Author: TechBrunch
YouTube is testing an integration with Google Gemini to help creators brainstorm video ideas, titles and thumbnails. The Google-owned company announced the launch of the new Gemini brainstorming feature in a video posted to its Creator Insider channel. A YouTube spokesperson told TechCrunch that the feature is being offered to select creators as part of a small, limited experiment, and that YouTube will consider creator feedback before deciding whether to roll it out more broadly. The new tool could give YouTube an edge over other social media video platforms that creators frequent because it offers features not available on competing…
Investor dreams last year of a robust 2024 IPO pipeline are fading, if not disappearing entirely, as we move into the second half of the year. This year, four venture-backed tech IPOs in March and April — Reddit, Astera Labs, Ibotta and Rubrik — looked like they might finally generate the momentum investors were hoping for in 2023. But secondary investors and IPO lawyers recently told TechCrunch that despite the success of these four deals, the IPO market won't fully reopen until 2025 or later, given macro conditions such as the looming presidential election and rising interest rates. This year…
Techstars plans to lay off 17% of its workforce and exit its $80 million JPMorgan-backed Advancing Cities program once it's fully funded at the end of the year, according to information obtained by TechCrunch. The Advancing Cities program, launched in 2022, has launched accelerator programs across the country in cities such as Oakland, New York, Miami and Washington, D.C., with the aim of supporting more diverse founders. JPMorgan sponsored the program until December, but as TechCrunch previously reported, the bank's relationship with Techstars quickly soured. The bank was supposed to commit to continuing the program last summer so Techstars could…
Google is continuing its consumer hardware momentum in August. On Tuesday, the company unveiled the long-awaited new Nest Thermostat and the Google TV Streamer, which replaces its 11-year-old Chromecast line. Next Tuesday, at Made by Google 2024, the software giant will refresh its Pixel line with a slew of new smartphones. Previous Made by Google events have been held on the East Coast in October, and this one will be held at the company's Mountain View headquarters, starting at 10am PST/1pm ET on August 13. As always, the easiest way to watch is via Google's own livestream, which coincidentally is…
Just three months after Maven's public launch, former OpenAI researcher Kenneth Stanley is stepping down as co-founder of the social media platform designed to facilitate serendipitous interactions. Stanley wrote in a post on Maven and X that despite the enthusiastic response to the platform's launch, Maven “has not been able to achieve the growth curve that investors would like to see to justify increased investment, and there is likely still a missing component to such growth.” To extend Maven's lifespan, Stanley and co-founder Blas Moros have decided to pursue other opportunities. Jimmy Secreton, Maven's chief technology officer, told TechCrunch that…
ChatGPT's app revenue soared after OpenAI released its new GPT-4o “omni” model in May. The mobile version of OpenAI's chatbot saw its biggest monthly revenue yet after the model's release. The app earned $28 million in net revenue from the App Store and Google Play in July, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures. Net revenue represents what OpenAI has left after paying Apple and Google in-app purchase fees, and the company found that Apple's App Store now accounts for 83% of its app revenue, a figure that's up 20% since June. Before app store fees, ChatGPT's apps generated…
The tech layoff wave is still going strong in 2024. Following significant workforce reductions in 2022 and 2023, this year has already seen 60,000 job cuts across 254 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…
Hey everyone, welcome to TechCrunch's regular AI newsletter. This week in the AI industry, OpenAI lost another co-founder. John Schulman, who played a key role in developing OpenAI's AI-powered chatbot platform ChatGPT, has left the company for rival Anthropic. Announcing the news at X, Schulman said the decision was born out of a desire to deepen his focus on AI alignment (the science of ensuring AI behaves as intended) and take on more hands-on tech work. But I can't help but think that Schulman's departure, which comes at the same time that OpenAI Chairman Greg Brockman is taking an extended…
Digital transformation — the process of transforming outdated apps and processes with cloud technologies and digital workflows — can be a risky endeavor: In 2023, Harvard Business Review reported that 89% of large enterprises have undertaken digital and AI transformation but have only realized 31% of expected revenue gains and 25% of anticipated cost savings from their efforts. Rob Mee, former CEO of Pivotal, says years of working with companies dealing with old infrastructure inspired him to tackle the challenge of digital transformation. In 2022, Mee founded Mechanical Orchard, a startup that uses “AI-enhanced” tools and cloud instances to build…
We all have ideas, but communicating them effectively and engaging people is not easy. So how can we most effectively achieve this in an age of information overload and diminishing attention spans? If you're an engineer, Pramod Sharma or Jerome Scholler, you're using Napkin, a new “visual AI” platform they built together that emerged from stealth today with $10 million in funding from Accel and CRV. Napkin was born out of Sharma and Scholler's frustration with the endless documents and presentation decks that have become commonplace in the corporate world. Prior to starting Napkin, Sharma, a former Googler, founded educational…