Thousands of Netflix fans gather for Tudum

June 1, 2025
Netflix released a flurry of announcements and trailers around high-profile projects including “Squid Game,” “Wednesday,” and “Stranger Things 5” last night at its annual Tudum marketing event. While this year’s Tudum (made for the sound that plays when you open the app) was livestreamed for the first time on Netflix itself (as opposed to YouTube), […]

Early AI investor Elad Gil finds his next big bet: AI-powered rollups

June 1, 2025
Elad Gil started betting on AI before most of the world took notice. By the time investors began grasping the implications of ChatGPT, Gil had already written seed checks to startups like Perplexity, Character.AI, and Harvey. Now, as the early winners of the AI wave become clearer, the renowned “solo” VC is increasingly focused on […]

Sam Altman biographer Keach Hagey explains why the OpenAI CEO was ‘born for this moment’

June 1, 2025
In “The Optimist: Sam Altman, OpenAI, and the Race to Invent the Future,” Wall Street Journal reporter Keach Hagey examines our AI-obsessed moment through one of its key figures — Sam Altman, co-founder and CEO of OpenAI. Hagey begins with Altman’s Midwest childhood, then takes readers through his career at startup Loopt, accelerator Y Combinator, […]

Video game union announces first contract with Microsoft

June 1, 2025
Unionized quality assurance testers at video game holding company ZeniMax announced Friday that they have reached a tentative contract agreement with Microsoft, which acquired ZeniMax in 2021. This represents Microsoft’s first union contract in the United States. It’s been a little over two years since approximately 300 QA testers announced that they were unionizing through […]

4 days to go: TechCrunch Sessions: AI is almost in session

June 1, 2025
Artificial intelligence has no shortage of visionaries—but the ones who matter are executing. In 4 days, TechCrunch Sessions: AI brings those builders, researchers, funders, and enthusiasts under one roof at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. This isn’t a parade of AI hype or a string of over-edited keynotes. It’s a single day designed for clarity, candor, […]

Left-leaning influencers embrace Bluesky without abandoning X, Pew says

May 31, 2025
It’s no surprise that many big, left-leaning social media accounts have recently joined Bluesky — but a new analysis from the Pew Research Center attempts to quantify that shift. This comes as an update to Pew’s news influencer report released in November 2024, which did not include Bluesky in its numbers. The report focused on […]

NAACP calls on Memphis officials to halt operations at xAI’s ‘dirty data center’

May 31, 2025
The NAACP is calling on local officials to halt operations at Colossus, the “supercomputer” facility operated by Elon Musk’s xAI in South Memphis. As reported in NBC News, leaders from the civil rights group sent a letter Thursday to the Shelby County Health Department and Memphis Light Gas and Water criticizing the organizations’ “lackadaisical approach […]