February 13, 2026

ALS stole this musician’s voice. AI let him sing again.

There are tears in the audience as Patrick Darling’s song begins to play. It’s a heartfelt song written for his great-grandfather, whom he never got the chance to meet. But this performance is emotional for another reason: It’s Darling’s first time on stage with his bandmates since he lost the ability to sing two years…

Mastodon actually has 407K+ more monthly users than it thought

October 9, 2023
Open source and decentralized social network Mastodon has more users than it thought. The service, which competes with X (formerly Twitter) and other newcomers like Threads, Bluesky, Pebble, and Spill, had been undercounting its users due to a network connectivity error, according to founder and CEO Eugen Rochko, and actually has 407,814 more monthly active […]

Spotify puts restrictions on its free tier in India to attract more paid users

October 9, 2023
Spotify is restricting features for the free tier users in India in an attempt to garner more paid users in the country. These limits, coming years after the streaming service was launched in India in 2019, will not let users play songs in a manual order and won’t let them rewind, scrub, or repeat songs. […]

ALIAVIA Ventures fights gender funding inequalities in the U.S. and Australia

October 9, 2023
Founded by two tech veterans, ALIAVIA wants to close the funding gap for female founders. It invests in female-led startups, especially those that want to bridge the gap between Australia and the United States. The venture firm announced today the close of its first fund, totaling $13.5 million AUD ($8.7 million USD). Investors include Trawalla […]

Michigan’s Grand Ventures announces $50m early stage fund

October 9, 2023
Grand Ventures today announced its second fund to invest in early-stage companies. The Grand Rapids, MI firm tells TechCrunch that it aims to lead seed stage investments in startups solving problems facing the fintech, DevOps, and supply chain sectors. The $50m Fund II is managed by General Partners Tim Streit, Camila Noordeloos, and Nathan Owen. […]

The Download: inside an AI gym, and how to make the internet safer

October 9, 2023
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. Welcome to the AI gym staffed by virtual trainers  Like any good gym, Lumin Fitness prides itself on the quality of its trainers. Chloe, an energetic young coach, promises to help you crush…

How to fight for internet freedom

October 9, 2023
This article is from The Technocrat, MIT Technology Review’s weekly tech policy newsletter about power, politics, and Silicon Valley. To receive it in your inbox every Friday, sign up here. You may not be shocked to hear that governments are using generative AI to manipulate conversations and automatically censor what’s online. But now we have a better…