February 6, 2025

The Download: AI companion dangers, and supersonic planes

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. An AI chatbot told a user how to kill himself—but the company doesn’t want to “censor” it For the past five months, Al Nowatzki has been talking to an AI girlfriend, “Erin,” on…

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are slamming Meta over its fact-checking policy

January 13, 2025

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have joined the ranks of those displeased with Meta’s changes to fact-checking and have released a statement saying that the changes “directly underminds free speech.”  “Meta’s changes to its ‘Hateful Content Policies’ do not protect free expression but instead foster an environment where abuse and hate speech silence and threaten […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Top New York VC Ben Lerer says more mid-sized VC firms are heading for failure

January 13, 2025

Ben Lerer, managing partner of one of New York’s most prestigious seed-stage venture firms, Lerer Hippeau, shared some predictions with Fortune’s Leo Schwartz. He believes venture firms will continue to see a bifurcation as money pours mostly into top funds like Thrive and a16z, as well as into smaller more bespoke funds.  “Where you go […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

A new campaign aims to safeguard social media from billionaires using Bluesky’s underlying tech

January 13, 2025

As Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg continue to reshape the social media space, a group of international tech entrepreneurs and advocates has launched a campaign to protect social media from the control and influence of billionaires. The initiative, Free Our Feeds, aims to protect Bluesky’s underlying technology, the AT Protocol, and leverage it to create […]

© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.