Author: TechBrunch

Spotify announced Wednesday that it will start paying podcast hosts to produce popular videos on its streaming platform, aiming to take over YouTube's dominance in the video podcast space. The company announced a new “partner program” that will allow creators to monetize their content beyond ad revenue. Creators can already monetize their podcasts on the platform, but are now encouraged to publish a video component alongside their podcasts. Spotify is taking a page from YouTube's book by paying podcast hosts based on engagement with their shows. The Google-owned platform pays creators billions of dollars a year in ad revenue shares.…

A lawyer has filed a lawsuit against the company's two founders and an executive after he was allegedly hacked with government-grade spyware created by notorious surveillance technology maker NSO Group. This appears to be the first attempt to hold those involved in a spyware company accountable for hacking crimes, rather than the spyware companies themselves. On Wednesday, Barcelona-based human rights nonprofit Iridia accused NSO founders Omri Ravi and Shareef Julio, as well as Yuval Somek, an executive at two affiliated companies, of hacking crimes earlier this week. announced that it has filed a complaint with a Catalan court. . Mr.…

A startup is training an AI system that it claims allows creators to generate cinematic worlds with full control over scenery, characters, lighting, and motion. how? Have a human carry a camera on their back and take them hiking around the world. Founded by self-driving pioneers Oliver Cameron and Jeff Hawke (Cameron previously served as vice president of products for Cruise), Odyssey delivers data almost anywhere a person can reach. The company says it has developed an “advanced camera capture system” that can collect Weighing approximately 25 pounds, the system includes six cameras, two LIDAR sensors, and an inertial measurement…

Karl Maddy spent much of the past decade working for Uber and Handy, online marketplaces for cleaning companies. “I spent a lot of time convincing drivers, handymen, and cleaners to join the gig economy,” he told TechCrunch. But when the pandemic hit, he saw many people lose their jobs overnight. He found there was a significant shortage of medical assistants who were recession-proof and offered competitive salaries and benefits. So Maddy (pictured above, center) wondered if she could help janitors become medical assistants. “When I looked into it, I found that most of the paths were vocational school or community…

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek announced the company's long-delayed HiFi or “Super Premium” tier, a high-quality streaming service that was first announced in 2021 and has since failed to roll out. Subscription teased again. During the company's third-quarter earnings call with investors on Wednesday, the executive hinted that such a product is still in development, but said the company has plans to expand its video offering and other product enhancements in the future. It touted the company's short-term progress in other areas. By AI. The streamer first announced plans a few years ago to roll out a more deluxe version of…

Hello everyone, welcome to TechCrunch's regular AI newsletter. If you'd like to have this sent to your inbox every Wednesday, sign up here. On Monday, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei sat down with AI influencer Lex Fridman for a five-hour podcast interview. The two covered a wide range of topics, from the timeline of superintelligence to the advancement of Anthropic's next flagship technology. To save you the trouble of downloading, we have extracted the important points. Despite evidence to the contrary, Amodei believes that “scaling up” models is a viable path to more capable AI. Amodei clarified that scaling up means…

The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has more than 130,000 job cuts across 457 companies, according to independent layoffs tracker Layoffs.fyi. Companies like Tesla, Amazon, Google, TikTok, Snap and Microsoft have conducted sizable layoffs in the first months of 2024. Smaller-sized startups have also seen a fair amount of cuts, and in some cases, have shut down operations altogether. By tracking these layoffs, we’re able to understand the impact on innovation across companies large and small. We’re also able to see the potential impact of businesses…

AMD confirmed it will lay off 4% of its workforce to focus on “significant growth opportunities.” It's unclear how many employees or which departments were affected by the cuts. AMD had about 26,000 employees as of last year, according to the company's annual 10-K filing. 4 percent equals approximately 1,000. “As part of aligning our resources with our biggest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps,” an AMD spokesperson told CRN. “We are committed to treating affected employees with respect and helping them navigate this transition.” We have reached out to the company for more information and…

Starfish Space has completed new financing led by a leading defense technology investor to launch three full-scale satellite maintenance and inspection spacecraft in 2026. The Washington-based startup Otter Spacecraft has two main objectives: extending the operational life of expensive satellites in geostationary orbit (GEO) and disposing of malfunctioning satellites in low Earth orbit (LEO). Designed for the mission. This is a set of capabilities previously unavailable to satellite operators who launch satellites with the expectation that they will have a limited service life. As Starfish CEO and co-founder Austin Link said in a recent interview, the goal is to “make…

Silicon Valley battery startup Leiten announced today that it will acquire manufacturing assets from struggling Swedish battery maker Northvolt. As part of the deal, Northvolt will sell the manufacturing facilities it inherited when it acquired another battery startup, Qberg, in 2021. Leiten will also assume the lease of Kuberg's old manufacturing facility in San Leandro, California. Leiten plans to invest $20 million next year to expand its San Leandro facility and existing operations in San Jose. Neither Mr. Leiten nor Mr. Northvolt immediately responded to questions about the financial terms of the deal. Unlike many other battery manufacturers, Lyten does…