Author: TechBrunch
EV startup Canoo has lost its chief financial officer and chief counsel, the latest in a series of executive departures as the company continues to struggle to find mass adoption of its electric work vans. CFO Greg Ethridge and general counsel Hector Ruiz both resigned from Canoo on Oct. 31, the company announced in a regulatory filing Tuesday. Mr. Ethridge and Mr. Lewis did not respond to requests for comment. Canoe also announced it has furloughed 30 workers in Oklahoma for 12 weeks “as part of a broader restructuring of its North American operations.” Ethridge was replaced by Kunal Bala,…
In the final days leading up to the US presidential election, Elon Musk's X suspended the official account of a progressive donor-backed voting initiative called SwapYourVote. The volunteer-run website invites third-party voters in battleground states to vote for Kamala Harris, and Democrats in solid-blue states agree to vote for the candidate of their choice. We are trying to match you with a member of staff. The X account was reactivated around 11 a.m. Pacific time on Tuesday after being suspended two days ago Sunday after X labeled it as spam. “This account was caught by one of our automated spam…
Google has announced that it has addressed an issue in its search engine that caused a “Where to Vote” panel containing a map of polling places to appear for some specific voting-related searches, but not for others. The tech giant even used the word “fixed” to address the issue, despite the fact that Google Search is working correctly and as designed. In doing so, it fueled baseless conspiracy theories that Google is displaying intentionally biased results. The issue was highlighted by Elon Musk with an Posted an emoji and two Google searches showing the difference. The problem, Musk and his…
The cybersecurity world is full of technical lingo and jargon. At TechCrunch, we have been writing about cybersecurity for years, and even we sometimes need a refresher on what exactly a specific word or expression means. That’s why we have created this glossary, which includes some of the most common — and not so common — words and expressions that we use in our articles, and explanations of how, and why, we use them. This is a developing compendium, and we will update it regularly. Advanced persistent threat (APT) An advanced persistent threat (APT) is often categorized as a hacker,…
Suno CEO Mikey Schulman found himself in an unlikely place for the founder of a generative AI music company: in a composition class at Berklee College of Music. “I feel like I'm walking into a lion's den,” Schulman said on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. “The approach of just going in there and saying, 'Don't worry, there's no disruption here, everything is fine,' is probably not the right approach.” ” So how did he try to convince them (at least)? Schulman used Suno to give his students a taste of what it's like to create songs with AI. “If you…
The Mozilla Foundation, the nonprofit arm of Firefox browser maker Mozilla, has laid off 30% of its workforce, saying it faces a “relentless onslaught of change.” In an email to TechCrunch, Mozilla Foundation communications director Brandon Borrman confirmed the layoffs. “The Mozilla Foundation is realigning our team to increase our agility and impact as we accelerate our efforts to ensure a more open and fair technological future for all of us. “This means ending some of the work we have pursued in the past and eliminating related roles in order to focus more going forward,” a statement shared with TechCrunch…
Google may be behind on climate goals, but that's not stopping the tech giant from building new AI-focused data centers in fossil fuel-dependent Saudi Arabia. The new AI hub will support research into Arabic language AI models and “Saudi-specific AI applications,” the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Google said in an announcement. State oil company Aramco said it is now using AI across its operations. In one oil field, this technology increased production by 15%. Google announced in 2020 that it would stop developing algorithms for oil and gas production, and in 2021 pledged to cut emissions in half by…
Many people who want to have children cannot or should not get pregnant for various reasons. Gestational surrogacy can be a great option for these individuals if they can tolerate long wait times and can afford the high cost of services. New York-based Nodal aims to make this process cheaper, more transparent, and faster. Nodal is a marketplace for matching prospective parents with vetted surrogate mothers. Dr. Brian Levine, founder and CEO of Nodal, told TechCrunch that his company wants to solve supply and demand problems in the industry. Dr. Brian Levine is the founder and CEO of Nodal. Image…
Publishing platform Substack is currently encouraging users to install its mobile app by offering gifted subscriptions. Substack itself is available on a variety of platforms, including the web, but if you want to take advantage of the free subscription offer, you can only do so after downloading the mobile app to your device. Free subscription offers are emailed to Substack users with a subject line like “It's $6” or “It's $7” (or whatever the cost of the free month is). However, if you click on the link and receive the gift from your desktop, you'll see a pop-up that says,…
This week's episode of Found takes you behind the scenes at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024. After chatting on stage with prominent investors The Chainsmokers, Becca Schuchtak had the opportunity to speak with Dan Lorenc, CEO and co-founder of cybersecurity startup ChainGuard. The two discuss how the EDM duo's venture fund MANTIS went from being viewed with skepticism by traditional VCs to becoming a highly sought-after investment partner in the B2B space, discuss how they scaled their companies and the value celebrity investors can get. Add to startup. In this conversation, we will also discuss: Navigating difficult market timing after the 2021…