Connie Loizos, Author at TechCrunch

Australia looks to ban social media for kids under age 16

Connie Loizos — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:48:56 +0000

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday announced plans in the country to ban social media for children under 16, saying that “social media is doing harm to our kids, and I’m calling time on it.” The proposed legislation will enter parliament this year, taking effect a year after lawmakers ratify it, said Albanese, adding […]

‘Prediction markets’ set to pay out $450M to election bettors

Connie Loizos — Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:02:01 +0000

Following Donald Trump’s election victory, thousands of bettors anticipate a potential $450 million payout from online betting sites, says Reuters. As Trump’s odds surged on so-called prediction markets near the end of the race, platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket gained attention for diverging sharply from traditional polls, which suggested a much closer race. Talking with […]

TikTok accounts are becoming divorce fodder

Connie Loizos — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 23:46:56 +0000

When Kat and Mike Stickler divorced, their biggest challenge was dividing a shared TikTok account with millions of followers that generated significant income, and they aren’t alone, reports The WSJ. A growing number of couples — and divorce attorneys — are grappling with how to assess the value of social media accounts when a couple […]

Tim Cook’s other job

Connie Loizos — Tue, 22 Oct 2024 05:37:58 +0000

In May, while unveiling the newest iPad at an Apple event, CEO Tim Cook wore a custom-made, one-of-a-kind pair of Nike sneakers whose decorative stitching included the words “Made on iPad.” It wasn’t just a collab between Apple and Nike. As Bloomberg reminds readers, Cook has been on Nike’s board since 2005, when Cook was […]

The surprising way OpenAI could get out of its pact with Microsoft

Connie Loizos — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 06:39:20 +0000

The New York Times on Thursday published a look at the “fraying” relationship between OpenAI and its investor, partner, and, increasingly, rival, Microsoft, reporting their five-year romance has cooled owing to financial pressure on OpenAI, the limited computing power Microsoft is providing OpenAI, and disagreements between the two about ground rules. Most fascinating perhaps is […]

Are Cybertrucks too angular for Europe?

Connie Loizos — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 16:40:12 +0000

Tesla’s Cybertruck is facing blowback in Europe, particularly over pedestrian safety concerns. Euro NCAP, a voluntary but influential car safety assessment program in Europe, has not in any way tested the Cybertruck, but based on a visual assessment alone, raised alarms over its sharp, angular design, saying it could pose a serious threat to pedestrians. […]

The woman who filmed Waymo’s honking robotaxis got an apology promo — then spent all day using it

Connie Loizos — Wed, 16 Oct 2024 05:41:48 +0000

Sophia Tung set up a livestream this past summer, showing self-driving Waymo cars honking from the San Francisco parking lot near her apartment at all hours of the night. As a kind of apology for the nuisance, Waymo threw an ice cream party in Tung’s building and gave Tung, a software engineer, some promo codes […]

Nvidia, the AI chipmaker, just hit another record high

Connie Loizos — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 03:38:46 +0000

Nvidia shares hit a record high on Monday, closing at $138.07 as Wall Street anticipates earnings updates from Microsoft, Meta, Google, and Amazon on their AI infrastructure spending. The stock’s climb has been stupefying — surging nearly 180% this year, following a rapid climb last year; it’s also a reflection of Nvidia’s renowned stronghold on […]

California police aren’t loving their Tesla cop cars

Connie Loizos — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 04:01:59 +0000

Elon Musk on Thursday night rolled out the latest tech from Tesla, saying of its sleek Cybercab robotaxis and a prototype of its new electric van that “the future should look like the future.” Back in the present day, however, California police departments are beginning to regret the decision to replace their fleets with Tesla […]

How stuck is the startup exit market? Pretty stuck, says PitchBook

Connie Loizos — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 16:34:32 +0000

Deal analysis outfit PitchBook today released a new report that underscores how fewer exits are impacting the startup investing ecosystem. Among its findings? Beyond what’s commonly known — that a lot of the fundings today are insider rounds and bridge financings aimed at keeping companies alive — cash back to the limited partners (LPs) who […]

The Internet Archive slammed by DDoS attack and data breach

Connie Loizos — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 05:19:29 +0000

The Internet Archive, the nonprofit organization that digitizes and archives materials like web pages, came under attack Wednesday. Several users – including over at The Verge – confronted a pop-up when visiting the site, reading, “Have you ever felt like the Internet Archive runs on sticks and is constantly on the verge of suffering a […]

The Boring Company’s Las Vegas loop is attracting riders, and trespassers

Connie Loizos — Wed, 09 Oct 2024 06:00:13 +0000

The Boring Company’s 2.4-mile underground Loop in Las Vegas is proving anything but boring for management, with at least 67 trespassing occurrences since 2022, according to a deep dive by Fortune. Designed for Tesla models to shuttle passengers underneath the Las Vegas Convention center, others who’ve found their way into the tunnels include a skateboarder, […]

Ashton Kutcher, Effie Epstein, and Guy Oseary are coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Connie Loizos — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 23:38:18 +0000

Last year, Sound Ventures, the 9-year-old, Beverly Hills, California-based venture firm led by general partners Ashton Kutcher, Guy Oseary, and Effie Epstein, announced a new $265 million AI fund that was betting big on large language model companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Hugging Face. In fact, the plan was to invest in just six companies […]

Chainalysis CEO Michael Gronager steps down in move described as temporary

Connie Loizos — Tue, 08 Oct 2024 02:25:45 +0000

Michael Gronager, co-founder and CEO of Chainalysis, has taken a personal leave of absence from the company. The blockchain analysis outfit isn’t sharing why but says the development is temporary. According to The Block, which first reported the news, Chainalysis President and COO Sari Granat, who joined the outfit in 2022, is acting as interim […]

Klarna is about to oust another board member

Connie Loizos — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 06:39:34 +0000

Klarna, the Stockholm-based buy-now-pay-later outfit that’s barreling toward an IPO, isn’t done shaking up its board. According to the FT, seven directors just agreed to oust investor Mikael Walther from Klarna’s eight-person board, nearly eight years after he joined it. Walther is a confidante of Klarna co-founder Victor Jacobsson, who remains a major shareholder and, […]

StrictlyVC comes to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Connie Loizos — Mon, 07 Oct 2024 00:18:30 +0000

StrictlyVC is hosting its first event inside TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, and if you’re an investor keen to mingle with your peers, you won’t want to miss this opportunity. The StrictlyVC series — which brings the people and stories dominating the headlines straight to an audience of largely VCs, LPs, founders, and operators — is coming […]

23andMe’s future prompts more worries, as genomic data analysis improves

Connie Loizos — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 23:32:50 +0000

Customers of genetic data outfit 23andMe may be at greater risk than they realize, suggests a New York Times story that argues the company’s woes could be short-lived compared to the longer-term threats facing those roughly 15 million people if 23andMe can’t continue as a going concern. Certainly, the hope of founder and CEO Anne […]

The ‘Mozart of Math’ isn’t worried about AI replacing math nerds — ever

Connie Loizos — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 04:50:35 +0000

Terence Tao, a UCLA professor considered to be the “world’s greatest living mathematician,” last month compared ChatGPT’s o1 reasoning model to a “mediocre, but not completely incompetent” graduate student that could correctly answer a complex analysis problem with “a lot of hints and prodding.” AI might never beat its human teachers, he now tells The […]

OpenAI also secured a massive credit line

Connie Loizos — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 16:26:25 +0000

In addition to OpenAI’s new $6.6 billion megaround of funding at a post-money valuation of $157 billion, the outfit has secured a $4 billion revolving line of credit, it disclosed in a post Wednesday night. The arrangement gives it “access to over $10 billion in liquidity, which gives us the flexibility to invest in new […]

TechCrunch reimagined: Welcome to our new design

Connie Loizos — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 14:41:16 +0000

Sometimes, you have to start from scratch to make something amazing. Sometimes, you already have most of the ingredients, but you have to do some improvising to make the thing sing. Until today, TechCrunch was in the latter camp. Top reporters who know how to get to the bottom of a story? Check. Must-read news […]