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On Tuesday morning at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, our senior producer Maggie Nye rolled up her jacket sleeve to show me her new tattoo: a classic, pixelated cursor arrow. TechCrunch’s Becca Szkutak got a matching cursor, while Theresa Loconsolo got a smiling moon. I guessed that at some point during all the Disrupt hoopla, Maggie and Becca wandered off to some trendy San Francisco tattoo shop to cement their friendship with appropriately tech-themed ink (and maybe Theresa was there too?). That seemed like a more logical explanation than the reality, which is that they got these tattoos at Disrupt — yes,…
ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to supercharge productivity through writing essays and code with short text prompts has evolved into a behemoth with 300 million weekly active users. 2024 was a big year for OpenAI, from its partnership with Apple for its generative AI offering, Apple Intelligence, the release of GPT-4o with voice capabilities, and the highly-anticipated launch of its text-to-video model Sora. OpenAI also faced its share of internal drama, including the notable exits of high-level execs like co-founder and longtime chief…
With every step on the trail, fallen leaves crinkle underfoot. The path follows a stream, rushing and burbling over smooth, gray stones, while a breeze rustles the branches overhead. Now compare that blissful mental image to what you might walk past in a city — traffic, crowds, concrete and glass. Which seems better for you?Walking in nature has been shown to boost physical and mental health, lowering stress and restoring attention. But researchers are finding plenty of mental-health benefits to walking in urban areas, too. You just have to find the right path and pay attention to your surroundings.Don’t underestimate…
Core Scientific shareholders on Thursday voted down an all-stock acquisition offer from partner and competitor CoreWeave that was valued at the time at $9 billion. They did so following a vote-no recommendation from their largest shareholder, Sina Toussi of Two Seas Capital, a firm that focuses on post-bankruptcy companies. Core Scientific emerged from its bankruptcy in January 2024. Core Scientific, which began as a crypto miner and still is one, shares that early history with AI data center provider CoreWeave, which also started as a miner. But CoreWeave, with investor and partner Nvidia, has now transitioned to serving…
This weekend, Mexican American families across the U.S. will gather to honor their ancestors with altars, marigolds and sugar skulls on Dia de los Muertos — the Day of the Dead. In recent years, the celebration has become more commercialized, leaving many in the community wondering how to preserve the centuries-old tradition while evolving to keep it alive.Day of the Dead is traditionally an intimate family affair, observed with home altars — ofrendas — and visits to the cemetery to decorate graves with flowers and sugar skulls. They bring their deceased loved ones’ favorite foods and hire musicians to perform…
Meta signed three deals this week to procure nearly 1 gigawatt of solar power as it races to power its lofty AI ambitions. The trio of agreements brings Meta’s total solar purchases to over 3 gigawatts of capacity this year. Solar is cheap and quick to build, and as a result, it has become a go-to power source for tech companies as their data center fleets multiply in size. Meta yesterday announced two agreements in Louisiana that see it buying the environmental attributes of a combined 385 megawatts of electricity. Both projects are expected to be completed two years from…
American Airlines CEO Robert Isom and United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby were among the aviation industry leaders to meet with White House officials to discuss the ongoing government shutdown’s devastating impact on air travel this week.Along with unions and other industry officials, the executives were on hand to seek out solutions to end the shutdown before the busy holiday travel season. The shutdown is now in its fifth week, forcing approximately 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers to work without pay, leading to crippling staffing shortages.”It could be a disaster. It really could be, because…
Social network Bluesky, which on Friday announced a new milestone of 40 million users, will soon start testing “dislikes” as a way to improve personalization on its main Discover feed and others. The news was shared alongside a host of other conversation control updates and changes, which include smaller tweaks to replies, improved detection of toxic comments, and other ways to prioritize more relevant conversations to the individual user. With the “dislikes” beta rolling out soon, Bluesky will take into account the new signal to improve user personalization. As users “dislike” posts, the system will learn what sort of content…
Disney fans will appreciate the chance to snap photos of their favorite characters this holiday season at the Disneyland Resort.Donned in their best festive attire, Santa Claus and Disney characters can be spotted all throughout the theme parks and hotels during the Holidays at Disneyland Resort and Disney Festival of Holidays at Disney California Adventure park beginning November 14, 2025, and continuing through January 7, 2026. Select character locations and schedules can be found with on the Disneyland app.Santa Claus at Disneyland ResortJolly Old St. Nick will appear in the Disneyland Resort through December 24, 2025. From November 27 through…
Bending Spoons’ four cofounders this week joined the billionaire ranks. CEO Luca Ferrari’s stake in the Milan-based tech conglomerate is now reportedly worth $1.4 billion, while cofounders Matteo Danieli, Luca Querella, and Francesco Patarnello each hold stakes worth $1.3 billion, according to Forbes estimates based on shareholder data published by the Italian Business Register. The valuations come on the heels of Bending Spoons’ latest funding round: $270 million from investors including T. Rowe Price and earlier backers Baillie Gifford, Cox Enterprises, Durable Capital Partners, and Fidelity, plus a $440 million secondary share sale by existing shareholders. It’s unclear whether any…