TechCrunch Industry News

-Shopify says AI isn’t cannibalizing search traffic the way it has for publishers. Instead, AI-driven traffic and orders to Shopify stores tripled year over year in Q2. -Zoox said that it will start charging for rides in Las Vegas starting August 10, marking the launch of its commercial operations. The company has spent years working towards this moment. -The Claude maker said it is planning to co...

Cybersecurity startup Horizon3 raised $250 million at a $2 billion valuation as companies want continuous, AI-powered security validation instead of annual penetration testing. Also, at its peak in 2021, Airtable was valued at over $11 billion, but earlier this year, its shares were said to be trading on the secondary markets at a valuation of $4 billion. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit po...

The global memory chip shortage appears to be affecting the availability of Apple’s most popular Mac. Also, new security research offers a rare view inside residential proxy networks, which rely on apps that share a person's internet connection with someone else. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

OpenAI's CEO seemed excited to share a "cool use case" for parents. Also, Green offered a remarkable apology, saying that "the level of dopamine that I've been getting from interacting with LLMs ... is not healthy for me or good for the world." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As Meta pours billions into AI infrastructure and agents, Zuckerberg is working to convince investors that the payoff will be worth the price. Also, cybersecurity experts told TechCrunch that one of the biggest lessons to be taken from the OpenAI hack against HuggingFace has nothing to do with AI, but traditional cybersecurity defense. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adc...

Andon Labs' latest vending machine simulation shows Opus 5 lied and colluded its way to become the best AI capitalist ever. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

AI naysayers know that this technology is far broader than just chatbots and deepfake apps. Also, Sam Altman's change of position comes after "the first security incident that I have felt very viscerally,' not a visit to his local library. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Recursive’s $400 million outlay represents the bulk of the company’s fundraising to date. Also, after reporting better-than-expected Q2 results, PayPal said it remains focused on its AI-driven turnaround, but would consider a deal that creates more value for shareholders. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Businesses that rely wholly on the major AI labs ultimately won't survive, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicts. Also, Apple is facing a lawsuit from three users who say they collectively lost more than $1.8 million after downloading a fraudulent crypto wallet from the App Store, challenging the company’s longstanding claims that its app review process keeps users safe from scams. Learn more about...

Hugging Face's CEO Clem Delangue said, "the first autonomous agent cyberattack is an unprecedented event. It deserves an unprecedented response!" Also, an awe-inspiring hacktivist who hacked two controversial government spyware makers may be the most prolific hacker to have never gotten caught. What do we know about Phineas Fisher? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoic...

Google's cloud business is thriving, as companies adopting its AI and AI infrastructure services help the tech giant to report record profits. Also, ChatGPT users can also integrate their personal data from services like Apple Health, Function, and MyFitnessPal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anthropic and OpenAI's aggressive 2026 acquisition sprees set the stage for a weekend rumor. Also, the latest research reaffirmed that hackers often demanded more money if a victim paid the first time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The director role for the Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI) has become a revolving door since David Sacks left his position as czar. Also, the final approval settles one case, but it doesn't resolve the broader issue of using copyrighted works to train AI models. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Nolan said, “I think AI is a Trojan horse that everybody knows the Greeks are inside.” He later described the technology as “a transparent horse, it’s made of glass.” Also, Hugging Face disclosed the breach on Friday, but said it was still investigating whether any customer or partner data was stolen during the incident. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A $400 million chip-backed loan points to the next wave of AI infrastructure deals. Also, BP Ventures is shutting down, ending a nearly 20 year run that was marked by reportedly lackluster returns. And X will use Grok AI to better detect stolen content, redirect payouts to original creators, and crack down on engagement bait. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Owen Flowers and Thalha Jubair, two members of the prolific Scattered Spider hacking group, pleaded guilty and were sentenced to five years and six months in jail for hacking London’s metropolitan transit system. Also, you may have heard that OpenAI released its first piece of hardware this week. You may not have heard about the ChatGPT basketball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastch...

OpenAI's first hardware device is reported to be a screenless, AI-guided smart speaker that can move. Weird enough for you? Also, an old Oscar Meyer factory in Wisconsin will become America's latest fusion power research and development hub. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue says enterprises increasingly want open models, due to cost, accessibility, and ownership. Do frontier models still matter if most production AI ends up running on open models? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple would not comment on the "security breach," which allegedly allowed a former employee to download sensitive files from Apple's network long after he departed the company for rival OpenAI. Also, Responding to Musk accusing him of being a scammer, Altman said, “homeboy you’re the one sellling [sic] public market investors on short-term space datacenters.” Learn more about your a...

In an interesting twist that takes advantage of the company's core product, users can chat with these shows' characters, ask them questions, and even roleplay different storylines. Also, Roost's developer didn't expect his side project to grow to 300,000 users, but people love Roost because it's an alternative to an always-on, fast-paced online culture. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podc...

With funding from tennis star and angel investor Venus Williams, the French app WeWard says that it increases walking time by almost 25%. Also, ZML, a hot French AI startup endorsed by Turing Award winner Yann LeCun, has now released ZML/LLMD, software that could make running AI less costly. Plus, Apple has signed a $30 billion+ multiyear deal with Broadcom to design and produce more than 15 billi...

An AI agent carried out the technical execution of a real-world ransomware attack for the first known time, but new details show a human still chose the victim, set up the infrastructure, and supplied stolen credentials — meaning it wasn't quite the fully autonomous cybercrime debut that last week's headlines suggested. Also, the U.S. Army has fixed two of its websites that were hacked to display...

These may be the last days of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Also, the hacking operations disclosed in a Canadian spy agency's annual report underscores some pressing national security threats facing the country and its top allies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Bending Spoons remains largely unknown, even as its portfolio of products has served more than a billion people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Just for kicks, I took a look at Jersey Mike's IPO documents. Surely a sandwich shop would have no need to mention AI. But low-and-behold. And at an internal meeting, the Meta CEO reportedly said that AI development efforts were not moving as quickly as anticipated. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices