Author: GT

After nearly a decade of serving as a digital time capsule for moments from your life, Snapchat is now putting a price on its Memories features. The social media giant announced that free access to the feature will be limited to 5GB. If your memories exceed this limit, you’ll need to subscribe to one of its new Memories Storage plans. The company told TechCrunch in an email that the introductory storage plan offers up to 100GB of storage for $1.99 per month. Snapchat+ users will get up to 250GB of storage as part of their $3.99 monthly subscription, while Snapchat…

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed a law that aims to prevent people from using powerful artificial intelligence models for potentially catastrophic activities like building a bioweapon or shutting down a bank system. The move comes as Newsom touted California as a leader in AI regulation and criticized the inaction at the federal level in a recent conversation with former President Bill Clinton. The new law will establish some of the first-in-the-nation regulations on large-scale AI models without hurting the state’s homegrown industry, Newsom said. Many of the world’s top AI companies are located in…

U.S. President Donald Trump reacts, as he arrives at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, U.S., September 26, 2025. Elizabeth Frantz | ReutersYouTube has agreed to pay $24.5 million to settle a lawsuit involving the suspension of President Donald Trump’s account following the U.S. Capitol riots on Jan. 6, 2021.The settlement “shall not constitute an admission of liability or fault,” on behalf of the defendants or related parties, according to a filing on Monday from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.Trump sued YouTube, Facebook and Twitter in mid-2021, after the companies suspended his accounts on their platforms over…

OpenAI began testing a new safety routing system in ChatGPT over the weekend, and on Monday introduced parental controls to the chatbot — drawing mixed reactions from users. The safety features come in response to numerous incidents of certain ChatGPT models validating users’ delusional thinking instead of redirecting harmful conversations. OpenAI is facing a wrongful death lawsuit tied to one such incident, after a teenage boy died by suicide after months of interactions with ChatGPT.  The routing system is designed to detect emotionally sensitive conversations and automatically switch mid-chat to GPT-5-thinking, which the company sees as the best equipped model for high-stakes safety work. In particular, the GPT-5 models were trained with a new…

If you’ve been thinking about applying to volunteer at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, this is it — applications close tonight at 11:59 p.m. PT. Whether you’re a student, aspiring founder, marketer, event pro, or just looking to get your foot in the door of the tech world, this is your chance to: Get a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the biggest startup events in the world comes together. Network with top VCs, founders, operators, and press from around the globe. Sit in on sessions featuring tech’s most influential voices. Learn the inner workings of startup culture, innovation cycles, and event…

NEW YORK (AP) — In what could become the largest-ever buyout funded by private equity, video game maker Electronic Arts has agreed to be acquired in a deal valued at $55 billion.Beyond the potentially record-breaking price tag, the deal could bring wider shifts in the gaming world. Electronic Arts owns popular titles like Madden NFL, Battlefield and The Sims — and going private could potentially grant the company more freedom in developing and distributing future games. Still, what its future under new ownership could look like has yet to be seen.The proposed buyout also marks the latest move from Saudi…

The Department of Energy has instituted a long list of banned words at the direction of a Trump appointee, including some that many would consider politically neutral. The “words to avoid” were sent in an email to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE) on Friday, according to Politico, which saw the memo. “Please ensure that every member of your team is aware that this is the latest list of words to avoid,” EERE special advisor Rachael Overbey wrote. The terms staffers are forbidden from using include: climate change, green, decarbonization, energy transition, sustainability, sustainable, subsidies, tax breaks,…

Browser maker and Google Search alternative Brave announced on Monday that it’s adding a new feature to its AI-powered search suite, Ask Brave, to provide detailed answers on a topic based on the query. The search company said that this new feature will co-exist next to its AI Answers feature, which was introduced last year to give summarized responses to search queries. The company said that people are getting more than 15 million answers every day. You don’t need to switch to a special mode to use Ask Brave. The search engine will automatically recognize what kind of query you…

Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsOpenAI’s Instant CheckoutCourtesy of OpenAIOpenAI on Monday announced Instant Checkout, a new feature that allows users to buy products through its artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT. Instant Checkout initially supports single-item purchases directly from U.S. Etsy sellers, and it’s available to U.S. ChatGPT Plus, Pro and Free users. OpenAI said more than one million Shopify merchants, including Skims and Glossier, are coming soon. Shares of Etsy rose more than 13% on Monday. Shopify’s stock popped more than 5%.OpenAI will take a fee from transactions that are completed through ChatGPT, which means Instant Checkout could become an important new revenue…

One of the hottest markets in the artificial intelligence industry is selling chatbots that write computer code.Some call it “vibe-coding” because it encourages an AI coding assistant to do the grunt work as human software developers work through big ideas. Others dislike that term. But there’s no question that these tools are transforming the job experience for many tech workers amid an intense rivalry between leading AI companies to make the best one. “The essence of it is you’re no longer in the nitty-gritty syntax,” said Cat Wu, project manager of Anthropic’s Claude Code. “You’re not looking at every single…