The Securities and Exchange Commission closed its investigation into bankrupt electric vehicle startup Fisker last September, roughly one year after the probe was opened. TechCrunch learned the investigation was closed when the financial regulator responded to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request in January. The SEC’s FOIA department said …

In Brief Starting Friday, OpenAI will cease providing access to five legacy ChatGPT models, including the popular but controversial GPT-4o model. The 4o model has been at the center of a number of lawsuits concerning user self-harm, delusional behavior, and AI psychosis. It remains OpenAI’s highest scoring model for sycophancy. …

Sex toy maker Tenga notified customers of a data breach on Friday, according to an email obtained by TechCrunch. In the message, the Japanese company said that “an unauthorized party gained access to the professional email account of one of our employees,” which gave the hacker access to the contents …

Loading the player… AI companies have been hemorrhaging talent the past few weeks. Half of xAI’s founding team has left the company — some on their own, others through “restructuring” — while OpenAI is facing its own shakeups, from the disbanding of its mission alignment team to the firing of …

In Brief Figure Technology, a blockchain-based lending company, confirmed it experienced a data breach. On Friday, Figure spokesperson Alethea Jadick told TechCrunch in a statement that the breach originated when an employee was tricked with a social engineering attack that allowed the hackers to steal “a limited number of files. …

Airbnb says its custom-built AI agent is now handling roughly a third of its customer support issues in North America, and it’s preparing to roll out the feature globally. If successful, the company believes that in a year’s time, more than 30% of its total customer support tickets will be …

Airbnb has taken its time to launch AI features within the app, but CEO Brian Chesky on Friday said the company is now planning to bake in features powered by large language models that would help users search for listings, plan their trips, and aid hosts in managing their properties. …

A security lapse by one of India’s largest pharmacy chains allowed outsiders to gain full administrative control of its platform, exposing customer order data and sensitive drug-control functions, TechCrunch has exclusively learned. The issue affected DavaIndia Pharmacy, the pharmacy arm of Zota Healthcare, which operates a large network of retail …

If you want to buy or sell a used EV right now, what’s the first step you’d take? A startup called Ever wants to be the answer to that question. The company, which bills itself as the first “AI-native, full-stack auto retail business” for electric vehicles, already has thousands of …

Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has raised concerns over allegations that Apple is censoring conservative content on the Apple News app. In a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook, FTC chair Andrew Ferguson cited reports from Media Research Center, a right-leaning think tank, which accused Apple of excluding right-leaning outlets from …