Category: Tech Crunch

YouTube made its pitch to advertisers on Wednesday, accompanied by a flashy performance from Lady Gaga and special appearances from popular YouTubers like Brittany Broski and MrBeast.  During its Upfront presentation, YouTube executives introduced new ad formats coming to the platform, including an enhanced shoppable connected TV (CTV) offering that includes a new interactive product...

YouTube announced a range of initiatives designed to attract more TV ad dollars to its platform at Brandcast, its annual Upfront event for advertisers. Notably, the Google-owned video service is expanding its relationship with the NFL and plans to exclusively stream the NFL’s first Friday game of the 2025-2026 season. It’s also preparing to pilot...

Imagine you’re watching a highly anticipated video from your favorite YouTube creator — perhaps the moment a famous couple finally gets engaged — when an ad pops up immediately after the clip. This is part of YouTube’s new ad format called “Peak Points.” The company revealed the new ad format during its Upfront presentation on...

Elon Musk’s AI company, xAI, has missed a self-imposed deadline to publish a finalized AI safety framework, as noted by watchdog group The Midas Project. xAI isn’t exactly known for its strong commitments to AI safety as it’s commonly understood. A recent report found that the company’s AI chatbot, Grok, would undress photos of women when...

Work-Bench, whose portfolio includes unicorns Spring Health and Socure, just raised a $160 million Fund IV to quadruple down on backing companies in New York City. The firm announced the raise in a blog post on Monday, saying the latest fund will support seed-stage founders building enterprise software. Checks will range from $2 million to...

We’re excited to announce a big surprise for the AI community — TechCrunch Sessions: AI is getting a limited-time discount to broaden the number of people who can attend and learn from some of the brightest minds in the industry. For just $292, you can get a general admission ticket — plus a 50% discount...

Google is testing a redesign of its Search homepage in which “AI Mode,” the experimental AI-powered search feature the company rolled out earlier in May, replaces its longstanding “I’m Feeling Lucky” button under the Search bar. A company spokesperson confirmed to The Verge, which was the first to report the change, that the feature began...

At long last, digital consumer bank Chime has moved forward with its IPO by filing its S-1 paperwork Tuesday. Chime had reportedly filed confidential S-1 paperwork back in December. S-1 filings typically reveal all kinds of information, covering financial, legal, and other risk factors. But Chime’s S-1 documents still have a lot of blank spaces....

Hungry to learn more about Anthropic, directly from Anthropic? You aren’t alone if so, which is why we’re so delighted to announce that Anthropic co-founder and Chief Science Officer Jared Kaplan is joining the main stage at TechCrunch Sessions: AI on June 5 at UC Berkeley’s Zellerbach Hall. And TechCrunch Sessions: AI is right around...

An analysis by Epoch AI, a nonprofit AI research institute, suggests the AI industry may not be able to eke massive performance gains out of reasoning AI models for much longer. As soon as within a year, progress from reasoning models could slow down, according to the report’s findings. Reasoning models such as OpenAI’s o3...