Author: GT

If and when AI will start replacing human labor has been the subject of numerous debates.   While it’s still hard to say with certainty if AI is beginning to take over roles previously done by humans, a recent survey from the World Economic Forum found that 40% of employers intend to cut staff where AI can automate tasks. Researchers at SignalFire, a data-driven VC firm that tracks job movements of over 600 million employees and 80 million companies on LinkedIn, believe they may be seeing first signs of AI’s impact on hiring. When analyzing hiring trends, SignalFire noticed that tech…

Most delivery automation stops at the curb. But for Veho and Zurich-based robotics startup Rivr, the real challenge — and opportunity — lies in those final 100 yards from van to doorstep.  In a pilot program launching Tuesday in Austin, Rivr’s four-wheeled, stair-climbing delivery robot, which CEO and founder Marko Bjelonic describes as “a dog on roller skates,” will ferry packages from Veho’s vans directly to customers’ front doors.  The companies are starting small, they told TechCrunch exclusively. Just one highly supervised robot will work daily, making five- to six-hour runs over the span of a couple weeks throughout Austin.…

PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech government has identified China as being “responsible” for cyberattacks against a a communication network of the Czech Foreign Ministry, officials said on Wednesday.The Foreign Ministry said the malicious activities started in 2022 and targeted the country’s critical infrastructure. The ministry said it believed the Advanced Persistent Threat 31, or APT31 group, associated with the Chinese Ministry of State Security was behind the campaign.It was not immediately clear what specific information were seized or what damage was caused by the attacks. The Czech ministry said a new communication system has already been put in place.Foreign Minister…

An icon of ASML is displayed on a smartphone, with an ASML chip visible in the background.Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesMore than $130 billion of value has been wiped off of ASML in under a year amid restrictions on exports to China and U.S. tariff uncertainty Shares of ASML, which is seen as a critical cog in the semiconductor supply chain, hit a record high of over 1,000 euros a piece in July last year for a market capitalization of $429.5 billion, according to data from S&P Capital IQ. That fell to just under $297 billion at the Tuesday…

In May 2025, Mozilla announced that it was shutting down the popular read-it-later app Pocket, which it had acquired back in 2017 for an undisclosed amount. While Pocket helped users save and discover millions of articles, Mozilla said the way people are browsing the web is changing, and it plans to focus its resources on other projects. Pocket users have until October 8, 2025, to export their saved articles and other items, including lists, archives, favorites, notes, and highlights. This essentially means you will have to find a new home to build a reading list through another save-it-later app. To…

OpenAI is exploring ways for users to sign in to third-party apps using their ChatGPT account, the company noted on a web page published Tuesday. OpenAI is currently gauging interest from developers who might want to integrate this service into their apps. ChatGPT is quickly becoming one of the largest consumer applications in the world, now with roughly 600 million monthly active users. To capitalize on this popularity, OpenAI seems eager to try and expand into other consumer areas, such as online shopping, social media, and personal devices. A potential “Sign in with ChatGPT” feature could help OpenAI compete with…

Anthropic has begun to roll out a “voice mode” for its Claude chatbot apps. The voice mode (in beta for now) allows Claude mobile app users to have “complete spoken conversations with Claude,” and will arrive in English over the next few weeks, according to Anthropic’s official account on X and updated documentation on the company’s website. At least one user on X reports having gained access to voice mode late Tuesday. By default, it’s powered by Anthropic’s Claude Sonnet 4 model. “Voice mode … enables you to speak to Claude and hear responses through voice, making it easier to…

SpaceX’s Starship successfully separated from its Super Heavy rocket booster and reached orbit Tuesday evening, but later began spinning and made an uncontrolled re-entry into the Indian Ocean. SpaceX had cleared the surrounding airspace where Starship was coming down, according to the company. The ninth test flight provided a mix of successes and failures for the company. It was the smoothest Starship test of the year, following two consecutive explosions. Starship, launched atop the Super Heavy booster, lifted off from SpaceX’s facility in southern Texas on Tuesday evening. It was also the first launch to use a flight-proven Super Heavy…

Hyperscalers and data center developers are in a pickle: They all want to add computing power tomorrow, but utilities frequently play hard to get, citing years-long waits for grid connections. “All the AI data centers are struggling to get connected,” Amit Narayan, founder and CEO of Gridcare, told TechCrunch. “They’re so desperate. They are looking for solutions, which may or may not happen. Certainly not in the five-year timelines they cite.” That has led many data centers to pursue what’s called “behind the meter” power sources — basically, they build their own power plants, a costly endeavor that hints at…

Mark your calendars: June 18 just became a can’t-miss event. We’re thrilled that Ali Partovi and Russell Kaplan will be joining us for what’s shaping up to be a fantastic night of ideas and conversation in the heart of Silicon Valley at our next StrictlyVC evening, taking place in Menlo Park. Partovi, the longtime investor and former operator who’s making serious waves with Neo, will take the stage to discuss his ambitious mission that’s giving Y Combinator a run for its money. Neo isn’t just another platform and fund; it’s a systematic approach to identifying up-and-coming engineering and leadership talent…