Author: GT

South Korea is world-famous for its blazing-fast internet, near-universal broadband coverage, and as a leader in digital innovation, hosting global tech brands like Hyundai, LG, and Samsung. But this very success has made the country a prime target for hackers and exposed how fragile its cybersecurity defenses remain.   The country is reeling from a string of high-profile hacks, affecting credit card companies, telecoms, tech startups, and government agencies, impacting vast swathes of the South Korean population. In each case, ministries and regulators appeared to scramble in parallel, sometimes deferring to one another rather than moving in unison.  Critics argue that…

OpenAI has acquired Roi, an AI-powered personal finance app. In keeping with a recent trend in the AI industry, only the CEO is making the jump.   Chief executive and co-founder Sujith Vishwajith announced the acquisition on Friday, and a source familiar with the matter told TechCrunch he is the only one of Roi’s four-person staff to join OpenAI. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The company will wind down operations and end its service to customers on October 15.  The Roi deal marks the latest in a string of acqui-hires from OpenAI this year, including Context.ai, Crossing Minds, and Alex. While it’s not clear whether any of Roi’s technology…

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos made a rare public appearance at Italian Tech Week in Turin on Friday and used the opportunity to predict that millions of people will be living in space “in the next couple of decades,” the Financial Times reports. Speaking with John Elkann, a scion of Italy’s Agnelli dynasty, Bezos, who also founded rocket company Blue Origin, insisted people will be living in space “mostly because they want to,” and that robots will handle the grunt work, while vast AI data centers float overhead. The pronouncement sounds a little like Bezos trying to one-up his space rival.…

Tesla has been hit with an enforcement action by California’s Department of Insurance (CDI) for routinely denying or delaying customer claims despite years of warnings from the state regulator, according to a new pair of filings. Tesla’s insurance arm, along with its partner State National Insurance Company, engaged in “willful unfair claims settlement practices” including “egregious delays in responding to policyholder claims in all steps” of the process and “unreasonable denials,” CDI wrote. This has allegedly caused “financial harm” and “distress to policyholders.” CDI first approached Tesla about these issues in 2022, according to the filings, yet it claims things…

Social event planning app Partiful, which calls itself “Facebook events for hot people,” has firmly replaced Facebook as the go-to platform for sending party invitations. But what Partiful also has in common with Facebook is that it’s collecting a tsunami of user data, and Partiful could have done better at keeping that data secure. On Partiful, hosts can create online invitations with a retro, maximalist vibe, allowing guests to RSVP to events with the ease of ordering a salad on a touch-screen. Partiful aims to be user-friendly and trendy, propelling the app to #9 on the iOS App Store’s Lifestyle…

OpenAI may be reversing course on how it approaches copyright and intellectual property in its new video app Sora. Prior to Sora’s launch this week, The Wall Street Journal reported that OpenAI had been telling Hollywood studios and agencies that they needed to explicitly opt out if they didn’t want their IP to be included in Sora-generated videos. Despite being invite-only, the app quickly climbed to the top of the App Store charts. Sora’s most distinctive feature may be its “cameos,” where users can upload their biometric data to see their digital likeness featured in AI-generated videos. At the same…

Agriculture is a thirsty industry, consuming 70% of all fresh water used worldwide. In some countries, like India or Chile, it can be more than 90%. For Mario Bustamante, who lives in Chile, the problem hits close to home. “Lack of water is a big issue here,” he told TechCrunch. Bustamante is betting that AI can help slash water use in farms across the world. His startup, Instacrops, was originally founded to deploy internet-of-things (IoT) sensors on farms to warn farmers about damaging frost conditions, but as the hardware became commoditized, the company pivoted to software and water use. Now,…

Earlier this year, Anker, the Chinese company that makes Eufy security cameras, offered its users money in exchange for videos of package and car thefts.  The popular internet-connected security camera maker said it would pay its customers $2 per video to train its AI systems to help better detect thieves who steal cars and packages.   “To ensure we have enough data, we are looking for videos of both real and staged events, to help train the Al what to be on the lookout for,” the company wrote on its website.   “You can even create events by pretending to be…

The tie between startups and the U.S. government have strengthened in recent years, a shift buoyed by an interest in using AI, automation, space, robotics, and climate tech for defense. And while that has provided another welcome path to capital, the relationship is getting complicated. A growing share of startups have the U.S. government as customers, or are aiming for permits and defense-related contracts. When the government is operational, that connection can provide a needed boost and revenue to startups. But when the government ceases to function, as it did starting October 1, those close ties can stifle or even…

While AI coding startups like Cursor close brow-raising rounds on barely three years of existence, Replit’s path to a $3 billion valuation has been anything but swift. For CEO Amjad Masad, who’s been building tools to democratize programming since 2009, it’s a story of muscling through multiple failed business models, years stuck at the same revenue plateau, and a reckoning last year that forced him to cut half his staff. That makes what happened next more remarkable. Earlier this month, the Bay Area-based company closed a $250 million funding round led by Prysm Capital, nearly tripling its valuation from 2023.…