI as the head of infrastructure. His job was to turn CEO Sam Altman’s ambitious compute dreams into reality, seeking out vast swaths of land suitable for expansive facilities that will…