Author: TechBrunch

Yelp, which became famous for providing restaurant information, just acquired an auto service website. Yelp announced in its earnings call Thursday that it has agreed to acquire auto repair quote site RepairPal for $80 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to customary closing conditions. “RepairPal expands our offering in the multi-billion dollar U.S. auto services advertising space, and we are proud to be able to I believe this will accelerate our efforts to provide a wide range of services.” It may not seem like an obvious marriage, but RepairPal fits…

This story has been updated throughout with more details as the story has developed. We will continue to do so as the case and dispute are ongoing. The world of WordPress, one of the most popular technologies for creating and hosting websites, is going through a very heated controversy. The core issue is the fight between WordPress founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg and WP Engine, which hosts websites built on WordPress. WordPress technology is open source and free, and it powers a huge chunk of the internet — around 40% of websites. Websites can host their own WordPress instance…

AI startup Mistral has released a new API for content moderation. This API is the same API that powers moderation for Mistral's chatbot platform, Le Chat, and can be customized to suit specific applications and safety standards, Mistral said. It was trained to classify text in a variety of languages, including English, French, and German, into one of nine categories: sexual, hate and discrimination, violence and threats, and dangerous and criminal content. , utilizing a fine-tuned model (Ministral 8B). , Self-Harm, Health, Economics, Legal, and Personally Identifiable Information. According to Mistral, the moderation API can be applied to either live…

Microsoft announced Thursday that Outlook has a new feature that lets you create themes based on your personal preferences using generative AI. AI-powered themes are available to users with Copilot Pro consumer subscriptions and Copilot-enabled business accounts. These are available for iOS, Android, Windows, Mac, and the web. With Copilot's themes, you can build themes inspired by over 100 locations, or create a theme based on your own location. You can decide whether you want your theme to dynamically update every few hours, daily, weekly, or monthly. Once you generate a theme, you can choose to display it in realistic,…

Video game giant Activision announced in October that it had fixed a bug in its anti-cheat system that affected a “small number of legitimate player accounts” that were banned due to the bug. In fact, the hackers who discovered and exploited the bug say they were able to ban “thousands” of Call of Duty players, essentially branding them as cheaters. The hacker, who goes by Vizor, spoke to TechCrunch about the exploit and told their side of the story. “I could have done this for years, and it would have been done without notice unless you were targeting random players…

On Monday, Bloomberg reported on Apple's plans to overhaul its laptop product line. That's exactly the kind of rumor you don't want to hear in the week leading up to the new MacBook Pro's announcement and release. A closer look reveals that the planned revamp will take place sometime in 2026. It's still quite a rumor/initial report, which means it might not happen within that time frame, if it actually happens. A lot can change in a year and a half, especially in this world of consumer electronics. But not much has changed since Apple's premium laptops launched around this…

This year, TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 showcased the incredible talent and breakthrough ideas of the 2024 Startup Battlefield 200 cohort. From thousands of applications, we selected the 200 most promising startups that are bringing unique innovation to their respective industries. The competition culminated in an impactful event where these startups had the opportunity to pitch and demonstrate their solutions live over three days. TechCrunch editorial staff selected the top five companies from among the top 20 finalists to compete for $100,000 in stock-free prize money and the coveted Disrupt Cup. A well-deserved winner was Salva Health, and runner-up was Gecko Materials.…

Seaweed punches above its weight. Although marine plants make up only 0.1% of the ocean floor, they are thought to support marine ecosystems of plants and fish, filter seawater, and capture significant amounts of carbon. Climate change and other factors are also destroying seagrasses, with a 7% decline in pastureland each year around the world. Ulysses Ecosystem Engineering wants to restore it. Ulysses' autonomous robot can be loaded with seeds and programmed to go to specific spots on the ocean floor and plant seagrass. Akhil Voorakkara, co-founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Ulysses, told TechCrunch that the robots they built…

Anthropic announced Thursday that it is partnering with data mining company Palantir and Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide U.S. intelligence and defense agencies with access to Anthropic's Claude family of AI models. The news comes as a growing number of AI vendors look to sign contracts with U.S. defense customers for strategic and financial reasons. Meta recently revealed that it is offering its Llama model to defense partners, while OpenAI is seeking a closer relationship with the Department of Defense. Kate Earle Jensen, director of sales at Anthropic, said the company's collaboration with Palantir and AWS will “practicalize the…

With all eyes on how the new Trump administration will work with ChinaTech in the coming years, neighboring China to the north has dealt a blow to one of the country's biggest apps. Canada has ordered the closure of ByteDance's Canadian operations, specifically the offices of TikTok Technology Canada, Inc., citing national security risks. These risks do not extend to the app itself. Consumers can still download, use, and create content on TikTok, and businesses can still advertise on TikTok. “The decision to use social media applications and platforms is a personal choice,” François-Philippe Champagne, the country's Minister of Innovation,…