Apple Maps users could start seeing ads in the app as soon as next year, according to a new report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. Similar to Google Maps and other mapping apps, Apple’s plan is to allow restaurants and other businesses with brick-and-mortar locations to pay to promote themselves in search results, Gurman says. While…
The United States and China are ready to move forward on a TikTok deal, according to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. Bessent had already said last month that the two countries reached a “framework” on a deal during discussions in Madrid, and President Donald Trump subsequently signed an executive order to facilitate the transaction. In a…
Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. To get this in your inbox, sign up here for free — just click TechCrunch Mobility! I am sure you are waiting to learn the results of last week’s poll. (Reminder: Sign up for the Mobility newsletter…
The countdown is almost over — tomorrow’s the day! In less than 24 hours, TechCrunch Disrupt 2025 takes over Moscone West. From October 27–29, 10,000 founders, investors, and innovators will flood San Francisco for three days of building, connecting, and deal-making. We’re just days away from live demos of never-before-seen tech and high-stakes pitches as…
A high school student in Baltimore County, Maryland was reportedly handcuffed and searched after an AI security system flagged his bag of chips as a possible firearm. Taki Allen, a student at Kenwood High School, told CNN affiliate WBAL, “I was just holding a Doritos bag — it was two hands and one finger out,…
OpenAI is working on a new tool that would generate music based on text and audio prompts, according to a report in The Information. Such a tool could be used to add music to existing videos, or to add guitar accompaniment to an existing vocal track, sources said. It’s not clear when OpenAI plans to…
OpenAI launched an AI-powered web browser called ChatGPT Atlas this week, which makes me wonder: Is it finally time to ditch Safari? That news was on our minds as Max Zeff, Sean O’Kane, and I discussed the browser landscape — including some lesser-known alternatives — on the latest episode of the Equity podcast. But it…
A couple of Thursdays ago, I awoke at nearly 4:30 a.m. to a dizzying Instagram DM. Rizzbot, a popular humanoid robot with more than 1 million TikTok followers and more than half a million followers on Instagram, had sent me a photo: he was flipping me off. No words. No explanation. Just a robot with its middle finger raised. Although I was shocked, a sinking feeling meant…
Every few weekends, 21-year-old student Lavanya Jain opens the BlaBlaCar app to find a lift from Noida on the outskirts of New Delhi to his home in Kandhla, a small town in northern India’s Uttar Pradesh state. The 120-kilometer journey costs him about ₹500, the equivalent of about $6. That’s a fraction of the ₹1,500–₹2,000,…
New AI-powered web browsers such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT Atlas and Perplexity’s Comet are trying to unseat Google Chrome as the front door to the internet for billions of users. A key selling point of these products are their web browsing AI agents, which promise to complete tasks on a user’s behalf by clicking around on…
