Meta hires Salesforce’s CEO of AI, Clara Shih, to lead new business AI group

Meta hired Salesforce’s CEO of AI, Clara Shih, to lead a new organization building AI tools for businesses that use Meta’s apps to reach consumers, according to a LinkedIn post from Shih on Tuesday. Meta confirmed the appointment and the new Business AI group in a statement to TechCrunc

Nuclear startups face new competition as energy giant Enel enters the ring

Italian energy giant Enel is placing a bet on small modular nuclear reactors through a partnership with Ansaldo, another Italian energy company, and Leonardo, a defense contractor. The new company is expected to be announced in the coming days. Enel already has a deal with small modular reactor st

OpenAI brings ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode to the web

OpenAI is expanding ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode feature to the web, letting users talk to the AI chatbot right from their browser. The company’s chief product officer, Kevin Weil, announced the launch on X. The feature, which makes ChatGPT more natural to speak with, is rolling out

Google ships first developer preview of Android 16 to speed up feature rollouts

Google is releasing the first developer preview of Android 16 to speed up feature rollouts in devices. This is a major change in the Android rollout schedule as, over the past few years, Google released its first Android developer beta around Q2, with a stable release coming out post-July. With th

Las Vegas sheriff tells a16z partners what’s next on his wish list: AI for bodycams

Las Vegas police have received funding for tech like drones, license plate readers, and more from Andreessen Horowitz partner Ben Horowitz. Next on its wish list? Artificial intelligence to go through police footage. The city's Sheriff Kevin McMahill said on a podcast with Horowitz and partner

Thanks, Netflix, but we don't need another daily word game

Netflix is adding a new title to its gaming library: a daily word puzzle that is eerily similar to a lot of other mobile games that exist already.  Announced in October, the streaming giant teamed up with TED, the well-known nonprofit media organization, to launch TED Tumblewords, a new daily

GitHub launches $1.25M open source fund with a focus on security

The open source funding problem is very real, but a slew of initiatives have emerged of late, with startups, corporations, and venture capitalists launching various programs to support some of the most critical projects via equity-free financing. Today it’s GitHub’s turn, launching the

Google’s Gemini chatbot now has memory

Google’s Gemini chatbot can now remember things like info about your life, work, and personal preferences. As flagged by posters on X (and Google’s official account), a “memory” feature has begun rolling out to certain Gemini users, including this reporter. Like ChatGPT

Mitsubishi backs Ample’s radical approach to charging EV batteries

Startup Ample is on a mission to convert commercial fleets into believers in the power of electric vehicle battery swapping technology.   The company has spent the last three years piloting its electric vehicle battery swapping technology in San Francisco, Madrid, and Japan. Now, Ample i

YC-backed Formal brings a clever security reverse-proxy out of stealth

Formal is a security startup coming out of stealth on Tuesday with a nice list of investors and an interesting product positioning. The company has designed a reverse-proxy for data stores and APIs so that security teams can more easily secure access to sensitive data. In more practical terms, For

IRL social app Pie is coming to SF to make you less lonely

After a robust career building Bonobos and advocating for founder mental health, Andy Dunn moved to Chicago with his family. A few years later, he came to a depressing realization: He hadn't made any new friends. “I don't think it's easy to admit to yourself that you don't have f

Codecrafters wants to challenge seasoned developers with hard-to-build projects

There are plenty of online platforms for developers that help you learn new skills or get started with a new language, such as Codecademy, LeetCode, and CodeSignal. Some guide developers step by step through the process while teaching the basics, while others provide detailed video tutorials. Code

Bluesky tops 20M users, narrowing gap with Instagram Threads

Bluesky, the social network and X competitor, has been benefiting from a surge of departures from the Elon Musk-owned app formerly known as Twitter. Today, Bluesky has hit a major milestone: it’s topped 20 million users. What’s more, new data indicates the app’s rapid growth is se

Physical AI startup BrightAI bootstraps to $80M in revenue

When Alex Hawkinson was the CEO of SmartThings, the consumer-focused connected devices company he co-founded and sold to Samsung for around $200 million, he kept thinking that Internet of Things (IoT) technology could probably solve bigger issues. He left SmartThings in 2018 to figure out where co