The Best of TechCrunch
20+ most popular TechCrunch articles, as voted by our community.
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YC's latest batch sure was a lot of 'maybe AI can do... this?'
Y Combinator's Winter 2023 batch had a lot of themes, but perhaps the strongest was startups saying "AI can do that! Probably. Maybe."
Can AI commit libel? We're about to find out
Can an AI model like ChatGPT even commit libel? No one knows - but with a few upcoming legal cases, we may find out.
TechCrunch on Artificial Intelligence
Digital transformation depends on diversity
We have an opportunity to apply AI and machine learning to propel the future and do good. That begins with diverse teams that reflect the full diversity and rich perspectives of our world.
«One of the myths about digital transformation is that it’s all about harnessing technology. It’s not. To succeed, digital transformation inherently requires and relies on diversity.»
Duplex shows Google failing at ethical and creative AI design
Google CEO Sundar Pichai milked the woos from a clappy, home-turf developer crowd at its I/O conference in Mountain View this week with a demo of an in-the-works voice assistant feature that will…
TechCrunch on Computer Vision
Facebook’s AI unlocks the ability to search photos by what’s in…
Initially used to improve the experience for visually impaired members of the Facebook community, the company’s Lumos computer vision platform is now powering image content search for all…
BMW makes interacting with your car’s AI systems more natural
Even after years of using systems like the Google Assistant or Siri, talking to inanimate objects can still feel weird. In cars, the early voice recognition systems were typically close to unusable,…
TechCrunch on Crypto
100 cryptocurrencies described in four words or less
This list describes cryptocurrencies. Each gets four words. There are many. Some are landmarks. Some are scams. Hopefully this provides orientation.
People have spent over $1M buying virtual cats on the Ethereum blockchain
Launched a few days ago, CryptoKitties is essentially like an digital version of Pokemon cards but based on the Ethereum blockchain. And like most viral..
TechCrunch on Ecommerce
Amazon launches Spark, a shoppable feed of stories and photos aimed at Prime members
Amazon today is launching Amazon Spark, a new feature aimed at improving product discovery, which is seemingly inspired by Instagram and its use of shoppable..
Amazon’s share of the US e-commerce market is now 49%, or 5% of all retail spend
Amazon has already been in the crosshairs of the White House when it comes to threats of antitrust investigations, and while some say this is simply Trumpian bluster that has a slim chance of going anywhere, some new numbers out from the researchers at eMarketer could prove to be a fan to the flame…
TechCrunch on Edtech
Edtech is the next fintech
As the world tries to make sense of economic tremors from the Brexit fallout, upcoming U.S. elections and volatile European financial markets, it’s easy to see why investors are becoming less…
EdTech is having a renaissance, powered by the emerging world
So-called ‘EdTech’ has seen many false dawns over the years. After being lauded as the teaching platforms of the future, most MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course platforms) have not quite lived up to the superlatives made for them, and the sector has had trouble coming up with more innova…
TechCrunch on Insurtech
Revolut launches geolocation-powered travel insurance
Fintech startup Revolut is launching international medical and dental insurance. You can subscribe using the company’s app for £1 per day or more depending..
Investors prove that insurtech isn't dead, thanks to e-bikes and pre-fab homes
Startups Boundless Rider and CoverTree raise venture money to grow their specialized insurance products.
TechCrunch on Mozilla
Mozilla announces an open gateway for the internet of things
Apple, Google, Amazon and Samsung have all been working hard to create their own standard to control all the connected devices around your home. Mozilla just..
Mozilla launches its free, encrypted file sharing service, Firefox Send
Firefox Send, Mozilla’s free, encrypted file transfer service, is officially launching to the public today following its debut as a “Test Pilot” experiment back in August 2017. The service allows web…
TechCrunch on Tiktok
“Content network effect” makes TikTok tough to copy
Many TikTok videos don’t start from scratch, so neither can its competitors. TikTok is all about remixes where users shoot a new video to recontextualize audio pulled from someone else’s clip, or riff…
Zuckerberg misunderstands the huge threat of TikTok
“It’s almost like the Explore Tab that we have on Instagram” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in leaked audio of him describing TikTok during an all-hands meeting. But it’s not. TikTok represents a…
TechCrunch on Venture Capital
Contentful raises $175M at a $3B valuation from Tiger for its content delivery service
TechCrunch caught up with Contentful's CEO, Steve Sloan (previously of Twilio and Bessemer), and its comms connect, Brian Spittler (previously of Podium), to dig more into its products.
Women-founded startups raised 1.9% of all VC funds in 2022, a drop from 2021
Last year, U.S. startups with all-women teams received 1.9% (or around $4.5 billion) out of around the $238.3 billion in venture capital allocated, according to the latest PitchBook data.
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Google exec suggests Instagram and TikTok are eating into Google’s core products, Search and Maps
The TikTok threat to Google’s business isn’t just limited to YouTube, as it turns out. Core Google services, including Search and Maps, are also being impacted by a growing preference for social media…
Tiger Global, hit by $17B in hedge fund losses, has nearly depleted its latest VC fund
Tiger Global is having a year. According to a new report from the Financial Times, the low-flying-yet-seemingly-ubiquitous 21-year-old outfit has seen losses of about $17 billion during this year’s…
Why Amazon is eating the world
I co-founded a software startup in December. Each month, I send out an update to our investors to keep them updated on our progress. But the past month was a..
How the myth of the “girlboss” harms emerging women in tech
“The end of the girlboss era? What does that even mean?”
LinkedIn rolls out new tools to give creators more ways to share visual content
LinkedIn announced today that it’s rolling out new features for creators that are designed to make it easier to share visual content on the social network. The launch marks LinkedIn’s latest effort…
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TechCrunch on Social Media
MrBeast explains YouTube’s algorithm at VidCon
At the first VidCon since 2019, YouTube’s top earner in the U.S., MrBeast, got on stage to talk to YouTube’s director of discovery Todd Beaupré about one of the biggest questions on creators’ minds:…
Medium embraces Twitter alternative Mastodon with launch of its own community
Online publishing platform Medium, originally created by Twitter co-founder Evan Williams, announced today it’s embracing the open-source Mastodon platform by creating its own instance to support its…