Author: GT

Privacy-focused browser DuckDuckGo is rolling out a new setting that lets users filter out AI images in search results. The company says it’s launching the feature in response to feedback from users who said AI images can get in the way of finding what they’re looking for. Users can access the new setting by conducting a search on DuckDuckGo and heading to the Images tab. From there, they will see a new drop-down menu titled “AI images.” Users can then choose whether they want to see AI content by selecting “show” or “hide.” Users can also turn on the filter…

SpaceX employees are more likely to be injured while working at Starbase than any of its other manufacturing facilities, according to company worker safety records reviewed by TechCrunch. Starbase, a sprawling launch-and-manufacturing site that recently incorporated as its own Texas city, logged injury rates that were almost 6x higher than the average for comparable space vehicle-manufacturing outfits and nearly 3x higher than aerospace manufacturing as a whole in 2024, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) data released in May. That outsized injury rate has persisted since 2019, when SpaceX began sharing Starbase injury data with the federal regulator.  Starbase…

Security researchers say they have caught a surveillance company in the Middle East exploiting a new attack capable of tricking phone operators into disclosing a cell subscriber’s location. The attack relies on bypassing security protections that carriers have put in place to protect intruders from accessing SS7, or Signaling System 7, a private set of protocols used by the global phone carriers to route subscribers’ calls and text messages around the world.  SS7 also allows the carriers to request information about which cell tower a subscriber’s phone is connected to, typically used for accurately billing customers when they call or text…

Mistral AI, the French company behind AI assistant Le Chat and several foundational models, is officially regarded as one of France’s most promising tech startups and is arguably the only European company that could compete with OpenAI. But compared to its $6 billion valuation, its global market share is still relatively low.  However, the recent launch of its chat assistant on mobile app stores was met with some hype, particularly in its home country. “Go and download Le Chat, which is made by Mistral, rather than ChatGPT by OpenAI — or something else,” French president Emmanuel Macron said in a…

The startup behind the viral AI coding app Cursor is snapping up top talent from AI enterprise startups in a bid to bolster its competition with Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot and win over businesses looking to supercharge their employees with AI coding tools. In one recent case, Cursor maker Anysphere struck a deal to acquire the AI-powered customer relationship management (CRM) startup Koala, two sources familiar with the matter told TechCrunch. As part of the deal, Cursor will bring on several of Koala’s top engineers to build out a dedicated enterprise-readiness team. However, the entire Koala team will not be joining…

A startup called Pig.dev that participated in Y Combinator’s Winter 2025 batch was working on a potentially revolutionary idea: AI agentic tech to control a Microsoft Windows desktop. But in May, the founder announced he was abandoning the tech and pivoting his company to something entirely different: Muscle Mem, a cache system for AI agents that allows them to offload repeatable tasks.  An early-stage YC company pivoting is nothing out of the ordinary, of course. What’s interesting — and what sparked a dynamic conversation on Thursday’s Y Combinator podcast — is that Pig was working on computer use, one of…

Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, Palantir Technologies, and Founders Fund, holds hundred dollar bills as he speaks during the Bitcoin 2022 Conference at Miami Beach Convention Center on April 7, 2022 in Miami, Florida.Marco Bello | Getty ImagesThe Peter Thiel-backed cryptocurrency exchange Bullish filed for an IPO on Friday, the latest digital asset firm to head for the public market. The company, led by CEO Tom Farley, a veteran of the finance industry and former president of the New York Stock Exchange, said it plans to trade on the NYSE under the ticker symbol “BLSH.”A spinout of Block.one, Bullish started…

Spotify on Thursday announced an expansion of its premium audiobooks service, with two new plans that offer additional listening hours to subscribers, and allow other family members to access the service. The options are currently only available for Spotify Premium users in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, following initial tests in Ireland and Canada. U.S. users could already purchase 15 hours of listening as a standalone offering through an Audiobooks Access Plan, but these additions make it possible for those in other markets to customize their access to their own…

Hackers have stolen more than $2 billion in crypto during the first half of 2025, according to new data from crypto analysis firm Chainalysis, marking the worst year-to-date on record for crypto thefts. The blockchain analysis company said Thursday in a new report that the $2.17 billion stolen during the first half of 2025 has already surpassed the amount of crypto lost last year. Not only that, the amount of cryptocurrency stolen during the first six months of 2025 was about 17% higher than the same period in 2022, which was previously the worst year on record for stolen crypto.…

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and chief executive officer of Twitter Inc. and Square Inc., listens during the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami, Florida, on Friday, June 4, 2021.Eva Marie Uzcategui | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesBlock shares jumped more than 10% in extended trading on Friday, as the fintech company get set to join the S&P 500, replacing Hess. It’s the second change to the benchmark this week, after S&P Global announced on Monday that ad-tech firm The Trade Desk would be added to the S&P 500. Trade Desk is taking the place of software maker Ansys, which was acquired by Synopsys…