lensa ai Viral Lensa AI Avatars Introduce Masses to Paid Generative Art The photo editing app Lensa AI goes viral as users flock to pay for AI-generated portraits, marking a major mainstream debut for paid generative art tools built on open-source models.
nasa NASA Awards ICON $57 Million for Lunar Construction Project NASA awards a $57.2 million contract to ICON for Project Olympus, a system designed to build structures on the moon and Mars. Meanwhile, Astra restructures its management team following the resignation of chief engineer Benjamin Lyon.
microsoft ZeniMax QA Testers Vote to Form Microsoft's First Gaming Union Around 300 quality assurance testers at ZeniMax Media are currently voting to establish the first union within Microsoft's gaming division. The workers are organizing to secure better pay and improved conditions to address industry-wide issues like crunch time.
stack overflow Stack Overflow Temporarily Bans ChatGPT Due to High Rate of Incorrect Answers Stack Overflow temporarily bans ChatGPT-generated answers because the AI produces plausible-looking responses that frequently contain errors. The flood of incorrect submissions overwhelms the platform's volunteer quality curation efforts.
tusimple TuSimple and Navistan Scrap Autonomous Truck Development Deal TuSimple and Navistar end their partnership to build self-driving trucks as the autonomous tech company faces executive shakeups and federal investigations. The cancellation leaves thousands of truck reservations in limbo.
climate tech Veteran Investor Says Climate Tech Defies Broad Venture Market Downturn Despite a general venture market decline, climate tech investments rise significantly as veteran investor Dan Goldman emphasizes the importance of cash management and lifecycle analysis for startup success.
elon musk Musk Faces Backlash Over Lackluster Twitter Files Release Elon Musk discusses the initial release of the "Twitter Files," which details past content moderation decisions, but faces criticism for underwhelming results. A second release involving additional journalists is reportedly on the way.
ftx FTX Founder Bankman-Fried Declines to Testify at Upcoming Congressional Hearing Sam Bankman-Fried states he is unlikely to testify at the December 13 House Financial Services Committee hearing regarding the FTX collapse. He claims he still needs time to learn and review what happened at the failed crypto exchange.
taur Taur Targets Daily Commuters With Bold Front-Facing Scooter Design Taur co-founder Carson Brown leverages years of personal micromobility experience to design a front-facing electric scooter aimed at replacing cars and public transit.
fintech Pipe Co-Founders Step Down Amid Crypto Lending Rumors Three co-founders of fintech startup Pipe step down unexpectedly, prompting rumors of massive crypto-related loan losses that the company firmly denies.
lastpass LastPass Faces Second Breach as OpenAI Launches ChatGPT Access TechCrunch's week in review highlights a second security incident at LastPass and the wide release of OpenAI's impressive ChatGPT chatbot. Other top stories include AWS re:Invent announcements and the return of Spotify Wrapped.
apple Tech Giants Unite Against Apple's App Store Policies as App Economy Cools Elon Musk and other tech executives publicly criticize Apple's App Store fees and policies. Meanwhile, global app spending shows only slight growth as the pandemic-fueled boom continues to slow.
activision blizzard Activision Blizzard Albany QA Testers Unanimously Form Company's Second Union Quality assurance testers working on Diablo at Activision Blizzard's Albany studio vote 14-0 to unionize under the Communication Workers of America. This landmark victory follows a similar successful unionization effort at Raven Software earlier this year.
chatgpt TechCrunch Writer Tests ChatGPT to See If AI Replaces Journalists A TechCrunch journalist tests OpenAI's new ChatGPT conversational tool to determine if the generative AI technology threatens their job, finding it impressive but not yet capable of replacing human analysis.
chatgpt ChatGPT's Impressive Experience Poses a Major Threat to Google Search OpenAI's ChatGPT delivers highly conversational and accurate answers to complex questions, creating a user experience that should worry Google's search dominance.