Author: GT

On June 6, online real estate service Opendoor was so desperate to get its beaten-down stock price back over $1 and stay listed on the Nasdaq that management proposed a reverse split, potentially lifting the price of each share by as much as 50 times.The stock inched its way up over the next five weeks.Then Eric Jackson started cheerleading.Jackson, a hedge fund manager who was bullish on Opendoor years earlier when the company appeared to be thriving and was worth roughly $20 billion, wrote on X on Monday that his firm, EMJ Capital, was back in the stock.”@EMJCapital has taken…

As consumers, businesses, and governments flock to the promise of cheap, fast, and seemingly magical AI tools, one question keeps getting in the way: How do I keep my data private? Tech giants like OpenAI, Anthropic, xAI, Google, and others are quietly scooping up and retaining user data to improve their models or monitor for safety and security, even in some enterprise contexts where companies assume their information is off limits. For highly regulated industries or companies building on the frontier, that gray area could be a dealbreaker. Fears about where data goes, who can see it, and how it…

French AI lab Mistral introduced a range of new features to its Le Chat chatbot on Thursday that bring it closer to the capabilities of rivals like OpenAI and Google. The new update includes a new “deep research” mode, native multilingual reasoning, and advanced image editing.  The news comes a couple days after Mistral released Voxtral, its first open source AI audio model that’s capable of reasoning in multiple languages, transcription, and more. Voxtral is also available via Le Chat. Mistral says its new deep research mode, like those offered by rivals, turns Le Chat into a coordinated research assistant…

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed into law new regulations for a type of cryptocurrency, a major milestone for an industry that has spent heavily to strengthen its legitimacy and political might.The GENIUS Act sets initial guardrails and consumer protections for stablecoins, which are tied to assets like the U.S. dollar to reduce price volatility compared with other forms of cryptocurrency. It passed both the House and Senate with wide bipartisan margins. The new law is meant to bolster consumer confidence in the crypto industry, which has quickly become a major power player in Washington thanks to…

The beauty industry has seen an explosion of offerings recently. Customers can now access treatments far beyond basic hair and nail care, from wrinkle-smoothing Botox and fillers to permanent laser hair removal to weight management through GLP-1 medications. Riding this wave of industry growth is Boulevard, a provider of scheduling and payment software for the self-care sector. The 9-year-old Boulevard just raised $80 million in Series D funding, valuing the business at nearly $800 million, a meaningful uptick from the $595 million valuation it garnered three years ago. The round was led by growth equity firm JMI Equity and included…

Hackers are targeting a previously reported bug in the Signal clone app TeleMessage in an effort to steal users’ private data, according to security researchers and a U.S. government agency. TeleMessage, which earlier this year was revealed to be used by high-ranking officials in the Trump administration, already experienced at least one data breach in May. The company markets modified versions of Signal, WhatsApp, and Telegram for corporations and government agencies that need to archive chats for legal and compliance reasons.  On Thursday, GreyNoise, a cybersecurity firm with visibility into what hackers are doing on the internet thanks to its…

Rivian will resume prep work on its planned Georgia factory in August and is still looking to break ground early next year, according to emails TechCrunch obtained through a public records request.   The restarted effort comes months after the Biden administration’s Department of Energy approved a $6.6 billion loan meant to fund construction. Rivian has invested more than $80 million in the project as of June 20, 2025, up from $41 million in July 2024, according to a progress report submitted to the local joint development authority included in the emails. The project has created 46 full-time jobs so far.…

Livestreaming service Twitch, which is owned by Amazon, announced at its annual TwitchCon event earlier this year that it would move into the vertical video space. Now those initial alpha tests have gone live with a few streamers, according to findings from market intelligence provider AppSensa. In a recent build, the firm found references to the vertical video tests and information about what sort of features these new streams would offer. The feature, once fully rolled out, would make Twitch more competitive with other popular vertical video services like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Twitch’s tests are not widespread…

Mistral AI has updated Le Chat with voice recognition, deep research tools, and other features to make the chatbot a more helpful assistant.The company believes that the best AI assistants should help you dive deeper into your thoughts and maintain the flow of conversation. As Mistral AI put it, chatbots are at their best when they “let you go deeper in your thinking, keep your conversation flowing, and maintain contextual continuity.”A standout feature, albeit somewhat playing catch-up with rivals, is the ‘Deep Research’ mode. Think of it as turning Le Chat into your personal research assistant.When you ask a complex…

OpenAI is launching a new general purpose AI agent in ChatGPT, which the company says can complete a wide variety of computer-based tasks on behalf of users. OpenAI says the agent can automatically navigate a user’s calendar, generate editable presentations and slideshows, and run code. The tool, called ChatGPT agent, combines several capabilities from OpenAI’s previous agentic tools, including Operator’s ability to click around on websites, as well as Deep Research’s ability to synthesize information from dozens of websites into a concise research report. OpenAI says users will be able to interact with the agent simply by prompting ChatGPT in…