Author: TechBrunch

CES opens on January 7th. The annual Las Vegas event sets the tone for the consumer electronics and automotive industries for the year. As always, TechCrunch is there to sniff out stories from the most exciting startups and tech giants. If you really want to watch some of the action without paying for a hotel or flight, many of the event's biggest keynotes will be streamed. The show officially runs from January 7th to 10th, but most of the big news will be announced before the show through an in-person press event. These are mainly set for the “Press Day”…

Canada-based accounting startup Bench, which provided software-as-a-service to small and medium-sized businesses, has abruptly shut down, according to a notice posted on its website. “Unfortunately, after December 27, 2024, you will no longer have access to the Bench platform,” the notice states. “We know this news is sudden and can be disruptive, which is why we are committed to helping Bench customers navigate the transition.” The company's website is now completely offline, except for notifications, leaving thousands of businesses in limbo. Hours before it was shut down, Bench advertised having more than 35,000 customers in the U.S., according to a…

Encode, the nonprofit that co-sponsored California's ill-fated AI safety law SB 1047, has been granted permission to file a court brief in support of Elon Musk's injunction to prevent OpenAI from becoming a for-profit company. I asked for In a draft brief filed Friday afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Encode's lawyers said OpenAI's transformation into a for-profit company would undermine the company's mission to “develop and deploy innovative technology.” He said it would be “damaging.” It is safe and beneficial to the public. ” “OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman claim to be…

As first reported by Bloomberg, Do Kwon, co-founder of failed cryptocurrency startup Terraform Labs, will be extradited from Montenegro to the United States on federal fraud charges. Kwon is facing charges in both the United States and South Korea. Terraform Labs' cryptocurrencies TerraUSD and Luna crashed in 2022, costing investors more than $40 billion in losses. Mr. Terraform and Mr. Kwon were found personally liable for fraud in April following a civil trial on complaints filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Terraform agreed to pay $4.5 billion to settle its lawsuit with the SEC. Kwon was arrested in…

If there was one phrase to describe the tone and theme of 2024, at least in the transportation sector, it was “business flogging.” Legacy automakers are reorienting their all-EV-or-bust strategies, startups are pivoting, and some Silicon Valley venture capitalists and executives are adjusting their views to the changing political landscape, and their companies are is the main character. Jaguar's rebranding took it in a completely new and polarizing direction, garnering a lot of attention and setting social media on fire for at least a few days. GM delayed its EV plans and was forced to change lanes in software, but…

Data loss prevention startup Cyberhaven says hackers have stolen their customers' passwords and session tokens, according to an email sent to affected customers who may be victims of this apparent supply chain attack. The company announced that it has released a malicious update to its Chrome extension that can be stolen. Cyberhaven confirmed the cyberattack to TechCrunch on Friday, but declined to comment on the details of the incident. Emails sent by the company to customers obtained and published by security researcher Matt Johansen show that hackers breached corporate accounts early on Dec. 25 and updated malicious Chrome extensions. states…

Earlier this week, DeepSeek, a well-funded Chinese AI research institute, released an “open” AI model that outperformed many rivals on popular benchmarks. The model, DeepSeek V3, is large but efficient and can easily handle text-based tasks like coding and essay writing. It also appears to be ChatGPT. Posts on X and TechCrunch's own tests indicate that DeepSeek V3 identifies itself as ChatGPT, OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot platform. When asked for details, DeepSeek V3 claims to be a version of OpenAI's GPT-4 model released in June 2023. This is still being reproduced today. In 5 out of 8 generations, DeepSeekV3 claims to…

Apple's iPad comes with built-in productivity tools like Notes, Calendar, and Reminders, but if you want to maximize your productivity and explore new ways to organize your life, there are plenty of apps to help. While the iPad started out as a device that could be used to stream content and browse the web on the go, Apple has essentially made the iPad capable of handling a variety of tasks for personal, work, and school use. I changed it to a computer. That's why there are many apps that can help you create one place to organize your life, block…

OpenAI says its corporate structure needs to evolve to further its mission that artificial general intelligence (AGI) – AI that can complete most tasks that humans can – benefits all humanity. OpenAI currently operates a for-profit organization managed by a nonprofit organization, with “profit caps” placed on investors and employees. But in a blog post published Friday, the company said it plans to begin converting its existing for-profit corporation into a Delaware public benefit corporation (PBC), making its common stock and OpenAI's mission a public benefit. These details were reported elsewhere. In December, the New York Times revealed that OpenAI…

This year was another record year for ransomware. When file-locking malware wasn't causing massive disruptions, such as bringing down or prolonged outages of online services, ransomware was causing unprecedented data theft attacks that affected hundreds of millions of people, sometimes for the rest of their lives. I did. Over the past 12 months, governments have scored rare victories against ransomware hackers, including the destruction of the prolific Rockbit gang and the seizure and destruction of radar, but these data theft and extortion attacks have increased in frequency. continues to increase dramatically both in terms of and sophistication. . A look…