ChatGPT users have generated over 700M images since last week, OpenAI says

April 3, 2025
OpenAI’s new image-generation feature is on track to be one of the company’s most popular product launches ever. According to Brad Lightcap, who oversees day-to-day operations and global deployment at OpenAI, over 130 million users have generated more than 700 million images since the new image generator launched in ChatGPT last week. “[W]e appreciate your […]

Voice AI platform Phonic gets backing from Lux

April 3, 2025
The quality of AI-generated voices is good enough for things like creating audiobooks and podcasts, having articles read aloud to you, and basic customer support. But many businesses don’t think AI voice tech is quite reliable enough to deploy. That’s why two MIT grads, Moin Nadeem and Nikhil Murthy, founded Phonic, a company offering an […]

Call for speakers: Showcase your knowledge at TechCrunch All Stage

April 3, 2025
Calling founders, VCs, and startup experts — share your scaling strategies! TechCrunch All Stage 2025 is assembling top minds in startups and venture capital on July 15 in Boston. If you have valuable insights on scaling, now’s your chance to share them with 1,200+ founders, investors, and entrepreneurs. Lead thought-provoking sessions, interactive roundtables, and actionable […]

6 Red Flags That Will Get You Rejected on Franchise Discovery Day

April 3, 2025
Discover the six critical red flags that cause franchisors to reject otherwise qualified candidates during Discovery Days — and learn how the most successful franchise relationships require alignment on values, expectations, and a shared vision for execution.

Spotify debuts Gen AI ads, programmatic ad buying

April 3, 2025
Spotify announced Gen AI ads, among other changes to its advertising business, at an event in New York City on Thursday. Notably, the company introduced a new programmatic offering, the Spotify Ad Exchange (SAX), which allows advertisers to reach Spotify’s logged-in users via real-time auctions. On the latter, Spotify announced new partnerships with Google’s demand-side […]

Runway, best known for its video-generating AI models, raises $308M

April 3, 2025
Runway, a startup developing a range of generative AI models for media production, including video-generating models, has raised $308 million in a Series D funding round. General Atlantic led the round, which had participation from Fidelity Management & Research Company, Baillie Gifford, Nvidia, SoftBank, and others. The fresh capital will be put toward AI research […]

The Nintendo Switch 2, hands-on: It’s pretty good!

April 3, 2025
At a presentation unveiling the Nintendo Switch 2, longtime Nintendo producer Kouichi Kawamoto revealed that at one point, he considered calling the Switch’s successor the “Super Nintendo Switch.” It would have been a nice nod to Nintendo’s second console, the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which followed the original NES about 35 years ago. But Kawamoto, […]