A mass hacking campaign targeting iPhone users in Ukraine and China used tools that were likely designed by U. military contractor L3Harris, TechCrunch has learned. The tools, which were intended for Western spies, wound up in the hands of various hacking groups, including Russian government spooks and Chinese cybercriminals. Last …

AMI Labs, the new venture cofounded by Turing Prize winner Yann LeCun after he left Meta, has raised $1. 5 billion pre-money valuation. AMI is working on world models, or AI that learns from reality, not just from language. This category has fewer players than generative AI, but maybe not …

While Washington’s breakup with Anthropic exposed the complete lack of any coherent rules governing artificial intelligence, a bipartisan coalition of thinkers has assembled something the government has so far declined to produce: a framework for what responsible AI development should actually look like. The Pro-Human Declaration was finalized before last …

Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility, your hub for all things “future of transportation. ” To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I was out for a few days last week and we have a bit of catching up to do! I …

To house the hundreds or thousands of temporary workers needed to build an AI data center, developers are increasingly relying on temporary villages known as man camps. This style of camp was popularized as housing for men working in remote oil fields. For example, as a Bitcoin mining facility in …

In just over a week, negotiations over the Pentagon’s use of Anthropic’s Claude technology fell through, the Trump administration designated Anthropic a supply-chain risk, and the AI company said it would fight that designation in court. OpenAI, meanwhile, quickly announced a deal of its own, prompting backlash that saw users …

ModRetro, the vintage gaming startup by Palmer Luckey, is in talks to raise funding at a $1 billion valuation, according to the Financial Times. The company launched its first product, a Game Boy-style handheld device called the Chromatic, in 2024. The Verge’s Sean Hollister said it “might be the best …

When Ring founder and CEO Jamie Siminoff decided to use the company’s first-ever Super Bowl commercial to introduce Search Party — an AI-powered feature that uses Ring camera footage to help find lost dogs — he expected Americans to love it. Instead, the TV spot set off a firestorm. In …

OpenAI has delayed the launch of “adult mode,” a ChatGPT feature that will give verified adult users access to erotica and other adult content. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman first announced the feature in October, writing, “In December, as we roll out age-gating more fully and as part of our ‘treat …

David Barnett has learned a lot since first launching PopSockets more than a decade ago. As the tale goes, the former philosophy professor was looking for an easy way to hold his headphones and went on to create one of the most viral phone accessories of all time: A device …