Author: TechBrunch
In 2025, TechCrunch's AI stage is coming alive with voices shaping the future of technology, creativity and security. Top VCs are betting on the next wave of AI founders, making it clear what they need to earn money in the rapidly evolving landscape. Listen to groundbreaking insights from leaders at visionary startups such as Apptronik, ElevenLabs, Hugging Face, Runway, Wonder Dynamics, Wayve, and Wayve. These leaders, and many more, represent the cutting edge of the growing impact of AI. In the AI stage, we take an internal look at how breakthroughs change the industry, the user experience, and what startups…
Flights across Russia are based after a cyberattack struck Aeroflot on Monday, the country's biggest airline. Although details of the cyberattack remain limited, a group of pro-woman hackers known for targeting a Russian organisation called the Silent Crow has gained credibility in the cyberattack along with Belarusian hackers, citing Russia's occupation of Ukraine. The group said in a Telegram post seen by TechCrunch that it controlled Aeroflot's critical system, which contains terabytes of internal data. The group said it “destroyed” the airline's systems that it has access to. Screenshots posted by hackers are said to show access to several Aeroflot…
Tea announced on Friday that she was suffering from a data breach, an app that allows women to post anonymous comments about men they believed to have dated, and hackers had access to 72,000 images. That number includes 13,000 selfies and photo IDs submitted for account verification, as well as 59,000 images from posts, comments and direct messages, the company said. Tea also said that no email or phone number was published and only users who signed up before February 2024 were affected. “We are working as third-party cybersecurity professionals and work round the clock to ensure our systems,” the…
Allianz Life, the leading US insurance company, confirmed with TechCrunch that hackers stole the “majority” of their customers, financial experts and employees during a data breach in mid-July. When they reached TechCrunch, Allianz Life spokesman Brett Weinberg confirmed the violation. “On July 16, 2025, malicious threat actors accessed a third-party cloud-based CRM system used by Allianz Life,” referring to the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) database that contains information about customers. “Threat actors were able to obtain personally identifiable data related to the majority of Allianz Life clients, financial experts, and were able to use social engineering techniques to select Allianz…
Early stage founders cannot escape Tam. This is the concept of having a fully addressable market for startups to confuse and conquer. However, Jahanvi Sardana, a partner at index ventures, has reminded to all founders who are worried about finding TAM for their products and services. “What was the market for previous searches on Google?” Saldana asked the audience at TechCrunch's 2025 all-stage event in Boston earlier this month. “What was the market for the operating system before Microsoft, or the market for the Cloud before Amazon?” Saldana compares tam with surfing. Every few years there is a huge wave…
CHATGPT users may want to think twice before turning to AI apps for treatment or other kinds of emotional support. According to Openai CEO Sam Altman, the AI industry still doesn't understand how to protect user privacy when it comes to these more sensitive conversations. Executives made these comments about the recent episode of Theo Von, Theo Von. In response to questions about how AI works in today's legal system, Altman said one of the issues that it doesn't have a legal or policy framework for AI yet is that its user conversations are lacking legal confidentiality. “People talk about…
Google has suspended Catwatchful's account, a phone monitoring operator who was using Tech Giant's servers to host and operate monitoring software. Google's move to shut down Spyware operations takes place a month after TechCrunch warns the tech giant. The operator was hosting Firebase Opering, one of Google's developer platforms. Catwatchful relied on Firebase to host and store a huge amount of data stolen from thousands of phones compromised by spyware. “We investigated these reported Firebase operations and stopped because we violated our Terms of Use,” Google spokesperson Ed Fernandez told TechCrunch this week's email. When asked by TechCrunch, Google didn't…
Apple is expanding its app age rating system. The company said Thursday it updated its age rating system to add 13+, 16+ and 18+ ratings to its existing 4+ and 9+ ratings, removing the 12+ and 17+ ranges. Additionally, app developers must answer new age rating questions to identify sensitive content in their apps. Developers can also update the app's age rating to one of the new options if desired. The company says it will automatically update all apps and games across the App Store to match the new system available for beta versions of iOS 26, iPados 26, Macos…
AI-powered coding tools have been extremely popular over the past few months, almost all major tech companies use one or create their own. The makers of these so-called “vibe coding” tools are hot products at the moment, and startups like startups like buyers and investors want to tap on hot trends. Google is now the latest to join this bandwagon. The company is testing a vibe coding tool called Opal, available to US users via Google Labs. Opal allows you to create mini web apps using text prompts. Alternatively, you can remix existing apps available in the gallery. All users…
Two years after securing $1 billion in commitments from over 20 countries, the NATO Innovation Fund (NIF) enters a new chapter marked by the arrival of two new partners and the departure of their penultimate founding team partners. In the context of increasing military spending across NATO members, investment in double-use technologies has skyrocketed since the initiative was first announced in 2021. This vibrant interest should have given the NIF the benefits of a First Me Bar, but the fund was hampered by management challenges and a series of well-known departures. After the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague reaffirmed…