Author: GT

Mark Zuckerberg, a bankruptcy lawyer from Indiana, has filed a lawsuit against Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta. Mark Zuckerberg the lawyer uses a commercial Facebook page to advertise his legal practice and communicate with potential clients. But his page has been disabled five times in the last eight years, since Meta’s moderation systems flag his account as falsely impersonating Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of the platform. Mark Zuckerberg is not impersonating Mark Zuckerberg, because he, too, is Mark Zuckerberg. In his legal complaint, Mark Zuckerberg points out that he has been practicing law since Mark Zuckerberg was just three years…

Technically, the poke never really left Facebook. The classic feature from Facebook’s early days lets users get a friend’s attention with a virtual nudge of sorts. While the poke fell out of use ages ago, the company has more recently seen an uptick in its use among younger users, which has now prompted it to make the poke a more central part of the Facebook experience. Now users are able to poke their friends from a new, dedicated button directly on their Facebook profile, which will alert the poke’s recipient through their notifications. In addition, Facebook users can see who…

Investors are clearly bullish about former Salesforce co-CEO Bret Taylor’s AI agent startup Sierra. Sierra, which helps enterprises build customer service AI agents, announced it raised a $350 million funding round on Thursday. The round, led by earlier investor Greenoaks Capital, values the startup at $10 billion, according to a company blog post that confirmed an earlier report from Axios on Wednesday. Sierra was founded in early 2024 by Taylor and longtime Google alum Clay Bavor. The company claims to have landed hundreds of customers, including SoFi, Ramp, and Brex, among others, in its 18 months of operation. Sierra has…

After years of people constantly nudging Instagram about releasing an iPad app, the social network is finally launching one today. This means users will no longer need to use the iPhone app, which is not optimized for larger screens, or Instagram for web on the iPad. The new app defaults to the Reels screen, allowing you to scroll up and watch short videos on a larger screen. The iPad app has nearly all the features of the phone app when it comes to consumption. Stories appear at the top of the app, and you can access different options from the…

Open AI CEO Sam Altman speaks at the annual Snowflake Summit in San Francisco, California on June 02, 2025. Justin Sullivan | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesOpenAI is rapidly expanding its presence in India — one of the key markets for its flagship ChatGPT product.India is an appealing destination for U.S. tech giants, with companies ranging from Google to Meta betting on its huge — and young — population over recent years.OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited the country in February this year and met with the country’s IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to discuss collaboration. During the visit, Altman said India…

The celebration of TechCrunch’s 20th anniversary is happening at Disrupt 2025 — taking place October 27-29 — and we couldn’t celebrate two decades of being the north star of tech and startup news without spotlighting one of the biggest transformation stories of our time: Netflix. From a DVD-by-mail startup to a global streaming powerhouse with 300M+ subscribers, Netflix has changed how the world consumes entertainment. At Disrupt, happening at Moscone West in San Francisco, we’ll hear from the executive driving that next chapter: Eunice Kim, Netflix’s chief product officer. Image Credits:TechCrunch Why her perspective matters Since stepping into the CPO…

Amid lawsuits alleging child safety concerns, online gaming service Roblox announced on Wednesday that it’s expanding its age-estimation technology to all users and partnering with the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) to provide age and content ratings for the games and apps on its platform. The company said that by year’s end, the age-estimation system will be rolled out to all Roblox users who access the company’s communication tools, like voice and text-based chat. This involves scanning users’ selfies and analyzing facial features to estimate age. This age-estimation tech is combined with other systems, including ID age verification and verified…

Waymo partners with Uber to bring robotaxi service to Atlanta and Austin.Uber Technologies Inc.Alphabet’s Waymo unit will begin test-driving robotaxis at its first California-based airport, the company said Thursday.The autonomous car unit has been cleared to begin testing driverless rides at the San Jose Mineta International Airport in San Jose, California, this fall. Waymo said it plans to offer paid rides at the airport later this year.”With San Jose at the epicenter of the biggest sporting events of 2026, Waymo is an ideal mode of transportation that will help visitors move around the area smoothly and safely,” San Jose Mayor…

Karen Hao, the bestselling author of “Empire of AI,” has watched OpenAI go from a nonprofit “laughingstock” to a $90 billion powerhouse chasing artificial general intelligence at breakneck speeds. Hao, who first profiled the company back in 2020, says early visions of building AI “for humanity’s benefit” were quickly overtaken by a familiar Silicon Valley mindset: Move fast, break things, and let scale be the measure of success. This week, Hao joined TechCrunch’s Equity podcast to unpack the direction the AI boom is going and who’s paying the price. Hao argues that, like historical empires, today’s AI giants rely on…

This week on StrictlyVC Download, TechCrunch EIC Connie Loizos and StrictlyVC’s Alex Gove sit down with Adeo Ressi, founder of Decile Group, and Sarah Lacy, a former TechCrunch journalist turned entrepreneur, to explore how one of Ressi’s newest projects, VC Lab, has quietly launched over 800 venture funds worldwide, averaging $12 million each. In fact, while traditional media focuses on emerging manager struggles, the four talk about why small checks are becoming strategically advantageous in over-subscribed rounds, how accomplished professionals are locked out of traditional VC despite having unicorn angel track records, and Lacy’s theory that diverse manager networks are…