Author: GT

While Silicon Valley executives like those from Palantir, Meta, and OpenAI are grabbing headlines for trading their Brunello Cucinelli vests for Army Reserve uniforms, a quieter transformation has been underway in the U.S. Navy. How? Well, the Navy’s Chief Technology Officer Justin Fanelli says he has spent the last two and a half years focused on cutting through the red tape and protracted procurement cycles that once made working with the military a nightmare for startups. The efforts represent a less visible but potentially more meaningful remaking, one where the government is moving faster and being smarter about where it’s…

Fire and smoke rise into the sky after an Israeli attack on the Shahran oil depot on June 15, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. Getty Images | Getty Images News | Getty ImagesCrude oil futures jumped more than 3% Sunday after Israel struck two natural gas facilities in Iran, raising fears that the war will expand to energy infrastructure and disrupt supplies in the region.U.S. crude oil rose $2.72, or 3.7%, to $75.67 per barrel. Global benchmark Brent was up $3.67, or 4.94%, at $77.90 per barrel.Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles struck the South Pars gas field in southern Iran on Saturday,…

ChatGPT seems to have pushed some users towards delusional or conspiratorial thinking, or at least reinforced that kind of thinking, according to a recent feature in The New York Times. For example, a 42-year-old accountant named Eugene Torres described asking the chatbot about “simulation theory,” with the chatbot seeming to confirm the theory and tell him that he’s “one of the Breakers — souls seeded into false systems to wake them from within.” ChatGPT reportedly encouraged Torres to give up sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication, increase his intake of ketamine, and cut off his family and friends, which he did.…

It’s been 10 years since Alexa von Tobel sold her financial planning startup Learnvest to Northwestern Mutual for $250 million. Since then, von Tobel became Northwestern Mutual’s first chief digital officer, then chief innovation officer, before launching an early-stage venture firm of her own, Inspired Capital, with former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker. She’s also a New York Times bestelling author, and she’s about to launch a new interview podcast, “Inspired with Alexa von Tobel.” In a conversation with TechCrunch, von Tobel recalled the hectic period around the acquisition, which closed literally days before the birth of her first…

Beleaguered genetic testing company 23andMe announced Friday that it has reached an agreement to sell itself to a nonprofit led by the company’s co-founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki. Following a massive cyberattack in 2023 and a related lawsuit settlement, 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, with Wojcicki resigning in order to become an independent bidder for the company. But pharmaceutical company Regeneron was announced as the company’s acquirer with a $256 million bid. According to the Wall Street Journal, Wojcicki’s nonprofit TTAM Research Institute reopened the bidding process by making an unsolicited bid earlier this month, and Regeneron declined…

TechCrunch All Stage isn’t a waiting room for warm intros — it’s a floor full of founders, ideas, and breakout potential. For VCs, it’s a rare chance to skip the filters and meet the future of tech in one place, on one day, with no layers between you and the next standout story. Whether you’re deploying early-stage capital, leading a Series B, or mentoring emerging fund managers, TechCrunch All Stage offers you more than access — it offers acceleration. And you can get both July 15 at Boston’s SoWa Power Station, with the added bonus of a $210 discount if…

Apple’s plans to improve App Store discoverability using AI tagging techniques are now available in the developer beta build of iOS 26. However, the tags do not appear on the public App Store as of yet, nor are they informing the App Store Search algorithm on the public store. Image Credits:App Store screenshot (developer beta 1, iOS 26) Of course, with any upcoming App Store update, there’s speculation about how changes will impact an app’s search ranking. A new analysis by app intelligence provider Appfigures, for example, suggests metadata extracted from an app’s screenshots is influencing its ranking. The firm…

Welcome back to Week in Review! We have lots for you this week, including what came out of WWDC 2025; The Browser Company’s AI browser; OpenAI’s partnership with Mattel; and updates to your iPad. Have a great weekend! The Apple experience: We kicked the week off with WWDC 2025, Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference, where the company showed off a newly designed iOS 26, new features across its products, and much more. There was considerable pressure on Apple this year to build on its promises and to make amends to developers as it lags behind in AI and faces continued legal…

Alphabet-owned robotaxi company Waymo is limiting service due to Saturday’s scheduled nationwide “No Kings” protests against President Donald Trump and his policies. A Waymo spokesperson confirmed the changes to Wired on Friday. Service is reportedly affected in San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, and Phoenix, and is entirely suspended in Los Angeles. It’s not clear how long the limited service will last. As part of protests last weekend in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, five Waymo vehicles were set on fire and spray painted with anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) messages. In response, Waymo suspended service in downtown LA.…

DNA testing service 23andMe has undergone serious upheaval in recent months, creating concerns for the 15 million customers who entrusted the company with their personal biological information. After filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March, the company became the center of a bidding war that ended Friday when co-founder Anne Wojcicki said she’d successfully reacquired control through her nonprofit TTAM Research Institute for $305 million. The bankruptcy proceedings had sent shockwaves through the genetic testing industry and among privacy advocates, with security experts and lawmakers urging customers to take immediate action to safeguard their data. The company’s interim CEO…