Author: TechBrunch

Lyft is working on a new feature that could help ease the pain of price spikes. Lyft says Price Lock allows users to pay a monthly fee to set a price cap for specific routes at specific times. So while it might be especially convenient for people who rely on Lyft for their daily commute, it's not so convenient for people on their way home from a big concert and wanting to avoid a steep fare trying to hail a ride at the same time as everyone else. Lyft said it's currently testing the feature across the US and won't…

The Startup Battlefield is the centerpiece of Disrupt, and we can't wait to see who will be selected from the thousands of applicants to pitch to a panel of top VCs at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, taking place in San Francisco from October 28-30. The event is always epic, with all applicants hoping to make a major impact on the world. We're excited to announce our first group of investors who will be evaluating startups and holding engaging, revealing Q&As after each presentation. Stay tuned for more names to be announced soon. Judges' feedback provides insight into the criteria they use…

AI was prominent in the news cycle again this week. On this Friday's TechCrunch Equity podcast, Kirsten Korosec, Mary Ann Azevedo, and Becca Szkutak kick off the show by analyzing a proposed bill aimed at regulating AI at the model level. Naturally, some VCs, founders, students, and professors are making a big fuss about this. But you have to ask: is regulation in the name of safety such a bad thing? The short answer is: it depends. The three then talked about the week's deals, including a potential new investment from OpenAI in webcam maker Opal. They also discussed major…

“It's not the heat, it's the humidity,” as a father somewhere said. Your kids might frown, especially if they've ever spent a summer in the desert Southwest, but Dad is at least partly right: High humidity not only makes people less comfortable, it also puts a strain on air conditioners; half of the power used by a typical air conditioner is used to remove moisture from the air. Air conditioning is a major concern for companies like Amazon, Walmart, UPS and FedEx, who operate huge warehouses where temperatures can become uncomfortably, or even dangerously, high. One startup is trying to…

YouTube regularly experiments with new features on its premium tier, with its latest test featuring a sleep timer that pauses videos after a set period of time. It's nothing spectacular, but it could be useful for people who like to fall asleep to long podcasts or white noise playing in the background. Youtube Premium users can enable this timer from this page on desktop or via the “Settings > Try experimental new features” option on mobile. Then, the video player[設定]On the menu[スリープ タイマー]Options will appear. You can set the timer to pause the video after 10, 15, 20, 30, 45,…

In 1996, Patersons HR and Payroll Solutions launched a venture called CloudPay to provide payroll and payments services to corporate clients. CloudPay quietly grew over the next few decades, adding workflow automation features to keep up with emerging rivals. CFO Andy Thomson assured TechCrunch that the company is still growing. Thomson claims that CrowdPay processes payroll for 280 companies, including Visa, Wayfair, Wells Fargo, Expedia and the London Stock Exchange, and processes more than 3 million pay slips per year in over 130 countries. “CrowdPay has contracted revenue of $125 million,” Thomson said, “and has more than doubled its revenue…

Six companies have avoided paying potentially costly ransoms thanks to new security flaws in web infrastructure used by a ransomware gang, security researchers say. Two of the companies received decryption keys to decrypt their data without having to pay ransom to the cybercriminals, and the four hacked cryptocurrency companies were warned before the ransomware gang began encrypting files, marking a rare win for targeted victim organisations. Vangelis Stikas, security researcher and chief technology officer at Atropos.ai, embarked on a research project to identify the command and control servers behind more than 100 ransomware and extortion groups and their data leak…

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…

Los Angeles is notoriously congested, and with three events expected to draw millions of spectators from around the world — the World Cup in 2026, the Super Bowl in 2027, and the Olympics in 2028 — in the wings, Los Angeles officials are exploring a variety of new mobility solutions to address the congestion problem. But they're already falling behind: Most of the transportation infrastructure efforts planned for the Olympics won't be completed until 2028 or later. Archer Aviation sees an opportunity in this gap. The startup, which is developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, wants to leverage…

OpenAI's GPT-4o, the generative AI model behind the recently released alpha version of ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, is the company's first model trained not only on voice but also on text and image data. This sometimes leads to GPT-4o doing odd things, like mimicking the voice of people talking to it or suddenly shouting in the middle of a conversation. In a new “red team” report documenting its examination of the model's strengths and risks, OpenAI uncovers some of GPT-4o's odd quirks, including the aforementioned voice cloning. In rare cases, OpenAI says, GPT-4o “emulates the user's voice,” especially when a…