Author: TechBrunch

Apple will kick off its week-long World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) event with its traditional keynote on June 10 at 10am ET/7am PT. The presentation will focus on the company's software products and the developers behind them, including the latest versions of iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS and watchOS. You can watch the stream on Apple's event page , and there's also a stream on YouTube , but it tends to be a bit delayed. Over the past few years, critics have noted that the company has so far lagged behind companies like Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI when it comes…

Venture capital firm Fearless Fund is facing a setback in its program to give grants to black female business owners: An appeals court ruled against Fearless on Monday, upholding a preliminary injunction against the program. As first reported by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the ruling said Fearless Fund's Strivers Grants likely violate the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which bans racial language in contracts. Strivers Grants are issued through the fund's foundation arm and award grants to businesses run by Black women. Last August, the American Equal Rights Union filed a lawsuit alleging that the grants discriminate against non-Black female founders…

Threads, Meta's Twitter/X rival and the company's first bet on decentralized social media, is making it easier for users to control their Threads experience. After unveiling a customizable dashboard interface last week, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced Monday that the app is rolling out a feature that lets users know what types of posts they want to see more of, or less of. Users “swipe right on a post to like it or swipe left to indicate they're not interested,” Mosseri explained in a post on the thread. “We use these signals to show you more posts similar to the…

Bad actors are misusing generative AI music tools to create homophobic, racist and propaganda songs, and are publishing guides on how to make them. ActiveFence, a service that manages the trust and safety of online platforms, said it has seen a surge in conversations within “hate speech-related” communities since March about how AI music-making tools can be misused to create offensive songs that target minority groups. The AI-generated songs shared on these forums and discussion boards aim to incite hatred against ethnic, gender, racial and religious groups while glorifying martyrdom, self-harm and acts of terrorism, ActiveFence researchers said in the…

Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference next week will be a pivotal moment in history for the iPhone maker, as the Cupertino-based tech giant will showcase its selection of integrating AI technologies into its devices and software, including its historic partnership with OpenAI. As the big event draws closer, various leaks have surfaced about what's in store for iOS 18 and its rumored AI-powered apps and features. Among the changes are reports that Apple is using Ajax LLM to power some of its new AI features, and other reports suggest that Apple plans to process data from its AI in a way…

AI mortgage startup LoanSnap is facing a flurry of lawsuits from creditors, forcing it out of its Southern California headquarters and leaving employees worried about the company's future, TechCrunch has learned. Founded by serial entrepreneurs Carl Jacob and Alan Carroll, LoanSnap has raised about $100 million since its seed round in 2017, with $90 million of that coming between 2021 and 2023, PitchBook reported. Investors include Richard Branson's Virgin Group, The Chainsmokers' Mantis Ventures, Baseline Ventures and Reid Hoffman, according to LoanSnap. The startup also has about $12 million in debt, according to PitchBook estimates. Despite the funds it has…

Instagram confirmed that it was testing unskippable ads after screenshots of the ads began circulating on social media. According to informational text appearing in the Instagram app, these new ad breaks will feature a countdown timer and will prevent users from viewing other content in the app until the ad appears. The change would bring the social network closer to the free version of YouTube, which requires users to watch ads before and during videos. It would make sense for Instagram to consider moving in this direction, given that in recent years it has transitioned from a place to share…

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) forced Apple to allow third-party app stores for iOS in Europe, leading several developers to launch alternative stores such as AltStore and MacPaw's Setapp (currently in closed beta). The latest entrant is long-established Android app store startup Aptoide, which is launching a games store in Europe. The company announced today that its game store will be available for users to download and use on iOS starting June 6th. Aptoide is initially launching its store with six titles, with plans to add more later. The company says that over 100 developers plan to release games on…

Cloudera, once a fast-growing Hadoop startup, raised $1 billion and went public in 2018 before being acquired by private equity for $5.3 billion in 2021. Today, the company announced it was acquiring Verta, an AI startup that helps customers manage machine learning models, including large-scale language models used in generative AI. Cloudera launched a SaaS data lakehouse the year after it was acquired, but to stay relevant in today's market, it needed the power of AI. Cloudera CEO Charles Sansbury certainly recognized that. “The future of data management is AI and the two go hand in hand. Cloudera is acquiring…

The global spend management sector is experiencing something of a tailwind. While North America is undoubtedly the largest market in the sector, rising internet penetration, technological advancements, and businesses' increased focus on smart spending are increasing the demand for spend management companies around the world. In fact, according to Grand View Research, the sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3% through 2030, with adoption expected to increase in other regions such as the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) as businesses increasingly adopt expense management tools to gain greater visibility into how their funds…